Page 34 - The Edge - Fall 2017

CAPITOL MEDIA SERVICES CONTRIBUTING ARTICLE

BY HOWARD FISCHER

Voucher foes respond to lawsuit seeking to toss referendum

Foes of universal school There are about 3,500
vouchers are counting on a gap students now getting vouchers.
in state law to preserve their is year Sen. Debbie Lesko,
bid to force a public vote on the R-Peoria, sought to throw the
issue. doors wide open to eliminate
Roopali Desai, attorney for any preconditions, making
Save Our Schools Arizona, vouchers available to all 1.1
said Secretary of State Michele million students attending
Reagan has determined there public schools. But she had to
are more than enough signatures agree to a cap of 30,000 by 2023
to give voters the last word on to get the necessary votes.
whether all parents can use tax e referendum, if allowed
dollars to send their children to to proceed, would stay the
private or parochial schools. at expansion until the November
sets the stage for the measure 2018 general election when
going on the 2018 ballot. voters would get the last word
What has happened, Desai said, is two individuals have led whether to ratify or reject the change.
suit contending there are multiple de ciencies in the petitions and Desai is not relying solely on her argument about what the law
the signatures. e challengers hope to have Maricopa County was earlier this year in her bid to have the case dismissed. She also
Superior Court Judge Margaret Mahoney conclude those aws has some alternate arguments to undermine the lawsuit.
would disqualify enough signatures to leave the referendum drive One of the issues goes to the requirement that the signatures of
short of the minimum needed. the circulators on petition sheets must be notarized.
Desai is not conceding the point. But in new legal documents Attorney Kory Langhofer who is representing those trying to
led September 27, she is telling Mahoney all that is irrelevant. block the referendum said there are multiple situations where the
She said there was a law allowing individuals to sue to challenge name the notary has signed does not precisely match the name
petitions. But that, Desai said, was repealed in 2015. on that notary’s o cial application and seal. What that means, he
Lawmakers restored that right this year, with the renewed statute contends, is that more than 700 petition sheets where the names
taking e ect on August 9. don’t match must be thrown out, along with the roughly 60,000
Why that matters, Desai said, is that Save Our Schools Arizona signatures on those sheets.
started its referendum drive on May 11 and submitted the signatures Desai sni ed at that argument.
on August 8. And she contends only challenges allowed between She acknowledged there may be situations where the name on
those dates can be heard – challenges which the law during those the notary’s seal might be something like Jonathan A. Smith but
dates could not come from individuals. the notary has signed John Smith. But Desai said there is nothing
ose seeking to quash the referendum will argue that it is the in laws regulating to notaries that makes such a di erence illegal.
law that was in e ect on August 23, the date the challenge was led, She also wants Mahoney to reject Langhofer’s allegations of
that should govern. Mahoney will hear arguments on the issue in fraud.
December. ose are based on claims that some petition circulators made
At issue is SB1487 which vastly expands eligibility for vouchers. what Langhofer said are false statements about what the voucher
e program was originally started in 2011 to help students with expansion law would do, including that it would be the rich who
various disabilities who could not get their needs met at traditional bene t.
public schools. Since then, however, supporters of the concept have Desai, in her legal lings, said Langhofer’s claim is awed
moved incrementally to widen the law to the point that it includes because it does not identify who allegedly made the statements,
children in foster families, children living on reservations and those fails to articulate how they are “materially false,’’ and even whether
in schools rated D or F. or how they were used to obtain signatures on petitions.

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