You’re a lawmaker, too

Lawmakers have already introduced well over 100 education-related bills this year, most of which come from Republican lawmakers and are headed for a certain veto if they make it to the governor’s desk.

Voters won’t have much of a say about those bills, other than using the Request to Speak system or calling lawmakers directly.

But voters won’t have to sit on the sidelines for long.

Because GOP lawmakers recognize that Gov. Katie Hobbs is going to veto most of their culture war bills, they are bypassing Hobbs’ veto stamp and sending measures directly to voters in November.

So far, lawmakers have introduced a handful of education-related measures that could go to the ballot, as long as the GOP-controlled Legislature decides to advance GOP-sponsored bills that focus on GOP-favored issues (in other words, yeah, these are probably going to be on your ballot).

Since voters will ultimately decide what happens with these measures, it seems wise to get you ahead of the game as early as possible.

Plus, this is going to be a bonkers election year.

You’re going to see loads of state and local offices on your ballot, not to mention the other straight-to-voter measures that lawmakers are keeping in their back pockets for the time being.

So today, we’re giving you the skinny on the high-profile education measures that could pop up on your ballot in November.

Lawmakers and Hobbs couldn’t agree on renewing Proposition 123 last year, which left a $300 million hole in revenue for education.

Last month, Republican Rep. Matt Gress introduced HCR2007 and HCR2008 as a way out of what has turned into one of the thorniest political issues in the state.

A bit of background: Voters approved Prop 123 in 2016. It was a constitutional amendment backed by then-Gov. Doug Ducey that allowed officials to pull more money from the State Land Trust to fund K-12 education.

The proposition itself came out of a lawsuit that claimed the Legislature underfunded public schools from 2010 to 2013. Over the past decade, Prop 123 has provided about $300 million annually to public education.

But Prop 123 didn’t allow officials to pull more money from the land trust forever. It set a 10-year limit, which expired last year.

What the ballot measures would do: If voters give the green light to HCR2007 and HCR2008, state officials would keep pulling money from the land trust for the next decade at the same rate (or higher) as they did when Prop 123 was in effect.

That money would go toward increasing salaries for teachers. If the new deal ends up bringing in more money than what’s coming from the land trust now, the extra money also would go to teacher salaries.

Last year, President Donald Trump issued an executive order targeting any education policies that “favor aliens over any groups of American citizens.”

Education advocates in Arizona immediately saw the writing on the wall: Federal officials are coming for undocumented students who get in-state tuition.

Enter Republican Rep. Michael Way’s HCR2027, which would block undocumented students from getting in-state tuition at Arizona universities and community colleges.

A bit of background: Arizona voters narrowly approved Prop 308 in 2022, which guaranteed in-state tuition for undocumented students who graduated high school in Arizona.

Oddly enough, Republican lawmakers proposed the ballot measure in 2022 and led the bipartisan campaign to persuade voters to approve it. That includes one of the candidates Trump endorsed in the governor’s race this year, Karrin Taylor Robson, although she’s now trying to distance herself from that stance.

What the ballot measure would do: If voters approve what Way calls the “Arizona Tuition Fairness and Legal Status Act,” then undocumented students would not be eligible for in-state tuition starting July 1, 2027.

Trans kids can’t catch a break at the Arizona Legislature, where the barrage of anti-trans bills has been unrelenting for years.

A bit of background: That barrage includes Republican Sen. John Kavanagh’s years-long campaign to stop trans kids from using certain bathrooms and pronouns. Fortunately for trans kids, Hobbs has blocked him at every turn.

This time around, Kavanagh is trying to send the idea directly to voters in November via SCR1006.

Even if Hobbs can’t veto it, the bill is still not going to be an easy sell. Earlier this week, a hearing about the bill grew so heated that the chair of the Senate Governing Committee threw out a man who condemned Kavanagh’s bill.

What the ballot measure would do: If voters sign off on SCR1006, public school districts and charters would not be allowed to use pronouns or first names that don’t align with a student’s biological sex, unless the student gets written permission from their parents.

School districts and charters also would have to stop students from entering restrooms, changing facilities or sleeping quarters that are designated for the opposite sex.

If a student encounters a person of the opposite sex in the “wrong” restroom, the student could sue the school.

The bill also would require schools to provide reasonable accommodations, such as access to single-occupancy or employee restrooms, to students who are unwilling or unable to use regular bathrooms designated for their biological sex, as long as they submit a written request with satisfactory evidence of sex.

All these measures have to get through the Legislature before they reach the ballot, so we’ll be tracking them for you over the next few months.

While we’re doing that, you can stay on top of education at the Legislature with our legislative intelligence service, Skywolf.

We use it every day to watch committee hearings and create tracking lists — including this handy list of education bills, which you can access for free any time you like.