Judge sides with Arizona treasurer in ESA public records lawsuit filed by Phoenix TV station
12News tried getting ESA spending information through a public records lawsuit against state Treasurer Kimberly Yee and Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne.
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A Maricopa County Superior Court judge ruled that the Arizona Treasurer’s Office does not have to release line-item records of ESA purchases to a Phoenix TV station.
12News filed a public records lawsuit against state Treasurer Kimberly Yee and Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne in September 2025 seeking information relating to how Empowerment Scholarship Account money has been spent since the program became universal in 2022.
The ESA school voucher program was created in 2011 for special needs children. It was expanded over the years to eventually allow any Arizona family to use public education tax dollars for private school or homeschooling expenses. It had over 100,000 enrolled students at the end of the 2025-26 school year.
12News reporter Craig Harris, a plaintiff in the lawsuit, said in an X post on Monday that the judge ruled that having the Treasurer’s Office retrieve the documents would be “unduly burdensome” due to a lack of administrative responsibility.
The Arizona Department of Education is responsible for reviewing purchases and conducting audits of ESA items, while the Treasurer’s Office deals with the financial side, including vendors and fund transfers.
Yee says personal information about ESA recipients shouldn’t be public
Yee said the court ruling was about protecting the privacy of Arizona children enrolled in the ESA program.
“We must protect personal data for all students in Arizona whether they are in public, private or homeschool education. Parents should be able to trust that sensitive information relating to their children will be protected. This is a big win for children and their families,” she said in a statement Monday.
12News said the requested material did not include the identity of children enrolled in the ESA program or their parents.
In February, the station reported about what it found in Department of Education ESA data that was obtained through a public records request with Arizona Attorney General’s Office.
The Department of Education told KTAR News 92.3 FM on Tuesday it settled its part of the 12News lawsuit earlier and is not required to provide additional records.
Funding for this journalism is made possible by the Arizona Local News Foundation.
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Comments
2 Comments
So the records request by 12 News specifically excluded name of students and parents, so how is this ruling justified on the basis of protecting their personal information? And who gives a rip if retrieving the docs would be "unduly burdensome"? It's tax payer money being thrown at these boondoggle ESA's, the public has a right to know what it's spent on regardless of the burden to report.
Precisely. I would assume all these records are computerized, so it would not be burdensome to do a data dump unless the thieves didn't log them in to hide what they were stealing from the taxpayers.