It was a well-earned and humiliating setback for teachers unions this week. The Arizona Supreme Court ruled that the state's anti-school-choice ballot initiative fell short of the required number of valid signatures. Furthermore, the court found the unions violated state law by deploying convicted felons to gather those signatures.

Activists for the Teachers Union fought to have its Protect Education Act on the 2026 ballot. They claim their goal is to improve oversight of the $1 billion Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program, which allows families to use public education funds for private school tuition, tutoring, and other educational expenses.

Launched in 2011, the ESA was initially launched to provide support for disabled students by providing a flexible education funding program that enables parents to direct public education dollars toward the learning options that best meet their child’s needs, rather than being limited to their assigned public school

In 2022, the program expanded to become a universal option for students, allowing each student who qualified to use funding for approved expenses like:

  • Private school tuition and fees
  • Homeschool curricula and supplies
  • Tutoring and teaching services
  • Online learning programs
  • Educational therapies and specialized services
  • Textbooks, uniforms, transportation, and technology

Unused funds were allowed to roll over into the following school year, allowing families to save for future educational expenses.

The Teachers Union argued that making the ESA program universal would drain state resources for public schools, public safety, roads, healthcare, and water.

Critics of the ballot initiative said the Teachers Union has no right to limit who is qualified for assistance, using the term “voucher” to describe the ESA program.

To get the initiative on the ballot, Protect Education Accountability Now, a political action committee, along with other major donors, raised over $7.5 million, spending $7.2 million to ensure that word and support for the initiative were made.

A petition generated by the activists secured 421,451 signatures, and it was set for review on July 2, 2026. However, the petition was challenged on its merits, with the Goldwater Institute, along with school choice advocates, filing a lawsuit against the Protect Education Act.

The suit alleged that the petition contained duplicate signatures and that the signatures were obtained by legally ineligible circulators, or in layman's terms, felons.

After review, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge David McDowell found that 348,269 signatures were presumptively valid before application of the county’s random-sample validity rates.

The courts then reviewed the validity of the 348,269 signatures, disqualifying nearly 70,000 on grounds of duplicates and signatures obtained by felons.

This caused the petition to have around 245,000 projected to be valid, more than 10,000 short of the 255,949 required to be on the ballot.

Falling short of the amount of signatures required, the Arizona Supreme Court issued an order effectively removing an initiative from the ballot.

The Arizona Free Enterprise Club cheered their victory over the Teachers Union on X, saying, “Arizona parents, students, and educational freedom scored a major victory.”

Frustrated by the decision, the Protect Education Act released a statement on social media acknowledging the setback but promising to keep fighting for transparency on the ESA program.

The initiative to end Arizona’s universal school choice is not a recent event. "Save Our Schools Arizona," a teachers union-backed group, failed to secure enough petition signatures in 2022, citing a rounding error on the union’s part, according to local reporting.

Breaking down the cost, the political action committee paid around $27 per signature for this petition. The over $7 million spent to champion this initiative has drawn criticism from the Arizonan public, who ask: if their stance is truly backed by the majority of Arizonans, then why weren't they able to get enough signatures legitimately, and did it cost that much?