Arizona: David Safierfrom

by David Safier

From the Arizona Guardian (subscription only):

Health care and child care facilities will have to pay thousands more to be licensed in Arizona under new fee schedules released Tuesday that are intended to make businesses shoulder the regulatory cost.

The largest child care centers will see their licensing fees increase 90 times over, while small behavioral health group homes will pay quadruple their current costs.

Across the board, the facilities that care for Arizona’s youngest, oldest and most infirm will over the next three months go from paying some of the lowest regulatory costs in the Western region to the highest. Advocates say that's likely to increase the supply of unregulated care and raise costs as the fee increases are passed on to families.

by David Safier
From the Democratic Caucus, AZ House of Representatives:

Task force on private school tax credit program to hold first meeting
 
STATE CAPITOL, PHOENIX – The Bipartisan Task Force on the Private School Tuition Tax Credits program will hold its first meeting this month to look at the program’s problems and reported violations.
 
First Meeting of Bipartisan Task Force on the Private School Tuition Tax Credits program
When: Monday, Sept. 21 at 10 a.m.
Where: State Capitol, House Hearing Room 3
*Task force members will hear from experts on School Tuition Organizations. At a future meeting, the public will have an opportunity to raise concerns and ideas with the task force.

by David Safier
From the Orlando Sentinel:

There once was a political operative who loved to tell crowds he had a simple way of explaining to children the difference between Republicans and Democrats.

"Republicans get up and go to work," he would tell his son. "Democrats get up and go down to the mailbox to get their checks."

This man not only talked to his son about Republican values, he went into public-school classrooms and talked about them as well.

That man is Jim Greer — the same Jim Greer who, as chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, just threw a nationwide hissy fit, claiming that the classroom is no place for politics and Barack Obama's "indoctrination.

by David Safier
From Tucson Weekly's The Range:

The Tucson Association of Realtors starts its "Stuff the Bus" school-supply drive today.

Donations of back-to-school essentials (backbacks, notebooks, binders, etc.) can be dropped off from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., through Friday, Aug. 7, at the Tucson Association of Realtors Building at 2445 N. Tucson Blvd.

Donations can also be dropped off at the following times and places: noon to 4 p.m., Saturday, July 25, at the Office Max at 5550 E. Broadway Blvd.; noon to 4 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 1, at the Office Max at 3838 N. Oracle Road; and noon to 4 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 8, at the Walgreens at 4685 E. Grant Road.