AZ governor, Democrats weighing deal to scrap voucher ballot measures

Senate Minority Leader Priya Sundareshan said the proposal, which comes from the Legislature's Republican leadership, "is not really much of anything.'' The Tucson Democrat said it falls short of the actions proposed in a comprehensive initiative, backed by public education interests, to reform the Empowerment Scholarship Account voucher system. 

The offer from the GOP leaders would be in exchange for the ESA reform initiative being scrapped by the Arizona Education Association. But Sundareshan told Capitol Media Services that, as weak as the offer is, the real fear is that without a deal, Arizonans will be presented with three other ballot measures — written by legislative Republicans — which she said are "intended to confuse voters'' and could hurt public education.

By contrast, a deal would nullify all of them and keep them off the November ballot.

Those include a GOP-backed plan that, if approved by voters, would make it harder for the Arizona Education Association to use public resources. That would mean denying the ability to do teachers' union work at schools or on school time and would also bar union members from having their dues collected through a payroll deduction.

There's also a separate measure to mandate that school districts spend 60 cents out of every education dollar for instructional support, about eight cents more than the current statewide average. Districts that couldn't get to that percentage because of other expenses, such as utilities and diesel for school buses, would lose state aid.

And then there's a proposal, promoted by Republican lawmakers as an effort to ensure the children of military families getting school vouchers are allowed to bank the money for college.

That measure also includes a "poison pill'' that would invalidate the Arizona Education Association's entire Protect Education Act initiative and its far-reaching provisions, ranging from limits on how ESA funds can be spent to denying vouchers to families earning more than $150,000 a year.

Hobbs: 'A tool that's on the table'

A similar deal offered in the final hours of the regular legislative session earlier this month was rejected by Democrats.

Sundareshan noted, however, there is something that now gives Democrats a bit more leverage: The Republican-controlled Legislature is not in session.

That means it would take a two-thirds vote of the Legislature to call a special session, something the Republicans lack the votes to do on their own. The more realistic option is asking Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs to call lawmakers back to the Capitol, meaning she would have to approve of any deal.

"I believe that changes things in terms of who's driving the bus,'' Sundareshan said.

Hobbs, for her part, said she's willing to make that move.

"I certainly have always said regarding a special session on any issue: If we can get to a solution that addresses concerns, then that is a tool that's on the table,'' she said.

Save our Schools opposes deal

But even as Democrats and Hobbs are willing to deal, organizers of Save Our Schools Arizona — one of the groups that has been promoting the comprehensive ESA-reform initiative along with the Arizona Education Association — is telling them to back down and let the voters have the final say.

"A special session would rob the people of Arizona of their ability to vote to rein in the $1 billion voucher program and recoup hundreds of millions of dollars for Arizona public school students,'' the group posted on social media. "Voters have a right to weigh in on how their taxpayer dollars are spent through Arizona's citizens' initiative process, free from the bad-faith interference of politicians and special interests.''

And, from the perspective of Save Our Schools, it's not like it's even a good deal.

What Republicans offered earlier this month were some limits on how the vouchers of taxpayer dollars — about $7,500 a year for most students — can be used by parents.

A large percentage of the more than 100,000 students enrolled in the program use their vouchers for tuition at private and parochial schools. But the vouchers also can be used by parents who do homeschooling to buy supplies and services reimbursed by the Department of Education.

That has led to reports about money going for jet skis, driving lessons in luxury cars, jewelry, expensive pianos and trips to amusement parks.

Republicans offered to put into law — without a need to go to the ballot — a list of prohibited expenses. They also said they would provide more money for the Department of Education to review reimbursement requests.

But Sundareshan said that's not much.

"We need fingerprinting, we need testing to make sure that they're actually learning,'' she said of teachers outside of public schools and of students using the vouchers, respectively. "So much of these things are really needed to make ESAs actually accountable to the people.''

Also not part of the package is the $150,000 income cap for families wanting vouchers.

Save Our Schools was more direct, pointing out that the maneuver to broker a deal comes just about a week before the deadline to turn in initiative petitions to qualify for the November ballot. The organization said it "refuses to settle for crumbs or weak compromise when it comes to Arizona children.''

The group also posted a message for lawmakers, of either party, who go along: "Arizonans will remember who stood with voters and public schools in this critical moment."

Risks for Democrats if they reject deal 

Sundareshan, however, said it's not that simple.

She acknowledged that there is a lawsuit seeking to knock the Republicans' poison pill referendum off the ballot, arguing that it violates constitutional prohibitions against putting multiple issues into a single take-it-or-leave-it proposal. In this case, the challengers argue that voters are being asked to protect scholarship funds for children from military families but not being informed that approval of the measure would override the Protect Education Now initiative.

At one time, Sundareshan said, such a maneuver would have been struck down by the Arizona Supreme Court. But now, she's not so sure.

"We know the Supreme Court is still packed by Gov. Doug Ducey,'' she said, pointing out that the Republican former governor pushed through legislation in 2016 to add two more justices to the five-member bench. That gave him two immediate appointments on top of four others he had named; the seventh justice, Ann Scott Timmer, was appointed by Republican Gov. Jan Brewer.

Sundareshan noted that the justices knocked a 2022 voucher reform measure off the ballot. She said the high court "has shown a very, I would have to say, biased approach towards the people's interest in having accountability in the voucher space.''

Plus, failing to reach a deal, she said, also means the other GOP referrals — limiting the ability of the AEA to use public resources, and the requirement for 60 cents out of every dollar to be spent in the classroom — also would be on the ballot.

Republican leadership pushed through a final vote to send the issue to voters only after their earlier offer for a deal was rejected, a move Sundareshan called "vindictive.'' But she said there is an interest in not having those measures sent to voters.

Conservative lawmaker: 'Get loud now'

Even if GOP leadership reaches a deal, it still has to sell the package to rank-and-file members. And Sen. Jake Hoffman is already taking steps to try to kill any such plan.

The Queen Creek Republican heads the Arizona Freedom Caucus, a group of the most conservative GOP lawmakers. He said in his own social media post that ESAs are a good thing, with very low rates of fraud or misspending.

There's also a political component to his bid to quash any deal, including one being offered by his own party: Keeping the GOP referrals on the ballot will force voucher reform backers to spend a lot of money to kill them.

"Make no mistake, if Establishment House Republicans do this, they will be freeing up $10-$15 million in Democrat campaign spending to support Hobbs, (Secretary of State Adrian) Fontes and (Attorney General Kris) Mayes,'' he wrote.

"Establishment House Republicans will energize the Democrat base, while infuriating our own base and depressing turnout in November,'' Hoffman wrote. "This is a crappy deal just like the ones that have pissed you off for decades in Washington, D.C.''

Hoffman told followers to "get loud now if you want any chance to stop it.''

A spokesman for Republican House Speaker Steve Montenegro said negotiations were expected to continue Friday. Montenegro had crafted the original deal proposal, the one rejected earlier this month.