Education
Every Arizona student will suffer if we implement book bans
Growing up in a small, conservative town in Kansas, I always felt like I was living in a bubble. I was constantly bullied for my beliefs, my mannerisms, my hobbies — anything you could think of. I remember having rocks thrown at me by a group of eighth graders for simply mentioning my support for […]
Dueling bills aim to allow the AZ School for the Deaf and Blind to remain open
Competing bills to allow the Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind to remain open were both heard in the state Senate on Wednesday as parents, teachers and former students pushed for lawmakers to keep the school open. The school, which serves some 2,100 students at campuses in Phoenix and Tucson, was created the same […]
Anti-trans school bathroom bill advances with GOP backing
Republican lawmakers are charging ahead with their attacks on transgender Arizonans, despite veto promises from Gov. Katie Hobbs, unanimously backing a measure on Tuesday that calls for separate school facilities for trans students. The House Education Committee voted 6-4, with only Republicans in favor, to pass Senate Bill 1040, which forces schools to provide separate […]
Arizona has a teacher retention crisis. Here are 5 ways to start fixing it.
Every year, thousands of Arizona teachers leave the state, or the profession, due to low pay, underfunded schools and a lack of respect. Each and every departure makes things harder for those of us who remain. Where I teach, in Tucson, I keep hearing about teachers asked to switch grade levels in the middle of […]
3 kids, 3 adults killed in shooting at Nashville private elementary school
Three children and three adult staff members are dead after a mass shooting event Monday at The Covenant School, a private Christian school in Nashville’s Green Hills neighborhood. Among the victims are three nine-year-old children: Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney. The adult victims are Cynthia Peak, 61, Mike Hill, 61, and Katherine Koonce, […]
Even more tax cuts will gut Arizona schools and our economic future
Arizona’s budget is precariously perched on a two-legged stool, and Republican lawmakers want to saw off yet another leg, as the erstwhile party of fiscal responsibility has lost sight of any shred of economic stewardship, blinded by obsessions with cutting taxes for the rich and defunding public education. And Arizona voters are waking up to […]
DOJ memo on threats to local school boards lambasted by Republicans at U.S. House hearing
WASHINGTON — U.S. House Republicans on Thursday continued to press accusations that a “woke agenda” is deteriorating parents’ rights in their local school districts. The first hearing this Congress of the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government convened to examine whether a 2021 Department of Justice memo played a role in […]
Teachers union calls on lawmakers to invest $2.2 billion in Arizona schools
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. Compiled by the state’s largest teacher’s union, the Arizona Education Association, it includes more money for teacher salaries, health care plans, special education, school repairs […]
Legislation to reauthorize the Arizona school for deaf and blind children is stalled. No one knows why.
The Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind was created the same year Arizona became a state, but its future is in limbo, as a bill to allow it to operate for the next eight years has been blocked in the Senate in the face of a looming deadline to consider legislation. Legislation reauthorizing the […]
Senate Republicans agree to ban books with gender fluidity, pronouns
Last year, a record wave of book bans swept across the country when the GOP moved its culture war into school libraries, and Arizona Republicans this year are pushing to expand on that by outlawing books that “promote” gender fluidity or pronouns. To do so, they want to give parents the power to request the […]
Teachers rally against complaint hotline, call for its end
Dozens of teachers took to the street on Wednesday afternoon to demand that the state superintendent’s newly established parental complaint hotline be dismantled. Two banners were held up at the front of the crowd as it marched down 16th Avenue toward the Department of Education’s building, one expressing support for educators and the other asking […]
School advocates worry about keeping counselors as federal funding set to expire
CHANDLER – On any given day Steve Kanner, a school counselor at Hamilton High School, can be found speaking to a classroom of students or having a one-on-one conversation with a student. Hamilton High has a ratio of 400 students to one counselor; the average ratio in the state of Arizona is 650 students to […]