Local opinion: Two petitions, one real reform

It’s time for voters to fix Arizona’s dysfunctional Empowerment Scholarship Account program (ESA’s), commonly known as vouchers. There is one — and only one — initiative petition drive underway that will do that.

What began in 2011 as a limited program targeted to help students with disabilities has recently been expanded by the Arizona Legislature, costing taxpayers over $1 billion, with few safeguards, little accountability and no meaningful limits on how public dollars are spent. Reports of ESA funds being used for lingerie, big screen TVs, amusement park admissions and other questionable purchases have undermined public confidence in a program originally enacted as a targeted educational opportunity.

Arizona voters are now presented with two competing petition efforts that claim to reform the ESA system. Voters should understand there are major differences between them. Only one is a comprehensive common-sense reform package.

That proposal is the Protect Education Act, which is supported by a coalition of concerned parents, educators and ESA parents of children with disabilities. The petition for this proposal is easily identified because the word “voucher” is found in the first sentence of the proposal’s summary.

A competing petition backed by the American Federation for Children makes no reference to vouchers in its summary, and more importantly, it fails to comprehensively address the program’s many deficiencies.

The Protect Education Act addresses two major issues that should concern Arizona taxpayers: student safety and accountability.

First, student safety.

If taxpayer dollars are funding private schools, basic student protections should be required. Parents have a right to expect background checks for adults working with their children. They expect schools to comply with fire and safety codes. They expect schools to investigate allegations of misconduct. These are common-sense safeguards and standard operating procedures in public and charter schools. Yet voucher-funded schools are not required to implement these protections.

The Protect Education Act requires schools receiving ESA funds to maintain fingerprint clearance cards for employees who work unsupervised with children, comply with health and safety standards, and investigate allegations of misconduct. These are minimum expectations, not burdensome regulations.

Second, accountability.

Arizona’s universal ESA program diverts hundreds of millions of tax dollars from the state’s general fund — the same pool of tax revenue that supports public education, health care, infrastructure, tax credits, etc. — to subsidize private education, with the vast majority of families having never enrolled their children in public schools to begin with.

The Protect Education Act will establish reasonable financial accountability by placing an inflation-adjusted $150,000 household income cap on universal voucher eligibility while preserving access for students with disabilities, and other categories authorized prior to universal expansion of the program. Taxpayer-funded ESAs should be focused on families with genuine financial need.

Such accountability is badly needed. Pima County School Superintendent Dustin J. Williams estimates that in 2025 ESAs used in Pima County siphoned approximately $120 million from the state general fund. These are tax dollars that otherwise could be available to support Pima County’s district schools. That’s money not available for public school teacher salaries, classroom support and school safety. Meanwhile, public schools in Pima County and statewide are coping with budget shortfalls, teacher shortages, aging facilities and increasingly, school closures.

The Protect Education Act also provides financial accountability by prohibiting use of ESA funds for non-educational purchases. And it adds academic accountability by requiring ESA-funded private schools to either use recognized student assessments or maintain accreditation through a nationally recognized accrediting organization.

Arizonans can support educational opportunity while also demanding fiscal responsibility, transparency, and school safety. The Protect Education Act recognizes that balance by proposing reasonable reforms necessary to improve a deeply flawed universal voucher system. The other petition alternative does not.

If you believe Arizona taxpayers deserve accountability and common-sense safeguards in the state’s universal ESA program, I encourage you to sign the Protect Education Act petition and help place these reforms before Arizona voters. The coalition needs a cushion of 400,000 signatures by July 2nd to put this measure on the 2026 general election ballot. Voters interested in signing the petition can find a location by going to protectedaz.com.