Journalists’ Roundtable: School voucher reforms, early voting races and more

June 26

What’s the latest on the school voucher reforms?

Mark Brodie: “Some Republican leadership in the state legislature, the teachers union and the Arizona Education Association were getting together to talk about a possible deal to put some new reforms in for ESAs for school vouchers. In that case, it would also have taken some, at that point, proposed ballot measures off the table. That did not go anywhere; they put it up for a vote in the state senate, and it failed. All of the Democrats voted against it, and the Senate President voted against it. Some things have changed now, but it seems as though they’re taking another go at it.”

Wayne Schutsky: “The Arizona Education Association, the state’s teachers union, is really behind a lot of this compromise because one thing it would do is it would take a few other ballot measures that they were looking to fight that were referred by the legislature off the table. That then frees up money that they’re using to campaign. As things stand, they’re going to be stretched in a couple of different directions.”

Howie Fischer: “It has to do with the wording. You put three lawyers in a room, I’ll give you 12 versions of how you craft a bill. In one spot, it does mention that schools cannot use public resources, but there’s a whole other section in there that talks about how government entities cannot negotiate terms, contracts, disputes or grievances. It doesn’t mention schools in there, so all of a sudden, police, firefighters, the AFSCME of public employees union said, ‘Wait a second here. What do you mean you’re going to go ahead and take away our rights just because you’re mad at the teachers?'”