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

Poor reading results from third-graders’ first round with the state’s new AzMERIT test aren’t bad news to one education advocate.

The chief organizer of a recall against state schools chief Diane Douglas is asking the Attorney General’s Office to investigate whether her chief of staff acted improperly in sending an email about the effort to an independent education group.

Torunn Randich flew halfway around the world just to attend a job fair for the Phoenix Union High School District. Now an 11th-grade English teacher at Carl Hayden High School, Randich, 38, was teaching in the United Arab Emirates at the time.

A throng of education groups urged Gov. Doug Ducey today to call a special session to use a budget surplus to settle a nearly $2 billion lawsuit over inflation funding for public schools.

Foes of state schools chief Diane Douglas can now start gathering the more than 366,000 signatures – probably a lot more – that they will need to try to oust her from office.

A voter initiative that would legalize marijuana in Arizona and add a tax to help fund education has an adamant opponent in the state superintendent of public instruction.

After efforts to reach a settlement in the K-12 inflation funding lawsuit faltered this month, both sides in the case see it going all the way to the Arizona Supreme Court. But as the case drags on, the fiscal risks mount for the state.

When news broke that more than seven months of court-ordered negotiations between education groups and the Legislature had reached an impasse on August 25, leaders of the House and Senate came armed with good news.

An early childhood development program is back in the Legislature’s crosshairs, five years after lawmakers and former Gov. Jan Brewer tried and failed to convince voters to abolish the program and use its funding to balance the state’s precarious budget.

Negotiations to resolve the case over inflation funding for K-12 education came to an impasse on Aug. 25, sending the lawsuit back to court. And once again, critics are questioning the Legislature’s commitment to K-12 education funding.