GOP plan to repeal vouchers law fades

Move would have taken measure off Nov. ballot

A push to repeal the Legislature’s controversial 2017 expansion of the state school voucher program — and to prevent it from going on the November ballot — seemed poised to fail as the Legislature moved closer to the end of the annual legislative session Thursday night.

That would mean voters would decide the fate of the issue.

Republican leadership in both houses tried to twist arms and lobby members in private meetings to get enough votes to repeal the program’s expansion. Republicans were concerned the voucher bill would turn out public-school advocates this November who likely would vote against them.

The bill was the last major proposal GOP lawmakers were considering before they were expected to adjourn Thursday, ending a roller-coaster ses-

sion that brought the state’s public-education funding crisis into laser focus.

Gov. Doug Ducey’s gun-safety bill to prevent school shootings, one of his top outstanding priorities from the session, also appeared that it would fail without a final vote.

At about 7:30 p.m., Republicans were told in the House caucus that negotiations were still ongoing — likely about the voucher bill — and asked to make sure they didn’t leave, but as of 8:45 p.m. the Legislature was set to “sine die.”

Lawmakers last year approved expanding the state’s Empowerment Scholarship Account program to all 1.1 million public students by 2022, broadening eligibility from special-needs and foster students, as well as those in poorly performing schools.

In response, a grass-roots group of parents named Save Our Schools Arizona collected more than 110,000 signatures to refer the new law to the November ballot. Proposition 305 asks voters if they want to scrap or keep the program that gives tax dollars to families to subsidize private-school tuition or other education expenses.

Two Capitol sources familiar with discussions of the repeal said it would have been finalized if leadership had secured enough votes in the House of Representatives and the Senate. The sources were not authorized to speak publicly about their conversations with lawmakers or the Governor’s Office.

Around 1 p.m. Thursday, Save Our Schools Arizona issued a news release saying it “has confirmed the Arizona Legislature and Governor’s office are working behind closed doors to repeal Prop. 305.”

Asked about an effort to alter the voucher-expansion law, House Republican spokesman Matt Specht wrote in an email, “I’ll let you know when a decision has been made on that.”

In that chamber, two Republicans told

The Republic on Thursday afternoon that they would not vote in favor of legislation that would remove Prop. 305 from the ballot. Their votes, combined with Democrats who fundamentally oppose the expansion legislation, would kill any repeal effort.

The Legislature is especially fluid as the end of the session approaches. Lawmakers often trade support in an effort to advance their own last-minute priorities, while leadership tries to avoid dealbreaking legislation.

Asked via text if he opposed attempts to repeal or “repeal and replace” the expansion law, Sen. Bob Worsley, R-Mesa, texted, “That’s where I am.”

Last year, he was a key vote in favor of expansion.

Sen. Kate Brophy McGee, who voted against last year’s expansion measure, texted that Prop. 305 “needs to go to the ballot. To honor those who did the work to get it there.”

Republican Sen. David Farnsworth of Mesa — a potential vote to repeal — was on an out-of-state trip and was set to return to the Capitol late at night.

Separately, two key school-choice lobbyists declined to talk with The Republic about their efforts Thursday. Cathi Herrod, lobbyist for the conservative Center for Arizona Policy, said she did not have time to talk to a reporter.

Sydney Hay, a lobbyist for the American Federation for Children — formerly chaired by Betsy DeVos, who’s now President Donald Trump’s Education secretary — declined to comment.

Other school-choice lobbyists — who were hoping for the Legislature to repeal the voucher law and replace it with a similar, but slightly different law — went home in the afternoon, convinced a voucher repeal, and especially a repeal and replace, was not going to happen this session.

Daniel Scarpinato, a spokesman for Gov. Doug Ducey, told The Republic on Thursday morning that he was unaware of any current effort to repeal the voucher expansion.

A repeal would knock Prop. 305 off the November ballot and erase one of Ducey’s crowning legislative achievements. Its passage raised Ducey’s national stature with high-dollar donors and school-choice advocates, including DeVos. But politically, repealing the law could benefit Ducey and Republican lawmakers in swing districts by ending a ballot measure that will motivate thousands of parents, teachers and public-education advocates to go to the polls.

A repeal also could take away a key point of criticism Democratic gubernatorial candidates have used to hammer Ducey and GOP lawmakers who voted for the voucher expansion as favoring the wealthy over everyday Arizonans, the vast majority of whom send their children to traditional public schools.

Another approach would be to repeal the law to take the issue off the November ballot, while replacing it with a new, slightly different expansion of the program.

A “repeal and replace” was seen as a much more difficult task, because there might not be the political will to enact a new version of the expansion.