Arizona voters rejected ESA expansion 65-35 in 2018 and the legislature enacted it anyway in 2022. That was wrong. Prop 212 is still the wrong correction.
If you are a Democrat who has followed this issue, you probably have one big objection to everything on this site, and it is a fair one. Let us take it head on.
In 2018, Arizona voters rejected universal ESA expansion on Proposition 305 by 65 to 35. That is not a close result. It is a landslide. And in 2022, the legislature enacted it anyway.
If that makes you angry, you are right to be angry. A legislature overriding a referendum is a genuinely bad thing, and nothing we argue depends on pretending otherwise. It was an insult to the people who voted.
The question is what to do about it
Being wronged in 2022 does not obligate you to vote for whatever appears on the ballot in 2026 with the right enemies attached to it. The measure still has to be read.
And when you read it, Prop 212 does things that have nothing to do with correcting a legislative override:
- It empties children's accounts every July 1, including money families saved for therapies and evaluations.
- It makes registration paperwork a public record.
- It repeals the rule requiring the state to justify its restrictions in court, shifting that burden onto schools.
- It takes $1.75 million from a fund that pays for teen suicide prevention, autism research, and the Arizona Teachers Academy.
- It sets an income cliff that tightens automatically every year without another vote.
You can believe the 2022 override was illegitimate and still conclude that this is the wrong correction. Those two positions do not conflict. A bad process in 2022 is not a reason to write a bad law in 2026.