Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs announced Friday that a petition seeking to force a ballot referendum for the state’s new universal school choice program had failed to obtain the requisite number of signatures.
The effort by Save Our Schools Arizona needed to submit 118,823 signatures in order to force a statewide referendum on the program in 2024. But on Friday, Hobbs announced her office had confirmed the requirement would not be met.
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ARIZONA SECRETARY OF STATE UNDER FIRE FOR HANDLING OF ANTI-SCHOOL CHOICE PETITION
Democratic Candidate For Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs Visits A Polling Place On Primary Election Day
“We have informed the SOS committee that the referendum will not qualify for the 2024 General Election Ballot,” Hobbs said in a statement. “While the statutorily required review continues, our office has inspected enough petitions & signatures to confirm that the 118,823 signature minimum will not be met.”
The school choice program, which now fully goes into effect, provides the Grand Canyon State’s 1.1 million students with over $6,000 annually to pay for school-related expenses, including tuition at a private school. The program was passed by Arizona’s legislature earlier this year and signed into law by Gov. Doug Ducey (R-AZ) in July.
Hobbs, who is running for governor as a Democrat, had faced criticism in recent days for allegedly slow-walking the announcement of the petition’s failure.
In a statement following Hobbs’s announcement, Save Our Schools Arizona said that the failure of the referendum effort was “a devastating blow” to the state’s public school system.
“The decision by Ducey and the legislature to enact this dangerous law is further proof that they have abandoned their constitutional obligation to provide adequate resources to public school students,” the group said. “Arizona’s public schools are on the verge of losing over $76 million virtually overnight as these ESA voucher funds are siphoned to private schools and homeschooling with little to no academic or financial accountability.”
Hobbs’s announcement was cheered by conservatives and school choice advocates, who celebrated the failed effort.
“This is a monumental victory for students not only in Arizona, but also across the nation,” said Matt Beienburg, the director of education policy at the Goldwater Institute, an Arizona-based think tank that supports the program. “Lawmakers in every other state now know it’s possible to defeat the radical teachers unions and make students the priority of our education system once again.”
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Arizona House Majority Leader Ben Toma, a Republican, likewise celebrated the news, saying that “school choice is increasingly popular with Arizona parents, especially those whose children are stuck in a failing school.”
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“Proponents of the failed referendum built their effort on the fallacy that public schools are harmed by Arizona’s ESA program,” Toma said. “That, of course, is untrue. In Arizona, we have seen that when funding follows the student, the performance of schools and students has improved.”
