Highlights

The Arizona Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered Proposition 145 off the November ballot, ruling that the Republican-backed measure designed to insulate the state's $1 billion school voucher program from future regulation violates the Arizona Constitution.

Prop. 145 carried two provisions. The first would have barred the state from clawing back Empowerment Scholarship Account funds from military families. The second went further: it would have voided any state law or voter-approved ballot measure enacted after Nov. 1, 2026, that affected voucher recipients broadly, not just military families. Together, the measure would have made future reforms to the ESA program nearly impossible to enact, even through a citizen initiative.

Chief Justice Ann Scott Timmer, writing on behalf of six justices, found that the two provisions fail the Arizona Constitution's separate amendment requirement, which prohibits ballot measures from bundling multiple, disconnected changes that could force voters to accept provisions they oppose. Justice Kathryn King did not participate.

Timmer wrote that protecting military family voucher accounts and nullifying any future law touching all voucher recipients represent changes to different parts of the state Constitution, one adding an entirely new amendment and the other amending existing rules that limit legislative influence over citizen initiatives.

"(Prop. 145) does not confine its effects to a single constitutional provision," Timmer wrote. She added: "The provisions do not share a logical relationship or derive meaning and effect from each other. This is the type of measure the separate amendment rule is designed to prohibit."

The ruling affirmed a lower court's July decision that had already found the measure unconstitutional. Republicans had petitioned the Supreme Court to reverse that ruling and restore Prop. 145 to the ballot.

The GOP referral was crafted as a direct counter to Proposition 212, the Protect Education Act, which public education advocates had placed on the ballot. Prop. 212 would have added an income cap to the ESA program, established penalties for voucher misuse, and set educational and safety requirements for participating schools. Because Prop. 145's prohibitions applied to all laws and ballot measures adopted after Nov. 1, 2026, a voter-approved Prop. 145 would have nullified Prop. 212 even if it also passed.

That collision is now moot. Also on Tuesday, the Supreme Court ruled that Prop. 212 did not gather enough valid signatures to qualify for the ballot, as the Arizona Mirror and the Tucson Sentinel both reported Tuesday.

What does this mean for the ESA program?

With both measures off the ballot, the $1 billion Empowerment Scholarship Account program heads into the November election cycle unchanged and without a voter referendum on its structure. Any future legislative or citizen-led effort to add income caps, penalties, or safety requirements to the program will proceed under existing constitutional rules.

No further court action on Prop. 145 is scheduled; the Supreme Court's order is final.

Sources

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  1. azmirror.com retrieved 18/08/2026 22:25

Authored by The Scottsdale Signal. Drafted by AI from primary-source material under our beat-specific editorial guides; reviewed by humans before publish under our five-gate process. Sources retrieved at 18/08/2026 22:25. Every claim traces to a source.