Vouchers:

Group pushing to repeal law, halt ESA expansion

Save Our Schools Arizona, the group behind an effort to repeal Arizona’s school-voucher expansion, is hiring paid circulators as part of a final push to ensure it gathers enough signatures to qualify for the 2018 ballot.

The group behind an effort to repeal Arizona’s school-voucher expansion is hiring paid circulators as part of a final push to ensure they have enough signatures to qualify for the ballot, its spokeswoman said.

Save Our Schools Arizona launched a referendum campaign to halt the controversial expansion of the Empowerment Scholarship Account program that opens it to all public- and charter-school students. The expansion is scheduled to take effect in August.

Save our Schools Arizona needs an estimated 75,000 signatures to qualify for the November 2018 ballot.

Dawn Penich-Thacker, spokeswoman for Save Our Schools, said the group is on track to gather 75,000 signatures from an all-volunteer network. However, the group is contracting “with a handful” of paid circulators as an “insurance policy” — to ensure the group has enough signatures in the event some signatures are thrown out.

“It’s mostly to get to parts of town that we haven’t been to,” she said.

The referendum aims to let the public decide to either uphold or overturn the school-voucher expansion. If the referendum qualifies for the ballot, the ESA expansion would be enjoined from taking effect until the vote. Senate Bill 1431 would be undone if a majority of voters cast “no” votes.

Critics of ESA expansion say it disproportionately benefits wealthy families who might otherwise afford private-school tuition without taxpayer aid. And, they say, it siphons money away from public schools.

Penich-Thacker declined to say how many signatures the volunteer group has gathered. She has been quoted recently as saying the signature-gathering is on track. Penich-Thacker said paid circulators hit the streets Monday.