AG probes whether public ed funds paid for abortion

State authorities have launched a criminal investigation into allegations public education money was used to pay for an abortion.

The Arizona Attorney General's Office confirmed the nature of the investigation to The Arizona Republic but would not release additional details. A spokesman said Attorney General Mark Brnovich was notified of the case following the newspaper's inquiries.

The case was sent to the attorney general last year by the Department of Education, which suspected money from the state's Empowerment Scholarship Account was used to fund a procedure.

Under state law, public funds cannot be used for abortions unless it is necessary to save the life of the woman having the procedure. A separate state statute limits what ESA money can be used for, excluding health-care services.

The taxpayer-funded ESA program is on track to disperse about $36 million this school year to qualifying families, who are given debit cards to spend the money on education. ESA funds can be spent on limited educational therapies, private-school tuition, homeschooling curriculum, online classes, community-college tuition and other items.

State education officials began their investigation shortly after a program participant's purchase in August 2014. A code generated by the charge caused officials to take "a second look," said Aiden Fleming, deputy director for policy development and government relations with the Education Department.

Michael Bradley, chief of staff to state schools Superintendent Diane Douglas, said education officials referred the case to the Attorney General's Office after they determined the types of services offered by the clinic where the money was spent did not include educational therapies that would meet state requirements.

"They go to a place that's not obviously a school place," Bradley said. "What they did is went to an innocuous health-care clinic, which may or may not be for the kid's condition, and so our staff ... they looked into it and checked. And found that in this case, it appeared — it's alleged — that the person in the guise of using it for health care for education of the child, paid for an abortion."

Fleming said education officials could not determine for certain what services the clinic provided to the ESA participant because of confidentially clauses. He said the participant was given an opportunity to explain the charges. When that did not happen, the person's participation was frozen and then terminated. The matter was then sent to the Attorney General's Office.

In a redacted letter obtained Wednesday by The Republic, officials sought information about three questionable charges, including an Aug. 12 charge for $410 "at JackRabbit Family Medicine (now Camelback Family Planning)" and two Walmart purchases totaling $929.56 that same month.

Two weeks after notifying the participant on Aug. 15, education officials terminated the ESA award, saying the purchases were a violation of the ESA agreement and state law. The termination letter suggests the student may also have been enrolled in a public school, also a violation of the program.

Officials asked the participant to refund the money in question, but Fleming said the department did not receive a reply. Fleming, former director of the ESA program, said between 2011 and this year, there were fewer than five instances of criminal misspending of ESA funds.

Ryan Anderson, director of communications for Brnovich, said he could not comment on the status of the investigation.

In an e-mailed statement, Brnovich said he will work to "protect Arizona taxpayers."

"Any individual who is found to have abused the system by misusing public benefits to enrich themselves will be investigated and vigorously prosecuted by my office," the statement said.