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

Chuck Essigs came to Arizona in 1972 with plans to stay no more than a year to get an advanced degree. He got hooked on the Valley of the Sun, though, and has been helping to shape the state’s school finance formula ever since.

State auditors say the Arizona Department of Education is already taking steps to ensure that dollars provided parents under a school voucher program are not misspent but should strengthen its oversight.

Arizona teachers, who have gone years with minimal or no raises, are about to receive the reward of more pay from the voter-approved Proposition 123.

The state Investment Board voted unanimously Tuesday to distribute more than $190 million to schools by Thursday in the first payment for Proposition 123 despite continued arguments by state Treasurer Jeff DeWit that the funding -- and even the election that approved it -- is illegal.

In March 2015, just as the Legislature was approving last year’s budget, several West Valley lawmakers walked into a Peoria Unified School District meeting and faced a very hostile crowd.

Some Arizona teachers want Proposition 123 money to be used to increase teacher pay, but the state’s two major teacher associations disagree over how the money should be spent.

Just as one lawsuit on education funding is being settled, state lawmakers face a new one, this one over what challengers say is their failure to build and maintain public schools.

Calling the money from Proposition 123 a nice start, education advocates are now demanding lawmakers restore the other $1.2 billion they say has been cut from K-12 funding since 2009.

Goldwater Institute, the architect of a program that uses state money for students to attend private school, now wants to bring it into the age of cell phone apps.

Responding to concerns of unnecessary intrusion, Gov. Doug Ducey signed legislation Wednesday to preclude students from being asked certain questions on assessments without first getting parental consent.