Gov. Doug Ducey said he's open to the idea of reforms in how charter schools are operated, including how they handle their finances.

As Arizona clawed its way out of the Great Recession, Gov. Doug Ducey sought to ease the state’s reliance on borrowing and gimmicks to balance the budget.

An effort to forgo sales taxes on digital goods and services has stalled while state budget analysts try to figure out how much Arizona may stand to lose in tax revenue.

Arizona teachers have not been quiet about their reasons for abandoning the profession and even the state: high stress, low morale and low pay. Yet the state’s response has not been enough to end the ongoing crisis, a new report from a Washington D.C.-based think tank concludes.

Arizona state employees will pay higher premiums and copays for health insurance next year, and some lawmakers say funding sweeps approved by the Republican-controlled state Legislature are partly to blame.

Arizona stands to lose a third of its federal funds that support the expanded Medicaid program as early as 2020 if Congress adopts the Graham-Cassidy health care bill, according to legislative budget staffers.

Gov. Doug Ducey’s signature results-based funding plan for excelling schools still has districts questioning when they will receive money and how exactly it must be spent.

School officials say they won’t count on ongoing funding to boost teacher pay until they see it. So instead of increasing teachers’ base salaries, some schools are preparing to make a lump sum payment to teachers in the amount of 1 percent of their salaries.

Making vouchers universally available to pay for all children to attend private and parochial schools will actually increase costs to the state according to a legislative budget analysis.

Gov. Doug Ducey is looking to maintain the status quo in the in the face of a proposed policy change in the budget that would make it far more difficult for overcrowded school districts to get state funding to expand.