PHOENIX — Arizona's Empowerment Scholarship Account program puts public money in the hands of parents to spend on private or home-school education — and new data shows millions of those dollars are raising red flags.
The Arizona Department of Education flagged 84,000 total transactions as potentially unallowable expenses, totaling $9.1 million in questionable ESA transactions.
Flagged purchases include home furnishings, sports equipment and $73,000 paid by parents to themselves to tutor their own children.
Some individual transactions stand out: one person spent $7,500 on a high-end gaming PC, while others spent $2,000 on Roblox currency and $2,000 on Visa gift cards.
The audit reviewed 304,966 ESA transactions at random during a risk limiting audit.
The flagged transactions represent about 1% of the $700 million the ESA program spent between December 2024 and December 2025 — but that's still $9 million of public money.
