By Gloria Gomez/UA Don Bolles Fellow/AZ Mirror PHOENIX — The future of classroom COVID-19 mitigation measures now lies in Gov. Doug Ducey’s hands: A bill the state Senate approved Monday would force schools to seek parental consent if they want to keep their students masked up. If the governor signs House Bill 2616 into law, school districts…
By Gloria Gomez/UA Don Bolles Fellow/AZ Mirror PHOENIX — In a move against transgender youth in Arizona, Gov. Doug Ducey signed new laws barring them from participating in girls’ and womens’ sports, and from obtaining gender reassignment surgery. Senate Bill 1138 prohibits doctors from providing genital reassignment surgery to minors, including mastectomies or mammoplasties to feminize…
By Gloria Gomez/UA Don Bolles Fellow/AZ Mirror PHOENIX — Republican legislators want voters to make it unconstitutional for Arizona public schools, colleges and universities to teach so-called “critical race theory,” a move that will come at the detriment of quality education, critics say. The proposed constitutional amendment would capitalize on a nationwide GOP movement to…
By Gloria Gomez/UA Don Bolles Fellow/AZ Mirror An eleventh-hour proposal that would make sweeping changes to how Arizona schools are funded won Republican approval on a legislative panel Monday, despite the devastating budget cuts that critics say many schools will face if it becomes law. The amendment attached to Senate Bill 1269 increases total K-12 funding by…
By Gloria Gomez/UA Don Bolles Fellow/AZ Mirror PHOENIX — Schools could have their hands tied in the future by a legislative proposal hoping to prohibit masking requirements without a parent’s OK. An attempt last year to ban mask mandates in public schools was killed by the Arizona Supreme Court, which ruled that it was unconstitutional to…
