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

A Senate committee is set to debate a bill ditching the state's new Common Core school standards and stripping the state Board of Education's power to adopt new standards.

Now that the budget includes $24 million for Gov. Doug Ducey’s Arizona Public School Achievement District plan, the Ninth Floor said no additional legislation is needed for the governor to put his marquee education plan into action.

Many school district officials and education leaders say Gov. Doug Ducey’s “Classrooms First” slogan and the oft-repeated boast that Arizona will spend more than ever on K-12 education next year are misleading and don’t reflect how budget cuts will affect schools in 2016.

For political insiders, crafting the state’s spending plan is a spectacle – a final meeting of the minds after a period of high drama, backroom wheeling and dealing, and rushing to put together the final pieces of a $9 billion jigsaw puzzle.

On a 34-23 margin, the state House voted Wednesday to scrap the Common Core academic standards and essentially force the state Board of Education to start over again from scratch.

Saying the Arizona Constitution is being ignored, the chairman of the Arizona Board of Regents said Tuesday his colleagues should sue the Legislature if they do not come forward with more funds for the university system.

Arizona State University is pushing back against a request by U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva to provide information about the funding sources behind university researchers.

The Arizona House is set to debate a proposal that would ditch the state's new Common Core school standards and strip the state Board of Education's power to adopt new standards.

If there’s a unifying theme to the budget proposal introduced on March 4, it’s that education, state agencies and state programs should brace for painful times ahead.

While the Senate Appropriations Committee took testimony on the budget bills this afternoon, several hundred teachers, parents and students gathered outside the chambers to protest proposed cuts to public schools and state universities.