Arizona Capitol Times Your Inside Source for Arizona Government, Politics and Business

The state's estimated 86,000 high school seniors won't be prevented from graduating just because the governor shut down Arizona schools through the end of the academic year.

Republicans in the House and Senate have filed legislation to allow teachers to educate their students in “alternative” formats as schools grapple with statewide closures in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.

On a 3-6 vote Tuesday the Senate Education Committee quashed legislation which would have allowed these colleges to start offering baccalaureate degrees.

Fueled by additional state dollars, Arizona schools are spending a greater percentage of their available dollars this year in the classroom than last year.

An organization of public school supporters wants voters to limit the number of vouchers of state tax dollars that parents can use to send their children to private and parochial schools.

A pair of Republican state senators plans to independently amend an Empowerment Scholarship Accounts bill to change partial oversight of the program and establish a plan to determine what happens to unused money in accounts with high balances.

Gov. Doug Ducey’s proposal to give money to low-income schools through a pilot project dubbed “Project Rocket” is taking shape and moving through the House of Representatives, but not everyone is pleased.

The Legislature has another bill that would appear to expand the state’s Empowerment Scholarship Account program to a small group of students living near the Arizona-Utah border.

A ballot referral that would completely repeal Arizona’s English-only law was held in the House Rules Committee Monday afternoon by a Republican lawmaker who has made a habit of holding bills in the past.

A Northern Arizona University forestry expert who was ahead of his time in urging communities across the West to thin dense stands of trees and set fire to the landscape as a way to ward off catastrophic wildfires has retired from his position at the school.