Arizona parents have made fraudulent purchases and misspent more than $700,000 in public money allocated by the state’s school-voucher style program, and state officials have recouped almost none of that money, a new Auditor General report has found.

The findings are the latest blow to a program that Republicans have touted as a model for school choice that has been replicated nationwide, but has faced serious questions about lax financial oversight.

The audit, released Oct. 25, found the state Department of Education, charged with administering and regulating the program, repeatedly failed to flag accounts at high risk for fraud.

That allowed parents whose children were enrolled in the Empowerment Scholarship Account program to make numerous improper purchases on state-issued debit cards, even after the accounts should have been frozen or closed.

The voucher money loaded on those debit cards is intended to cover specific education expenses, such as private or religious-school tuition, home-school expenses and education-related therapies. Parents receive 90 percent of the money that would have otherwise gone to their local public school districts.

Source: Misspent school voucher funds exceed $700K; little was recovered