The coalition behind a ballot initiative to roll back the universality of Arizona’s school choice program is facing a campaign finance complaint.
On Thursday, the Protect Education Accountability Act Now Committee (PEANC) was made subject to a complaint, reviewed by AZ Free News. PEANC was accused of falsely claiming that out-of-state contributors amounted to a mere nine percent of funding.
PEANC filed the ballot initiative, “Protect Education Act” last month. If approved, the initiative would impose an income cap on enrollment in the Empowerment Scholarship Account Program, among other restrictions to include an elimination of funding rollover. The Protect Education Act superseded an earlier version, the “Protect Education, Accountability Now Act.”
In order to make the ballot, the initiative will need nearly 256,000 signatures. PEANC reported gathering over 150,000 signatures during a virtual press conference on Friday.
The complainant, Jack Johnson Pannell, cited a disclaimer posted to the bottom of PEANC’s website. That disclaimer reflects PEANC’s total out-of-state contributors account for only nine percent of its total funding.
Arizona law requires political action committee advertisements to disclose the aggregate percentage of out-of-state contributors as calculated at the time the advertisement was produced for publication, display, delivery, or broadcast.
Pannell’s complaint called for a declaration that PEANC violated Arizona campaign finance disclosure law and an action against the committee.
Pannell said on X that Arizona families deserve the truth behind PEANC. Pannell is the founder of Trinity Arch Prep School for Boys, a microschool.
“More than 100,000 families are choosing great options for educating their children,” said Pannell. “It’s a cheap shot to accuse hardworking people of cheating the system. It just ain’t true.”
I’m proud to file this complaint because AZ families deserve the truth. More than 100,000 families are choosing great options for educating their children. It’s a cheap shot to accuse hardworking people of cheating the system. It just ain’t true. #schoolchoicehttps://t.co/FFz9MkTWLh
Contrary to this disclaimer, campaign finance records reveal that 98 percent — $4.5 million, or nearly all of PEANC’s $4.6 million in funding — have come from special interest groups in Washington, D.C.
That $4.5 million came from the National Education Association in four allotments delivered throughout February and March. The first payments from the NEA (over $2.3 million) came on February 13 — exactly a week after PEANC registered their website domain.
The earliest available archived version of the site captured on February 12 reflected an out-of-state contributions disclosure totaled at 50 percent.
Other major donors included the Arizonans For Quality Education ($50,000), Nita and Phil Francis ($25,000), and Arizona Education Association ($10,000).
99 percent of AFQE’s funding has come from “shadow sponsors”: unnamed corporations and LLCs. The remainder of the funding, less than half of a percent, came from Christopher Kotterman on behalf of the Friends of ASBA.
Kotterman became a senior policy advisor for Gov. Katie Hobbs in late 2024.
Phil Francis is the retired chairman and CEO of PetSmart; Nita Francis formerly chaired the Valleywise Health Foundation board.
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly listed Justan Rice as the current chairman of Arizonans For Quality Education (AFQE). Rice left AFQE in June 2025 before the donation to PEANC was made.
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Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne announced earlier this week that two northern Arizona schools have been named National Title 1 Distinguished Schools in recognition of their significant gains in student academic achievement.
Valentine Elementary School, located in the small northwest Arizona community of Valentine, and Window Rock High School, situated on the Navajo Reservation, earned the prestigious national honor. The schools were selected for demonstrating exceptional progress in boosting their students’ academic performance.
“I am very proud of the work these students and educators have done to earn this honor. Each year, the Arizona Department of Education recognizes schools that demonstrate exceptional achievement and success in the Distinguished Schools program,” stated Superintendent Horne. “In addition to the students, congratulations must go to all the district leaders, teachers, administrators, and staff for this remarkable accomplishment. It reflects these schools’ commitment to maximizing instructional time and ensuring that every instructional minute counts.”
The National Title 1 Distinguished Schools award is part of the National ESEA Distinguished Schools Program, a project of the National Association of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Program Administrators.
The program publicly recognizes qualifying federally funded Title 1 schools for positive educational advances and outstanding academic achievement.
Each state may honor up to two schools per year. Schools selected for the award must meet strict criteria, including a poverty rate of at least 35% (or the state’s average poverty rate if below that threshold), high academic achievement or growth, and meeting or exceeding state-determined accountability standards.
Valentine Elementary and Window Rock High School join a select group of schools nationwide that have earned this distinction. As National Title 1 Distinguished Schools, they will receive a commemorative award package, including entry to the National ESEA Conference, a dedicated section on the ESEA Network website, and special recognition during the conference.
Select sessions at the conference will feature “Stories of Success” from Distinguished Schools, highlighting their effective strategies for improving student outcomes. Arizona’s Distinguished Schools finalists will also be recognized on the Arizona Department of Education’s Distinguished Schools website and at the state ESEA Conference.
“I congratulate these schools on their mission to provide a high-quality education that fosters academic achievement and character development, which is very important, while cultivating strong partnerships with families in the community,” said Horne. “It demonstrates the passion, the dedication, and excellence taking place in your classrooms every day.”
Ethan Faverino is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
A new report from the Goldwater Institute alleges that Arizona’s public universities are not complying with state requirements to provide students with instruction in American civics, history, and economics. The findings follow previous Goldwater reports examining the integration of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion content into both honors and American civics courses.
The policy requires universities to incorporate coursework covering key areas of American civics, explicitly stating:
“The study of American Institutions will include at minimum (I) how the history of the United States continues to shape the present; (II) the basic principles of American constitutional democracy and how they are applied under a republican form of government; (III) the United States Constitution and major American constitutional debates and developments; (IV) the essential founding documents and how they have shaped the nature and functions of American Institutions of self-governance; (V) landmark Supreme Court cases that have shaped law and society; (VI) the civic actions necessary for effective citizenship and civic participation in a self-governing society – for example civil dialog and civil disagreement; and (VII) basic economic knowledge to critically assess public policy options and to inform professional and personal decisions.”
The report asserts that some universities are allowing courses outside of traditional civics instruction to satisfy those requirements.
At @ASU, students can satisfy civics requirements with courses like:
• “Theatre and U.S. Democracy” • “Social Welfare, Work, and Justice in the US”
At @NAU: • “Indigenizing Museums” • “Sociology of Chicanx Communities”
This isn’t what the law requires.
— Goldwater Institute (@GoldwaterInst) April 9, 2026
Timothy Minella, director of higher education policy at the Goldwater Institute and the report’s author, said universities are not meeting the intent of the requirement.
“Arizona’s public universities are failing students by allowing niche courses steeped in DEI to satisfy the state’s robust history and civics requirements,” Minella said in a statement released with the report.
At Arizona State University, Minella states that courses such as “Anthropology of American Democracy,” “Social Welfare, Work, and Justice in the US,” and “Theatre and U.S. Democracy” are being used to meet civics requirements.
He argues that the first course, “ ‘Anthropology of American Democracy,’ fails to meet AMIT requirements and instead centers on the claim that American society oppresses certain groups.”
“The syllabus states that the course ‘emphasizes the relationship between personal narratives and broader historical forces, highlighting how belonging, rights, and obligations are experienced differently across diverse social, racial, and cultural contexts.’ … In the list of required readings for the course, there are only two that could plausibly be considered ‘founding documents’: the U.S. Constitution (which appears in only one section of the course) and the Declaration of Sentiments from the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention.
Almost every other reading comes from specialized anthropological studies, including ‘I’m American, not Japanese!: The Struggle for Racial Citizenship among Later-Generation Japanese Americans’ and ‘Replicate, Facilitate, Disseminate: The Micropolitics of U.S. Democracy Promotion in Bolivia.’ Revealing the course’s leftist orientation, one module covers ‘anthropology’s role in American Empire Building,’ requiring students to read excerpts from Base Nation: How U.S. Military Bases Abroad Harm America and the World.”
At Northern Arizona University, Minella’s report identifies courses such as “Sociology of Chicanx and Latinx Communities” and “Indigenizing Museums and the Art World” as qualifying for civics and history requirements.
The report also alleges that the University of Arizona has failed to implement the American Institutions policy.
Minella wrote, “In utter defiance of ABOR’s directive, the University of Arizona (UA) has so far failed to implement AMIT at all. UA’s plan to integrate AMIT into general education has been mired in delays and troubling protocols.”
In December 2025, Mark Stegeman, an associate professor of economics at the University of Arizona, warned the university was failing to implement a civics program in accordance with the ABOR mandate, describing the U of A proposal for a single 3-unit course as “a car crash in the making.”
The report recommends that state lawmakers take action if universities do not fully comply with the policy.
Arizona’s honors colleges have been HIJACKED by activist faculty.
Our new report shows how bad it has gotten. Honors students are being required to take courses like: – “Eating the Globe: The Diverse, Weird, and Queer Food Politics” – Readings on “Compulsory Heterosexuality and…
The findings follow a separate March report from the Goldwater Institute examining honors colleges at Arizona public universities, including Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University, and the W.A. Franke Honors College at the University of Arizona, and the integration of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion into honors programs and American civics courses.
The Civic Decline report is available on the Goldwater Institute’s website.
An Arizona State University (ASU) professor is making the case that Americans are wrong to view Islamic terrorists abroad as terrorists.
Associate history professor Alexander “Alex” Avina also qualified violence as a moral and natural right to resisting tyranny and oppression in the “Psychic Militancy” podcast.
“The Iranian propaganda is helping us, too,” said Avina. “You can critique Zionism, you can critique the genocide in Gaza, but can you make that next leap forward and say, these people do have an actual right to resist tyranny via armed struggle, because that’s the only way to get rid of colonialism[.]”
🚨 “Iranian propaganda is really helping us,” Sinwar’s “political theory,” and no condemnation of terrorist groups — Inside an "anti-imperialist" discussion featuring an @ASU professor
On Lara Sheehi’s Psychic Militancy podcast, Sheehi, a former GWU professor, spoke with former… pic.twitter.com/Nqw7pxIQVW
“Psychic militancy” refers to an unyielding form of resistance against political systems perceived as violent. Most adherents of this school of thought focus on resisting that which they perceive to be imperialism, settler colonialism, and capitalism.
Avina described America as a “genocidal, Epstein empire,” accusing the Trump administration of “waging mass death, and using mass amounts of violence against civilian populations” as remedies to contradictions of policy.
Avina said the present day is defined as a “socialism vs. barbarism struggle” to avoid genocide, ecological collapse, and environmental degradation.
“It feels like we’re forced into a murder-suicide pact,” said Avina.
Avina argued those in the Middle East acting on Islamic beliefs weren’t terrorists, but defenders against an existential threat against humanity.
“What we’re witnessing right now is a lot of revolutionary cunning from people who we’ve been socialized in this country to continuously misidentify as dangerous terrorists, as barbarians, as somehow antithetical to our ‘civilizational values’,” said Avina.
Avina also joined in the praise of the late Hamas terrorist leader Yahya Sinwar.
On the topic of those allegedly mislabeled as terrorists, Avina challenged the American narrative on South American drug cartels, calling it “bullshit.” Avina said the proper perspective was to understand U.S. drug demand as to blame for cartel violence in Mexico.
“If there wasn’t the world’s largest market for licit and illicit drugs north of the Mexican border, if that didn’t exist, then we wouldn’t see the type of violence we would see today,” said Avina. “[Media reporters] don’t get at the structural and historical reasons of this type of violence, and it’s because we are the world’s largest narco-state.”
Avina argued Americans need to understand “basic and historical education” that America is based on violence, torture, suffering, disappearances, and systematic murder of migrants. Avina also said the lack of support for Palestinians was rooted in racism.
“This is a history of [American] sovereignty,” said Avina. “Can you provide the historical and political coordinates for a nation that has been so thoroughly indoctrinated in racism and Islamophobia and other types of ideological edifices that prevent them from seeing that the struggle of Palestinians for self-determination is a very human one?”
Avina has previously extolled the virtues of violence within political discourse.
Last fall Avina advocated for physical attacks on the right in the “Millennials Are Killing Capitalism” podcast responding to Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
“Today I read a quote by the writer Roberto Bolano where he says there’s a time for reciting poetry and there’s a time for fists, and this is definitely a time for fists,” said Avina.
Avina is the brother-in-law of Rep. Juan Ciscomani (R-AZ-06).
The Arizona superintendent of schools is urging Gov. Katie Hobbs to lift a financial burden for schools.
Hobbs has yet to decide on a bill, SB 1142, allowing Arizona schools to participate in a new federal school tax credit opportunity. Superintendent Tom Horne says the governor needs to sign the bill, or else Arizona schools will lose out on critical funding.
The pending legislation wouldn’t come at a cost to the state, and it could potentially provide up to $6 billion more to public, charter, and private schools.
“Any school could establish such a scholarship organization to accept contributions and bring more money to the classroom,” said Horne. “It does not cost the state any money and would increase funding for education.”
Horne mentioned that another prominent Democratic governor has backed this federal program.
“This bill benefits students in public district schools, charters, and every other school setting,” said Horne. “[Gov. Hobbs] should join fellow Democrat Governor Jared Polis of Colorado in supporting this program.”
Unlike Hobbs, the Colorado governor has expressed support for school choice. One other Democratic governor, Josh Stein of North Carolina, has opted into the program.
The Democratic governors of Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Wisconsin all vetoed opting into the program.
State Sen. Shawnna Bolick (R-LD2) sponsored the bill. It passed both chambers without support from any Democratic lawmakers, and was sent to Gov. Hobbs on Wednesday.
Arizona House Democratic lawmakers said they opposed SB 1142 because it doesn’t establish enough oversight of the distribution of funds. Some characterized it as a wrongful diversion of public funds from public schools, insisting it would ultimately impact the state general fund. However, this program derives its funds from a federal tax credit.
Last year, Congress included the federal school tax credit program within the FY2025 reconciliation act (the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”). The program launches January 1, 2027.
The federal legislation allows taxpayers to donate up to $1,700 annually to state-recognized Scholarship Granting Organizations (SGOs) that issue grants to cover eligible school expenses for certain students like books, supplies, tutoring, special needs services, computers, internet access, tuition, fees, room and board, uniforms, and transportation.
With that donation potential, Arizona schools could see up to $6 billion in extra funding. (The Arizona Department of Revenue reported over 3.5 million individual income tax returns in 2023).
Only students whose family income falls below 300 percent of their area median income would qualify for SGO grants.
The federal legislation requires SGOs to be 501(c)(3) nonprofits, provide scholarships to 10 or more students who don’t attend the same school, spend at least 90 percent of revenue on qualifying scholarships, and prioritize scholarships first for students who have received scholarships in previous years and then for siblings of such students.
Should Gov. Hobbs approve Arizona’s participation in the program, the Arizona Department of Revenue would administer the federal SGO credit and approve SGOs.
ADOR would submit a list of certified SGOs to the Secretary of the Treasury annually and post the list on the ADOR website.
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
A Phoenix-area school district instituted a new policy requiring oversight of books in the classroom.
Queen Creek Unified School District (QCUSD) began enforcing the policy in January after its governing board approved it unanimously in December.
The policy required the district to restrict general access to materials containing sexually explicit content within school and classroom libraries; develop procedures for site-level review, inventory, and parental access to the inventory list of all classroom library collections; and establish an accessible opt-out procedure for school or classroom library materials not directly related to content, curriculum, or standards.
Although Arizona law has long prohibited exposing children to sexually explicit materials, Arizona libraries and schools continued to offer books containing sexually explicit materials under the defense of the necessity of educating children on topics of sexuality and identity.
Books with sexually explicit content offered to minors in the past by school libraries throughout the state have included titles popular nationwide: “All Boys Aren’t Blue” by George M. Johnson, “Gender Queer: A Memoir” by Maia Kobabe, “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison, “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky, “Tricks” by Ellen Hopkins, “Looking for Alaska” by John Green, “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” by Jesse Andrews, “Crank” by Ellen Hopkins, “Sold” by Patricia McCormick, and “Flamer” by Mike Curato.
QCUSD Board member Kelli Anderson introduced the classroom library oversight policy after recognizing that district policy on oversight extended only to school library books. In a press release, Anderson reported that the primary complaint from parents concerned the books brought into classrooms.
“Before this policy, complaints about classroom books were the number one issue I heard from parents,” said Anderson. “Since it went into effect, I have received zero complaints from parents.”
Anderson said QCUSD’s action should be adopted by all other districts in the state as best practice.
“[A]fter listening to parents and reviewing our policies, it was clear there was a gap that needed to be addressed,” stated Anderson.
Arizona Women of Action (AZWOA), a parental advocacy nonprofit and Arizona chapter of America’s Women, agreed with Anderson’s assessment.
“This policy closes a major loophole and restores trust between schools and families,” stated AZWOA in a press release. “It empowers parents, supports teachers, and ensures students are learning in environments that are transparent and accountable.”
According to AZWOA, at least one parent has already reported seeing a difference in school handling of inappropriate books. That parent allegedly told AZWOA that his elementary-aged child’s school contacted him prior to the policy compliance deadline to recover a classroom library book deemed inappropriate under the new policy.
The parent also reportedly said he wasn’t aware his child had access to such materials in the classroom.
At the beginning of last summer, the Maricopa County Library District piloted a “parental choice” program at the Queen Creek library enabling parents to choose which books, if any, their child may not check out.
Months later, in September, the county removed sex education books from the children’s sections to the adult non-fiction sections at 12 of its 14 libraries.
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