The Arizona Telecommunications and Information Council (ATIC) and its partner eLearning System for Arizona Teachers and Students, Inc. (eSATS), an organization composed of education stakeholders and civic entrepreneurs, have announced that Arizona Senate President Ken Bennett’s Senate Bill 1512, the eLearning-centered school’s bill, has been signed into law by Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano. SB1512 is the key piece of legislation to begin Arizona’s statewide transformation of K-12 education through eLearning.

The new law paves the way for a Digital Curriculum Institute, a statewide cadre of Educational Technologists, an eLearning Teacher Professional Development and Education Institute, a statewide Data Warehouse, full deployment of statewide broadband access, mentor teachers, and tech support on every campus. eSATS’s leaders say Arizona will, in 10 years, catapult itself into the top five states in the country in K-12 education.

According to Susan Patrick, former Director of the United States Department of Education’s Office of Educational Technology, “Arizona has the opportunity to be the model for the nation.”

The key to effective education is the inter-relationship between the student and the teacher. With routine tasks transferred from the teacher to the computer, many hours are freed for the teacher to reinvest in one-on-one teaching time eSATs will bring its systems design concept to place a computer on every desk, in every classroom, in every school, in Arizona—with the intellectual infrastructure in place to guarantee that Arizona maximizes the effectiveness of this transformation. Arizona is already one of eight centers in the world for the eLearning industry, which is a $3 billion industry in the state.

Related Orgs

eLearning System for Arizona Teachers and Students, Inc. (eSATS)
Arizona Telecommunications and Information Council (ATIC)