IN FOCUS - Mar. 20, 2026

This fall, Arizona voters may face competing initiatives to reform the state’s Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program. The dueling proposals are now in a sprint to collect the just over 250,000 valid petition signatures necessary to qualify for the November ballot. Deadline: July 2.

Unlike the last time voters were asked directly to weigh in on ESAs, 2026 could feature a reform measure authored by program supporters.

The “Arizona Empowerment Scholarship Accounts Reform & Accountability Act” was announced this week by the American Federation for Children, a national group that advocates for school choice. The measure would implement modest additional guardrails for the program, including a requirement that non-disabled students be subject to state assessment tests, as well as a prohibition on the use of ESA dollars for non-educational or luxury items. News coverage about ESA expenditures on extravagant vacations, jewelry and even lingerie has spurred calls for a crackdown.

Earlier, Save Our Schools Arizona and the Arizona Education Association announced a union-backed “Protect Education Act” that would go much further to rein-in the program. Among its provisions, the measure would: cap program eligibility at $150,000/year in household income (exempting students with disabilities and other special groups previously qualified prior to universal expansion); prohibit ESA expenditures for non-educational or luxury items; and return unused funds to the state instead of allowing families to stockpile dollars for the future.

The ballot showdown comes as Arizona’s ESA program has quickly grown from about 15,000 participating students to over 100,000 in just three years. 

Both ballot measures propose statutory, not constitutional, changes. If each is approved by voters, each would take effect (though, in a case of conflicting individual provisions, the measure garnering the most votes would have supremacy).