Author Archives: Linda Lyon
What’s in a label?
I was at the Arizona Capitol yesterday meeting with both Democrat and Republican legislators. My focus of course, was to advocate for support of traditional public education. What I came away with at the end of the day though, was a feeling that much of the dysfunction we currently see in our political process is a result of the labels we put on ourselves and others and the perceptions that drives. To illustrate my point, please bear with me as I ask you to read the following words and pay attention to what thoughts pop into your head. Here we go: BLACK, WHITE, GAY, STRAIGHT, REPUBLICAN, DEMOCRAT, LIBERTARIAN, TEA PARTY. I’m guessing that your brain defaulted to a fairly vivid stereotype based upon your frame of reference. That’s probably normal and something open-minded people work to avoid.
The harm in these labels is they inhibit the ability of those so labeled to work outside the stereotype to bridge the gaps in understanding between people. Yes, I am a Democrat. I believe in gay rights, a woman’s right to choose, and traditional public education. I also however, believe in fiscal responsibility (as I suspect most of my fellow Democrats do), I am pro-life (no, my default is not abortion), and I am okay with responsible gun ownership (although I don’t think anyone needs a semi-automatic, I think it is absolutely ridiculous to allow folks to take guns into bars, and I am uncomfortable with open carry by ordinary citizens.) I would guess that those positions are surprising to some people who conjured up the vision of a flaming liberal when I said I was a Democrat.
Our political process has become so hijacked by political parties and labels that our legislators can’t get the work done. I don’t know about you, but when I elect candidates to represent me at the local, state or national level, I don’t just want them to represent me, or far, far worse, to just vote the party line. I want them to study the issues, listen to constituents, reason with colleagues and then make the best decision they can for the health of the entity they represent. After all, if the United States is healthy and Arizona is healthy, I’m probably fairly happy too.
That’s not what is happening now and it needs to stop. Former Senator Russel Pearce (who was recalled by the people of Arizona for being a not so great legislator among other things), is now raising funds to oust AZ GOP legislators who voted for Medicaid expansion last year. I have to believe those legislators were voting their conscience, doing what they thought was best for the state, because they sure had to know that by voting against the far-right they were putting their chances for reelection at risk. I of course, thought this vote was the most positive thing I’d seen come out of the AZ legislature in the 5-1/2 years I’ve lived in this state.
I’m sick and tired of politics as usual and will do everything in my power to support candidates who think for themselves and support traditional public education. I pledge to go beyond the label and learn about my representatives and their viewpoints and yes, voting records. After all, labels make it easy for us to be lazy. When it comes to election day, how many people just vote the straight party ticket or, just for women, etc.? I must admit, I’ve done that sort of thing in the past when I was in the military, moved every couple of years and didn’t know the local candidates. Now though, I understand how important it is to our democracy for each of us to be informed and fully participate. Plain and simple, it is OUR government and if it is dysfunctional, it is OUR fault. You want our government to work better? Get informed, get involved, hold your legislators accountable. Please go to the Arizona School Board Association (@AzSBA) website to learn how or comment on this blog and I’ll connect you to resources. We need #ACTIONnotANGER!
Letter to Senator Barbara McGuire, Arizona Senate, LD8
Dear Senator McGuire,
I’m sure you’d agree Arizona needs a well-educated work force, especially since experts predict that by 2018, 61% of Arizona’s jobs will need at least a college degree.[i] Of course, there will also be a need for those with at least a high school diploma and trade skills. Arizona simply can’t attract new business without a robust public education system, one that affords all children equal opportunity to succeed.
Your deciding vote for the expansion of vouchers[ii] in the last legislative session was not supportive of Arizona’s public education system, in which over 85 percent of our children are still enrolled. Neither will be the legislation to further expand those vouchers in this session[iii] or, SB 1048[iv]. Unfortunately, this bill is already being fast-tracked through the legislature to further expand companies eligible for corporate student tuition organizations. In some cases, the very companies[v] some Arizona legislators allegedly have financial interests in. It concerns me that many of these bills such as empowerment scholarship accounts (parental choice scholarships[vi] or vouchers) don’t even originate in our legislature. Rather, they are crafted by the American Legislative Exchange Council [ALEC][vii] to export to state legislatures through its State Policy Network[viii]. The Goldwater Institute[ix] represents Arizona in this network.
As currently proving out in numerous states across the country, these ALEC-driven school choice options are not turning out to be the “rising tide that lifts all boats.” Rather, credible analysis has shown charter schools are not producing overall better results than their TPS counterparts.[x] A 2013 Stanford study also reported that Arizona students who attended charters versus a TPS experienced a loss in reading learning equivalent to 22 school days.[xi] This, 20 years after the start of the charter movement and even though special needs and English language learners continue to be underrepresented in charter schools.[xii]
For those who say parents deserve the choice of where to send their children to school I say that parents shouldn’t have to make a choice. Every public school should be a great school. But, that won’t happen by diverting funding from TPS to charters, (in Arizona, 20 percent of which, including BASIS[xiii], are run by for-profit organizations[xiv]), or private schools. In rural towns like Oracle and San Manuel, the TPS aren’t just places where children get educated, they are also the hub of the community. As you grew up in the Copper Corridor, I know you “get” this.
The Oracle School District lost our override election in 2013, by only 60 votes. Not only did this election cost us $30K to hold, it translates into a $145K loss for this year school year, double that next year, and all $470K by 2016/17. If we don’t get the override approved this November, it will be disastrous for our students. We already discontinued music and art and that’s probably just the beginning. With essentially no additional funding to meet the Common Core mandate and the cuts we’ve experienced over the past five years, the situation is dire.
That is why I will continue to advocate for on behalf of the children in my school district and will encourage their parents and others to do the same. As we follow this legislative session, I look forward to telling our constituents about the great things you will do to support public education.
Sincerely,
Linda M. Thomas
References:
[ii] http://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2013/07/01/deal-with-the-devil-democrats-question-tactic-colleague-used-to-get-her-bills-passed/
[iii] http://goldwaterinstitute.org/article/immediate-release-lawmakers-goldwater-institute-will-work-expand-education-savings-accounts
[iv] http://www.azleg.gov//FormatDocument.asp?inDoc=/legtext/51leg/2r/summary/s.1048fin.docx.htm&Session_ID=112
[vi] http://www.alec.org/model-legislation/the-parental-choice-scholarship-program-act-universal-eligibility/
ACA not perfect, but is a step forward
RE: the Nov14 letter to the editor “Fast forward to impeachment.”
With respect to the retired USAF colonel, since when is a poor choice of words an impeachable offense, and why are you so worried about it? Your outrage should be focused at the insurance companies who sold these junk policies to begin with, or maybe we should just thank them for forcing more people into the Affordable Care Act.
Beginning in January, and for decades into the future, people will have transparent options that really can’t be taken away, and the additional clients will keep costs down. Why so much fighting over something that isn’t perfect, but is a positive step forward?
We should be screaming at Congress to make it even better. Upon hearing a positive ACA experience from a neighbor at a SaddleBrooke forum recently, one lady said, “You should be pushed over a cliff.” We’re all Americans here. Let’s get a grip!
Five Biggest Lies by School Choice Advocates
#5. School choice saves the taxpayers money. First of all, did you know that in the state of Arizona, charter schools get $1,000 more per pupil in state funding than traditional district schools? Secondly, all the funding workarounds concocted (often by the American Legislative Exchange Council or ALEC) and implemented by our legislators, only serve to obfuscate the reality and prevent blame being laid where it belongs. Tax credit donations, empowerment scholarship accounts, and school tuition organization donations serve to redistribute state revenue and hide the truth that Arizona led the nation in per public spending cuts between 2008 and 2012 ($3 billion). Tax credits reduce funding into the state coffers and in the case of district schools, give the taxpayers the impression they are doing their part to support education when the reality is the funding doesn’t go into the classrooms, but only for extracurricular, fee-based activities. In the case of private schools, it is even worse since tax revenue is diverted directly into private education. Although proponents say school choice saves the state money, this is true only if students who started out in public schools, end up in private schools. Unfortunately, many tuition scholarships funded by the tax credits have gone to students who would have attended private schools anyway, representing a financial loss for the state.
#4. School choice puts parents in control. Au contraire. Local control puts parents in control. School choice promotes competition versus collaboration amongst district schools, and encourages charter school development. Although non-profit charter schools are technically classified as public schools, they are often owned or run (behind the scenes) by for-profit companies who don’t follow the same rules of transparency as district schools and, aren’t accountable to taxpayers. Charter schools are also legally required to accept all, but they are very adept at cherry picking their students and therefore have less than their “fair” share of special education and English language learning students. Despite this, charter schools do not by and large perform better than district schools. Parents are often aware of this and just assume charters perform better. Some do, but many don’t.
#3. School choice is the rising tide that will lift all. Arizona State Senator Al Melvin, now a gubernatorial candidate, says that giving $9,000 vouchers to parents for each child will allow them to send their children to the school of their choice. This, he says, will cause the bad schools to close and improve the quality of the rest. First of all, there isn’t enough money in the entire Arizona state budget for all 1.6 million school children in the state. Secondly, those who have access to make the choice will go, leaving those who don’t “stuck” with less funding in the public schools and much less opportunity for improvement. As Diane Ravitch writes in her latest book, Reign of Error, “in a democracy, important social goals required social collaboration.” Schools are not businesses that can reject “inferior” raw product. They must take all and teach all. Yes, they should operate efficiently but that should never be their primary concern.
As profiled by Malcom Gladwell in The New Yorker, economist Albert Hirschman, in his best know book Exit, Voice, and Loyalty, said there are two strategies people have for dealing with badly performing organizations and institutions. Hirschman said the “exit” option “failed to send a useful message to underperformers.” When engaged parents “exit” the system, versus using their “voice” to improve it, they remove agitation that could have improved the school for all.
#2. School choice is about the children. To put it plainly, baloney! School choice is about business…big business. Those on the right are up in arms about “government shoving Common Core standards down the states’ throats.” The real drivers behind the standards though, are huge corporations and their foundations such as Microsoft, Wal-Mart, and Koch Industries just to name a few. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation alone gave at least $150 million for the development and implementation of the standards. The National Governor’s Association Center for Best Practices and the Council of Chief State Schools Officers were big recipients and key to the adoption of the standards. The education industry in the United States is a big pie (worth over $600 billion dollars) and everyone wants a piece of it. This effort has been building for a long time, but Diane Ravitch says the current administration’s Race to the Top initiative and push for Common Core Standards is the “first time in history that the U.S. Department of Education designed programs with the intent of stimulating private sector investors to create for-profit ventures in American education.”
#1. School choice is the civil rights issue of our time. School Choice advocates say school choice ensures disadvantaged children the same opportunities as those more fortunate. Not hardly. By and large, disadvantaged children don’t have the access to make the choice. Their parents either can’t drive them to the charter or private school, or their language skills don’t allow them to complete the complicated application, or they can’t donate time to help out at the school as often required. School choice is not the civil rights issue of our time, poverty is. Segregation, largely by socio-economic status (which often translates into race), is the highest it has been since 1964. This has happened quietly and by design and the result is that those with less have a very good chance of always having less. The American Dream is really now just a dream for many people.
Ultimately, parents shouldn’t have to make a choice. Every district school should provide an equally high quality education. The original intent of charters was not to compete with traditional district schools; rather, it was to meet unique needs. In many cases, that original intent has now devolved into just another business opportunity and way to milk the taxpayer. A strong public education system helped provide a sense of community and make our nation the greatest on earth. The current trend of privatization will do nothing to help promote the public good and keep America strong. School choice isn’t the solution, it is the easy way out and won’t work in the long run. Blogger Steve Hinnefeld, in his blog School Matters, wrote “the contempt that school choice advocates commonly express for public schools is, at its root, contempt for democracy itself.” I tend to agree since the democratic process requires education, engagement and is rarely easy or efficient. It is much easier to cut and run.
Parents shouldn’t have to choose, kids shouldn’t have to lose
The education reform movement loves to tout that parent’s right to choose is the “civil rights issue of our time.” They point to how charter and private schools, and the vouchers to fund them will allow disadvantaged children to leave the public schools they are at and move to better performing schools which will better serve them. This will eventually cause the bad public schools to close and raise the tide for all. There are several reasons why this line of reasoning just doesn’t meet the smell test.
First of all, choice doesn’t always equal opportunity. Not every parent can complete the complex applications sometimes required, or transport their children to the charter or private school, or put in the requisite number of volunteer hours sometimes required. Secondly, there is no evidence that charter schools on the whole perform better than public schools. In fact, despite the fact that charter schools are supposed to be open to all, they still often cherry pick their students, accepting less than their share of special education or English language learning students. Lastly, as I just mentioned, there just won’t be a wholesale departure from public education to charter and private schools. Arizona is a leader in the charter school movement and yet almost 90 percent of our school children still attend district schools. What will happen is the better students with more advantages, will potentially try other alternatives. Those that can’t take advantage of opportunity however, will remain and segregation, the highest now since 1964, will just continue to increase.
The real truth however, is that parents should not have to make a choice. Every public school in America should provide a quality education with a full curriculum including music, art and physical education. Unfortunately, now in the Oracle School District, we no longer offer music or art and because of our recently failed override continuation (by 98 votes), we’ll most likely be forced to cut physical education. And so the death spiral continues. Funding is cut, forcing schools to cut the program or take it “out of hide”. Of course, our education professionals work hard to find a way to still do it all. That in itself contributes to the death spiral because then the taxpayer can claim “see, you didn’t need that funding after all.” Cutting programs is just as bad, because it can cause students to leave the district for another that still provides the desired program. This then reduces the District’s budget and means they can provide even less. This is a formula for failure, not success.
In the meantime, we owe our all our children the opportunity to succeed, regardless of zip code or skin color. Our future as a nation depends on it because we never know from where our best and brightest will emerge. Charter schools have a place in our education system. There are needs they best serve. But…they were never intended to replace public community schools and in Arizona, they cost the taxpayers $1,000 more in state-provided funding per pupil than district schools.
America is a great nation. Public education for all contributed greatly to our success. The full-on assault currently being waged on public education threatens our success. Contrary to what the education reformists would have you believe, our public schools are performing well. Our graduation rate is higher than ever, our dropout rate is lower than ever, and our students’ performance on international tests is on par with just about any other nation when we factor out the affects of poverty. Poverty is the issue that threatens our education system, and our schools can’t solve this problem. It will take all of us working together to address it.
Predatory Privatization
Education reformers would have you believe the best way to improve the American public education is to privatize it. Senator Al Melvin, candidate for Arizona Governor, thinks the solution is to give parents $9K for each of their children so they can choose where to send their child. Never mind that there are over $1 million students in Arizona and the cost to implement this “voucher” system would be more than the entire state budget.
Nonetheless, let’s explore this idea that privatization is the best solution to provide services for the common good. In Arizona, we turn to the business of incarcerating people, as this state is one of the leader’s in privatizing prisons. In early 2012, the Arizona chapter of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) issued a report on the impact of private prisons in the state. The report was called “Private Prisons: the Public’s Problem” and it concluded that between 2008 and 2010, Arizona overpaid for private prison services by about $10 million, and the services it received were sub-par: malfunctioning alarm systems, fences with holes in them, staff who didn’t follow basic procedures and more. In fact, the state’s auditor general found 157 serious security failings across five prisons that hold in-state prisoners. At least 28 riots were also noted.[i]
How did we get here? In 2012, Corrections Corporation of America (the largest for-profit private prison company in the country) sent a letter to 48 state governors offering to buy their public prisons in return for 20-year contracts. These contracts would include a 90 percent occupancy rate guarantee for the entire term. In Arizona, three for-profit prison contracts secured a staggering 100% quota, despite an analysis from 2012 by the Tucson Citizen that showed the company’s per-day charge for each prisoner increased an average of 13.9% over the life of the contracts. In 1997, Arizona’s spent $409 million on prisons; the per-year cost is more than $1 billion today. The state now has over 600 current contracts for incarceration related functions, but in fact, cost-effectiveness claims of private prisons just aren’t true.[ii] According to both AFSC and the non-profit privatization resource center, In the Public Interest: “in states across the country, private prisons have been plagued with a multitude of problems – major riots have exploded, inmates have died, and civil rights have been routinely violated. Private prisons have an economic motive to cut costs in every area of operations, resulting in lower-quality staff, higher employee turnover, and degrading prison conditions. These dismal conditions directly contribute to the decreased security and higher incidence of violence found at privatized prisons. As prison quality greatly suffers, there is little evidence that these private prisons save governments money.”
Surely this drove Arizona legislators to rethink their position on privatizing prisons, right? Nope, instead of trying to right the ship, they just turned it into a submarine passing HB2860 which, in the words of AFSC, would “ensure that the public would have no way of knowing whether the state’s private prisons are saving money, rehabilitating prisoners, or ensuring public safety.”[iii] Why would this be the case you ask? Let’s just follow the money. Private prison companies like GEO Group and Corrections Corporation of America have made huge contributions to legislators from both major parties, but most of the funds have gone to Republicans. These corporations have also played a very direct role in designing legislation good for business (such as SB 1070, the state’s notorious immigration bill, passed in 2010). Florida on the other hand, made exactly the opposite choice with a bi-partisan bill to defeat a plan to privatize the state’s prisons. The legislators who opposed the bill “argued that public education, like public safety, is a core mission of government that shouldn’t be outsourced to private vendors.”[iv]
As with the prison industry example, the incentives motivating those seeking privatization appear to be immune to the failures of vouchers to deliver on the promise of improved educational outcomes.[v] The Arizona State Legislature has been working toward privatization of our public schools in a multitude of ways. Tax credits for private schools and student tuition organizations wash money from public schools into private ones, often for students whose parents didn’t need the help to send their child to those schools. Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESA) give parents 90% of what the state would have spent on their child with a wide range of how they can spend it, even to send their child to a private school. Then there was also the pillaging of the public education budget that made Arizona the state with the highest per-pupil cuts to education from 2008 to 2012. Court mandated funding of the owed inflation funding from Prop 301 has helped raise us to third highest in the nation now, but that still is a poor ranking. Of course, it is important to understand that many of these voucher work-around programs get started as providing opportunity to students from poor families, children with disabilities or students in underperforming schools as with Arizona’s ESAs. This however, is not the ultimate goal of the privatizers. They are instead, a tactical means to a much larger strategic end of ending public education.[vi]
To what end you ask? Again, follow the money. Organizations like ALEC are promoting school choice and privatization, providing our legislators “camera ready” bills to implement across the country. In addition, Right-wing organizations and donors laud Arizona as a leader in the school choice movement and are funneling big money into the state.
What is really ironic about this whole privatization movement is that the GOP has painted them self into this corner. Their anti-government fanaticism, combined with tough stances on crime, immigration, etc., combined with a refusal to raise taxes, forces them to tout the benefits of privatization. Unfortunately, the companies whom the services are farmed out to are interested much more in a desire to generate revenue than in any social obligation. Think Halliburton and Backwater during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The bottom line is that business is in business to make money. There is nothing wrong with that as long as the product or service they provide is not something that must be provided to everyone regardless of their ability to pay. Every state constitution in the nation mandates the state provide a free public education – it was a requirement for their entry into the Union. But, when public services have been outsourced to “for-profit” companies, it is very likely the contract will increase in cost over time, limit transparency, undermine good public policy and the democratic process, and that the drive to generate revenue over providing for the public good will eventually be more costly to the taxpayers.[vii] The examples abound. We should pay attention. Public schools are not only our right as Americans, but they helped make us a great nation and, are important still very important to the health of our communities today.
[i] https://afsc.org/sites/afsc.civicactions.net/files/documents/Arizona_Prison_Report_Executive_Summary.pdf
[iv] Diane Ravitch, “Reign of Error”, September 17, 2013
[v] http://www.pfaw.org/rww-in-focus/predatory-privatization-exploiting-financial-hardship-enriching-1-percent-undermining-d
Entitled to his opinions, but not his own facts
RE: Tea-Party Republicans are not a fringe.
The writer is entitled to his opinions, but not his own facts. He claims “tea-party fringe Republicans” comprise a majority in the House of Representatives. As of January 2013, there were 49 members of the Tea Party Caucus in the House. That’s 11.26%, NOT a majority. He also claims they represent a majority of the American people. [i] A September 2013 Gallup poll found (with Independents indicating which way they “lean”), 41% identified as Republicans and 47% as Democrats. Given that, that there is no way Tea Party Republicans represent the majority of Americans.[ii]
I am incredibly tired of people vocalizing their discontent when they have no idea what they are talking about. The government shutdown is not a protest of the people, by the people, for the people. It is a desperate political ploy intended to subvert the will of MOST Americans and hold our economy hostage at the expense of all Americans.
[i] En.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_Party_Caucus
The State of Education in Arizona
From 2008 to 2014, our state enjoyed the third highest change in K-12 per pupil spending (down 17 percent) in the nation.[i] Two out of three children don’t attend preschool, 27 percent live in poverty and three-quarters of fourth-graders aren’t proficient in reading. In fact, Arizona ranks 47th overall in the annual Kids Count survey.[ii]
Yet, our Legislature seems determined to destroy public education. In 2013, they expanded eligibility for Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESAs).[iii] These accounts allow parents to withdraw their eligible children from public schools and use 90 percent of the state money to pay for educational alternatives, including private school, tutoring, curricula, textbooks, online classes and tuition at Arizona’s public colleges.[iv] Senator Barbara McGuire moved to reconsider the bill after the Senate initially defeated it and then changing her vote to see it pass.[v] Arizona currently has 302 students with ESAs with $5.2 million taken from public education.[vi] This amount is only expected to grow, at the expense, of our public community schools. That’s one of the reasons passage of Oracle School District’s current budget override continuation is so important.
The $82 million per year in Prop 301 inflation monies the state has now been ordered to pay schools doesn’t event begin to close the gap.[vii] The Common Core Standards adopted by Arizona in 2010 are an unfunded mandate. The Arizona School Board Association estimates the cost of implementation in 2014-2015 alone at $156 million statewide and another $240 million in software/hardware upgrades and broadband expansion.[viii]
What can you do? Register for the Arizona Legislature’s “Request to Speak” system at http://www.azsba.org/advocacy/resource-center/. Once registered, you can comment on proposed legislation on-line and have it read into the record in Education Committee meetings. You can also call and email your representatives and of course, writing articles and letters to the editor is always a good idea. It is both your right and responsibility. Want to learn more? Email me at lthomas@osd2.org.
[i] http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/09/25/7-states-slashing-education-spending/2866529/
[ii] http://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/tables/7288-kids-count-overall-rank?loc=4&loct=2#detailed/2/4/false/36,868/any/14344
[v] http://www.blogforarizona.com/blog/2013/07/no-barbara-mcguires-vote-for-vouchers-wasnt-a-surprise.html
AZ Rep Steve Smith Should Stick to LD11 Issues
In the past two years, LD11 Representative Steve Smith has made zero progress in his pledge to build the border fence other than raising a mere $275,000 (less than 10% of the GAO estimated cost to build one mile) and changing the name of his effort from Build America’s Fence to Secure America’s Border. In a August 16, 2013 Arizona Capital Times article, Smith said he hasn’t focused on fundraising but has devoted his attention to discussions with logistics and lawyers, which have taken up most of his time.[i]
One has to wonder just why Representative Smith is spending so much time on border security when the most southern point of LD11 is at least 75 miles from the border. In addition, the Tucson Metro Chamber of Commerce recently released their 51st Legislature Report Card showing Smith missing 27.4 percent of the votes, the worst record of any Southern Arizona legislator.[ii]
The priority bill votes he missed were HB2499, the JTED funding bill; HB2173, the unemployment insurance omnibus; HB2111, transaction privilege tax changes; and HB2608, defined contribution for EORP. Other votes he missed were assured water supply requirements exemption, school finance revisions, and new requirements for petition circulators.
LD11 has a myriad of important issues that we need our legislators to focus on. Border security is a federal government responsibility, Representative Smith needs to focus on the business of the people of LD11.
Restore Reason 