With the stroke of a pen on Thursday, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs approved a $17.8 billion dollar budget, despite criticism from progressive organizations and many in her own party. Read more»
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The Arizona Legislature passed an almost $18 billion budget Wednesday, one that Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs negotiated with Republican leaders in the House and Senate - but Democrats excoriated Hobbs for her failure to better negotiate. Read more»
A budget deal brokered between Republicans and Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs made its way out of the Arizona Senate in the early morning hours Wednesday, though Democratic lawmakers continued to accuse Republicans of attempting to speed through the budgeting process. Read more»
Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs and Republican lawmakers have negotiated a budget, with a slew of budget bills filed Monday, but Democratic lawmakers and even the Arizona Attorney General are pushing back. Read more»
Parents, children and educators on Wednesday marched to the state Capitol to support an education voucher program that Gov. Katie Hobbs has said she wants to dismantle. Read more»
U.S. House Republicans laid the groundwork for some top priorities that examined public funding for charter schools and voucher programs, as well as increasing parents’ oversight of school curriculum, and barring many transgender athletes from competing in school sports. Read more»
Lawmakers on Wednesday waived a school spending limit that would have forced schools to cut $1.4 billion from their budgets next month, amid vehement resistance from some Republicans. Read more»
Arizona parents have flocked to apply for the state’s new universal Empowerment Scholarship Accounts, which let any family apply for state funds to pay for their child’s schooling, regardless of need. Read more»
Republican Tom Horne will be Arizona’s new superintendent of public instruction, emerging victorious from a contest with Democratic incumbent Kathy Hoffman that saw the lead change hands several times since Election Day. Read more»
Five years ago, Arizona school leaders piloted a classroom model known as team teaching - where teachers share large groups of students of up to 100 or more - as administrators hoped to fill staffing gaps and boost teacher morale and retention, and the gamble could pay off. Read more»
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»
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»
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»
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»
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»