Advocates sue to block anti-school choice Arizona petition drive 

A pro-school choice group is challenging the validity of signatures collected to place an anti-school choice measure on Arizona’s fall ballot.

The Goldwater Institute filed suit Monday alleging that many of the signatures submitted for the Protect Education, Accountability Now Act are invalid and should not be counted.

School choice opponents collected more than 420,000 signatures to place the measure on the November ballot, far exceeding the 256,000-signature requirement.

The state is now verifying the signatures, but the Goldwater Institute, representing school choice families and advocates, and the Arizona Free Enterprise Club sued, claiming more than 73,000 signatures should be disqualified because they were not properly collected or contain false or incomplete information.

The measure, which the Goldwater Institute calls “destructive and misleadingly titled,” would remove thousands of families from the state’s school choice program by imposing a $150,000 household income limit, redirect unused funds to public schools and add new regulations for private schools and tutors, including a fingerprinting requirement for all staff and vendors participating in the program.

Arizona is a national leader in school choice, with more than 100,000 students participating in Empowerment Scholarship Accounts, which are available to all families.

The measure has received more than $6.5 million in cash and in-kind contributions from the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers union, which opposes school choice, along with another $810,000 from the Arizona Education Association.

The Goldwater Institute said more than 75% of the signatures submitted were collected by paid circulators rather than volunteers.

“This is a shameless attack on Arizona’s parents, funded by an out-of-state union,” Goldwater Institute President and CEO Victor Riches said. “They’re trying to game the system by turning in tens of thousands of invalid signatures in an effort to destroy the most successful school choice program in the country. This won’t happen on our watch.”

The lawsuit alleges nine petition circulators had felony convictions or convictions for fraud, forgery or identity theft that prohibited them from serving as petition circulators. Some of the convictions were for serious crimes, including kidnapping, assault and sexual abuse of a minor, Arizona Mirror reported.

In a statement, Arizona Free Enterprise Club spokesman Michael Abate questioned whether the campaign adequately vetted its circulators.

“Did they know who was approaching Arizona families and asking for their personal information and signatures?” Abate said. “And how can they claim to protect children while apparently failing to properly vet the people representing their campaign?”

The lawsuit also alleges other signatures should be disqualified because circulators listed hotel addresses instead of home addresses, failed to include identification numbers or provided non-working phone numbers or email addresses.

Former Gov. Doug Ducey, under whom Arizona expanded school choice to universal eligibility, criticized the petition effort.

“This measure would strip tens of thousands of Arizona families of educational choices they have made for their children, forcing students out of the schools that are serving them well and back into schools they chose to leave,” Ducey said. “That is unacceptable and we will vigorously challenge this measure at every possible step.”

School choice opponents have sought to eliminate or curtail Arizona’s education savings account program since it expanded, including efforts by Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs. The Republican-controlled Legislature has blocked those attempts.

The Legislature also referred a constitutional amendment to voters this fall that would protect school choice in the state constitution. If approved, the amendment would likely render the Protect Education, Accountability Now Act ineffective even if voters also approve it.

Supporters of school choice hope that broad public support in polls will translate to a win at the ballot box.

Opponents have cited allegations of widespread fraud in the program as justification for the measure, despite audits that have not found widespread fraud. The proposal would prohibit the use of education savings account funds for luxury goods, which is already prohibited in the program.