Ever since Arizona passed universal school choice, the Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program has been the target of the Red for Ed teachers’ union, Democrat lawmakers and their corporate media allies. They demand transparency and accountability for alleged abuse of ESA dollars—all while scandal after scandal continues to pop up in our state’s K-12 public schools.
We saw it at the beginning of the year when the Isaac Elementary School District (IESD) was placed under a state receivership after it was determined that it had a budget shortfall of over $12 million! And this wasn’t a surprise. The Auditor General had been sounding the alarm on IESD’s mismanagement of funds for five years!
But where was the corporate media? Where was the digging? Where was the series of articles and threads on X exposing the corruption?
We got none of it. Instead, we have certain Red For Ed reporters, like Craig Harris, attacking Arizona’s popular ESA program with liberal talking points about unspent funds and alleged waste and abuse.
But if the failures of IESD weren’t enough, now we have the sordid financial tale of Tolleson Union High School District, a story so scandalous that it should make every taxpayer’s blood boil.
Bailouts, Conflicts of Interest and Stonewalling Public Record Requests
About eight months ago, Tolleson Union High School District (TUHSD) popped up in the news when they bailed out the aforementioned Isaac Elementary School District after its money woes were revealed. The transaction appeared legally questionable at the time, and after some digging by the legislature, it turns out that Tolleson is entangled in their own web of fiscal malfeasance and cronyism.
In a July hearing, TUHSD Superintendent Jeremy Calles revealed that he holds two professional roles, one as a consultant and the second as district superintendent. But here’s where it gets particularly fun. Calles not only serves as a consultant for dozens of school districts across the state, but he allegedly had a consulting relationship with Isaac Elementary School District before his district decided to bail them out. And the conflicts of interest don’t end there. At least two TUHSD employees appear to be on the payroll for Calles’ consulting business.
In an attempt to gain transparency, State Rep. Matt Gress followed up on the hearing with a reasonable public records request seeking two years of financial records from TUHSD, including purchase orders, contracts, and payments to vendors. But instead of complying, the school district responded by refusing to release electronic records and instead imposing more than $26,000 in fees for hard copies!
This is outrageous! TUHSD is behaving as if they are not accountable to anyone and that our lawmakers don’t have a right to know how the district is spending the money being appropriated to them by the state legislature. The irony and hypocrisy are ripe, especially considering the endless attacks against ESAs and a new revelation about how much superintendents are making around the state.
It Pays to Be Superintendent of TUHSD
While the state was busy untangling what transpired with the Isaac Elementary bailout, the Goldwater Institute released a report in September revealing the lucrative salary and compensation packages received by district superintendents throughout Arizona. Along with high base salaries, the report uncovered perks including car allowances, performance bonuses, generous personal and vacation leave banks that can be cashed out, and funding for private retirement accounts on top of their state pension benefits.
Guess which school superintendent is the highest paid in Arizona? That would be none other than TUHSD Superintendent Jeremy Calles, who makes nearly $500K per year in salary and perks!
But surely TUHSD must be performing far better than all the others to earn this type of compensation. Nope. Most of the schools in Tolleson are receiving “B” grades from the state, with Math and English proficiency rates below statewide and peer district marks. Also, TUHSD is also only the 16th largest district in the state.
Of course, most of this financial information had been hidden from the public, and the only reason we know about it now is because Goldwater spent months doggedly pursuing these documents. We would have never known about this if we left it up to the districts themselves or our AWOL corporate media that intentionally avoids stories that make their Red for Ed pals look bad.
$80 Million for an Indoor Domed Stadium!?
If the exorbitant administrative salaries, conflicts of interest, reckless bailouts and petty demands for record request reimbursement weren’t bad enough, it was discovered just last week that TUHSD is in the process of building an indoor football stadium that will cost taxpayers at least $80 million dollars! All under the direction of Superintendent Jeremy Calles.
During testimony at the Joint Legislative Audit Committee (JLAC), a former principal that worked at Tolleson UHSD revealed that Superintendent Calles has been lusting after this indoor stadium for years, with him going as far as trying to manipulate enrollment numbers in order to build his domed white elephant.
When questioned on why he thought it was appropriate to spend such a huge sum of money on a completely unnecessary project, he defended it by saying that “If there is any state that should have more domed stadiums…it is definitely this one.”
Contemptible may be the only word to describe this fiasco.
So, Who Really Lacks Transparency – ESAs or District Schools?
Despite all of this obscene waste, corruption, fraud and abuse found in just one of our school districts, the corporate media, Red for Ed and Governor Katie Hobbs remain obsessed with attacking the ESA program, claiming that it is unaccountable and lacks transparency.
The undeniable truth is that Arizona’s ESA program already requires an incredible amount of financial reporting from parents, and audits have turned up only a tiny percentage of actual abuse and fraud that totaled less than $1 million. Plus, when abuse is found, parents are forced to repay the funds and can even be prosecuted.
District schools by comparison to ESAs have a fraction of the financial reporting requirements. And you are dreaming if you think that Superintendent Calles (or any other administrator for that matter) will ever be forced to repay taxpayers for stonewalling record requests or for spending money on boondoggle domed stadium projects that were hidden from the public.
The reality is that ESAs are far more transparent and accountable than any school district in the state. And if the opponents of the program don’t believe that to be true, perhaps it’s time to pass legislation next year that requires every district in our state to adhere to the same reporting rules as ESAs, including repayment of misspent funds by school administrators and possible prosecution. After all, if the requirements for ESAs are as lax as its opponents claim, then meeting this standard should be no problem, right?
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