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

It could be a busy day for Arizona lawmakers.

Requiring each Arizona school board to hold a public meeting to consider whether or not to adopt a curriculum on dating violence would better inform board members about the problem among teens, a state lawmaker says.

School choice advocates are pushing to amend the state Constitution to allow students in failing public schools to use vouchers at private schools.

Advocates of school choice are trying to legalize education vouchers for students in failing public schools.

Schools will be required to identify and count students who are in the country illegally under a bill that the Senate passed on March 31.

The Senate has passed a bill that would extend the deadline for individuals to contribute to groups that provide scholarships to charter schools.

The Board of Regents, which oversees the three state universities, failed to meet the 2008 deadline to decrease energy use by 10 percent, instead achieving a meager 1.3 percent reduction.

The Arizona Legislature has redirected money away from the education department's school accountability program, a move that potentially guts what a ranking Republican senator called the "spinal cord" of the education system.

Lawmakers need to be held accountable for how much they've done to support public education during the state's budget crisis, the leader of a parents group said March 24.

A system for tracking school expenditures and whether money spent on specific programs improves student performance would make schools more efficient and accountable, according to a group of business and education leaders.