Nine months after the Arizona Department of Education notified schools it had misallocated millions in funding for special education programs, the federal government has approved a plan to correct the error.

Declaring the law unconstitutional, a federal judge on Wednesday permanently blocked the state Department of Education from restricting "ethnic studies'' programs in the Tucson Unified School District -- or even demanding information from the school officials about what is being taught.

The Arizona Department of Education has spent more than $100,000 to correct problems that led to the misallocation of millions in federal funds, and those costs could continue to rise.

Hundreds of charter schools and traditional school districts in Arizona have been receiving more federal funding for low-income students than they were entitled to while others were left with far less for at least the past four fiscal years.

Racism was behind an Arizona ban on ethnic studies that shuttered a popular Mexican-American Studies program, a federal judge said Tuesday.

For years, Chris Kotterman, the Arizona School Boards Association director of governmental affairs, always got the question, “Oh, are you Penny’s son?” But recently, as he has settled in his career, that question has flipped.

Former state schools chief Tom Horne defended his battle to end a Mexican-American history program, testifying Tuesday that he was troubled by what he described as radical instructors teaching students to be disruptive, but he insisted he targeted all ethnic studies programs equally.

A federal trial considering whether an Arizona law that shuttered a popular Mexican-American studies program in Tucson was enacted with discriminatory intent resumes this week. Former Arizona schools chief Tom Horne, who was behind the battle against the program the ...

An ex-schools chief is not apologizing for comparing a Mexican American Studies program to the Ku Klux Klan and its teachers to skinheads.

A federal trial that could void a 2010 law that banned “ethnic studies” in public schools is set to begin June 26.