5 school voucher bills have stalled in Arizona Legislature
Five bills to expand or otherwise alter Arizona’s controversial school voucher program have stalled this legislative session.
Three never were heard by a committee. Two others passed committees, but failed to meet deadlines to be heard and passed on the Senate floor.
For the bills to be heard this session, they would have to be introduced as part of a “strike everything” amendment—a bill that has made it through both houses but is gutted and replaced with language from another bill.
The voucher bills — three of which would have expanded the Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program — were introduced just months after voters resoundingly defeated a much bigger expansion of the program in November.
Proposition 305 would have allowed all 1.1 million public-school students to apply for the program.
Dawn Penich-Thacker, spokeswoman for Save Our Schools Arizona, the organization that campaigned to defeat Prop. 305, said her group has worked to oppose the bills.
“We have been considering them dead, knowing that nothing is truly dead until sine die (the end of the Legislative session),” Penich-Thacker said.
Here’s a breakdown of the five bills, what they would do and their status in the Legislature:
HB 2022: Sponsored by Rep. Mark Finchem, R-Oro Valley, the bill would transfer some oversight of the program, including the selection of vendors, from the Department of Education to the Treasurer’s Office. The bill failed to be assigned to a committee.
HB 2474: Sponsored by Rep. Shawnna Bolick, R-Phoenix, the proposal would have created a new category of ESAs for “the alleged victim of battery, harassment, hazing, kidnapping, physical attack, robbery, sexual harassment, sexual assault, rape, threatening, intimidation, fighting, sex trafficking or human trafficking.” It doesn’t say how exactly parents would qualify a child or
“We have been considering them dead, knowing that nothing is truly dead until sine die (the end of the Legislative session).” Dawn Penich-Thacker Spokeswoman, Save Our Schools Arizona
if the state would verify that they were victims of crimes or harassment. The bill failed to be assigned to a committee.
SB 1320: Sponsored by Sen. David Livingston, R-Peoria, the bill would have transferred all oversight of the ESA program to the Treasurer’s Office. The bill passed out of committee but failed to meet deadlines to advance in the House of Representatives and the Senate. Livingston did not return a call for comment.
SB 1395: Sponsored by Sen. Sylvia Allen, R-Snowflake, the bill would relax some eligibility limits for the program and expand it by making more students eligible for the ESA program. The bill passed out of committee but failed to meet deadlines to advance in the House and the Senate. Allen did not return a call for comment.
SB1396: Also sponsored by Allen, the proposal would have expanded the program by making a new category of student eligible to receive an ESA: those whose family income does not exceed 185 percent of the federal guidelines to qualify for free or reduced-price school lunch. The bill failed to be assigned to a committee.