PHOENIX – A for Arizona has launched the second round of the Arizona Transportation Modernization Grants Program, a first-in-the-nation $20 million initiative to modernize transportation options and improve access to reliable and safe transportation for K-12 students. These grants, administered through the A for Arizona Expansion & Innovation Fund, support locally driven solutions to increase efficiency and cost savings, address geographic and local needs, and provide access for more families to the public learning options that best meet each child’s needs.

“There is a reason Arizona tops the charts in innovation – and now K-12 transportation is on that list,” said Governor Doug Ducey. “From family-friendly ride-sharing apps to walking school buses and new micro transit options, our local leaders embraced the opportunity to create new transportation models for our students and families. Arizonans believe in school choice, and the state’s transportation investments will result in every child having access to even more education opportunities that best fit their unique needs.”

“We know that there is not a one-size-fits-all system to addressing transportation needs but we are confident Arizona is home to the right entrepreneurs and leaders to design new transit methods built around students and where they want to learn,” said Emily Anne Gullickson, Founder and CEO of A for Arizona. “As we witnessed during the first grant cycle, this program provides an incredible opportunity to create transportation options that meets the needs of their local community. These new transit models will enable the Grand Canyon State to continue to move past an antiquated education transportation system to respond to the student-focused needs of the 21st century.”

The statewide Arizona Transportation Modernization Grant Program was established in the FY2022 budget by the Arizona State Legislature and is funded for three years. The grant program provides resources in addition to current transportation funding levels to incubate ideas to improve access to reliable and safe transportation for students who attend a district school through open enrollment or attend a public charter school, and to accelerate innovation and efficiency solutions.

This grant opportunity is available to public schools, local governments, and community partners that want to provide transportation options to safely and easily get every public school child to the school that will best help them thrive. The program ensures that rural and remote school and community partners are prioritized, with at least 25% of grant monies supporting those proposals.

Last grant cycle, $19 million was allocated to support 24 unique proposals representing a wide range of solutions to target underserved student populations or communities looking to modernize their approach to K-12 transportation.

Since the launch of its Expansion & Innovation Fund, A for Arizona has awarded over $27 million in seed funding forming a diverse portfolio of model replications, small learning communities, solutions to modernizing K-12 transportation, innovative learning models aimed to boldly reimagine education, and identifying best practices to better support Arizona’s most vulnerable student populations.

The Arizona Transportation Modernization Grant application is now live. Interested school, government, and community leaders can access additional grant information here. The application deadline is Wednesday, November 2nd at 5pm Arizona time.

Phoenix, AZ — A for Arizona released today “Arizona’s Way: Teaching and Leading Talent Pipelines” a policy brief outlining opportunities to increase educator supply and improve the readiness of Arizona’s classroom and school leader talent. There are various labor market factors impacting the ability to recruit and retain qualified teachers and school leaders, yet several solutions exist to address these challenges.

“Teacher supply has been a hot topic in policy and politics for more than two decades, but the current labor market challenges are directly impacting Arizona students,” said Emily Anne Gullickson, Founder and CEO of A for Arizona. “The importance of opening new pathways to the classroom cannot be overstated and the one-size fits all staffing model that worked generations ago must be rethought. Arizona has existing tools that allow schools to recruit a larger pool of teacher candidates and to bring them into high quality training in schools. We need to maximize these opportunities to get more qualified teachers into the classroom now.”

In 2017, the Arizona empowered local school leaders to create Grow Your Own strategies which provided thousands of new and qualified teachers for Arizona’s schools. These reforms also offered targeted strategies that allow school leaders to be more engaged in managing their staffing needs locally versus waiting for education colleges to send them enough new teachers.

Arizona policymakers have set the foundation to allow Arizona’s schools to manage their own talent pipeline. The policy brief highlights how Arizona can expand these strategies to reach more qualified talent:

• Legislators should expand and amplify existing strategies to be easier to use and available for more positions in education. Locally-initiated Grow Your Own strategies allow school leaders to recruit educated adults with the potential to be great teachers – many already working or volunteering on a school campus – and train them for that school’s specific educational model right on the local K-12 campus. In this model, future educators get real-life, hands-on training and apprentice their way to becoming a classroom teacher.
• School leaders must take advantage of these Grow Your Own opportunities in larger numbers. Schools still lean on a single and insufficient pipeline of students coming out of traditional education colleges. Casting a wide net for talented and educated adults to become teachers is important when competing for talent in one of the tightest labor markets in history. Schools must help diversify the opportunity to become a teacher or shortages will remain.
• Local and multi-state training programs and colleges should help schools launch Grow Your Own programs that are authentically local. Where possible, any bureaucracy that has attached itself to these new laws should be eliminated or left to the local school systems to add at their discretion. The State and their regulatory arm at the State Board should not over manage these Grow Your Own opportunities into the type of programs that are not attracting enough teachers now.
• Rethink staffing and diversify job offerings for existing and new employees. Arizona has the country’s most flexible seat time statute in the country. This allows school leaders to meet the unique needs of today’s students while also meeting the expectations of a new generation of workers.

Phoenix, AZ — A for Arizona released today “Driving Excellence” a policy brief focused on what is needed for a 21^st Century K-12 transportation system. Diversity in school models has been a key driver of educational progress and made Arizona a leader in student-centered education.

However, antiquated student transportation systems have thus far been ignored during this transformative process.

In addition to Arizona’s robust offerings of schooling models, other factors such as parent expectations for safety, inefficient and expensive vehicles, challenging rural terrain, and major shifts in labor supply are accelerating the need for change in school transportation programs.

“The current system built around the 80-passenger yellow school bus as the sole strategy is making it more difficult and expensive for school leaders to update how students are safely transported to and from school,” said Emily Anne Gullickson, Founder and CEO of A for Arizona. “Two challenges that repeatedly came up during our conversations with school leaders were the bus driver shortage and the desire to rethink expensive but crucial transportation strategies and equipment from the ground up. Our school leaders see technology, a more diverse set of vehicles and drivers, community partnerships, parent grants, carpools, and ride share as critical tools to be leveraged for better access to get students to school and home safely.”

With approval from the Arizona Legislature in FY2022, the public school Transportation Modernization Grants Program proposal was adopted with $20 million worth of state funding to seed efficient, safe, cost-effective and student appropriate options for transporting K-12 students with diverse needs in the modern era. Ultimately, 71 district and charter systems, nonprofits, and local governments representing all 15 counties requested more than $50 million to move their solution, innovation, and future-changing transit idea forward.

The policy brief highlights lessons learned from first round of grant awardees and provides recommendations for state and federal governments to rework school transportation funding and regulations:

• Ensure both funding and regulatory environment are flexible to allow for a variety of transportation solutions and how miles accrue for funding to go beyond the yellow bus
• Ensure the funding and regulatory environment are responsive to the unique needs of
• schools of different sizes and locations
• students with varying transportation needs
• Make dedicated transportation funding available to all public school models providing transportation programming to their students
• Allow collaboration between school systems and community partners for shared transportation solutions
• Create regular opportunities to modernize infrastructure as well as state and federal regulatory frameworks to keep up with rapidly changing vehicle and transportation tools

PHOENIX – A for Arizona announced today the second round of Southern Arizona Microgrant awardees. A for Arizona’s Expansion & Innovation Fund provided microgrants to empower innovative school and community leaders, teachers, and families to launch community-driven models, develop innovative learning models aimed to redefine teaching and learning, create and scale more student-focused programs, and reimagine where, when, and how learning takes place.

“Once again, Southern Arizona entrepreneurs are showcasing incredible and innovative programs, models, and solutions to provide greater educational opportunities for every learner,” said Emily Anne Gullickson, Founder and CEO of A for Arizona. “Student learning loss and growing disengagement in class are real issues facing our community and our new awardees have developed innovative ways to reignite a passion for learning and help Arizona students accelerate on track. We are proud to fund these bold ideas and to share the impact they have on student growth, achievement, and family empowerment.”

The new Southern Arizona Microgrants awardees include:

• Agua Caliente Elementary School, Tanque Verde Unified School District, Pima County
• E. Rose K-8, Tucson Unified School District, Pima County
• Crane Elementary School District #13, Yuma County
• Gila Vista Junior High School, Yuma Elementary School District One, Yuma County
• Literacy Connects, Pima County
• Mexicayotl Academy of Excellence, Santa Cruz County
• No More Failing Schools, Pima County
• Rio Rico High School, Santa Cruz Valley USD No. 35, Santa Cruz County
• SARSEF, Pima County
• Tanque Verde Elementary School, Tanque Verde Unified School District, Pima County
• Utterback Middle School, Tucson Unified School District, Pima County

The Southern Arizona Microgrants are supported by private philanthropic support in collaboration with the VELA Education Fund, Burton Family Foundation, Pima IDA and Community Investment Corporation, as well as generous individuals in the community.

“The A for Arizona Southern Arizona Microgrant has been a great opportunity to fuel the entrepreneurial spirit in Southern Arizona and help fund permissionless models that are having a real impact on students,” said Meredith Olson, President of VELA. “We are proud to support more educators across Southern Arizona who are embracing innovation and collaborative partnerships to strengthen their local community.”

The microgrant applications were reviewed and assessed by a committee of local and national education, philanthropic and industry leaders. In this second round, the Vetting Committee awarded over $271,000 in microgrant awards with the potential to reach nearly 15,000 students in Southern Arizona.

A for Arizona provided up to $25,000 in seed funding through their Expansion & Innovation Fund for bold proposals that accelerate education innovation and opportunity for PreK-12 students in Cochise, Pima, Santa Cruz, and Yuma counties.

For more information about the grant recipients selected, please view the Southern Arizona Microgrant snapshot profile.

Since the launch of its Expansion & Innovation Fund, A for Arizona has awarded over $21 million in seed funding forming a diverse portfolio of model replications, small learning communities, solutions to modernizing K-12 transportation, innovative learning models aimed to boldly reimagine education, and identifying best practices to better support Arizona’s most vulnerable student populations.

PHOENIX – A for Arizona released today “How Much Is Your Student Worth?”, a policy report focused on the irrational inequities in Arizona’s current K-12 education finance system.

A strong public education finance system allocates funding based on the needs of each student, not based  on the student’s zip code. Arizona’s operational formula acting alone has offered that strength since 1980, but the system has become overwhelmed by funding differences based on property wealth, type of public school, and special elections that benefit only a small percentage of students. Over the past 40 years, while Arizona has grown a diverse system of public school models, the fairness Arizonans expect in student funding has evaporated.

Currently, students who attend a district school that does not benefit from additional local property tax levies or other discretionary revenues are funded at lower dollar amounts than their peers. Students who attend public charter schools are also funded differently and at a lower rate than their district peers. In both cases, these differences are not small.

“Our kids need us now more than ever to create the best conditions for their future, and that requires changing how we fund students and demanding high quality education for all. Every child in rural, urban, and suburban Arizona deserves an education that sets them up for success,” said Emily Anne Gullickson, Founder and CEO of A for Arizona. “A better way is possible – changing how we fund students and prioritizing resources around what works can help ensure that we provide a better future for every student. By eliminating the gimmicks that erode the basic fairness of our K-12 operational formula, we can make that goal a reality.”

A recent poll by Public Opinion Strategies commissioned by education advocacy organizations revealed that nearly eight-in-ten Arizona voters agree that every public K-12 student should be funded the same way no matter what school they attend or where they live and 70% of Arizona voters support a single student funding formula to ensure more equal funding.

The policy brief highlights the public funding mechanics that make these disparities possible and provides strategies that restore fairness in funding the needs of each student and the opportunity to earn funding:

• Common Base Level Funding: Collapse non-voter approved funding enhancements available to school districts but not to public charter schools into a common Base Level for all public schools. This increases student-level funding for every single student and reduces inequities across different types of public school models.
• Opt-In Student-Centered Funding Formula: Start to address the larger disparities in funding for students in many district schools by creating an opt-in, alternative student-centered funding formula.
• Achievement Revenues: Move achievement revenues into the formula to improve transparency, stability for local educators, and to emphasize the state’s commitment to great outcomes for every single student.
• Stabilize Transportation Funding: Repurpose revenue allocated for transportation services no longer being provided by school districts and for students no longer in attendance to stabilize transportation funding for district and charter schools who require and desire to provide transportation services.
• Accessing Empty School Buildings: Address barriers to accessing and updating empty school buildings gives students the quality schools they need, strengthens communities, and makes them better places to live.

PROGRAM FUNDED: Vail is providing public stackable education via a menu of services and options to enhancing learning and recognizing that education is not defined by where students receive their education but how. Under this new option, families can choose which components of district support they would like to opt into: academic, social/emotional, or extracurricular.

SCHOOL TESTIMONIAL:

“One particular student came to our classroom who was behind 2 grades. She was having trouble reading so her mom signed her up to work with me to help.  We started working together and I began building a relationship with this young lady.  We talked and I found out about her interests. I picked books based on what she liked.  We were reading a book together and she stopped and told me the words were moving.  We had a very productive conversation about it.  I asked her many questions and picked up as many details as possible about what she was experiencing.  After class I called our Special Education teacher and we discussed in detail what she was experiencing. I had a bit of knowledge in this area and my co-worker did too.  We brainstormed and decided we would try an overlay on her books and paper and see if it made a difference.  We tried many colors and when we came to purple the student perked up and was so excited.  She said the words were not moving!  We now use purple overlays on all her white paper, work, and books. I bought one for her mom to take home also to use there.  Her reading scores jumped from 3rd grade level in July of 51 words per minute to 97 words per minute on a 5th grade reading level in November.  This was a significant difference in a short amount of time and has made a huge impact in her reading confidence as well.”

Kelly Pinkerton, Director of Assessment and Innovative Learning

PROGRAM FUNDED: This Small Learning Community is designed to serve new underserved students from the Tucson area not yet at TV High. Any student is eligible for this public school-within-a-school model. Students will work with a counselor, receive specialist academic and socio-emotional support, and have teachers who are specially trained to create learning experiences that are interdisciplinary and reflect the honors college experience.

STUDENT TESTIMONIAL:

“A student shared with her honors English teacher last week “This is the first class that has pushed me this hard and I knew I could do it because you believed in me. I have never believed in myself (an example of how high expectations benefits all students!)”

PROGRAM FUNDED: Patagonia created scalable after-hours public Creative STEM learning pods – proving what’s possible and accessible for more rural families. Each blended pod will host 10 elementary students at no cost, with virtual options available to remove geographic barriers

STUDENT TESTIMONIALS:

“The Universe Within was a creative project that made me feel good about myself by being even smarter. It helped me get more imaginative! I barely knew geometry and physics, but now I know much more. I didn’t know that I could do so much, but the class helped me with my creativity.”

Student 1

“I like making my solar system because it’s fun. And it helps me learn about energy and matter, and how the earth rotates on its axis and revolves around the sun.”

Student 2 

“My solar system has many of my own planets and a little moon. I actually didn’t know that it took the Earth 365 days to come all the way around the sun which makes up one year.”

Student 3 

PHOENIX –  A for Arizona launched a $6 million grant opportunity today to help Arizona public schools replicate programs that provide meaningful results for students and develop innovative solutions focused on student excellence. This new $6 million effort is supported by federal relief dollars provided by Governor Doug Ducey to increase high quality education options and invest in bold ideas by Arizona’s entrepreneurial educators. A for Arizona will distribute the dollars through its Expansion & Innovation Fund to eligible public school teachers, principals, or system leaders who are reimagining education models, accelerating best practices, and innovating around community-based solutions.

“Arizona school leaders, educators and families go above and beyond to serve K-12 students and our local communities,” said Governor Doug Ducey. “When equipped with resources, regulatory runway and school choice opportunities, public school leaders will create programs and learning models that result in quality outcomes and learning experiences for students — no matter the challenge. I thank A for Arizona for their continued partnership to support kids and empower schools with resources and technical support to bring their innovative education ideas to life.”

A for Arizona’s Expansion & Innovation Fund provides seed funding to launch community-driven solutions, develop innovative learning models aimed to redefine teaching and learning, and scale best practices to better support Arizona’s most vulnerable student populations.

“Arizona is full of edupreneurs with thoughtful plans to redesign their school model and implement new solutions to better serve their students no matter the classroom set-up,” said Emily Anne Gullickson, Founder and CEO of A for Arizona. “Through our Expansion & Innovation Fund, we’ve seen incredible models, small learning communities, creative collaborative partnerships and out-of-the-box technology solutions come to life that have directly and immediately addressed the needs of Arizona students and families. It has never been more critical to reimagine education and the ways we can best serve students and accelerate learning. We look forward to empowering more educators with seed funding to bring their bold ideas into action.”

The online portal for the Expansion & Innovation Fund is live and applications are due Wednesday, March 30^th by 5pm AZ time. Public school teachers, principals, and system leaders are all eligible to apply. Grant requests cannot exceed $1 million.

Since its launch, A for Arizona has awarded over $21 million in seed funding through its Expansion & Innovation Fund forming a diverse portfolio of school replications, solutions to modernizing K-12 transportation, innovative learning models aimed to boldly reimagine education, and identify best practices to better support Arizona’s most vulnerable student populations.

For more information, visit: https://aforarizona.org/expansion-innovation-fund.