Statewide Campaign Launched to Defend Arizona's Empowerment Scholarship Accounts
- Jun 1
- 1 min read
PHOENIX — Today marks the launch of Defend AZ Education, a statewide advertising campaign to protect Arizona's Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESA) — the universal education-freedom program that today serves more than 100,000 Arizona students.
The launch comes as Gov. Katie Hobbs has proposed capping ESA eligibility in her draft executive budget, a move that would strip access from families who have built their children's education around the program. ESAs let families direct their child's share of state education funding toward the learning environment that fits them best — private school, homeschool curriculum, tutoring, therapies, and other approved expenses. Arizona made the accounts universally available in 2022, and enrollment has since grown to record levels.
Real Families at the Center
The campaign's centerpiece is a peer-to-peer message that follows Arizona families whose daughters learns through an ESA — reading, gardening, and caring for animals as part of a personalized education parents chose for them. The messaging focus is on a direct appeal to the Governor: “please don't take away my school.” Static social ads adapted from the video will extend the message across digital feeds.
Where and How Arizonans Will See It
Defend AZ Education concentrates its reach in the Phoenix market, where roughly six in ten Arizona votes are cast. Over three weeks the campaign is projected to reach several million Arizona voters. The radio schedule spans formats and audiences across the Valley — news/talk, country, adult contemporary, classic hits, and Spanish-language programming — paired with a targeted Meta buy that reaches audiences engaged on the issue during the original effort to enact ESAs in Arizona.