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Teachers march in front of the Arizona Capitol building on March 15, 2023, to protest a new hotline launched by the Arizona Department of Education that encourages parents to file complaints about lesson plans in Arizona classrooms.

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»

The measure was approved by the state Senate with only Republican support on a vote of 16-13, but is unlikely to make it past Gov. Katie Hobbs.

Republican lawmakers advanced a measure that would put Arizona teachers behind bars if they so much as recommend a book to students that is considered too “sexually explicit,” after claiming schools all over Arizona are “sexualizing” students. Read more»

If the measure continues to receive unanimous opposition from Democrats, it’s unlikely that Gov. Katie Hobbs will sign it, given that she’s vowed to support only bipartisan bills.

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»

A young girl holds a sign imploring legislators to consider students across the state when deciding whether to support a long-term fix for the school spending limit, on Feb. 14, 2023.

The Republican majority at the Arizona Capitol reluctantly approved a one-year exemption from the aggregate expenditure limit, and now, public school advocates are turning their attention to a more lasting fix as the issue is likely to resurface next year. Read more»

Delia Rodriguez, a math teacher at the Valencia Newcomer School in Phoenix, instructs students on linear functions on Dec. 17, 2018.

A panel of policymakers and educators gathered at the U.S. Capitol to promote the American Teacher Act, which would authorize the federal government to create four-year grants for states to enact and enforce minimum school teacher salary requirements of $60,000 or more. Read more»

Buses line up outside Tempe High School in this 2021 file photo. Bus driver is just one of the positions that school administrators around the state say they have had trouble filling, along with teachers, nurses, custodians, secretaries and more, as school salaries often can’t compete with the private sector.

School staffers across Arizona may increasingly find themselves pressed to fill in on other jobs, as districts struggle to fill positions across the board and personnel officers say they have openings they cannot fill for everything from nurses to custodial employees and administrators. Read more»

Revamping teaching approaches can’t fix some of the biggest frustrations many teachers have about their profession, such as low pay, but early results from Mesa show team teaching may be helping to reverse low morale.

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»

Democrat Kathy Hoffman.

Democrat incumbent Kathy Hoffman will continue to focus on educator recruitment and retention, reducing class sizes, increasing teacher pay and student mental health services as Arizona superintendent of public instruction, including continued support for LGBTQ+ students. Read more»

Katie Hobbs and Kari Lake.

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»

Teaching residents like Chelsey Mickelson, 27, receive a stipend, covered tuition costs, a job after the Arizona Teacher Residency program, and a master’s degree from Northern Arizona University.

With schools getting back to full swing, districts across Arizona continue to struggle with a severe shortage of teachers and administrators, but an innovative program to help recruit, prepare, support and retain teachers in elementary, middle and high schools is beginning to pay off. 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»

The head of the U.S. Department of Education said Wednesday that America is reaching a teacher pay crisis.

Amid K-12 teacher shortages, book bans and attacks over critical race theory, U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona at a meeting with reporters on Wednesday stressed the need for higher salaries to attract prospective educators to the profession. Read more»

Transparency legislation has been introduced in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio and West Virginia.

Children are headed back to the classroom and finding themselves in Ground Zero of a culture war that has produced a torrent of legislative skirmishes over what teachers can say about race and gender — but may be getting in the way of addressing students’ more serious problems. Read more»

Public school districts are required to make teacher salaries publicly available and curriculum and books are accessible to interested parents, but private schools have no such requirements.

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

RedForEd marchers as they move toward the Capitol in April 2018 as part of a protest over low teacher pay.

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

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