Arizona school voucher expansion law now in effect, largest in nation

(KYMA, KECY/ AP News) - All Arizona parents now can use state tax money to send their children to private or religious schools after an effort by public school advocates to block a massive expansion of the state’s private school voucher law failed to collect enough signatures to block it.

Arizona now has the nation’s most expansive private school voucher law.

It allows parents of the more than 1.2 million school-age children to get 90% of the state money that would normally go to their local public school and use it for private or other school costs. That amounts to about $7,000 for a non-disabled student.

The effort to block the expansion passed by the Republican-controlled legislature over Democratic opposition was organized by Save Our Schools Arizona who blocked a similar expansion in 2017.

Voters then overwhelmingly rejected the law in the 2018 election.

So they once again tried to block the expansion again this year before coming up short on signatures last week.