PHOENIX — Secretary of State Adrian Fontes acted illegally in using the word “vouchers” for the program that gives tax dollars to parents to send their children to private and parochial schools, a judge concluded.
In a new ruling, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Julie Ann Mata acknowledged arguments by Fontes that, in preparing a legal description of the effect of voter approval of Proposition 212, said he was using the term because that has been the common understanding of the Empowerment Scholarship Account program.
Fontes also noted the term appears in Black’s Law Dictionary as representing public funds that may be used to pay tuition at private schools or for home schooling.
