PHOENIX — Arizona voters will get the last word on expanding a program that gives parents taxpayer money to send their children to private and parochial schools.
In a brief order this morning, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that voucher supporters have no legal right to challenge the petitions seeking to block the expansion. That means their claims about irregularities in the signature gathering process, even if true, are legally irrelevant.
That means voucher supporters will need to now make their case to the voters in November. But they could have an uphill fight amid increased public concern about whether money needed for public education — including teacher salaries — is being diverted to private schools.
A strong turnout by those opposed to vouchers could have political ripples, with those who go to the polls to kill the voucher expansion potentially also deciding to vote against those who approved the measure in the first place. And that would include Gov. Doug Ducey, who signed the expansion into law earlier this year.
Challengers argued there were a series of irregularities in petition gathering process.
For example, they contended that some petition circulators made false statements to would-be signers about what the voucher expansion law would do if allowed to take effect, including that it would be the rich who benefit. They also said that some of the petitions should be thrown out — along with the signatures on them — because the required signature of the person notarizing the document does not precisely match the name on the notary's official stamp.
But the justices, in a unanimous order, said none of that matters even if true.
They pointed out that, until 2015, individuals could challenge referendum petitions. But that provision was repealed that year.
It was put back into effect this past year. But Chief Justice Scott Bales, writing for himself and his colleagues, said that reinstatement took effect on Aug. 9, 2017.
What makes that significant, Bales said, is the petitions were turned in the day before that. And on that day, he said, there was no authority for individual lawsuits.
The only thing that could keep the issue off the ballot now is if lawmakers who support vouchers make any sort of change in the law. That would void the petitions since the bill they referred to the ballot would no longer exist.
