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

A lawsuit by the state Board of Education against state schools chief Diane Douglas should be thrown out because of legal “gamesmanship,” her lawyer is arguing to a judge.

JTED educators across the state warn that these programs could go away in the next few years because of diminished state funding. One administrator calls the most recent budget cut by the State Legislature “non-survivable.”

The push for Proposition 123 got its official start as the campaign for the May 17 special election filed its paperwork with the Secretary of State’s Office on Thursday.

Arizona is among the worst states in getting students to college. Last year, about half of graduating high school seniors in the state went to college, according to the Arizona Commission for Postsecondary Education.

Anyone wondering how the special election campaign for Proposition 123, the agreement to settle the long-running K-12 funding lawsuit, will shape up should look to 2010 for guidance.

With school districts and charter schools on the verge of benefiting from a settlement ending a school-finance lawsuit, the state’s Joint Technical Education Districts hope to persuade lawmakers to restore money that will disappear next fiscal year.

A spending cap in the K-12 settlement approved by legislators was pounced on by Democratic lawmakers who say the cap will be used in the future to limit spending on schools.

As the campaign gets under way to pass Proposition 123, school leaders are busy calculating their potential take and planning how to spend it.

A settlement five years in the making was resolved in a matter of about three weeks once both sides in the ongoing K-12 funding lawsuit sat face-to-face for the first time.

Preliminary election results show school bond and budget override proposals across the state were faring better than they usually do with voters.