The Pima County Board of Supervisors has approved about $10 million worth of annual contracts to continue offering free preschool to eligible families.
The county works with existing state and federal programs to offer Pima Early Education Program scholarships (PEEPs). Those allow kids from low-income families to attend high quality preschools across the county.
PEEPs were previously supported by Federal American Rescue Plan Act funding. The board’s action this week switches them to the Library District tax levy, a more sustainable, permanent source of cash.
Since the program was created in 2021, it’s served more than 4,000 children, brought new educators into the field and allowed many parents to go back to work.
PEEPs are available to families with 3- or 4-year-old children (and 5-year-olds not in kindergarten) with incomes at or below 300% of the 2025 Federal Poverty Level. That is $96,450 for a family of four.
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The Peoria Unified School District has approved a new policy that prohibits the adoption or promotion of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) frameworks. -
The Phoenix Union High School District will cut $20 million from its budget next school year. District officials say the reduction is necessary as it continues to see declines in enrollment. -
New research from ASU found that there are more mosquitoes in Arizona now, but climate change may have an impact on their population. -
In 2022, Arizona gained access to over $30 million to fund 164 summer learning camps. Most of the camps were successful, but in some cases the money was either misspent, or never spent at all. -
Pam Lach is a digital humanities librarian at San Diego State University. This week, she is coming to ASU to give a talk called “The Stories We Still Need: Podcasting For Urgent Times.”
