Petitions Incoming!!!
Protect Ed petitions on their way, Voucher Watch Round-Up, Anti-voter bills abound at #AZLeg
It’s official 🎉 On Wednesday, the final language for the Protect Education Act was filed with the Secretary of State. This means petitions are being printed and getting ready to be distributed across the state! Huzzah!!!
The Protect Education Act Will →
Add new safety measures, like background checks for school staff, to protect kids
Reduce waste, fraud, and abuse of ESA voucher funds. Recent reporting has revealed the purchase of over $10,000,000 in banned items, like diamond rings, luxury vacations, and even lingerie, in less than one year
Ensure transparency for our taxpayer dollars
Raise the bar for academic quality & student success
End voucher subsidies for the wealthy by requiring the annual family income for universal ESA voucher students to be at or below $150,000, adjusted annually and excluding students with disabilities
Our initiative would return hundreds of millions in unused ESA voucher funds to public schools. There is currently over $400,000,000 sitting unused in ESA voucher accounts.
Ensure students with disabilities have the resources and support they need in their public school (which 91% of Arizona’s students with disabilities attend) while preserving and protecting the ESA voucher program for their use
Our coalition needs 256,000 signatures by July 2 to get the Protect Education Act on the ballot. As SOSAZ’s Statewide Outreach Director Nicky Indicavitch shared, the initiative would add safety requirements for voucher-funded schools, like the background checks and fingerprint cards that are required at public schools: “I’d like to see student safety taken seriously in the voucher program the way that our public schools do by requiring that basic background check on an adult that’s going to be around a young person, especially when it’s taxpayer funded.”
The initiative also adds an income cap for the program and bans the use of voucher funds for non-educational or luxury items: “It’s going to give taxpayers in Arizona some peace of mind that the dollars we send to educate young people in the state of Arizona don’t get spent on things that are wildly inappropriate. You know we’ve all seen the reports recently about diamond rings, gift cards, expensive trips, [and] lingerie.”
⏰ It’s Time to Launch & Get Trained!
🛡️📣 Rally Launches: Protect Ed will host rallies in Phoenix and Tucson next weekend! We hope you’ll join us for energizing speakers, music, solidarity, and of course — PETITIONS!!!!
Phoenix – Sat. March 21 @ 9:30am
💥Trainings: Protect Education will also be conducting 4 more circulator trainings THIS week, after training hundreds of volunteers last week! Whether you’ve collected thousands of signatures in the past or are brand new to circulating, this training will provide critical information to ensure the signatures you collect are valid!
Sun March 15 from 2 - 3pm
Thurs March 19 from 5 - 6pm
Sun March 22 from 12 - 1pm
Weds March 25 from 5:30 - 6:30pm
We are also training local organizers all next week! Please sign up at bit.ly/ProtectEdAZ if you are interested in organizing in your community, circulating, or being a notary! We are all in this together!
While we’re talking vouchers, we thought we’d do a quick round-up of some of the most recent reporting on the fraud, waste, and abuse that investigative reporting has uncovered — plus, Supt. Tom Horne’s stubborn opposition to… facts 🤦
👉 Arizona families used taxpayer-funded ESA voucher dollars to buy diamond necklaces, lingerie, jet ski rentals, gaming consoles, and designer purses, according to audit spreadsheets obtained by ABC15 through a public records request. The spreadsheets show nearly 84,000 unallowed purchases over a nearly yearlong period from December 2024 to October 2025, with 18% of ESA accounts making unallowed purchases.
👉 Documents reviewed by 12News Investigates show that money from Arizona’s ESA voucher program has been used for expenses tied to trips in 44 states and 13 other countries in the past few years, including Disneyland visits and international sightseeing tours.
👉Serial spending in the ESA voucher program raises serious eyebrows, as evidence shows some users are cashing in on multiple, high-ticket items:
One ESA account holder purchased more than 50 smart tablets between 2023 and 2025. They also bought a $450 beanbag chair.
One ESA account holder bought 8 Apple computers, 22 iPads, and 3 Samsung Galaxy tablets.
One ESA account holder bought a 12 air pods and several smart tablets
One ESA account holder bought four high-powered gaming laptops, each costing between $2,900 and $4,700
👉 Records show at least $7.2 million in taxpayer funds were spent on LEGO sets through ESA vouchers, despite Supt. Horne stating that no ESA parent had been reimbursed $500 or more for LEGOs. Records show:
22 families who spent at least $10,000 each on LEGO sets
Nearly 500 LEGO sets costing $500 or more
175 high-end LEGO sets themed around Star Wars
One family reimbursed $16,000 for LEGO sets alone
One family spent close to $30,000 on LEGOs
❌ Supt. Tom Horne claims that misspending in the universal ESA voucher program is low — despite… all of the above 👆
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!
🛑 Use Request to Speak on the following bills:
👎 NO on SB1013 👎 NO on SCR1001
👎 NO on HB2289 👎 NO on HB2379
👎 NO on HB2477 👎 NO on HB2482
👎 NO on HB2575 👎 NO on HB2600
👎 NO on HB2805 👎 NO on HB4033
👎 NO on HB4103 👎 NO on HCR2001
👎 NO on HCR2016 👎 NO on HCR2051
SB1013, sponsored by Janae Shamp (R-29), is a copy of a bill vetoed last year that would ban public schools from implementing hiring policies based on factors other than so-called “merit” as part of the MAGA attack on diversity, equity and inclusion. The bill would allow individuals to sue, which would lead to endless frivolous claims of “reverse racism.” Scheduled for Senate Government Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
SCR1001, sponsored by Shawnna Bolick (R-2), would axe the early voting system which Arizona pioneered, Legislative analysts say the costs of the measure are impossible to estimate, but note that it “may generate new polling place operational costs of $2,700 per precinct on each election day and $8,000 in one-time equipment costs.” Scheduled for House Federalism, Military Affairs & Elections Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
HB2289, sponsored by Justin Olson (R-10), is a copy of a bill vetoed last year that would change “truth in taxation” notices to require taxation examples to be based on a $400,000 home instead of a $100,000 home. This would make school bonds and overrides look 4 times more expensive if voters don’t realize what’s happened. Passed House 3rd party lines 3/3. Scheduled for Senate Finance Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
HB2379, sponsored by Matt Gress (R-4), would require school board members to complete a training created by the state or county school superintendent (i.e., Supt. Tom Horne, MAGA Shelli Boggs, etc.) at least once every 2 years, or be ineligible to serve. School board members already receive robust training through the Arizona School Boards Association and other organizations, which they select locally and democratically. Passed House Education Committee 2/3, on party lines. Caucus 2/10. Retained on COW 2/24. Scheduled for Senate Education Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
HB2477, sponsored by David Livingston (R-28), would expand Arizona’s 529 “education savings plan” by allowing people to withdraw $20,000 a year for K–12 tuition, as well as transfer up to $35,000 to a Roth IRA. This is exactly what it appears to be — a voucher expansion that seeks to funnel even more dollars into private schools with no accountability. Passed the House 2/25 party lines. Scheduled for Senate Finance Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
HB2482, sponsored by Matt Gress (R-4), requires school districts to comply with procurement rules for expenditures exceeding $50,000 and conditions building renewal grant disbursement on verified compliance. Once again, local school boards have open meetings and are already subject to procurement laws. This bill is a distraction from the utter lack of accountability for ESA voucher-funded private schools and charter schools, which are publicly funded but not subject to the same procurement laws. Passed the House party lines 2/25. Transmit to Senate 2/26. Scheduled for Senate Education 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. Passed the House party lines 2/25. Scheduled for Senate Education Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
HB2600, sponsored by Matt Gress (R-4), would require public schools to keep students in grades 6-8 out of student clubs and organizations unless they have written parental permission. This is likely designed to dampen participation in clubs such as Gender & Sexuality Alliance, a student-led club which offers safe, supportive spaces for LGBTQ+ youth, and which is often legally protected under the Equal Access Act. It would also exclude kids whose parents are unable to be as involved in their lives, worsening inequities among kids who may already be under-resourced. Passed the House party lines 2/25. Scheduled for Senate Education Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
HB2805, sponsored by John Gillette (R-30), would open E-Qual nomination petitions to school board candidates at the cost of making those races partisan. Despite the efforts of national extremist organizations to drag public schools into their culture wars, educating children isn’t partisan. It’s important for school boards to stay above party politics; allowing them to descend into the mud turns them into just another venue for extremist conflict. Passed House 3rd party lines. Scheduled for Senate Judiciary & Elections Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
HB4033, sponsored by Matt Gress (R-4), would prohibitively complicate school bond elections by requiring separate ballot measures for specified facilities, technology and administrative buildings, with costs broken out separately. This attack on local school funding measures would vastly increase the cost of running bonds, and the resulting ballot fatigue from multiple measures could increase the likelihood that one or all would fail. Passed House Education Committee 2/17, party lines + L Hernandez. Caucus 2/24. Scheduled for Senate Education Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
HB4103, sponsored by Justin Olson (R-10), would ban school districts from calling a bond election or changing voter-approved capital project purposes if their prior year’s attendance as a percentage of their building capacity falls below a certain level (the bill leaves that blank). This would prevent a district from asking voters for approval to build a new facility that replaces two less-used 70-year old campuses that are unsafe for students, for example. This is a clear attack on local control, and on schools asking their communities for more resources to supplant persistent legislative underfunding. Passed House 3rd party lines 3/3. Scheduled for Senate Finance Committee, Monday. OPPOSE.
HCR2001, sponsored by Alexander Kolodin (R-3), would axe the early voting system which Arizona pioneered, ban the running of all-mail elections, and require all voters — even those voting mail-in ballots — to present a “government-issued ID” (no one is sure how that would work). This directly harms school districts, who often run their bond and override elections by mail only. Scheduled for Senate Judiciary & Elections Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
HCR2016, sponsored by Rachel Keshel (R-17), is a copy of a failed bill from last year that would ban voting centers in Arizona and return the state to precinct-based voting with just 1,000 registered voters at each precinct. Every voter would be assigned a neighborhood polling location; the ballots of voters who go to the wrong polling place would be thrown out. Before Arizona shifted to our current voting center model, our elections were plagued by long lines and technology issues, and tens of thousands of votes were never counted for being cast at the wrong location. This would not only be inefficient, but incredibly expensive. The bill’s fiscal note estimates a cost to the state of nearly $7 million each election year, along with a one-time equipment cost of more than $10 million. This money will be difficult to come by, as increasing costs and insufficient funds have left Arizona without the resources to fund basic state services. Our budget is in the bottom 5 states in per capita spending nationally, and our schools are funded at 48th in the country. Scheduled for Senate Judiciary & Elections Committee, Wednesday (held last week). OPPOSE.
HCR2051, sponsored by Michael Carbone (R-25), would institute a host of anti-democratic requirements for ballot initiatives and petition circulators that would make it much harder for initiatives to qualify for the ballot. 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.
🤓✅ Don’t miss 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!!
Floor calendars come out in the evening just one business day before a vote, so this list is for bills being heard on Monday only. Any bill scheduled for debate may also be voted on. Please call or email your representatives (for House bills) and senator (for Senate bills) and ask them to oppose these harmful bills.
SB1474, sponsored by Wendy Rogers (R-7), would require school districts to provide immigration enforcement training to all employees “to ensure that all immigration enforcement in this state remains consistent with federal law.” The bill would also require the attorney general to investigate charges that a district wasn’t cooperating with federal immigration authorities upon request from any member of the legislature. As the Arizona Agenda reports, “It’s all part of the right-wing plan (Project 2025, that is) to create a massive deportation and carceral machine — and it requires state and local officials to serve as henchmen for the feds.” Scheduled for a full Senate vote (3rd Read), Monday. OPPOSE.
SB1489, sponsored by TJ Shope (R-16), would institute a host of anti-democratic requirements for ballot initiatives and petition circulators that would make it much harder for initiatives to qualify for the ballot. 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 a full Senate vote (3rd Read), Monday. OPPOSE.
SB1746, sponsored by Jake Hoffman (R-15), is a copy of a previously vetoed bill that would require public district schools to be closed on every regular primary and general election day, and to provide their gymnasiums for use as polling places upon request. This would disrupt learning for students, create difficulties for families needing to secure child care on election days, and even put educators in harm’s way as elections become increasingly subject to the threat of violence. State lawmakers should not be mandating this decision for local schools. Scheduled for a full Senate vote (3rd Read), Monday. OPPOSE.
SCR1027, sponsored by JD Mesnard (R-13), would ask voters to require that school board member elections be held on the same Tuesday in November as presidential and midterm elections. This is an attack on local control. What works in one part of the state does not always work in another part of the state. Allowing districts to make these decisions on their own is important, and some districts strongly prefer odd-year election years. Because this would go directly to the November ballot, Gov. Hobbs cannot veto it. Scheduled for a full Senate vote (3rd Read), Monday. OPPOSE.
HB2380, sponsored by Matt Gress (R-4), makes major changes to the way democratically elected school boards run their meetings, including forcing school boards to allow any discussion item to be removed from a consent agenda for separate discussion and voted on at any time before the vote on the consent agenda. Far-right agitators are already using tactics like this to create unnecessarily long meetings, and boards are having to try to curtail that to prevent meetings that run 6, 8 or even 10 hours. Scheduled for House floor debate, Monday. OPPOSE.
👏 Thank you to Gov. Hobbs for vetoing this legislation, which seeks to make it even harder for citizens’ initiatives to qualify for the ballot in our state.
HB4115, sponsored by Steve Montenegro (R-29), would institute a host of anti-democratic requirements for ballot initiatives and petition circulators that would make it much harder for initiatives to qualify for the ballot. 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. Passed Senate 3rd 3/9. Awaits transmit to gov. OPPOSE.
Gen Z 🤝 Gen Z! Join SOSAZ and a coalition of progressive Gen Z advocacy orgs from across the state for a Gen-Z-led voter registration phonebank – featuring special guest, Chair of the Arizona Democratic Party Charlene Fernandez! While this event is targeting Gen Z activists, all are welcome, and training is provided.
Thurs, March 19 | 5 – 7pm
North Phoenix (address upon RSVP)
Register Here!
📚 Join Save Our Schools Arizona Network’s From Page to Power Book Club! Our next book is “Navigating School Board Politics” by Carrie Sampson. Pick up a copy at your favorite local bookseller. Then, join us (virtually) for a discussion to connect, learn, and meet new people.
Sun, March 22 3-4pm
Sun, April 19 3-4pm
Check out some incredible pictures and stories from across the state that make us #PublicSchoolProud! Do you know a story we should spotlight? Post it on social media with #PublicSchoolProud or email leda@sosarizona.org to let us know.
📚Congratulations to the two third-grade classes at Tucson’s Robins K-8 School for reaching the Elite Eight of Arizona’s Read to the Final Four reading challenge! Robins K-8 was the only school in Southern Arizona to qualify, and the two classes read a total of over 259,000 minutes! “They were over the moon because we had been tracking our times so they knew. Maybe 7 kids did their homework, then 10 kids, now we’re having the entire class is doing their reading at home,” shared 3rd-grade teacher Mrs. Roqueni
Students and their families from the Pendergast Elementary District had the opportunity to learn a new recipe with the Chartwells K12 Food Services Team, who provided all the equipment and ingredients! 🧑🍳
📬 Congratulations to Reagan from Sunrise Elementary School in Yuma for being an official Top 10 winner of the Arizona Historical Society’s Postcard contest!! Her design will be turned into a postcard, and her whole class will receive a pizza party from AHS to celebrate!
Students from schools across Phoenix Union took over the Arizona Science Center for a science fair, where they showcased their original research to a panel of judges! Look out for these future scientists! 🔬🧑🔬
Our newsletters don’t write themselves! Support our work by becoming a paid subscriber to Save Our Schools Arizona’s Substack. A monthly or annual donation of any amount helps to keep the lights on at the Weekly Education Report so we can provide you with the latest news in education week after week.
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Here are some other easy actions you can take:
Sign up for a Community Action Team (CAT) (NEW Region sign ups!): Central & South Phoenix, East Valley, Northeast Valley (Scottsdale/PV), Northern Arizona, Pima County, Pinal County, Rural Southern Arizona, West Valley & North Phoenix, and Yuma County! Your local coordinators will help you with using Request to Speak and contacting your lawmakers.
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