State education officials are giving parents who want to seek immediate voucher payments an extra 15 days to apply.

Republicans across the state joined forces today urging Secretary of State Katie Hobbs to “expedite” the signature verification process on a seemingly failed voter referendum to block universal expansion of empowerment scholarships. 

Supporters of a massive expansion of Arizona's private school voucher system said Monday that public school advocates have failed to file enough valid signatures to temporarily block the law ahead of a proposed 2024 ballot referendum.

Foes of universal school vouchers turned in 141,714 signatures Friday to give voters the last word.

Arizona is again grappling with the issue of Empowerment Scholarship Accounts and whether voters should decide for themselves if taxpayer money can fund private and home schools for all K-12 students.  

In the eleventh hour of this legislative session, Republican majority lawmakers delivered a massive blow to Arizona voters by passing recently rejected universal Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) vouchers.

The expansion of school vouchers means that potentially hundreds of millions of public funds will be put into the hands of private individuals to use with little fiscal or academic accountability.

Most of us want the same things for Arizona’s schools: the opportunity for every child to succeed, transparency, accountability and flexible options for the unique needs of families. But two issues deeply threaten the ability for Arizona to achieve those goals – the AEL (Aggregate Expenditure Limit) and ESA vouchers (Codename: Empowerment Scholarship Accounts). 

Gov. Doug Ducey and backers of universal school vouchers took a victory lap Tuesday over legislation the Republican-controlled Legislature enacted in June giving the state the nation's most expansive voucher system, and he also used the time to attack backers of public schools who are trying to block the measure at the ballot.

Gov. Doug Ducey penned his signature Thursday to creating the most comprehensive system of private and parochial school vouchers in the nation, paving the way for a petition drive to have voters kill it -- again.