Tag: Arizona Education News Service
#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.
2018 PDK Poll: Americans say public school teachers are underpaid (+ Infographic)
Most Americans say public school teachers are underpaid, and 71 percent of those surveyed in the 2018 Phi Delta Kappan (PDK) Poll said they would support teachers in their community if they went on strike for higher pay.
The 5oth PDK Poll of the public’s attitudes toward the public schools asked 1,042 adults in 50 states about a range of education issues through online surveys administered in May 2018 by Langer Research Associates of New York.
While 61 percent of Americans said they trust and support public school teachers, more than half said they would not want their child to become a teacher, citing low pay and benefits.
#RedForEd advocates return to Capitol to weigh in on ballot language for Invest in Ed proposition (+ Video). See related education news here
About 100 people – many in #RedForEd t-shirts – attended a Legislative Council meeting Wednesday at the Arizona Legislature to determine ballot proposition language for Invest in Education and several other initiatives for the November elections.
The Legislative Council is in charge of creating impartial ballot analyses for every initiative that’s going on the ballot in November – among those are the Outlaw Dirty Money initiative, the Invest in Ed initiative, the Clean Energy for a Healthy Arizona initiative, and the Protect Arizona Taxpayers Act, said Chris Kotterman, director of government relations for Arizona School Boards Association.
“The Council is hearing testimony from members of the public about whether or not they agree with whether those analyses are fair or not, because by law they have to be fair and impartial,” Kotterman said.
