Hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars are flowing out of Arizona’s public schools and into private hands — and new records show exactly where. Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program, opened to every student in 2022, is now writing multimillion-dollar checks not just to schools serving children with disabilities but also to some of the state’s largest Christian institutions.
Gilbert Christian Schools and Northwest Christian School together collected more than $16 million this year, ranking just behind the Autism Academy for Education and Development, which alone pulled in $26.5 million. What started as a program meant to support students with special needs has quickly become a steady revenue stream for well-connected private schools.
