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Ballot Argument Submission

The Military Families College Savings & Scholarship Protection Act

✅ We Support This Measure

HCR 2048 - Military Families; Scholarship Accounts

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Background

Why This Matters

The Military Families College Savings and Scholarship Protection Act would constitutionally prohibit the state from seizing, transferring, or redirecting scholarship funds belonging to children of military families that are used for post-secondary education. The protection applies to any state-administered scholarship program that designates military children as eligible and allows funds to be used for tuition or fees at public universities, community colleges, and accredited private institutions. The measure covers children of active-duty service members, veterans whose eligibility was established while on active duty, and Gold Star families. If voters approve, military family scholarship funds receive the strongest constitutional protection of any education benefit in Arizona law.

Click here to read the full measure.

Key Points:
  • ✓A Promise That Can't Be Swept Away: Right now, military family scholarship funds exist because the legislature created them, and what one legislature creates, a future legislature can redirect, freeze, or sweep into the general fund during a tight budget year. Statutory programs are always vulnerable to this kind of raid, especially funds that sit unspent for a period before being claimed. This measure removes that vulnerability permanently. It does not create a new program or new spending; it takes a promise that already exists and makes sure no future budget negotiation, no matter how desperate for revenue, can quietly unwind it.
  • ✓No New Spending, No New Taxes, Just a Lock on a Promise Already Made: This measure does not raise taxes, create a new appropriation, or commit the state to any new spending it isn't already providing. It protects funds that are already designated for military family education benefits and ensures they stay designated for that purpose. There is no fiscal downside to voting yes, only the removal of a future option to divert money that was never meant for anything else.
  • ✓Caring for Military Families Without Compromise: Arizona is home to roughly 480,000 veterans and 30,000 active-duty service members stationed at Luke Air Force Base, Davis-Monthan, Fort Huachuca, and MCAS Yuma, one of the largest military footprints of any state in the country. Being a pro-military state means more than words of appreciation; it means making sure the benefits promised to military families can't quietly be taken back later. This measure makes that commitment permanent rather than conditional on whoever holds the budget pen in any given year.
  • ✓Closing the Gap the Federal Government Left Open: The federal Post-9/11 GI Bill covers tuition for veterans themselves, but that benefit does not automatically extend to their children. State scholarship programs exist specifically to fill that gap. For Gold Star families, the gap is even sharper: survivors of service members killed in the line of duty receive substantial federal support in many areas, but there is no federal equivalent of this specific education protection for their children. Arizona has the chance to close a gap the federal government left open, for the families who paid the highest possible price.
  • ✓A Protection With No Real Opposition: Military and veteran benefit programs consistently poll above 80 percent favorability across party lines, making this one of the least politically contested protections on the ballot. This isn't a measure that divides Arizonans along partisan lines; it's one of the few places where nearly everyone already agrees, and voting yes simply turns that agreement into a permanent guarantee instead of leaving it to chance.
Sample Argument

Vote YES on Prop XXX! Protect Scholarship Funds for Military Families!

Arizona is home to roughly 480,000 veterans and 30,000 active-duty service members, one of the largest military footprints in the nation. We call ourselves a pro-military state. This measure gives that commitment constitutional force.

Right now, scholarship funds designated for the children of active-duty service members, veterans, and Gold Star families exist only because the legislature created them. What one legislature creates, a future legislature can quietly redirect, freeze, or sweep into the general fund during a tough budget year. Statutory programs are always vulnerable to exactly that kind of raid. This measure removes that vulnerability permanently.

This is not a new program. It does not raise taxes, create new spending, or commit the state to anything it isn't already providing. It simply takes a promise Arizona has already made to military families and locks it, protecting it from political fights and agendas.

The protection matters most for families the federal government left behind. The Post-9/11 GI Bill covers veterans themselves, but not their children. State scholarship programs exist specifically to fill that gap. For Gold Star families, survivors of those killed in the line of duty, closing that gap is the least Arizona can do.

There is no credible argument for leaving these funds unprotected. A promise made to military families should be a promise kept, not a line item subject to revision.

Vote YES on Prop XXX!

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