Republican senators advanced a bill that would expand eligibility for Arizona’s school voucher program and strip oversight of those vouchers from the newly elected Democratic head of the Department of Education.

On 6-4 party lines votes, lawmakers on the Senate Finance Committee approved both SB1395 and SB1320. Sponsored by advocates of the Empowerment Scholarship Account program, Arizona’s version of vouchers, the bills were criticized as a subversion of the will of the voters.

It was only months ago that voters rejected a sweeping effort to expand vouchers, Democratic senators and opponents noted.

Sen. Sylvia Allen, the sponsor of SB1395, presented the measure as needed reforms for the ESA program that would provide more certainty for the parents who are given state dollars to pay for specialized, private or parochial education for their children.

The Snowflake Republican argued that the voters’ overwhelming rejection of Proposition 305, a ballot referral to block a 2017 law expanding access to the ESA program, sent a different message to lawmakers.

“This debate over Prop. 305 was over the expansion, and not over the reforms in that original bill,” she said. Her bill is only about reforms, she added.

But even some Republicans on the committed conceded that the bill would certainly grant more schoolchildren access to the ESA program, both by broadening the school boundary lines that determine if a student is being served by a failing school and widening the age range at which children can enter the ESA program without having first attended a public school.

Still, Sen. J.D. Mesnard, R-Chandler, said he doesn’t believe Allen’s legislation is an expansion bill.

“If you change a definition and it snags a few extra folks, I don’t know if that’s really an expansion,” Mesnard said. He added that the failure of Prop. 305 “should not paralyze” the Legislature in attempts to improve the ESA program.

A legion of red-clad teachers and parents testified that Mesnard and Allen’s consideration of what “expansion” means was flawed, as did the Finance Committee’s four Democrats.

“What I am opposed to, what my constituents are opposed to, is expanding vouchers and expanding this program,” said Sen. Sean Bowie, D-Chandler.

A host of parents that utilize the ESA program said there are other key provisions in SB1395 that will ensure they’re using the program’s funding responsibly and efficiently.

Dr. April Adams, a mother from Gilbert with a 6-year-old son, said Allen’s intent is to reform, not expand, the voucher program.

“One of the most frustrating things is not knowing how we can spend money for our son,” she said.

Other parents shared similar stories of frustrations with the advice they receive from the Department of Education on the use of their ESA funding. Misspending funds can result in those dollars being frozen for parents.

Dissatisfaction with ESA management was also at the heart of the debate on SB1320. Sponsored by Sen. David Livingston, the bill would place management and oversight of vouchers in the hands of State Treasurer Kimberly Yee, a Republican.

Livingston, a Peoria Republican, denied that it was his intent to strip oversight from the new Superintendent of Public Instruction, Kathy Hoffman, because she’s a Democrat. It’s his intent that the treasurer’s office would hire a third party vendor to run the ESA program, he previously told the Arizona Capitol Times.

And Mesnard claimed that Livingston’s proposal was no new idea — a nearly identical bill was sponsored last year while a Republican still served as superintendent, he said.

The Arizona Capitol Times could find no record of such a bill sponsored in 2018.

Allen’s SB1395 would also strip the education department of its ESA management duties by requiring, rather than allowing, the department to hire a private vendor to operate the program.

Democrats urged Livingston to table his proposal in favor of giving Hoffman more time to begin running the program. They cited rave reviews from parents who utilize vouchers of Karla Escobar, who Hoffman hired as ESA director on January 12.

And Hoffman recently formed a task force with ESA supporters and opponents to research better ways to serve the ESA community.

Sen. Lupe Contreras urged parents that use ESAs for their children to have patience while voting against both bills.

“Let things happen. There’s positive change coming,” said Contreras, D-Avondale. “Let it take its course, and you might be very happen with what you see if you just give it a chance.”

State Treasurer Kimberly Yee is hoping to ride the same political path as the current governor.

In a video release Monday, Yee announced she wants to be the Republican nominee for the state’s top executive post in 2022.

But Yee, the first Asian-American elected to Arizona statewide office, provided little in the way of actual details of what she intends to do. Instead, her video twice mentioned her loyalty to Donald Trump and his border and economic policies and lashed out at, among others, the “corrupt press” which is attacking our way of life.

She did not return a call seeking to interview her on specifics of her platform or whether she supports some of the current moves at the Arizona Legislature which would have an effect on whoever becomes governor, including enacting a flat state income tax rate that could end up being one of the state’s largest tax cuts ever.

Yee, first elected to the legislature in 2010, became the first Asian-American woman to be the Senate majority leader.

She had only a few pieces of legislation of note.

Potentially the most important was a 2017 proposal to guarantee free speech to student journalist.

Her measure pretty much would have required college and high school administrators to take a hands-off approach to what writers and cartoonists for student newspapers publish with the guidance of teachers and advisers. They would have been allowed to intercede only under several narrow circumstances.

Yee told colleagues that the bill was based on her experience as a high school journalist in the 1990s whose stories and cartoons were censored by administrators.

But the measure never became law as the bill was vetoed by Gov. Doug Ducey who said while he believes there are limits on constitutional rights of free speech of students.

“These are minors,” he told Capitol Media Services.

She was elected treasurer in 2018.

In her nearly two minute video, Yee first appears on the Arizona border — and echoing what has lately been a GOP talking point.

“Washington is simply not going to protect Arizona,” she said, saying the Biden administration is refusing to enforce the law and opening the state to drug cartels and human traffickers. It features videos of the triumvirate of people Republicans love to criticize: Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

“I’ll continue President Trump’s fight to secure our southern border,” Yee said.

The video then shifts to the Colorado River where Yee promises to protect Arizona from the “socialist policies” coming from California.

“President Trump’s America First agenda had our economy booming like never before,” she said. “But now, our way of life is under attack by the corrupt press, reckless corporate leaders and politicians who put socialist ideals over people, our freedom of speech and our elections.”

Ducey showed that it is possible to move from the nearly invisible office of treasurer to governor. But Ducey had built a public profile by taking the lead in fighting a 2012 ballot measure which would have made permanent a temporary one-cent sales tax hike which helped Arizona weather the recession.

Yee becomes the first Republican of note to announce for the race. And so far the leading Democrat is former Nogales Mayor Marco Lopez.