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

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.

Attorneys for Superintendent of Public Instruction John Huppenthal aren’t planning on calling him as a witness in an administrative hearing to defend his findings that Tucson Unified School District’s Mexican American Studies program is race-based and promotes resentment toward a class of people. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t going to be questioned.

Arizona’s university presidents have agreed on a magic number that represents per student funding parity among the three institutions.

A proposal by the Commission on Privatization and Efficiency would radically alter the way school budgets are determined, but may face insurmountable hurdles if it surfaces in the Legislature.

University presidents are set to unveil their plans for meeting Legislative mandates aimed at ending decades of funding disparities among the three state universities and lifting Arizona from the bottom of financial aid providers in the nation.

An Arizona State University professor who became the target of a bill aimed at putting up a wall between public education and political partisanship said the legislation is unneeded.

The law’s sponsor, however, said it’s worth having on the books anyway.

A record 814 Arizona schools, or 42 percent, failed to get students to make adequate yearly progress in the 2010-11 school year, compared with 563 schools, or 29 percent, the previous year.