Per capita earnings in Arizona has been lower than the national average for decades. The 2011 differential of 19 percent is the largest on record; the typical differential has been between 10 and 15 percent. Thus, for residents who have spent some or all of their working life in the state, the state’s historically low per capita earnings help to explain the state’s below-average per capita property income.

With so much new school reform activity within the United States centering on charter schools, a fresh appraisal of the situation is in order. This briefing summarizes the history of charter school laws and updates their current status across the country. Although this is not intended to be a comprehensive review, several charter school research projects are described: some that have revealed lessons learned in the implementation of charter school laws, and others, more national in scope, that were designed to systematically describe existing charter schools and document their impacts.

In 1999, the Arizona State Legislature passed a comprehensive school-tobacco law that prohibits tobacco products on school grounds, inside school buildings, in school parking lots or playing fields, in school buses or vehicles and at off-campus school-sponsored events. The law applies to any K-12 public, charter or private school. Violation of the law is a petty offense. To document the extent to which Arizona public schools are in compliance with this legislation, the Arizona Cancer Center conducted the Arizona School Policy Survey as a project of the Tobacco Education and Prevention Program of the Arizona Department of Health Services. This survey was a follow-up to a similar survey completed in 1998.