Arizona Education Network

House leadership is attempting to bypass the legislative process and enact a procedural rule that imposes the Taxpayers Bill of Rights (TABOR) on the state of Arizona. The TABOR rule would require backing from the majority of the 60-person House and would preclude it from even considering a budgetary bill that would exceed the rule’s  Continue Reading >

2011 Legislative Session: Education Funding Voting Record by Legislator . . Find your legislative district by clicking here or visiting Project Vote Smart at http://www.votesmart.org/. . Review our 2009 Voting Record here, and the 2010 Voting Record here. . You can download a copy of the 2011 record by clicking 2011 Education Legislation Handout. . Legislative Districts are grouped by  Continue Reading >

On Sunday, April 10, the East Valley Tribune ran an editorial praising Governor Brewer and the legislature for making the hard choices necessary to produce a balanced budget.  The editorial singled out the Arizona Education Network because of our criticism regarding Governor Brewer’s failure to protect education. . The following is a guest commentary written  Continue Reading >

  April 1, 2011 – Governor Brewer yesterday showed complete disregard for our state’s faltering economy when she failed to defend public education funding as she had promised she would. . On Tuesday, former Intel CEO Craig Barrett, warned legislators that Arizona will not be able to attract good -paying jobs without investing in education.   Continue Reading >

**Updated with vote detail on related bills below.** . After an all night session, the House passed a budget that cuts $183.2 million from K-12 and $270.8 million from universities and community colleges for a total of $454 million in cuts to education in Arizona. The budget was a compromise negotiated among Governor Brewer, the  Continue Reading >

ASU President Michael M. Crow released a statement today detailing how the extensive cuts passed by the Senate would weaken Arizona State University.   The information in the statement shows exactly how dire these cuts will be to higher education in Arizona.  There is little doubt that cuts of this magnitude will have an adverse impact on the economic recovery  Continue Reading >

On Tuesday, March 15, 2011, the Arizona Senate voted to suspend rules for the consideration of the Senate’s budget package.

In another blow to fiscal responsibility in AZ, four bills have successfully passed out of the House Ways and Means Committee in recent weeks, which would expand the private school tax-credit program if adopted. Three of these bills would increase private school tax-credit contributions allowing an approximate loss of $60 million to Arizona’s general fund, and would require nearly 8,000 students to transfer from a public school to a private school in order for these programs to be, at best, budget neutral.

The Arizona Legislature finally agreed to refer the decision to the voters on Tuesday, May 18, 2010.

January 15, 2010 Governor Brewer released her Fiscal Year 2011 Budget Proposal plan to the public this afternoon.  You can view the full budget proposal, summary and related information via this link. . The Arizona Education Network volunteers will be reviewing the detailed budget information over the weekend.  You can find education funding and budget  Continue Reading >

The Arizona Education Association is suing to block new rules regarding how teacher contracts are offered and how layoffs are accomplished in Arizona.

Monday, August 10: Legislators are expected to resume budget negotiations today at 1:00pm. The temporary sales tax ballot proposal – long a sticking point with members who had signed a special interest “anti-tax” pledge – is now set to be spun off from the existing tax bill and voted upon as a separate entity. Your Arizona Education Network correspondents provide you with the latest links and answer a number of your questions regarding the budget, how it impacts our schools and how a Washington DC lobbyist seems to rank above the Arizona voter in some legislative circles.