We are launched!!! 🛡️📣 🎉 This Saturday morning, the Protect Education coalition held a launch rally in Phoenix with over 150 attendees, distributing thousands of petitions and hearing from incredible speakers! Plus, our new website launched — check it out!
Tucson — we’re coming to you next! We will see you on Sunday, March 22 at 11am!
🔥 At the rally, we heard from educator Delia Lyding: “I have been a teacher in the Kyrene School District for 19 years — and throughout that time, I have seen the consequences of underfunding and the devastating impact of out-of-control voucher spending for my district and many others. Kyrene is a great school district. We don’t lose families because they are unhappy with the quality of our schools. We lose families because our schools don’t have the funding they need. This has become personal for me, my students, my colleagues, and our community. And I want to remind you all: the legislature could pass any of these reforms tomorrow — just like they could fully fund our public schools. But we can’t afford to keep waiting. If our elected officials refuse to do their jobs, then we will.”
🎤 We also heard from ESA parent, Dr. Kathy Boltz: “Universal expansion in 2022 completely changed the ESA program. Now, students with special needs like my son are no longer the priority. Once the program went universal, families like mine started to feel like we had been used. This initiative will make the program safer, more accessible, and transparent for families whose students are neurodivergent or have disabilities that mean they need specific schools, tutors, and programs. The current program is full of ambiguity – families of students with disabilities often don’t know which schools or tutors they can trust to be around their children. This measure will streamline the program and give families peace of mind when choosing schools and tutors. As a family that uses the program responsibly, I am glad to see restrictions on wasteful spending on non-educational items and luxury purchases — such as lingerie, home appliances, and diamond rings. I appreciate that this coalition turned to ESA parents for help in crafting this initiative - and that they listened. This was put together by folks who clearly care about children and want to protect the ESA program for students with disabilities and those in other special circumstances, while also making the universal program safer and ensuring students are actually learning.”
📋 Can’t attend but want petitions??? Sign up on our 💥NEW 💥Request for Petitions form and we’ll connect you with your local leader!
We will also be hosting signing events and petition parties all over the state, so stay tuned and check out our new Volunteer Hub, which is your one-stop shop for all circulator trainings, FAQs, and more. Make sure to bookmark the link or save it! 📌
💥Trainings: Protect Education will be conducting more circulator trainings THIS week, after training hundreds of volunteers over the past 2 weeks! 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!
Phoenix – Sat. March 21 @ 9:30am
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!
🚨BREAKING: Betsy DeVos-backed American Federation for Children has launched a fake initiative campaign to confuse and disenfranchise voters who want to sign the Protect Education Act. Their measure is a copy/paste of the Protect Education Act, but contains a money-grabbing provision to centralize all purchases through one voucher vendor and strips out recouping of funds to public school classrooms.
It’s obvious that the intent is simply voter confusion and disenfranchisement. This is a tactic in Arizona we’ve seen before from billionaire special interests who typically oppose commonsense measures like the Protect Education Act which prevent fraud and abuse. We’re confident this anti-democratic tactic will backfire, as hundreds of thousands of Arizona voters are eager to sign the Protect Education Act because they know it will deliver the reforms to ESA vouchers our state desperately needs.
Don’t be fooled — the real Protect Education petitions list the word “voucher” in the first sentence on the 200 word summary on the front of the petition. If it’s not there, don’t sign — it’s a DeVos fake 👀👇
Governor Hobbs announced Friday that she is pulling back from state budget negotiations with Republican lawmakers over a dispute on funding for Arizona public schools.
In a statement, Hobbs said she won’t negotiate until GOP lawmakers put out their own budget plan. She also accused Republican leaders of refusing to seriously discuss a renewal of Proposition 123, a voter-approved measure that used revenue from the state land trust to fund public education from 2015-2025 and must be renewed by Arizona voters.
Democrats and Republicans have been arguing about how to renew the measure for the past three years. Prop. 123 accounted for roughly $300 million in school funding in the most recent budget; after Prop. 123 expired last year, lawmakers backfilled that money from the state general fund (which is facing a major budget crunch due to $1 billion in universal ESA vouchers and a ruinous flat tax), rather than ask voters to reapprove it. Hobbs wants to put the question to voters this year and increase the amount of revenue from the land trust, but Republicans oppose her plan.
“Legislative Republicans are holding teachers, students and parents hostage to their partisan agenda by refusing to discuss Prop. 123 proposals in budget negotiations,” Hobbs’ office said. “They have flatly refused to consider a Prop 123 ballot referral measure.”
Democrats have also accused Republicans of failing to come up with a way to pay for substantive proposed tax cuts.
🛑 Use Request to Speak on the following bills:
👎 NO on SB1143 • 👎 NO on SCR1027
👎 NO on HB2060 • 👎 NO on HB2093
👎 NO on HB2320 • 👎 NO on HB2380
👎 NO on HB2384 • 👎 NO on HB2481
👎 NO on HB2589 • 👎 NO on HB4056
👎 NO on HCR2040 • 👎 NO on HCR2044
👎 NO on HCR2051 • 👎 NO on HCR2056
SB1143, sponsored by Shawnna Bolick (R-2), is a copy of a failed bill from last year that would require each school district and individual public school to post on its website information on students’ race, color, national origin, sex, disability, and age that is meant for the US Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights. ADE would then be required to create and post a report including “publicly available sources,” which could allow ADE to be biased in what sources they choose to pull data from. Public schools are already subject to many laws covering discrimination and bullying, making this an excessive and duplicative overreach. Meanwhile, ESA voucher-funded schools don’t collect or submit any such information. Scheduled for House Education Committee, Tuesday. 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. Scheduled for House Federalism, Military Affairs & Elections Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
HB2060, sponsored by Rachel Keshel (R-17), would ban public schools and their employees from “encouraging or facilitating abortions” — which of course is not happening. This ridiculous bill is a solution in search of a problem, demonizes educators, and wastes time and taxpayer dollars. Scheduled for Senate Government Committee, Wednesday. 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 Senate Education Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
HB2320, sponsored by Matt Gress (R-4), would require school boards to hire an independent municipal advisor to advise on a bond election, at school district expense, before asking voters for a bond. This, like many other Gress-sponsored bills this year, robs school districts of local control and imposes more regulatory burden on district schools, while doing nothing to rein in the actual problem: universal ESA vouchers. Scheduled for Senate Finance Committee, 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. Passed the House party lines. Scheduled for Senate Education Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
HB2384, sponsored by Matt Gress (R-4), makes sweeping restrictions to school districts’ ability to manage their property, limiting lease terms, requiring voter approval for leases of 10+ years, and banning districts from purchasing or leasing some school sites or buildings. This is an attack on local control and democratically elected school boards. Scheduled for Senate Finance Committee, Monday. 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 Senate Education Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
HB2589, sponsored by Michael Way (R-15), threatens teachers with jail time by prohibiting organizations that receive state tax dollars from allowing anyone to perform in a “drag show performance” for people under 18, or even remain in the building while the performance goes on. The definition of “drag show” in the bill is broad enough to include school plays or football players who dress up as cheerleaders for pep rallies. Violations would be a class 4 felony, which carries a minimum sentence of 1 year in prison. In 2023, the Legislature’s nonpartisan rules attorneys told lawmakers a similar bill was likely unconstitutional. Scheduled for Senate Judiciary and Elections Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
HB4056, sponsored by Teresa Martinez (R-16), would ban public schools from charging a state lawmaker reasonable fees for a public records request. The striker comes from Matt Gress (R-4) in response to the Tolleson school district charging him the standard rate of $1 per page for his massive records request for two years’ worth of documents, which totaled 26,000 pages (and thus $26,000). Lawmakers already have an existing process to obtain public records via the Joint Legislative Audit Committee; meanwhile, the district’s fee does not even cover the staff time required to produce so many records. It’s petty, vindictive, and unnecessary for a lawmaker to stage this kind of publicity stunt instead of going through official channels. Codifying that into law would force taxpayers to shoulder the financial impact of any lawmaker who wishes to wage war against a local school district. Scheduled for Senate Government Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
HCR2040, sponsored by Justin Olson (R-10), is a direct attack on the Arizona Education Association that aims to legislate away school unions. The bill would ask Arizona voters to approve a slew of new limits on how educators can collectively organize and bargain, a process which makes better working conditions for teachers and better learning conditions for students. It would ban teachers from deducting their union dues directly through payroll in a blatant attempt to shrink membership. It would also ban districts from using any public resources to support labor organizations, meaning schools couldn’t offer their facilities to host union meetings (even when rented like other clubs or organizations) or even allow union members to have a presence at events like new teacher orientations. Scheduled for Senate Government Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.
HCR2044, sponsored by Steve Montenegro (R-29), would ask voters to enshrine racism in the state Constitution. This anti-DEI, Trumpian measure would prevent the state from giving BIPOC-owned businesses any preference in state contracts, keep school districts from specifically hiring black or brown teachers in an effort to increase representation, block teachers from discussing inclusion and equity issues that have arisen despite the 14th Amendment, and ban certain content from being taught in schools. This would negatively impact student learning, as well as teacher retention and recruitment. The legislature would be allowed to also “prescribe related practices or concepts” to ban. Scheduled for Senate Government Committee, Wednesday. 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 (held last week). OPPOSE.
HCR2056, sponsored by Nick Kupper (R-25), would ask voters to make it a state right for people to “refuse medical mandates,” gutting Arizona’s already weak public school vaccine requirements and encouraging the spread of preventable communicable diseases like lice and scabies. This would not just affect vaccines (it’s already very easy for parents to opt their kids out of vaccines in public schools by claiming “personal reasons” even as whooping cough in Arizona soars and schools struggle with the impacts). It would also prevent schools from sending children home with lice and directing parents to treat them before they can return. This measure would put the collective well-being of all students and teachers at risk. Scheduled for Senate Government 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.
SCR1032, sponsored by Jake Hoffman (R-15), is a punitive school defunding bill that would ask voters to force public district (but not charter or private ESA voucher-funded) schools to spend at least 60% of their operational spending on “direct instructional expenses.” District schools that can’t meet this threshold would have the difference withheld from their state funding. Arizona schools have not met this impossible benchmark at any point since the Auditor General’s Office began monitoring the number over 20 years ago. Arizona schools are spending less on classroom instruction each year because of spiraling costs of required items like electric bills and student transport, plus legislative funding that doesn’t nearly keep up with inflation. This spiteful “let them eat cake” bill is completely out of touch with the desperate needs of our state’s students and teachers. It’s also looking in the wrong direction for waste and fraud; a recent news analysis showed 20% of ESA voucher purchases are for disallowed items. Duplicate bill HCR2007 awaits a House floor vote. Scheduled for Senate floor debate, Monday. Contact your senator to OPPOSE.
📚 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.
🎺🎻 In Flagstaff, students from Marshall Elementary, Mount Elden Middle School, and Flagstaff High School joined forces for a night full of amazing instrumental music!
Students from the Amphitheater School District had the incredible opportunity to meet Newbery Award-winning author Katherine Applegate this week! 📚✍️
Earlier this month, the Westside and Southside Middle School Advanced Band Festivals were held at Pueblo and Catalina High Schools!
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