Arizona

The freedom that marked the westward migration has never quite left the Grand Canyon State. A scholarship program for students with disabilities, and a tax credit have helped more than 30,000 students to opt into new schools. In addition, a pioneering charter law has provided more than 200,000 children with choices about their schooling. The teacher quality and online learning indices are lower than one would expect in a state that takes parent power seriously. Parents can easily find information about all of these options, which underscores the state’s commitment to parents as a child’s first teacher and they can vote for school board members at the same time as they vote for everyone else. Imagine that!

Lexie’s law is just one of the tax credit scholarship programs in Arizona. This program specifically serves students with special needs or who are in foster care, and has a statewide cap of $5 million available for scholarships. Arizona has both corporate and individual tax credit programs, that provide opportunities to low-income students, and others that meet guidelines laid out by the School Tuition Organizations to attend private schools. Arizona also provides an Empowerment Scholarship Accounts Program that allows parents of children with disabilities to receive a portion of their public funding deposited into a savings account for use for primary, secondary or post-secondary education needs. The state permits parents choice among public schools (often called open enrollment or public school choice), which permits students to attend any public school in the state if there is room.

SOURCE: The Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice

Arizona has a strong charter school law featuring all of the major components of a high-quality charter law. The Arizona law provides for a variety of independent authorizers, including a state board and universities, automatic waivers giving charters freedom from most rules and regulations, and financial assistance for charter facilities.

SOURCE: The Essential Guide to Charter School Law 2013 National Ranking and Scorecard

Arizona’s number of online options has grown substantially since legislation in 2009 began allowing any district or charter to start an online program that can serve any student in the state. The state excels at providing students access to high-quality digital content, but some policies still fall short.

SOURCE: Digital Learning Now!

Arizona mandates annual evaluations of its teachers, and objective evidence of student learning is a significant piece of a teacher’s evaluation, between 33 and 50 percent. Tenure is earned after three years of probation and attaining or losing tenure are both tied to performance. Teachers can lose their job if they receive two ineffective ratings.
Using the last hired, first fired policy during layoffs is prohibited.

Arizona has two voluntary performance pay programs districts can implement, but the state does not mandate any type of salary schedule.

SOURCE: National Council on Teacher Quality

Arizona has made information about schools fairly easy to access and understand with a parents section of its state department of education website. Information on charter school options is provided by the state, but the website offers no information about scholarship or tax credit programs. With 227 local school boards, it’s a good thing that all elections are held during the general election in November.