Sign up for our Email Newsletter For Email Newsletters you can trust . . . FACTS ABOUT PUBLIC EDUCATION FUNDING IN ARIZONA It’s the 2010 voting season! Steer clear of the misinformation campaigns. Take a moment to familiarize yourself with some quick facts on public education funding prior to the November 2 general election. . . [...]
This post lists candidates that will move forward to the November 2, 2010 General Election. This is for state senator and representative only. Included in this list is our 12 question, multiple-choice survey that was offered to each candidate. If a candidate did not submit a survey, it is noted by their name.
Arizona voters will face tough decisions in the voting booth for the general election this November 2, 2010. AEN would like to make sure voters have all the facts on Proposition 302. The bill passed by the legislature in the 2010 seventh special session by a vote of 48 to 41 refers Proposition 302 to the ballot on November 2. If passed, Proposition 302 will repeal the Arizona Early Childhood and Development Initiative, commonly known as First Things First. The First Things First program is financed by a 2006 voter-approved tax on tobacco to provide funding for early childhood health and development and parenting programs for Arizona families.
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Of concern is the ballot language itself. The language on the ballot for Prop. 302 is an exercise in double-talk where “yes” means “no”, and “no” means “yes”.
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A “yes” vote would not only sweep funds set aside for First Things First–thereby terminating the program and it’s services–it would also redirect future tobacco tax revenue to the state’s general fund to be used at the discretion of the legislature. A “no” vote saves First Things First, preserving the voter-approved program that has been a vital first step in developing a healthy educational foundation for Arizona’s infants and toddlers.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan today (7/27/10) released the list of finalists for the second round of the Race to the Top federal grant program. Arizona is one of the 19 finalists.
This website page contains resources to help you make an educated decision on which candidates support public education for the 2010 primary and general election.
Sign up for our Email Newsletter For Email Newsletters you can trust 2010 Legislative Sessions: Education Funding Voting Record by Legislator . . You can find your legislative district by visiting here or Votesmart.org. . You can visit our 2009 Voter Record here. . Legislative Districts are grouped by color for visual differentiation only. . [...]
All candidates running for the state Senate or House of Representatives in the 2010 primary were asked to complete our survey on issues surrounding public education in Arizona. The survey consists of 12 multiple-choice questions. A comment section follows each section allowing candidates the opportunity to clarify or elaborate upon their answers. Per our protocol, candidates were emailed the survey on on June 22 and sent two reminder emails prior to the July 16 deadline. If a candidate did not submit a survey, it is noted by their name.
The Joint Legislative Budget Council (JLBC) released an analysis of budget cuts to the state general fund operating budget over the last four fiscal years (2008-2011). According to the report, Arizona has faced four consecutive years with a budget shortfall. Over the last four years, Arizona’s K-12 public schools have seen a $883.9 million reduction in funding. Similarly, funding for the state’s community colleges has been cut by $53.5 million and the universities by $232.5 million.
The candidates for Superintendent of Public Instruction have been invited to a forum to be held Thursday, August 12, 2010, sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Greater Tucson, the American Association of University Women (AAUW), the Arizona Education Network, Literacy for Life Coalition and Tucson Values Teachers.
The spring 2010 Arizona’s Instrument to Measure Standards (AIMS) scores were released Thursday by the Arizona Department of Education.
There are five candidates running for the state-wide office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. They are Margaret Dugan, John Huppenthal, Penny Kotterman, Beth Price and Jason Williams.
Phoenix-based PBS channel Eight recently aired a special edition of Horizon where host Ted Simons moderated two Clean Elections debates with the candidates running for Superintendent of Public Instruction. The first debate featured Republican candidates Margaret Dugan, John Huppenthal, and Beth Price. The second debate featured the Democratic candidates Penny Kotterman and Jason Williams.
A recent Newsweek article titled “The Creativity Crisis” reported on a William & Mary study by Kyung Hee Kimon showing that creativity in American children is decreasing. According to study, which analyzed almost 300,000 Torrance scores of children and adults, creativity scores have declined since 1990.
An analysis by the Arizona Education Network of the Arizona Learns 2008-2009 Achievement Profiles for All Schools published by the Arizona Department of Education shows that traditional public school performed better than charter schools over the same period.
The House of Representatives passed the Fiscal Year 2010 Supplemental Appropriations Bill (H.R. 4899) authorizing $80 billion in spending for troop increases in Afghanistan. The bill also contained a provision to appropriate $10 billion for the Education Jobs Fund. The Education Jobs fund is designed to provide aid to districts to retain teachers that would otherwise be laid off.
A recent poll conducted by Expect More Arizona found that most parents believe education at their local school should be of a higher quality and that they have not lost sight of education as a major priority.
The Arizona Education Network Executive team was recently highlighted on a local Tucson, AZ station.
Raytheon Missile Systems would like to see local and state governments be pro-business, support education and help create an environment that makes people and businesses want to come to Tucson. “…we need to put as much effort into science, technology, engineering and math education as possible for our youth,” Lawrence said.
Fourteen percent of jobs projected for Arizona through the year 2018 will be suited for high school drop outs, according to the June 16, 2010 front page article in the Arizona Daily Star.
Results by precinct of the May 18, 2010 special election.
The new Common Core Standards created by a panel of members of the National Governor’s Association and the state superintendents of education were released yesterday for public comment. Arizona was an early supporter of the development of these new Common Core Standards and touted its commitment to adopt the standards in their application for the Race to the Top grant.
Both traditional public and charter school financing in Arizona is complicated, but the Arizona Education Network takes it apart and answers your questions.
Arizona Gubernatorial, Legislative, and State Superintendent of Public Instruction candidates are gearing up for what promises to be an exciting election season. Here you will find a listing of candidates, as well as links to help you identify what legislative district you live in and related articles.
We’ll be posting updates on the May 18, 2010 special election as they come in. Specific data by polls may not be available for a few weeks.
Before we move on to the statistics, however, we want to send a big THANK YOU out to everyone who helped support the Yes to Proposition 100 campaign. The strong coalition of parents, educators, business people, retirees and students was remarkable. Many people put in a tremendous amount of volunteer hours to get the word out, and many more people took the time to look past the soundbites and thoughtfully analyze our state, school and public service budgets.
Proposition 100 Results PROPOSITION 100 PASSES IN A LANDSLIDE THANK YOU ARIZONA! Voter turnout was high and Proposition 100 passed, with 64% of Arizonans voting for the measure. Select news coverage of the election results: KVOA: Prop 100 supporters celebrate win Amphitheater parent Lisa Ferko: “Parents have come out and said public education is important [...]
In this May 13, 2010 edition of our newsletter: Let’s Get the Vote Out for Prop 100; As the May 18 Vote Approaches You are Making a Difference; Election Day, What You Need to Know; Your Prop 100 Questions Answered, Recap.
Kim Covington with Channel 12 KPNX in Phoenix sat down for an exclusive interview with U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in Washington, D.C. to discuss the state of Arizona’s investment in public education and the second round Race to the Top application.
In this May 4, 2010 newsletter: Arizona Legislature Completes Session, Your Prop. 100 Questions Answered, 100 Stands for Lemonade, Superintendent of Public Instruction Debate May 13, 2010, AEN Fast Fact, Early Voting has Started
The public is welcome to attend a debate in Sedona on May 13 to hear the candidates for State Superintendent of Public Instruction. You’ll find out in this debate what ideas the candidates have for the future of public instruction in Arizona. It will be held on Thursday, May 13, 2010 at the West Sedona School, 570 Posse Grounds Road, Sedona, AZ.
On Thursday, April 22, the Arizona Education Network sponsored a community-wide forum on Proposition 100 where seven distinguished panelists from vital sectors in Pima County spoke of the fiscal, human and educational impact of Proposition 100 at the community level in Southern Arizona.
A rebuttal to a recent “Vote No” Op Ed in the Tucson Citizen.
The Arizona Education Network and other parent and community organizations have sponsored or have spoken at several community forums about the state of education funding and Proposition 100. You can find the presentations and/or links to the school districts.
As federal stimulus money runs out and the economy continues to sputter, school districts around the country have proposed massive cuts for the next school year. According to the New York Times, “[i]n addition to teacher layoffs, districts are planning to close schools, cut programs, enlarge class sizes and shorten the school day, week or year to save money.”
Welcome to your AEN Proposition 100 Tool Kit! Here you will find ideas, suggestions, and resources for getting the word out in your community about Proposition 100. There are a variety of ways you can effectively advocate for your schools. These activities can be limited to your immediate family or you can recruit an entire neighborhood.
Come to a Community-Wide Forum on Prop. 100 sponsored by the Arizona Education Network to find out how the sales tax election will affect you.
“Education is the make or break for Raytheon’s future growth here. More than half of Raytheon’s employees are engineers, and the University of Arizona is the largest source of those engineers, supplying nearly 750 of them in the past 10 years, said Jeff Goldberg, dean of the UA College of Engineering. Meanwhile the Arizona Legislature keeps slashing university budgets.”
At a forum recently held at the Northern Arizona University, an internal comparison of budget scenarios was prepared to compare FY11 budget outlooks with and without the passage of Proposition 100. The following information includes both the cuts that will be implemented as part of the budget if Proposition 100 passes and the estimates of additional (contingent) cuts for universities if the May 18 sales tax election (Proposition 100) fails.
A new study by researchers at the Economic and Business Research Center at the University of Arizona finds that a yes vote on Proposition 100 would save more than 13,000 jobs and preserve more than $442 million in federal matching funds for Arizona.
KUAT-TV is sponsoring a debate/panel discussion on Proposition 100 called “Arizona’s Sales Tax: Fix or Folly” at 6:30 p.m. this Sunday, April 11, at the Stevie Eller Dance Theater, 1713 E. University Boulevard (on the UA mall just west of Campbell.)
. . In order to show the direct impact of potential cuts to school districts if Proposition 100 fails, Governor Brewer’s Office of Strategic Planning and Budgeting recently released a report that provides a district-by-district estimate of the impact of legislative budget cuts on Arizona school districts for the 2010-11 school year (FY 2011). The report shows [...]
The Arizona Legislature website is one of the best websites of its kind. There are many points of information available and this post will help you navigate it efficiently. This basic tutorial will help a user to understand how the website’s menu bar is set up, and where to go to find the information you are seeking.
Monday, Secretary of Education Arnie Duncan announced that Tennessee and Delaware were the only two winners of the phase one Race to the Top Grants. Arizona ranked fortieth out of forty-one applicants with a score of 240.2 out of 500.
Ideology, spin and inflammatory rhetoric are no substitute for factual information.
The majority of Republican, Democrat and Independent-leaning families in our state send their children to public schools–support for education is not a partisan issue. As a group, we will continue to insist that our elected officials use factual information and adhere to their constitutional duties to our children, communities and our schools.
On March 24, 2010 the Arizona Education Network held two press conferences in Phoenix and Tucson to release the 2009 Legislators’ voting record in regards to public education funding. You can visit the post with the table of records here. Please see below for the press conference transcript as well as resulting publications.
Newsletter Contents: AEN releases legislators’ voting records and two opportunities for action.
The Arizona Education Network has compiled a summary of all legislators’ voting records pertaining to their support of public education at all levels (K-University) during the 2009 Regular and Special Sessions.
On March 13, 2010 the Obama administration released their blueprint for changes to the Elementary & Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The blueprint emphasized many of the same strategies as the Race to the Top grant program including teacher accountability for annual progress.
While many Arizonans are familiar with the impact of their local Governing or School Board, they are unfamiliar with the influence of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. The officeholder is a major force in decisions made about public education in the state of Arizona. The Superintendent of Public Instruction influences policy in the legislature, is responsible for the implementation of education legislation and is in charge of the Department of Education and its interactions with school districts. Further, the Superintendent of Public Instruction commands the bully pulpit on education issues and has a great deal of influence on the direction the state takes regarding educational issues like school funding.
In this newsletter: Special Session #7, Proposition 100, Festival of Books, Now taking donations!, Three Steps You Can Take to Support Public Education: Vote, Vote, Vote
On Tuesday, March 9, several Arizona school districts held budget override elections in an effort to protect school programs and services, reduce class size, and/or preserve teaching positions. Of the 24 school district overrides, 15 passed.