Arizona Capitol Times Your Inside Track to Arizona Politics

A Maricopa County Superior Court judge ruled in favor of a group of charter schools on Feb. 3, saying the state cannot reduce voter approved-funds earmarked for teacher pay raises and the classroom to offset over payments in previous years.

Although the Washington Elementary School District began introducing the Common Core teaching standards ahead of the state’s suggested schedule, full implementation at all grade levels has proved to be a bit of a moving target.

The 141-student, rural, isolated Topock Elementary School District has been preparing for and implementing new and potentially expensive teaching methods and a computer-based assessment. The keys have been collaboration paired with some timely technology grants.

The state’s largest school district has been preparing to teach the Common Core standards in much the same way that smaller districts have – with several consecutive years of teacher training, millions of dollars in technology upgrades and parent education. However, despite a successful 2012 bond election, money is still tight.

With one wary eye cast down the road at PARCC testing, Cave Creek Unified School District tested its ability a couple of years ago to have a massive amount of students using its computer network all at the same time. And the result was a failure.

As a small charter school without the ability to ask voters for bond overrides, Arizona College Prep Academy has to be judicious with its spending decisions. But like every other Arizona school, it still has to train its teachers to implement the state’s Common Core standards and eventually test students on them.

The board that oversees Arizona's state university system is expressing concern about student safety in the wake of dangerous and criminal activities that include alcohol-related injuries, sexual assaults and at least one fatality.

During the past few years, the volunteer staff program at Maricopa County Justice Courts had slowed to being nearly non-existent.

Recently elected Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton and architectural sustainability consultant Bill McDonough held a conversation with the downtown Phoenix community last month to figure out ways to put the empty lots that dot the city to work.

As Rep. Debbie McCune Davis enters her 26th year of service as a lawmaker, she reveals how losing a Corporation Commission race helped her career and the issues that keep her coming back to the Legislature, even when she’s at odds with how it’s functioning.