This week, the trial to determine whether the Protect Education Act qualifies for the ballot concluded, and Maricopa County Superior Court Judge McDowell made his ruling. However, it remains unclear whether Protect Education will be on the ballot.
🧑⚖️ Prop 212 Trial: The judge ruled in favor of Protect Education on many fronts. The voucher lobbyists suing Protect Education (the Goldwater Institute, Free Enterprise Club, etc.) challenged the initiative’s validity on 47 different counts, many focused on picayune details like the phone number or address a paid circulator used when they registered with the Secretary of State (which may be different now than it was in March, or may be impermanent due to home, work, health, and life changes). This is what we mean when we say “scorched earth” – objecting on every issue no matter how minor or true in an attempt to invalidate EVERY signature possible. This forced our team to spend countless hours securing affidavits and court appearances from over 40 different circulators — a Herculean task that saved about 20,000 signatures.
However, Judge McDowell tossed thousands of other signatures based on address issues and other accusations. His ruling also favored Goldwater on the issue of “duplicate” signatures – which Protect Education rightfully argued double-counts the rejects of any duplicates found by county recorders or the Secretary of State. This matters because (due to the fake petition circulated by voucher-pushers) there were over 20,000 duplicate signatures on petitions — people wanted to make sure they signed the right one. The judge wrote, “The court agrees it is conceivable that a double count could occur, but the court cannot make a decision based upon a hypothetical double counting of duplicate signatures. The court feels it has already been asked to address situations untethered to facts actually received in evidence because of the timeline in this case and the lack of reports from several of the counties.’‘
⏳ Waiting for Maricopa County… The most pressing issue? We are still awaiting signature counts from Maricopa County, the largest county and therefore the one that had to process the largest number of signatures (nearly 12,000!) from the random 5% sample sent to them by Sec. of State Fontes. This means that the future of Prop 212 could come down to the signature checks conducted by this office.
SO — it all comes down to the final math, likely hinging on appeals to the Supreme Court from Goldwater and/or Protect Education. The state’s deadline to print ballots is this Thursday, August 20th, so it’s safe to say it will be a rollercoaster of a week filled with a lot of ups and downs.
Protect Education’s lawyers continue to defend every signature collected. We know Arizona voters overwhelmingly support the Protect Education Act and will pass it as Prop 212 in November when given the chance. We won’t stop fighting to ensure their voices are heard and public education is protected for 1.1 million Arizona students!
Defending our signatures is incredibly time-consuming and expensive. Please consider contributing $10, $20, or $50 towards the Protect Education Legal Fund today!
👏 Republicans’ Protect Education Publicity Pamphlet Language Struck Down: In an Arizona Supreme Court order late Thursday, Chief Justice Ann Scott Timmer said the wording to explain effects of Prop 212 (the Protect Education Act) written by Republicans who control the Legislative Council was “argumentative, speculative, and non-neutral.’‘
She said the explanation gave only the interpretation of the GOP lawmakers who
oppose the initiative’s proposed changes to the ESA voucher program. Timmer said the lawmakers’ description would have inaccurately told voters that approving Prop 212 would allow the Protect Education committee to sue families who use vouchers.
What the Legislative Council writes is critically important to elections because it goes into a brochure — which by law must provide an impartial explanation of all ballot measures — that is mailed to the homes of all of Arizona’s 4.3 million registered voters.
🙏 Supreme Court Considers Prop 145 (Poison Pill Voucher Bill): Lawyers from the Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest and Coppersmith Brockelman briefed the Arizona Supreme Court this week on Republicans’ deceptive Prop 145 (which GOP lawmakers referred to the ballot as a fix for military families, but is actually a poison pill seeking to invalidate the Protect Education Act).
In their final filing responding to a pair of “friend of the court” briefs from conservative organizations, our side cast Prop. 145’s backers as increasingly desperate. The far-right, pro-voucher Arizona Free Enterprise Club and school choice advocacy group EdChoice (whose Board former Gov. Ducey recently joined) “make excuse after excuse” for the Republican-controlled legislature’s decision to “cynically … exploit goodwill towards military families to serve an entirely different purpose… (Their) arguments prove only that saving (Prop. 145) requires eviscerating the Separate Amendment test,” attorneys Sambo Dul and Daniel Adelman wrote.
These are the final filings in the legal fight over Prop. 145, and there will be no oral arguments. The Supreme Court is expected to rule before Aug. 20, the final date for ballots to be sent to the printers in advance of the Nov. 3 election.
There are plenty of ways to get involved this week! Join a Public School Proud canvass or phone bank, connect with fellow public education advocates, and help us build support for Arizona’s public schools.
☎️ Public School Proud Phone Banks! ☎️
Monday, Aug 13 - 1:30-3:30pm in LD13
📋 Public School Proud Canvasses! 👟
Tuesday, Aug 18 - 3-5pm in LD4
Tuesday, Aug 18 - 5-7:30PM in LD9
Multiple Dates and Times in LD13!
Saturday, Aug 22 - 9-11am in LD16
Saturday, Aug 22 9-11:30am in LD17
Sunday, Aug 23 - 8:30-12:00pm in LD17
We’re proud to continue growing the list of #PublicSchoolProud candidates!
Check out our latest endorsements and see the candidates and leaders standing up for Arizona’s public schools. Stay tuned, there are more on the way!
You can view all of our endorsements at: https://sosarizona.org/vote4publiced/
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.
Students and staff in the Flagstaff Unified School District are excited for another school year! Whether you’ve been back for a month already or just starting up again, we hope everyone has a fantastic fall semester 😄
🚴 At Drachman Montessori in Tucson, the Middle School Bike Club is about more than just riding a bike – it’s about building confidence, independence, and awareness in young cyclists!
Check out the inspiring story of Alain Gomez-Gudiño, a recent graduate of Saguaro High School in Scottsdale and the 2025-26 Gatorade Arizona Baseball Player of the Year! Alain and his family immigrated from Venezuela in 2023, traveling on foot across 8 countries to reach the United States and apply for asylum. “When we passed through the [Dorian Gap], I almost lost my mom. That day it was raining, so everything got wet and it was hard to walk. We passed next to the river and she fell. She almost gave to the river and I just grabbed her and got her up.” Now, after winning two state championships at Saguaro, Alain participated in the MLB Draft Combine and will attend (and play baseball at) the University of South Carolina.
“The first thing I always say before I go to practice or I go to the baseball game is just have fun,” Gomez-Gudiño said. “This is the sport; have fun there, always smile. I always get a smile on my face, talk to my teammates, talk to everybody. I just try to have fun.”
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