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Charter school groups await Horne’s response to funding lawsuit
While efforts to drastically change Arizona’s school finance system have not materialized in recent years at the Legislature, two lawsuits that aim to do that are creeping through Maricopa County Superior Court.
Bills seek to make more government financial reports publicly available
Requiring local governments to post audited comprehensive financial reports or the equivalent information on their websites would make it easier for citizens to see how tax dollars are spent, a state lawmaker said.
Survey change likely means more ELL students for school districts
School districts are likely to see increases in English-language learners and the costs associated with the program after the federal government demanded that Arizona change a survey it uses to screen students, school officials and observers say.
House Appropriations plans to hear budget bills Thursday
The House Appropriations Committee is scheduled to hear budget bills Thursday, which could mean the governor and legislative leaders are inching closer towards a final budget compromise.
GOP leaders: Budget negotiations going well
Legislative leaders said they are making strides in their talks with the governor over a budget proposal that would solve more than $540 million in deficit this year and another $1.2 billion in the next fiscal year.
The Art of Budgeting: Spending bills often include issues beyond money — like policy changes
It may be free from gimmicks and other accounting maneuvers, but the Senate’s budget could not escape the perennial inclusion of policy changes whose ties to actual budgeting are, at best, tenuous.
Arizona teacher in middle of immigration debate
An Arizona substitute teacher has found himself in the middle of the state's polarizing immigration debate after he criticized Hispanic students in a letter to a state senator, saying a majority of students he recently taught refused to say the Pledge of Allegiance.
Immigration bills are ‘dead’ — for now
Supporters of the five controversial immigration measures that the Senate killed on Thursday made no attempt to revive the measures on Monday.
As a result, the bills are dead — but the ideas may still be resurrected.
Budget and immigration, an inseparable diptych?
Senate President Russell Pearce, Arizona’s most prominent anti-illegal immigration firebrand, has always argued that illegal immigration and the state’s budget woes are inseparable. But the two issues may have formed a diptych in ways that many, including Pearce, probably did not anticipate.
Immigration crackdown adds challenge for south Phoenix schools
School enrollment numbers have been dropping consistently since 2007 in many Phoenix districts with large Hispanic populations. Superintendents partially blame the economy for this decrease, but they say Arizona’s employer sanctions law in 2007 and SB 1070 in 2010 cracking down on illegal immigrants are also key factors.
Democratic lawmaker seeks boost for school grant program
House minority leader David Schapira is pushing to add philosophy to a list of courses that qualify schools for grants under a program intended to make Arizona students more competitive.
More Arizona schools pursuing HealthierUS School Challenge nutrition standards
With First Lady Michell Obama’s inclusion of the HealthierUS School Challenge into her Let’s Move campaign against childhood obesity, interest in the program has led many Arizona schools to pursue it.
