Voters could decide on dueling ESA measures
By Jeremy Duda
Published on March 18, 2026.
A pair of citizen initiatives, the Protect Education Act and the Arizona Empowerment Scholarship Accounts Reform and Accountability Act, are vying for the November ballot to limit or reform the program, which currently provides around 100,000 students for private school tuition, tutoring, books, or other educational materials. The Protected Education Act, filed by a coalition of public education groups Save Our Schools Arizona and the Arizonan Education Association, would severely restrict the ESA program, limiting ESAs to families with household income up to $150,000, exempting students with disabilities, students in failing schools and children of active-duty military parents. The second measure would require materials purchased with ESA funds to be required or recommended by state-approved curriculum and ban luxury and non-educational items. Both measures need about 256,000 valid signatures by July 2 to qualify for the ballot.
Read Original Article