Arizona legislators advanced a budget deal struck by Senate and House leaders and Gov. Doug Ducey, but the bills won’t move any further unless GOP leadership can change the minds of more than a dozen rank-and-file members opposed to the spending plan.

OSPB Director John Arnold will move over to the Bd of Regents once Brewer leaves office, several sources with knowledge of the situation told our reporter today (Dec. 4). One railbird said Arnold will become ABOR’s budget chief.

In their final debate before the Nov. 4 general election, Republican Doug Ducey and Democrat Fred DuVal grappled with how they would solve the billion-dollar deficit they’ll inherit as Arizona’s next governor, with neither candidate giving much in the way of firm proposals.

As early ballots went out, the extremely lopsided outside spending in the governor’s race strongly favored Republican nominee Doug Ducey. In the meantime, independent expenditure spending for Democratic nominee Fred DuVal is picking up, but not by much.

The Arizona Board of Regents on Wednesday will consider extending the employment contracts of several top officials of the state university system.

Presumptive Democratic gubernatorial nominee Fred DuVal unveiled a plan for spurring job growth in Arizona that includes improving K-12 and higher education, expanding tax credits for research and development, reducing regulatory burdens and giving preference to in-state companies that compete for government contracts.

Arizona had the nation’s steepest per-student cuts in state aid to higher education and the highest rates of tuition increase from pre-recession funding levels until today, according to a new report.

Arizona worked better when I grew up here and got my start. The Babbitt-Barr era was one of the most productive periods in Arizona’s history, but there was no secret to our success — we set big goals and worked together.

State education leaders will scrounge to find $5 million to make up the difference between the estimated cost of a new achievement test and the dollars the Legislature appropriated for it.

For-profit universities in Arizona said Monday that proposed federal regulations that would make them report average student debt levels, loan default rates and other “key outcomes” are unfair and may be based on flawed data.