With legislators still undecided on how to spend the record $5.3 billion dollar budget surplus, the Arizona Education Association, the state’s largest teacher’s union, is demanding massive increases in education funding.... Read more»
To allow parents to scour lessons for elements of "critical race theory," Arizona teachers would be required to upload a list of every book and worksheet they use in their classrooms online for parental review if a Republican-backed bill becomes law.... Read more»
With the latest surge of the coronavirus straining an already vulnerable K-12 workforce nationwide and many school officials saying they are struggling to find enough substitutes to cover classrooms, some state officials have exercised their power to alleviate teacher labor challenges.... Read more»
The Invest in Arizona campaign seeking to overturn three laws GOP legislators and Gov. Ducey celebrated as “the single largest tax cut in Arizona history” marked its first week of action with increased momentum around the state - and a lawsuit aimed at rendering the campaign futile.... Read more»
Education activists have kicked off a campaign to ask voters to roll back Arizona's latest tax cuts for the wealthy, saying that they want to protect last year's passage of a tax increase for schools.... Read more»
A coalition of public education advocates are mounting a campaign to ask voters to overturn the tax cuts - designed to blunt the effect that Prop 208, which voters approved in November - that were the centerpiece of the budget that Republican lawmakers and Gov. Ducey just approved.... Read more»
Arizona lawmakers on Wednesday ended the third-longest legislative session in state history after approving the final components of a state spending plan for the fiscal year that begins Thursday and taking final votes on several other outstanding measures. ... Read more»
A coalition of public education advocacy groups looking at ways to stop Republican legislators and Gov. Ducey from undermining a tax increase in the state budget that includes massive tax cuts for the wealthy.... Read more»
Arizona school board meetings have been seeing an unprecedented number of disruptions by far-right, angry and yelling crowds furious that students were required to wear facemasks in schools, many organized by outside groups led by Steven Tyler Daniels, a self-identified conservative “patriot” activist who is trying to launch a new fringe-right political party.... Read more»
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey continued to dismantle mandates he put in place last year to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, rescinding an order that required face coverings in the state's schools. However, districts in the Tucson area immediately said they would maintain mask requirements through the end of the school year. ... Read more»
A group of education bills are currently working their way through the Arizona Legislature, including a mandate that teachers post lesson plans and backup assignments for every teaching day in advance of the school year. ... Read more»
Gov. Doug Ducey will push to make $600 million income tax cuts, phased in over the next three years, and he wants those cuts to be broad-based so they will affect as many Arizonans as possible. However, history has shown that today’s surplus can quickly turn into a deficit, and that tax cuts that go into effect when revenues are strong can become a drag on the state’s budget when the economy goes south.... Read more»
Eleven presidential electors in Arizona cast their votes on Monday morning for President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. By Monday afternoon, as electors in other states did the same, Biden had won enough votes to clinch the presidency.... Read more»
The Arizona Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that voters in November will get the chance to decide whether to tax wealthy Arizonans to provide more funding to public schools, overturning a lower court that earlier tossed the Invest in Education Act after concluding that organizers crafted a misleading summary of the measure.... Read more»
For the second time in as many election cycles, a judge has barred from the ballot a citizen initiative that seeks to increase funding for K-12 education by hiking income taxes for higher earning Arizonans, ruling that the campaign omitted critical information from a brief description on the petitions they circulated.... Read more»
Arizona Schools Superintendent Kathy Hoffman said Wednesday that the already delayed Aug. 17 start of in-person classes may have to be pushed back again in light of continuing concerns about COVID-19 safety.... Read more»
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