Arizona has long valued strong, well-funded public schools as the cornerstone of opportunity for every child. Brett is the proud father of two daughters and a product of Arizona’s public schools. He credits those schools with preparing him to build a career helping children with special needs, and he wants his daughters, as well as every child in Arizona, to have the same opportunity. The universal ESA voucher expansion threatens that future by siphoning money away from neighborhood schools. The program was originally created to help students with disabilities access services not available in public schools, but it was expanded in 2022 to make every child eligible.

Today, ESA's cost Arizona taxpayers nearly a billion dollars a year and lack basic accountability, even though three‑quarters of the vouchers go to children who have never attended public school.

This is Brett's Plan for ESA's:

Restoring ESA Vouchers to Their Original Purpose: When Arizona launched ESAs in 2011, the program was intended to help a small population of students with disabilities access specialized educational services. Lawmakers expanded eligibility to foster children and military families before ultimately passing a universal voucher law in 2022.

• Brett will work with legislative allies to roll back the universal expansion and restore ESAs to their original intent. That means limiting vouchers to students with disabilities and other high‑need categories and reinstating public‑school attendance requirements. By narrowing eligibility, the state can ensure that resources go to children who genuinely need them while stopping the diversion of billions of dollars away from public schools.

• Brett will push for legislation requiring at least 100 days of public‑school attendance before a student can apply for an ESA, and he will champion a cap on the total number of ESA participants so the program’s cost does not overwhelm the state budget.

Auditing the Last Decade and Fixing Oversight: Recent investigations have uncovered how little oversight exists for ESA spending. Since December 2024, the Arizona Department of Education has automatically approved more than one million reimbursement requests, totaling $124 million, without reviewing anything under $2,000. Purchases have included fun passes to sports games, gym memberships, and other non‑educational items. Officials admit they don’t have enough staff to vet the roughly 90,000 accounts and that millions of dollars remain in expired accounts. Meanwhile, Department of Education figures show ESA expenses were $153 million less than awards last year, meaning unspent money sits in students’ accounts and can be used for post‑secondary education.

• Brett will demand, on day one, a full forensic audit of the ESA program covering the last decade. He will empower the Auditor General to review how every taxpayer dollar was spent, identify misuse, and recover funds sitting dormant in accounts.

• Brett will also overhaul the approval process by requiring detailed receipts for all purchases and mandating manual approval of any purchase above $500. Parents seeking reimbursements will need to demonstrate that expenditures directly benefit a child’s education. Misuse will result in suspension or termination of ESA contracts.

• To ensure transparency, Brett will publish quarterly reports detailing spending categories, household income levels of recipients, and the number of students served, providing an honest picture of how ESA dollars are used and restoring public trust.

Modernizing the ESA Platform Through A New RFP: Arizona currently relies on a single vendor, ClassWallet, to process ESA transactions. Under the current contract, parents must use ClassWallet for tuition payments, and the company charges a transaction fee of 2.5 percent; this fee is slated to drop to 2 percent when a new contract takes effect. Private schools have voiced concerns about being forced to join the platform, and the system has faced criticism for reliability.

• Brett will issue a new Request for Proposals (RFP) to evaluate alternative vendors or technologies that can deliver greater transparency and lower fees. Any new platform must provide real‑time tracking of all ESA expenditures, automated fraud detection, and public reporting capabilities.

• Brett will insist on performance benchmarks, such as processing reimbursements within days instead of weeks, and require vendors to integrate audit tools that flag unusual spending.

If ClassWallet cannot meet these standards, the state will select a new provider that does. This move will also give the legislature data needed to assess whether the ESA program is meeting its goals or requires further reforms. By opening the contract to competition, Brett will ensure that taxpayer dollars are managed responsibly and that every transaction can be tracked and audited quickly.