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

The Arizona State Board of Education decided today to delay releasing the specifics of its new school assessment rating system to further study how certain populations of students should be figured into the overall score.

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama unveiled a waiver program Friday that opens the door for states to sidestep education obstacles in the much-maligned No Child Left Behind law. The new program gives states flexibility in the use of federal funds and on No Child Left Behind deadlines – as long as states adjust school policies to be more in line with the White House.

Community college officials came in full force to the state Capitol earlier this year to outline the potential ramifications for the proposed steep cuts to their budgets. Yet at the time they made their case, most college districts were sitting atop millions of dollars in cash reserves.

Education groups from across the spectrum are putting their differences aside to work on a ballot measure that would raise taxes for K-12 education and put into place reforms that could fundamentally change the way schools operate in Arizona.

Arizona will no longer remove teachers from English-immersion classrooms if they use bad grammar or have heavy accents.

As Arizona schools are days away from knowing where they stand in the state’s new performance rating system, the Board of Education has drawn up proposals to give the state more authority over low-performing schools.

Superintendent of Public Instruction John Huppenthal will not testify in the hearing to appeal his finding that Tucson Unified School District’s Mexican-American Studies program is breaking state law.

Arizona’s colleges and universities will likely bear the brunt of budget cuts forced by rapidly rising health care costs, the state’s budget director told a Washington audience Tuesday.

Mark Stegeman, a Democratic member of the Tucson Unified School District governing board, used to be in favor of the Mexican-American Studies program, but he had an “epiphany” during a visit to one of the classes.

Lawmakers are signaling that there won’t be any increases to the higher education budget, even as the Arizona Board of Regents works toward two goals that will require more money from the state – an end to tuition increases and a funding formula based on performance.