Senate panel OKs massive school-voucher expansion
Republican lawmakers took the first steps Tuesday to approve what would be the largest-ever increase in who can get a voucher of state funds to attend private and parochial schools. On a party-line 5-3 vote, members of the Senate Education Committee agreed to vastly expand a program first created a decade ago as providing […]
Ducey summer camp program preps plans
Gov. Doug Ducey’s office is gearing up to release an application form for schools or other community organizations that’s aimed at helping kids catch-up from Covid impacts.
Senate panel rejects partisan school board mandate
State senators on January 25 quashed legislation designed to ensure that parents and others can protest outside school board meetings without fear of arrest.
Trans bills sweep across Legislature
A wave of bills designed to limit transgender health care and participation in sports is sweeping the legislature. Nine bills have been filed by Republican legislators that will specifically affect the transgender community. Some of the proposed legislation would put reporting requirements on professionals including teachers and doctors requiring them to out trans children to […]
Legislators, Ducey take aim at education
Gov. Doug Ducey promised that education will be one of his priorities in 2022, and in his State of the State Address on January 10, he laid out an education agenda that legislators have followed up on this week with numerous bills, including some centered on learning loss suffered during the pandemic and hot-button curriculum […]
School funding a ticking time bomb
Arizona schools are counting down to a March 1 deadline for the Legislature to override a cap on spending or face not being able to spend $1.1 billion already approved for them.
Schools take unconventional transportation routes
Seeded with funds from Arizona’s new transportation modernization grants, some public schools and nonprofits plan to try carpool apps, vans, electric buses or paid parent drivers to help students get to and from school, in lieu of or in addition to traditional yellow school buses.
Covid relief money to fund new teacher program
A graduate residency program is the latest effort to chip away at state’s teacher shortage and combat high turnover.
GOP schools chief race draws crowded field
The field of Republican candidates hoping to take on Superintendent of Public Instruction Kathy Hoffman is starting to take shape, with two who have some statewide name recognition.
School board group’s copyrights in crosshairs
ASBA compared its policy services to a Microsoft Word subscription and said that its model policies are its intellectual property.
Court rules state must ask Congress to tap trust fund for schools
Gov. Doug Ducey or whoever succeeds him can't conduct a future financial raid on a school trust fund account without first getting congressional approval, a judge has ruled.
Conservatives launch school board alternative
A new organization calling itself a nonpartisan school board association is headed by Republican activists, including the first vice chair and treasurer of the Republican Party of Arizona, and the daughter of the chairwoman.