Public school advocates did not collect enough signatures to block universal school vouchers and force a public vote in 2024, according to the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office, and the Arizona Department of Education announced that it would begin to approve voucher applications. Read more»

Pima Theatre's 2022-23 season will open with an original play written by PCC theatre students: "Ballet & Bagels." Read more»

Officials with Save Our Schools Arizona, who said Friday that they turned in thousands more signatures than needed to force a vote on an expansion of Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Accounts, conceded this week that they “definitely got the numbers wrong.” Read more»

A federal lawsuit filed Tuesday seeks to block the Biden administration’s student loan debt forgiveness plan - marking the first significant legal challenge to the policy - by claiming financial harm in the form of a tax liability, though individual borrowers can choose to opt-out of the plan. Read more»

On Saturday, nearly all of the bills signed into law by Gov. Doug Ducey earlier this year went into effect - and some of them impact Arizonans in their daily lives, classrooms and voting booths. Read more»

The effort to block school vouchers and let Arizona voters decide the program’s fate in 2024 is likely short of the number of signatures required to refer the new law to the ballot - a stark reversal to Friday's declaration by Save Our Schools Arizona, the group behind the petition drive. Read more»

Rate increases are in the works for Tucson residents, and the City Council will hold a public hearing ahead of proposed higher costs to living in the city, plus more in local government meetings this week. Read more»

A new ban on books containing sexual content makes its way into Arizona public schools this week, and critics worry self-censoring will add further stress to already overburdened teachers. Read more»

Teachers and public school advocates on Friday submitted nearly 142,000 petition signatures to block the new universal school voucher program that was set to go into effect on Friday and let voters decide its fate in 2024. Read more»

A pascola dance ramada scene and informational panels now reside in the Itom Mahtawa'apo Community Education and Cultural Center, having been moved from the Arizona State Museum. Read more»

A federal judge in Louisiana has issued a permanent injunction to block the Biden administration’s mandate that all Head Start program workers, volunteers and contractors be vaccinated for COVID-19. Read more»

Both Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and her Democratic opponent Katie Hobbs have released detailed education policy plans that would affect the more than 1.1 million children who attend public schools in Arizona. Read more»

Save Our Schools Arizona is in the home stretch of its push to collect at least 118,823 signatures to put the scholarship program on the ballot in 2024, delaying implementation of the law, currently scheduled to take effect Saturday. Read more»

The small groups of parents who traditionally spearhead efforts to ban books are now joined by politicians - but attempts to ban books are frequently motivated by misapprehensions about how children consume and process literature. Read more»

More than 1,600 book titles across 32 states were banned from public schools during the 2021-2022 school year, with the bulk of the ban requests coming from a handful of right-wing groups pushing for censorship of books that feature LGBTQ+ characters and characters of color, a new report issued Monday said. Read more»