By Reagan Priest and Jordan Gerard | State Affairs
Save Our Schools and the Arizona Education Association submitted more than 400,000 petition signatures to the Secretary of State’s Office Thursday in support of the Protect Education citizens initiative.
The groups managed to gather 421,451 signatures to get the initiative on the ballot, exceeding the 255,949 signature requirement. The initiative would impose several reforms on the Empowerment Scholarship Accounts program, like banning the purchase of luxury items, imposing income caps for participating families and expanded reporting requirements for schools receiving ESA funding.
“Signature collection for this campaign began in mid-March, and the total number gathered in such a short time reflects the tremendous statewide enthusiasm to bring meaningful reforms to the highly flawed and wasteful private school voucher program that our leaders have refused to take action on,” said campaign spokesperson Olivia Fierro in a statement.
