Whether it’s a pandemic or climate change, the future of education looks like disruption - and by accepting that the COVID-19 virus is going to be a constant, school districts can innovate and prepare for a multitude of unknowns, including disaster.... 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»
New legislation given preliminary approval by the Arizona House would hand over the operations of the 180 Arizona schools that received a D or F rating in 2019 to a high-performing school, be replaced by a “Fresh Start” charter school or shut them down if they don’t improve. ... Read more»
President's Day is commemorated on the third Monday of February and that falls on Feb. 21 this year. ... Read more»
An Arizona House committee voted Wednesday to advance legislation that would ban school districts from imposing mask mandates on children amid similar actions across the country and a declining number of COVID-19 cases. ... Read more»
A national survey last fall estimated approximately 420,000 students experiencing homelessness went missing from school districts’ rolls during the pandemic, and homeless advocates worry some of these children may never enroll in school again.... Read more»
The all-mail elections underway across Arizona for school district bond and override issues, which raised concerns among several Republican political figures this week, have been permitted by state law for 30 years. ... Read more»
As COVID-19 infections surge in Arizona schools, sickening thousands of students and staff and forcing thousands more into quarantine, parents—and the public at large—have been left without a comprehensive picture of where students and educators are contracting the virus. ... Read more»
State lawmakers are one step closer to passing a bill that would require parents to give written permission for children to discuss sex and gender identity in the classroom and ban any formal sex education – including AIDS instruction – before the fifth grade. In addition to changing that opt-out option, Barto’s bill would require school boards to develop procedures to notify parents in advance of any instruction related to sexuality and gender identity.... Read more»
Gov. Doug Ducey defended some school districts' decisions to resume in-person classes next week, even though their counties don't meet the COVID-19 criteria that his administration established for when schools could reopen safely.... Read more»
When Gov. Doug Ducey and Arizona Schools Superintendent Kathy Hoffman ordered state schools to open for some type of in-person instruction on Aug. 17, they gave school administrators the flexibility to design a plan that best suits their districts. What they didn’t give them were directions.... Read more»
Public schools will be allowed to determine on their own when to start in-person instruction for the upcoming K-12 school year based on a set of benchmarks that will be established by state health officials instead of being tied to the Aug. 17 start date that Gov. Doug Ducey set last month.
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A federal appeals court Tuesday rejected a long-simmering challenge to Proposition 123, the voter-approved 2016 measure that is set to redirect an estimated $3.5 billion to Arizona public schools over a decade.... 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»
A group representing Arizonan educators, students and community allies delivered a letter to Gov. Ducey at the Capitol on Tuesday calling for funding online learning at all schools to give districts time to retrofit their campuses to be safe gathering venues. ... Read more»
Guidelines for how Arizona school districts can safely reopen for the fall have been released, but at least some parents – and teachers – are questioning how safe it will be. Administrators also wonder how to pay for implementing the changes.... Read more»
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