Charter School Marketing in Arizona: Funding, ESAs, and the Enrollment Math

Method note. The FY 2025 figures are average daily membership, which counts students by days enrolled. The 2017-18 figure is an enrollment count. They are measured differently, so the change between them shows direction, not an exact growth rate.

What this means for enrollment marketing. In Arizona, one in five public school students already attends a charter. A new family is choosing among district schools, several charters, and an ESA-funded private school or homeschool option. Phoenix is the largest charter market in the state, with about a quarter of all charter students in ADE's 2017-18 data.

Taylor Wiz measures what we control: the cost of a submitted application. You know your own yield, meaning the share of submitted applications that become enrolled, attending students. Divide our number by your yield and you have your marketing cost per enrolled student.

The Taylor Wiz figure. Across 20 charter school accounts, from October 2025 to September 2026, a submitted application cost $113 in Meta ad spend over the full year, and $103 from October through July. The seasonal detail is in the Charter Enrollment Marketing Benchmark 2026.

The math at different yields, using $113 and $9,206 in first-year formula funding:

Over more than one year. A student who stays four years brings about $36,824 in formula funding at the FY 2025 rate ($9,206 times 4). Use your own re-enrollment data for the number of years.

Method. Total Meta ad spend divided by applications marked submitted in our CRM, counted only in months with at least $300 in ad spend. All 20 accounts are charter schools in more than one state. The full method is on Cost Per Enrolled Student.

The authorizers. An Arizona charter can be sponsored by "the state board of education, the state board for charter schools, a university under the jurisdiction of the Arizona board of regents, a community college district or a group of community college districts" (A.R.S. 15-183). The State Board for Charter Schools oversees most of them.

What your ads must match:

1. Open admission. A charter "shall enroll all eligible pupils who submit a timely application" unless it is over capacity (A.R.S. 15-184). Ads should say "apply," not "reserve your spot."
2. No selective admission. A charter "shall not limit admission based on ethnicity, national origin, gender, income level, disabling condition, proficiency in the English language or athletic ability" (A.R.S. 15-184).
3. Your actual preferences. Arizona allows preference for returning students, siblings, children of employees and board members, foster youth, and children of military families (A.R.S. 15-184). Mention a preference only if your school uses it.
4. No election messaging. A person acting for a school may not use "charter school resources" to influence an election (A.R.S. 15-511). Keep enrollment ads away from ballot measures and candidates.

Whether a specific campaign is an appropriate use of public funds is a question for your governing board, counsel, and auditor.

1. Meta advertising. Facebook and Instagram campaigns aimed at families in your enrollment area, timed to your application window.
2. Parent outreach. Our outreach team contacts every inquiry within 15 minutes during business hours, by the next business day otherwise, and never later than 48 hours. They work with each family until an application is submitted. See Parent Outreach.
3. Enrollment websites. Inquiry and application paths built to convert on a phone.
4. Creative and video. Ads and video that show your school the way families experience it.
5. Reporting. Submitted applications and cost per submitted application, by month and by ad.

Your school takes it from there: lottery, offers, registration, and enrollment. We report submitted applications because that is the step we control.