Arizona Limits on Private Education Vouchers Initiative (2020)

Arizona Limits on Private Education Vouchers Initiative
Election date November 3, 2020
Topic Charter schools and vouchers
Status Not on the ballot
Type State statute	Origin Citizens
List of Arizona ballot measuresArizona Proposition 207Arizona Proposition 208Submit

The Arizona Limits on Private Education Vouchers Initiative was not on the ballot in Arizona as an initiated state statute on November 3, 2020.

The ballot initiative would have limited the number of students that can receive private education vouchers to 1 percent of the state's student population. Vouchers would have been defined to include the state's Empowerment Scholarships Account (ESAs) program. The ballot initiative would have also required that students with disabilities be prioritized for private education vouchers, including ESAs.

The ballot initiative would have prohibited private education vouchers from being used at out-of-state schools or services. The ballot initiative would have required that money in education voucher accounts, such as ESAs, be spent each year. If it is not spent, the money would have been deposited into a special account. The ballot initiative would have also required accounts to be closed when a student graduates high school, obtains a GED, or turns 21 years of age, whichever occurs first.

Text of measure

Full text

The full text of the measure is available here.

Path to the ballot

See also: Laws governing the initiative process in Arizona

Process in Arizona

In Arizona, the number of signatures required to qualify an initiated state statute is equal to 10 percent of the votes cast for the office of governor in the most recent gubernatorial election. Petitions can be circulated for up to 24 months. Signature petitions must be submitted four months prior to the election at which the measure is to appear.

The requirements to get initiated state statutes certified for the 2020 ballot:

• Signatures: 237,645 valid signatures were required.
• Deadline: The deadline to submit signatures was July 2, 2020.

If the secretary of state certifies that enough valid signatures were submitted, the initiative is put on the next general election ballot. The secretary of state verifies the signatures through a random sampling of 5 percent of submitted signatures working in collaboration with county recorders. If the random sampling indicates that valid signatures equal to between 95 percent and 105 percent of the required number were submitted, a full check of all signatures is required. If the random sampling shows fewer signatures, the petition fails. If the random sampling shows more, the initiative is certified for the ballot.

Stages of this initiative

The committee Save Our Schools Arizona (SOS Arizona) filed the ballot initiative on February 26, 2020. After the state Supreme Court ruled that SOS Arizona and other campaigns could not gather signatures electronically, SOS Arizona announced that it was suspending its campaign. A campaign statement said, "Despite our robust start in late-February, Save Our Schools Arizona now has no choice but to suspend signature collection efforts..."

Petitioning of Arizona Supreme Court

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On April 2, 2020, four ballot initiative campaigns filed a petition asking the Arizona Supreme Court to allow the campaigns to gather signatures through E-Qual, which is the state's online signature collection platform, during the coronavirus pandemic. E-Qual is available for federal, statewide, and legislative candidates but not ballot initiatives.

The legal petition stated, "The Novel Coronavirus 2019 (“COVID-19”) pandemic changed, quite literally, everything. ... Although this new reality is essential for public health, it is catastrophic to the Initiative Proponents’ exercise of their fundamental constitutional right. ... In short, signature gathering will halt, and the Initiative Proponents’ hard work and investment is in jeopardy. ... This Petition presents an important legal question of first impression: whether the fundamental constitutional rights of the Initiative Proponents are violated by their exclusion from an online petition signature gathering system maintained by the Secretary in the middle of a public health emergency that severely limits (or outright bars) their ability to otherwise collect initiative petition signatures."

The four ballot initiative campaigns that filed the petition are:

• Arizonans for Second Chances, Rehabilitation, and Public Safety, which is behind the Criminal Justice Procedures for Offenses Defined as Non-Dangerous Initiative;

• Smart and Safe Arizona, which is behind the Marijuana Legalization Initiative;

• Invest in Education, which is behind the Tax on Incomes Exceeding $250,000 for Teacher Salaries and Schools Initiative; and

• Save Our Schools Arizona, which is behind the Limits on Private Education Vouchers Initiative.

Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D), who was named as the defendant, said she would not oppose the challenge from the campaigns. She stated, "I think that in light of the circumstances that we’re in right now, it’s a reasonable request. We are certainly not opposing it and would hope for a quick resolution... I plan to let the court know that my office can implement the necessary changes, should that be the court’s order... Every voter in the state is eligible to sign an initiative petition. That makes it no different than candidates for statewide office using the system to get the necessary signatures to put their own names on the ballot." Attorney General Mark Brnovich (R) disagreed with the campaigns, stating, "A health crisis is not an excuse to ignore the constitution."

On May 13, 2020, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled against the campaigns in a 6-1 decision.

See also

2020 measures

• 2020 ballot measures
• Charter schools and vouchers on the ballot
• Education on the ballot

Arizona

• Arizona ballot measures
• Arizona ballot measure laws

News and analysis

• Ballot measure lawsuits
• Ballot measure readability
• Ballot measure polls

External links

• Initiative 33 (2020)