A sharp drop in the number of youngsters in Arizona kindergartens this year due to COVID-19 could have ripple effects for years to come on their education.

Geoff Esposito, a familiar face at the Capitol, has a new role. As a lobbyist for Creosote Partners, the Chandler native has long been active in local Arizona politics, dating back to his high school years and stints at the Arizona School Boards Association and Expect More Arizona.

During the 2008 economic crisis, some Arizonans lost their jobs or their homes, or both. With revenues down, the state budget was drastically cut, and education funding took a beating.

Christine Thompson may be most known for the drama that very publicly unfolded when Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas in 2015. But over the past four years she also experienced a different sort of “whirlwind."

Across Arizona there is growing momentum behind efforts to help more students and especially Latino students in our state graduate from high school, attend college and earn a degree.

Poor reading results from third-graders’ first round with the state’s new AzMERIT test aren’t bad news to one education advocate.

In the past few years, Osborn Middle School has turned itself into a beehive of activity in implementing Common Core, the controversial standards Arizona embraced four years ago. And if there’s a good place to see whether Common Core is working, it’s this school.

Superintendent of Public Instruction-elect Diane Douglas isn’t planning on immediately overhauling the state’s learning standards, her new chief of staff said.

As I watched various committee debates on education issues unfold over this last session, the former 5th grade teacher in me couldn’t help but think about how some of those very same communications and collaboration life skills we teach to Arizona 10-year-olds might just benefit everyone.

Too few Arizona students graduate from high school prepared for college, career and life. Did you know that just seven out of 10 students graduate from high school, and of those who do, more than half aren’t eligible for admission into a state university? What’s more, 42 percent of employers say their employees lack the basic skills needed to be successful in the workplace.