Tag: Arizona Education News Service
Upcoming legislation: What’s naughty or nice. See more state education and legislative news here
See whether education advocates think Arizona Legislators’ bills are naughty or nice before the legislative session starts on Jan. 13, 2020.
Why schools are ransomware targets. See more state education news here
Hackers used to focus their ransomware attacks primarily on taking money from corporations’ deep pockets, but they’ve recently been targeting schools and municipalities.
“Why is that so? Well, you possess an enormous amount of personal data – birthdates, social security numbers, direct deposit, banking information, credit card information – all of that you have about not only your employees, but your students and their parents,” said Rob Haws, a partner at Gust Rosenfeld PLC law firm, who specializes in education law and labor and employment.
#RedForEd seeks action on per-pupil funding and other demands not met last year. See more state education news here
A year after tens of thousands of teachers and education advocates marched through Phoenix streets demanding action on low teacher pay and per student funding that remains below pre-recession levels, #RedForEd supporters and Arizona Educators United are seeking progress on demands not addressed last year.
School staff suicide prevention training bill would help students and combat crisis
A bill that would provide suicide prevention and intervention training for school staff that has the support of families impacted by suicide was approved by the Senate Education Committee (Feb. 12).
Bills to hire more school counselors support Gov. Ducey’s safe schools plan
Bills this session that would help public schools hire more counselors are critical steps in implementing Gov. Doug Ducey’s Safe Arizona Schools plan.
The Safe Arizona Schools plan was developed last year with input from parents, teachers, students, principals, law enforcement, prosecutors and mental health experts around the state to prevent school shootings, after examining the five deadliest school shootings in the past 20 years.
Using data to boost students’ skills, opportunities. See more state education news here
When schools use data from college readiness assessments, it helps teachers focus their instruction to boost students’ skills and school counselors encourage students to add more challenging courses to their class schedules.
Need help filing the FAFSA? Here’s where you can get it
Filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) to determine financial aid eligibility for colleges and vocational schools can be a challenge for high school seniors and their parents.
To make it easier, high schools, community organizations and postsecondary schools around the state offer College Goal FAF$A workshops that have helped more than 55,000 students and their families complete the critically important application in the past 10 years, thanks to help from the Arizona Commission on Postsecondary Education.
Arizonans approve 77% of school bond, override elections. See related news here
Arizona voters approved 77 percent of school bond and override elections on the 2018 midterm election ballot, said Randie Stein, director of the public finance team at Stifel Nicolaus in Phoenix.
Bonds and overrides are voter approved community support for schools generated by local property taxes. They are for a specific period of time and purpose.
But just 28 percent of Arizona’s students attend school in districts where the community reliably passes bond and override elections, said Dr. Anabel Aportela, research director for Arizona Association of School Business Officials and Arizona School Boards Association.
Election updates: Thousands cast ballots at polls, but early ballots could take up to 9 days to be tallied. See related news here
… At this time, the Arizona Secretary of State’s website says that with 99 percent of precincts reporting (which is the people voting at the polls in person on Election Day) that 1,739,565 ballots were cast and voter turnout was 46.81 percent among Arizona’s 3,716,161 registered voters.
But the results in two races that are too close to call – for U.S. Senator and Superintendent of Public Instruction – may not be known for up to 9 days, depending on when early ballots mailed in, early ballots dropped off a the polls on election day and provisional ballots are verified and counted, according to the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office.
Arizona universities travel the state helping students learn more about college admissions, financial aid. See more state education news here
As part of the Achieve60AZ initiative, organizations across Arizona – including the state’s three public universities Arizona State University, Northern Arizona University and University of Arizona – are seeking ways to increase the number of Arizonans with post-secondary degrees or credentials from the current 42 percent to 60 percent by 2030.
