🚨 BREAKING: On Friday, Arizona families and educators represented by SOSAZ and AEA filed a NEW 2026 ballot initiative to rein in our state’s out-of-control, $1 BILLION dollar voucher program. We’re fighting for: ✅Stronger safety standards to protect kids ✅Real accountability to stop waste, fraud & abuse
✅Stronger academic standards to ensure kids are learning ✅Recovering critical funding for public schools |
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The state now has 30 days to review what we submitted. Since lawmakers have failed to deliver any real reforms for 3 years, we’re ready to take this directly to voters 💪 |
Join SOSAZ for a Statewide Volunteer Huddle
Monday, Jan. 9th @ 6pm |
🗞️ Read all about it:
Today, a coalition of Arizona families and educators represented by Save Our Schools Arizona and the Arizona Education Association filed language with the Secretary of State for a ballot measure to bring accountability and transparency to Arizona’s $1 billion universal ESA voucher program, while improving safety standards, preserving flexibility for students with disabilities, and recovering critically needed funds for Arizona’s local public schools.
The legislature could pass these desperately needed reforms tomorrow to keep kids safe, ensure they’re learning, and improve the financial accountability of our taxpayer dollars. However, the legislature has obstinately refused to add any guardrails to the program for three years, leading to massive fraud, waste, and unsafe situations for kids. We the people are prepared to take matters into our own hands to deliver the real change our schools, students, and state need, and all options are on the table.
This initiative includes: |
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✅ New Safety Measures to Protect Kids: |
- Requires all voucher-funded schools to comply with basic safety standards, like background checks and site safety regulations
- Requires that voucher-funded schools investigate allegations of misconduct
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✅ Basic Standards to Prevent Waste, Fraud, and Abuse: |
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Bans the use of ESA voucher funds for non-educational and luxury items
- Recoups millions in unused funds for public schools
- Transparency for voucher funds
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✅ Re-Focusing the Voucher Program on Families with the Highest Need: |
- Ends subsidies for the wealthy: Beginning with the 2027-2028 school year, requires the annual family income for universal ESA voucher students to be at or below $150,000, adjusted annually for inflation. (Does not apply to students with disabilities)
- ABC15’s data analysis shows only 5% of kids under 18 live in zip codes with a household income of $130,000 or higher.
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✅ Raising the Bar for Academic Quality to Support Student Success:
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- Requires all voucher-funded schools to follow academic accountability standards. To ensure students are learning, private schools would be required to have their students take similar assessments as public school students or be accredited by a nationally recognized accrediting organization. (Does not apply to students with disabilities or students who are home educated)
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The ballot language filed today is subject to a 30-day Legislative Council review period and may be revised based on that review.
Publicly available polling shows that nearly three-in-four Arizona voters approve of core accountability measures proposed in the ballot language, with support holding strong across political ideology and geography. |
Support our critical efforts to protect public education and rein in Arizona’s $1 billion, off-the-rails voucher program by donating to fuel our grassroots organizing and community engagement across the state! |
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👏Help Support ESA Voucher Reform Bills👏 | |
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👏 Support ESA Voucher Reform Bills: Senate and House Democrats have introduced a slate of comprehensive bills to rein in Arizona’s ESA voucher program by establishing guardrails for financial accountability, taxpayer accountability, academic accountability and student safety.
Financial Transparency ✅ SB1305, sponsored by Catherine Miranda (D-11), and HB2703, sponsored by Brian Garcia (D-8), would dramatically increase financial transparency in Arizona’s scandal-plagued ESA voucher program. The Arizona Dept. of Education (ADE) and the Arizona Treasurer would have to share information and records with the Attorney General, who would be required to enforce ESA voucher statute. Each student using an ESA voucher would receive a student ID number similar to what already happens in public district and charter schools. ADE would track voucher expenditures quarterly, review them for allowability, and publish a list of how many students are using vouchers, how much money is being spent, and who is providing services.
Responsible Use of Taxpayer Funds ✅ SB1306, sponsored by Catherine Miranda (D-11), would establish financial accountability guardrails for taxpayer funds in Arizona’s fraud-riddled universal ESA voucher program. It would require voucher students to have attended a public school for the majority of the preceding or current school year, cap eligibility to annual family incomes under $200,000, require the majority of spent funds to go toward actual core subjects like reading and math, ban the purchase of non-educational items like commercial appliances, jewelry and lingerie, and institute a one-year “use it or lose it” policy with unused funds returning to the state.
Academic Accountability ✅ SB1691, sponsored by Eva Diaz (D-22), and HB2577, sponsored by Nancy Gutierrez (D-18), would establish academic accountability for the ESA voucher program. Curriculum and supplemental materials would be tied to the same standards used in public schools. Private schools would have to either be nationally accredited or administer the statewide assessment to students that use ESA vouchers to demonstrate academic progress.
Safety for Voucher Students ✅ SB1692, sponsored by Eva Diaz (D-22), and HB2580, sponsored by Stephanie Simacek (D-2), would create new safety rules for students using ESA vouchers. Teachers and tutors would have to be at least 18 and not under State Board of Education disciplinary action, and private schools would be required to comply with safety codes that already exist for public schools and daycares, including for machinery and weapons, pool enclosures, and illegal drugs and alcohol.
In order to move forward and have a chance of becoming law, these bills must be heard in committee next week. Each of the Senate bills has been assigned to the Senate Education Committee, and each of the House bills has been assigned to the House Education Committee, but none has been scheduled for a committee hearing. You can help advocate for these commonsense policies with these two simple steps:
1️⃣ Contact the chair of the Senate Education Committee, Hildy Angius, at 602-926-5051, and the chair of the House Education Committee, Matt Gress, at 602-926-4105, and ask that they give these bills a hearing. You’ll get a friendly assistant who will efficiently note your feedback, or perhaps voice mail. (Though calling makes more of an impact, you can also email [email protected] and [email protected].)
2️⃣ Use My Bill Positions, known as “RTS 2.0,” to give each of the bills a simple thumbs up. It’s easy to use and takes just a few seconds for each bill. Watch this 14-second video to see how it works: https://youtu.be/rIyFl2UYyXY
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RTS on Bills in Committee |
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🛑 Use Request to Speak on the following bills: |
👎 NO on SB1435 • 👎 NO on SB1436
👎 NO on SB1489 • 👎 NO on SB1567
👎 NO on SB1572 • 👍 YES on SB1598 👎 NO on HB2076 • 👎 NO on HB2093 👎 NO on HB2386 • 👎 NO on HB2481 👎 NO on HB2500 • 👎 NO on HB2575
👍 YES on HB2579 • 👍 YES on HB2805
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👎 NO on SB1435 • 👎 NO on SB1436 👎 NO on SB1489 • 👎 NO on SB1567
👎 NO on SB1572 • 👍 YES on SB1598 👎 NO on HB2076 • 👎 NO on HB2093 👎 NO on HB2386 • 👎 NO on HB2481 👎 NO on HB2500 • 👎 NO on HB2575
👍 YES on HB2579 • 👍 YES on HB2805
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SB1435, sponsored by Jake Hoffman (R-15), is a rerun of a failed 2025 bill that would put Arizona public school teachers (but not teachers at ESA voucher-funded private schools) behind bars for up to two years if they so much as recommend a book to students that lawmakers consider “sexually explicit.” This bill even includes librarians at public libraries. Scheduled for Senate Government Committee, Wednesday (held last week). OPPOSE.
SB1436, sponsored by Jake Hoffman (R-15), would require ballots in school bond continuation elections to state how much money taxpayers would save if they refused to approve the continuation. This is a clear tactic to push voters toward voting down bonds, which our schools have come to depend on due to the legislature’s persistent underfunding of public education. Scheduled for Senate Judiciary & Elections Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
SB1489, sponsored by TJ Shope (R-16), institutes a host of anti-democratic requirements for ballot initiatives and petition circulators that would make them much harder to pass. Paid petition circulators would have to tell each signer their first name and state of residence, identify themselves verbally as a paid circulator, and wear a visible ID badge; signatures collected without these disclosures would be void, opening petitions up to a new draconian type of legal challenge. All restrictions on statewide petitions would also be expanded to local city- and county-wide ballot measures. Scheduled for Senate Judiciary & Elections Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
SB1567, sponsored by Jake Hoffman (R-15), is the fourth straight rerun of a failed bill that would ban district and charter schools from exposing minors to so-called "sexually explicit materials." This would ban many classic works of literature, from Shakespeare to Maya Angelou, and educators could be charged with a Class 5 felony for simply having these materials in their classrooms. Scheduled for Senate Government Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
SB1572, sponsored by Mark Finchem (R-1), would impose curriculum mandates on schools as an unfunded mandate, and could potentially open the door to Trump’s “patriotic civics” curriculum being pushed by Turning Point USA, Prager U, and other far-right partisan groups. It would require public schools to mark “Celebrate Freedom Week” every year by adapting their social studies courses to include specific types of civics instruction. Alarmingly, the bill requires the State Board to ensure that schools do not “censor the founding documents to exclude religious references” — injecting religion into our classrooms. Scheduled for Senate Education Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
SB1598, sponsored by Lela Alston (D-5), would appropriate $500,000 from the general fund in FY2026-27 to ADE to award grants to school districts and charter schools to build community gardens. School gardens offer many benefits, including making healthy food more appealing to kids, helping fight hunger, and aiding emotional regulation. Scheduled for Senate Education Committee, Wednesday. SUPPORT.
HB2076, sponsored by Selina Bliss (R-1), is a copy of a failed bill from last year that would allow K-12 public and private schools to authorize employees to carry firearms on school grounds. The school would have to notify law enforcement of how many (but not which) employees are carrying and keep their names confidential, including from parents at the school. The bill also gives these employees immunity from any liability if they are "acting in good faith during active threat events." Arizona's Republican state lawmakers have long tried to force guns into schools. Passed House Judiciary Committee on party lines; now scheduled for House Education Committee, Tuesday. OPPOSE.
HB2093, sponsored by Lisa Fink (R-27), would repeal the statutory requirement for public schools to provide instruction in mental health. This instruction is essential for improving student well-being, reducing stigma, and fostering academic success by teaching coping mechanisms for stress and anxiety. It serves as a proactive measure against rising youth mental health crises, promoting early intervention, fostering safe environments, and teaching students how to recognize warning signs and ask for help when it’s needed. Scheduled for House Education Committee, Tuesday. OPPOSE.
HB2386, sponsored by Matt Gress (R-4), would greatly restrict a school board’s ability to award performance-based pay to a superintendent. The school would have to meet specified academic performance benchmarks, the district's average statewide assessment scores would need to be at or above the state average, and the superintendent’s pay would need to be approved by at least a two-thirds supermajority vote of the governing board in a public meeting. Districts would have to annually report the pay to county school superintendents for inclusion in a statewide report. The bill would hold school board members personally responsible for any violation, with fines of up to $1,000 per violation. This punitive measure aims to impose more burdensome red tape on school districts while lawmakers refuse to impose any regulations whatsoever on voucher-funded schools. Scheduled for House Education Committee, Tuesday. OPPOSE.
HB2481, sponsored by Matt Gress (R-4), would penalize a school district with “corrective training and interventions” at the district’s expense if they fall out of administrative compliance with their state accounting, and ban school boards from running bonds and overrides. After 18 months, the superintendent would incur civil penalties of $1,000 per month. The sponsor is demanding all this even as lawmakers refuse to add any accountability for ESA voucher-funded schools. Scheduled for House Education Committee, Tuesday. OPPOSE.
HB2500, sponsored by Matt Gress (R-4), would appropriate $1 million in state monies to the Superintendent of Public Instruction and fund 12 full-time employees FY2025-26 to administer the ESA voucher program. If any money is to be appropriated for administering this program, it should go to the Arizona Department of Education, as the state superintendent has no direct oversight authorization of the voucher program. Further, allocating more money to run the program without systemic reforms would be just throwing good money after bad. Scheduled for House Appropriations Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
HB2575, sponsored by Michael Way (R-15), is a copy of a vetoed bill from last year that would ban public schools from teaching, promoting, funding or training students in antisemitic conduct. The bill uses a weaponized definition of "antisemitism" that even its creator says state legislatures shouldn’t be using. The bill also bans creating "a hostile educational environment" for students, which is often coded language for avoiding any discussion that deals with thought-provoking or difficult subjects. Students and parents could sue for damages, and the bill specifies that teachers would be personally liable, which would lead to frivolous or even malicious lawsuits. Scheduled for House Education Committee, Tuesday. OPPOSE.
HB2579, sponsored by Nancy Gutierrez (D-18), would fund free school lunches for children whose families meet the federal income requirements for free or reduced-price lunches. This change would help kids who don't qualify for free meals but still struggle to afford the costs. Kids who eat school meals show improved attendance, behavior and academic achievement (kids can't learn when they're hungry!), and they get more whole grains, milk, fruits and vegetables at mealtimes. Scheduled for House Education Committee, Tuesday, and House Appropriations Committee, Wednesday. SUPPORT.
HB2805, sponsored by John Gillette (R-30), would require the state to allow online signatures via E-Qual for nomination petitions for local candidates for various boards, including school board and community college board. This will help working parents, educators and other community members to qualify for the ballot, promoting better representation. Scheduled for House Federalism, Military Affairs & Elections Committee, Wednesday (held last week). SUPPORT.
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🤓✅ Introducing the SOSAZ 2026 Bill Tracker! This live document contains full information about all bills SOSAZ supports or opposes in 2026 and gives you up-to-the-minute information on where these bills stand. Bookmark the Bill Tracker to stay in the know.
Arizona’s Request to Speak (RTS) is an online tool that lets everyday citizens give Arizona state lawmakers our feedback on bills from the comfort of home – but you don’t actually have to speak! It’s an easy way to weigh in on state politics, stay informed on the bills that directly affect us, and make sure our elected officials honor the wishes of us, their constituents.
Need a Request to Speak account? Sign up here to have one created for you: Sign up here!
Need help? Attend an RTS Training! Register here! |
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Contact Us
[email protected] Save Our Schools Arizona
PO Box 28370
Tempe, AZ 85285
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