Arizona's universal school voucher program that was estimated to cost only $65 million is now poised to cost the state $900 million over the next year, exceeding its available funding by hundreds of millions of dollars. Read more»
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By a 2-1 margin, teachers at Tucson's acclaimed BASIS Tucson North school voted to unionize Wednesday evening, making the Northeast Side charter the first in Arizona to have staff organize. Read more»
Arizona is ranked one of the worst states for school spending, and teachers are urging lawmakers to rectify that through increased funding, unveiling a $2.2 billion “Educators’ Budget” on Wednesday. Read more»
Dozens of teachers took to the street on Wednesday afternoon to demand that Arizona Republican Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne’s newly established parental complaint hotline be dismantled. Read more»
Arizona’s House of Representatives is continuing to advance a bill requiring public middle and high schools in Arizona to offer training on the proper handling of firearms. Read more»
Arizona parents would be given easier access to school curriculum and teacher training materials under GOP proposals that critics say only serve to further vilify teachers and force schools to violate legal agreements. Read more»
Arizona Democrats and public education advocates are urging Gov. Ducey and his fellow Republicans in the state Legislature to keep their promise to lift the state’s annual school spending cap, allowing districts across the state to spend around $1.3 billion already allocated to them. Read more»
Schools in Arizona could lose access to more than $1 billion lawmakers gave them this school year if the state doesn't take action to lift a 40-year-old spending limit placed on school districts. Read more»
Since applications for the expanded Empowerment Scholarship Account program opened, roughly three of every four students who sought school voucher funding had never set foot in an Arizona public school - subsidizing tuition for students who already attend pricey private schools. Read more» 1
A new report shows that teachers in Arizona faced a 32% wage penalty in 2021 compared to college-educated workers employed in other fields - the fourth-largest teacher pay gap in the nation, behind only Colorado, Oklahoma and Virginia. Read more» 1
Matt Gress, a candidate for the Arizona House of Representatives, announced his “Pay Teachers First” plan on Monday, centered around an immediate and permanent $10,000 pay raise for Arizona teachers. Read more»
Members of the Arizona Education Association gathered at the state Capitol to again ask lawmakers to funnel a bigger chunk of the state’s $5 billion budget surplus into public schools and questioned the use of taxpayer money to expand the voucher program. Read more»
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»