PHOENIX — Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne got millions of dollars for new TV ads, but he's not promoting public schools.
State Sen. Janae Shamp of Surprise, a first-term Republican lawmaker who gave Horne the $10 million, believes public schools are a failure.
She wants Horne to market private school vouchers in the state Empowerment Scholarship Accounts, according to Horne's spokesman.
Your tax dollars are paying for all of it.
Horne first disclosed the funding this week on azcentral's "The Gaggle" podcast.
"Our public education system is broken," Shamp said on the Senate floor last February.
She was among a group of Republican lawmakers who tried to block the release of money that the Legislature agreed to spend on public schools this year.
"There is absolutely no reason to continue to fund 'broken,'" Shamp said.
In May, Shamp earmarked the $10 million for ESA ads from her cut of the budget deal hammered out by Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs and Republican leadership.
Lawmakers got up to $30 million apiece to spend however they wanted.
Shamp didn't respond to requests for comment.
"To be frank, I'm pretty frustrated," said Nicky Indicavitch, a leader of ESA critic Save Our Schools Arizona. Her children attend public schools in Sen. Shamp's district.
"My kids go without things due to budget restrictions that have been placed on our school districts at the legislative level," Indicavitch said.
Horne is fronting a series of ads that include the parent of special needs children, a mother who home schools and another mother who has one child in public school, and another in private school.
"My job is to further improve Arizona's already excellent public schools," Horne says in the ads. "But if your school is not meeting your child's needs, you have choices."
Horne's spokesman, Doug Nick, said the Republican superintendent hadn't done similar ads for public schools.
But Nick noted that Horne is "affirming at the outset (of the ad) that Arizona has excellent public schools."
Statewide enrollment in the ESA program has ballooned fivefold, from 12,000 to 60,000, since the program was opened up last year to all 1.1 million Arizona students.
Gov. Hobbs' office has warned about the likelihood of an ESA-induced budget deficit next year.
Horne has downplayed the risk.
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