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September 13, 2024

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Are We Strong and Determined?

Our Public Schools and Common Good Depend on It

According to the New York Times, Project 2025 suggests that the federal Department of Education should be “eliminated”. The Republican Party’s 2024 platform shares this idea and although Trump has been trying to distance himself from it, there is plenty of proof that he has endorsed it in the past. Not only that, but his positions are even weirder.

It is not surprising, that Trump’s position on education is low on content and high on red meat. He promises “the direct election of school principals by the parents” and to cut “federal funding for any school or program pushing critical race theory, gender ideology or other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content to our children”. To counter the threat he says is posed by the “Marxists” and “pink-haired Communists teaching our kids”, he’ll “create a new credentialing body” (the “world’s gold standard”), “to certify teachers who embrace patriotic values, support our way of life and understand that their job is not to indoctrinate children but very simply to educate them.” Wait, whaaaaaaat?

Firstly, under our current laws, he can’t make good on his promise to allow parents to directly elect principals. And, why do they need to? Parents (and other voters) already elect governing board members responsible for oversight of district administration. If parents aren’t happy with the way the school is run, they have the power to address it. Secondly, just so I understand, teaching kids the true history of America as a multi-cultural melting pot that has promised, but not always delivered, liberty and justice for all is indoctrination. But, teachers embracing patriotic values (as defined by the right-wing) and supporting our way of life (assuming “our” refers to white, heterosexual, Christians with children) is not indoctrination. Good to know.

What is also good to know, is that these issues were those of the last election, not of this one. As reported in The74, “an online survey of 1,300 likely 2024 voters – including parents of school-age children, found Americans now care about different issues related to public education: safety, high-quality teaching, and literacy. Or as The74 puts it, safe schools and kids who can read.

The truth is, Trump and his GOP cronies aren’t out to improve academic outcomes for all America’s children. They are out to keep the rich and powerful ensconced in their ivory towers by dividing the rest of us. This is why they promote the privatization of our public schools and couch (maybe I should have used a different word here) it as school choice and parental empowerment. The truth is that where vouchers have gone on the ballot, voters have rejected them. Voters know that our public schools are the hubs of our communities. They bring us together and help bond us in a shared identity. There is power in this shared identity.

We can though, fight back. We must vote for lawmakers who will legislate for the next generation versus the next election. We must recognize that America’s public schools have always been a big part of our success as a nation and are our best solution to ensure the “educated citizenry” Thomas Jefferson wrote was “a vital requisite for our survival as a free people”.

I am no pedagogical expert, but I learned a long time ago that people care how much you care, long before they care how much you know. So, let’s just start with really caring. That would mean we no longer accept firearms as the number one cause of death for children in the U.S. killing more children each year than car accidents, drug poisoning, drowning, and suffocation. Everytown.com reports that in 2024, there were at least 124 incidents of gunfire on school grounds, resulting in 34 deaths and 71 injuries nationally. It is inexcusable that school shootings are now just a way of life in classrooms around our country and lockdown kits are yet something else schools need along with locked single entry points, metal detectors, cameras, and active shooter drills. If we continue to allow the carnage, we just don’t care enough and that simply IS who we are.

A second step is for all of us to understand education is an investment, not an expense. The future is only as bright as the children who inherit it and we can’t give them what they need without a serious commitment of time and resources. Those resources include high-quality teachers and support staff, a full curriculum, and well-fed “butts in seats”. The GOP’s Project 2025 may call Federal school meals an entitlement program inferring it a bad thing, but students focus better when they are fed and we should care more about them being fed than about who does the feeding. We also need them to attend school. As the New York Times reported, “an estimated 26% of students were considered chronically absent (missing around 18 days) in 2023. Increased discipline problems are intertwined with absenteeism and both are holding back progress in our schools.

In a 2017 New York Times magazine article titled “Have We Lost Sight of the Promise of Public Education?” Author Nikole Hannah-Jones discusses how American public institutions and systems have long struggled with the ideal of serving the common good against the strong influence of the private market economy. She wrote, “If there is hope for a renewal of our belief in public institutions and the common good, it may reside in public schools”. I believe it does reside in our public schools, but only if we fight for them. It’s just sad that in the seven years since her article, the forces fighting back seem stronger, or at least more determined, than ever. Are we?

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So…What’s the Real Deal with Vouchers?

Hint: It’s not about improving educational outcomes for disadvantaged children

I was reminded by someone today that back in the 1970s, Arizona public schools were 19th in the nation for funding. Now, they rank 49th. This didn’t occur in a vacuum, nor was it by accident. Rather, it has been, and is, a concerted effort to wrest power from the people by defunding the common good and destroying our sense of community. 

One of the most effective routes to this end is to privatize public education and Arizona has been the pace car. From being the first state to allow charter schools in 1994, to leading the effort to offer dollar-for-dollar tax credits to fund private school scholarships in 1997, Arizona has leaned into the school privatization effort. Although the path hasn’t always been a straight line, (an initial voucher attempt was ruled unconstitutional and the first try at universal expansion was successfully killed by a Save Our Schools AZ ballot initiative), AZ GOP lawmakers finally succeeded in passing universal vouchers in 2022.

Of course, those lawmakers didn’t do it on their own. The American Federation for Children (Betsy DeVos), Americans for Prosperity (Koch Brothers), American Legislative Exchange Council (national conservative bill mill), and the Goldwater Institute were all behind the voucher expansion here in Arizona and elsewhere. According to the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting (AZCIR), Arizona’s Goldwater Institute has said, “It won’t stop until parents in every state in the nation are empowered to decide what education path truly meets their children’s needs”. 

What, I would ask, about the rest of our needs? These programs, despite proponent’s claims, have not saved taxpayers money. Rather, they’ve diverted and diluted the funding available to our district schools, where 80% of our students are educated. In an analysis of state education spending, Columbia University researchers found from 2008 to 2019, “Arizona was one of the few states where public school spending declined even as enrollment increased. Per-pupil public school spending dropped by 5.7% during that period, according to the analysis, while spending on voucher and tax-credit programs climbed by 270%”. According to the Arizona Department of Education, the total annual ESA awards for students enrolled in Quarter 3 of this year is $735 million this year. And to those who claim that there is a direct cost reduction to public schools when students take a voucher, that is only true if the student was attending a public school when they took the voucher. In FY 2023, only 21% of those taking vouchers were in public schools at the time indicating families are likely using vouchers to subsidize expenses they had formerly covered. As of March 2024, AZ DOE claimed the number has risen to 61.5%. Regardless, when a public school student leaves to take a voucher, there are always fixed costs that the public school can’t reduce when one or a handful of students leave (bus routes, number of teachers required, utility consumption, etc.”). In the meantime, tightened funding hampers our public school leaders in ensuring facilities are well-maintained, and that transportation, technology, and other needs are addressed.

These programs also offer us no real accountability. Private schools aren’t required to participate in state or national testing, nor to publicly report the efficacy of their educational efforts with indicators such as grades and graduation rates. This might have been okay when parents self-funded their children’s private education, but it is not when taxpayers foot the bill. We have a right to know how those tax dollars are spent and whether or not we are getting an adequate return on our investment. Instead, the GOP-led Legislature has resisted any attempts to introduce more accountability into the voucher program. 

Of course, this is all by design. If schools (whether it be private schools, homeschools, micro-schools, or religious schools) accepting vouchers aren’t required to report on academic progress, they can’t be compared to public schools. This allows voucher proponents to make claims that can’t be supported with data. And, the more funding that is cut from our public schools, the harder it is for them to succeed. As Maria Polletta from the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting writes, “The harder you make it for public schools to succeed, the easier it is to sell the alternatives. And, plenty of well-financed conservative groups are working to do just that”. This leaves us to ask ourselves what’s in it for them.

I’d argue that the desire to maintain and grow their power and wealth is driving privatization proponents. We already have proof that vouchers work better for well-resourced students than lower-income ones. This dynamic, (according to Professor Derek Black who specialized in the intersection of constitutional law and public education), “will continue to exacerbate segregation and create a fragmented educational landscape”. Black goes on to say, “The people who propose these types of things, in my mind, are either highly ignorant of or highly dismissive of a 200-year commitment to public education with the understanding that democracy itself rests upon it.” Or maybe, just maybe, they know exactly what they are doing…

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March 3, 2024

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“Happy” Public Schools Week

Today is the last day of #PublicSchoolsWeek so I thought it an appropriate day to take a look at the state of public education in Arizona. Spoiler’s alert…our public schools need more than a week named in their honor.

Fraud in the Voucher Program. Yes, vouchers are alive (if NOT AT ALL well), continuing to rob our state and our public schools of valuable resources. Despite claims that vouchers would help poor children in underperforming schools, about 75 percent of voucher recipients (after the program was initially expanded) had no record of AZ public school attendance. And just this week, Attorney General Kris Mayes announced the indictment of five people on charges of defrauding Arizona’s ESA voucher program of at least $600,000. Three of the fraudsters were former employees of the AZ Department of Education. AG Mayes blamed the Republican-controlled Legislature for never properly overseeing the ESA program. The program expanded from “12,000 children, mostly with special needs, to more than 75,000 students” when the AZ Legislature made eligibility universal in 2022. Originally estimated to cost $64 million for the current fiscal year, budget analysts now say it could top $900 million.Or is it now actually $960M?

Arizona is a Standout in the Network for Public Education’s (NPE) Public Schooling in America Report. Unfortunately, it is for being second to the last in the nation (above only Florida) for public school excellence with only 22.5 of a possible 111 points. The points were divided into four categories. 1. Privatization (is the state committed to democratically governed public schools open to all and are there guardrails on publicly funded alternatives). 2. Homeschooling (are there laws that protect children). 3. Financial support for public schools (are public schools responsibly financed). 4. The freedom to teach and learn (do state laws allow all students to feel safe and thrive at school and for teachers to provide honest instruction to children free of political intrusion.) NPE states that “this year’s report card moves beyond rating states only on charter and voucher policies. It connects the dots between the growing number of “ruthless and brutal” policies designed to disparage, underfund, and ultimately destroy public schools and the privatization goals of the far-right”. The “ruthless and brutal” reference comes from a quote by Christopher Rufo (conservative activist) at the ultra-right Hillsdale College where he told the audience, “To get to universal school choice, you need to operate from a premise of universal public school distrust. He continued by advising the audience to create a narrative around public education that is “ruthless and brutal.” Arizona is doing well at carrying his water, earning an “F” in all categories.

Proposition 123. Of course, the hits just keep on coming as the end of Proposition 123 looms in June of 2025. Prop 123 was approved by voters in 2023 to increase the annual distributions from the state land trust fund from 2.5% of the fund’s average value over five years to 6.9%. If not renewed, the allocation reverts to 2.5% or about $270M, growing as time goes on. The easiest solution says Robert Robb, would be to “refer a clean and simple measure making the existing 6.9% distribution permanent law, distributed as presently on a generally per-pupil basis”. Robb outlines the reasons, however, that this is a huge task given the current political climate. Oh yeah, and did I mention that even if the voters approve a renewal (dated or permanent), Congress must approve the distribution formula because it is embedded in the Enabling Act which made Arizona a state. Need I say more?

Medicare Advantage Plans. What do Medicare Advantage Plans have to do with public education? Not a whole lot except that as Tyna Callahan, a Tucson resident since 1990 wrote in an op-ed in the Arizona Daily Star, “As a taxpayer, I object to the concept of redirecting taxpayer-contributed Medicare funds to for-profit corporations.” Hear, hear Tyna! As a taxpayer, I object to the concept of redirecting taxpayer-contributed public education monies to private schools. Just as Advantage plans are attractive to healthy people and insurance companies, school vouchers (ESAs) are attractive to families self-funding private schools and homeschooling themselves. And, oh, by the way, the private schools are liking the taxpayer dollars they are receiving without any accountability attached. Tyna points out that “by attracting and retaining the healthiest of Medicare recipients, Medicare Advantage plans are drawing Medicare coffers, skimming the low utilizers from the program. Sound familiar?

The Rest of the Story. The AZ Auditor General District Spending report for 2023 is out and according to Howard Fischer of Capitol Media Services, indicates the “overall spending on instruction, on average, is the lowest percentage since the Auditor General’s Office began monitoring in 2004”. Although 53.4% was spent on instruction, that was down 1.1% overall from the prior school year. There are several reported reasons for this decline in instructional spending including districts having purchased large amounts of instructional materials the prior year, the need to hire counselors and instructional coaches, and “having to use more expensive contractors to fill support service needs for special education students”. The loss of more experienced teachers in rural districts also required filling positions with lower-paid staff. I must note though, that Fischer called these experienced teachers “tenured” but that is incorrect. There is no tenure for public school teachers in Arizona since this is an “at-will” employment state. The report also shows that “on average, Arizona teacher pay has seen a 30 percent increase since 2016-17, some of that fueled by federal COVID relief dollars.” That is approximately $5K more than the national average reported by salary.com in January 2024. But, the average can be misleading since “nearly one out of every five teachers has been on the job for three years or less, with an average salary statewide of $47,952”.

No, Arizona’s Teacher Lobby is Not a Union. Just as Arizona public school teachers are not tenured, neither do they have a real teachers’ union. Does the AEA lobby on behalf of public educators, yes. I am sure Billy Robb knows that Arizona is a “right to work” state which means that employees cannot collectively bargain and therefore are not technically a union. But, it fits his narrative better to call the AEA a “union”. And for him to claim that “ordinary teachers had nothing to do with the “Invest in Ed” ballot initiative is just ludicrous. I know plenty of teachers who were part of the effort. He does, however, make some good points about where any teacher lobby in Arizona should focus its efforts. One is to “applaud proposals to boost teacher pay”. I think teachers should be paid more, but I’m glad he makes the point that we need competitive pay for all school employees. Another is to “advocate for deregulation”. He proposes that “any future mandates on public schools should apply equally to private schools receiving vouchers for funding. If this stipulation would put an end to a regulation, what does that tell you about the regulation?” Amen brother! He also says we should “push for standardized testing reform”. Ya’ think? How about we just do away with it altogether?

And yet…our schools continue to deliver. You have to wonder how much more they can take. How many teachers have to be driven out of the profession, how much funding has to be robbed by privatization efforts, and how narrow does the curriculum have to become before our system of public education finally breaks? I don’t know and I sure hope we don’t find out.

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July 27, 2021

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Too Weak or Unwilling

Former U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, said, ”Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts”. These words written in 1983, with today’s relentless attacks on facts and the truth, are now even more applicable. The election was stolen, the January 6th insurrectionists were tourists, and the Earth is flat. Yes, there are people who still believe this as fact. Check out their website at Flat Earth Society.

Most of us however, live in reality, at least about the fact that the Earth is indeed, round. Unfortunately, there are way too many that deny facts such as those about climate change. This, despite all the available science and the terrible impacts we are witnessing in real time.

The news over the past month has been full of climate change stories. You’ve no doubt seen that Lake Powell, Lake Mead and the Great Salt Lake are all at record lows and although drops were predicted, the pace at which they are happening, is shocking. Lake Powell is now below the target level requiring mandatory cutbacks next year to Arizona, Nevada and Mexico with California following if the decline continues. 

Record heat blasted the Pacific Northwest last month, with Portland hitting 116 degrees and Seattle 108 degrees, both record highs. Even more surprising, was the 121 degree temperature hit in the British Columbia village of Lytton. 

The deaths of almost 200 people is attributed to the recent Pacific Northwest heat wave, 50 hawk chicks were found to have flung themselves from their nests 50 feet high just to try to escape the heat, an estimated one billion mussels, sea stars and other shore-dwellers died from exposure to unusually hot air, and countless fish are struggling to survive, including the endangered Chinook salmon which can’t survive beyond their egg stage in overheated waters. 

And it isn’t just in the Pacific Northwest. As of July 23rd, the U.S. had set 585 all-time heat records, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). One place, Death Valley, hit 130, considered the hottest reliable temperature ever recorded there. 

According to the University of Nebraska’s Drought Monitor, 60% of the U.S. West is in exceptional or extreme drought with less than 1% of the West not in drought or abnormally dry. Average rain- and snowfall per year in the West has fallen from 22 inches per year in the 1980s and 1990s, to 19 inches from 2010 to 2020 and only 13.6 inches from July 2020 to June 2021. Now in a megadrought, the West has extremely low soil moisture, setting the stage for more frequent, and much larger and hotter wildfires.

These fires now rage across the U.S. West, and in Oregon alone, over 475,000 acres have burnt thus far in eight fires, with the largest, the Bootleg fire, generating so much energy and extreme heat that it’s creating its own clouds and thunderstorms and sending dense smoke 3,000 miles from one side of the country to the other. By the third week in July, 60 other fires were burning across the American West for a total of over one million acres consumed by fire. In fact, the average million acres burned in wildfires each year has doubled in the past two decades. And, they are happening earlier in the year and more often over the years, negatively impacting the ecosystem’s ability to regenerate. 

It’s not that we don’t know what to do. It’s that we just don’t care or at least not enough of us care enough. If we did, we could push back against the power of Big Oil and all those who profit from the status quo. That’s because they aren’t paying the bill U.S. taxpayers have had to suck up to deal with the impact of climate change. More than $350 billion from 2008 to 2018 according to the nonpartisan federal watchdog the Government Accountability Office (GAO). And by 2050, the cost is estimated to be at $35 billion per year.

For those who think this is not human-caused, but just a naturally-occurring cyclical change, I say “who cares” what is causing it? Shouldn’t we do everything possible to reduce any contribution we make to it? 

We know that the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere has increased more than 20% in less than 40 years, owing largely to human activities, and representing well over 50% of the total increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide since the onset of the industrial revolution (1750).

GlobalChange.gov

Approximately 12,000 Americans die annually from heat-related deaths. According to a study published by the US National Library of Medicine National Institute of Health, if heat-trapping gas emission continue to rise at the current rate, the number of deaths by 2100 would increase eight-fold. Even modest progress to cut greenhouse gases though, could cut heat-related deaths by two-thirds. 

What’s the chances that we’ll act in time? Maybe. Some scientists believe to avoid disaster, we’ll need to drastically reduce our carbon emissions by 2030.  Current population growth trends however, anticipate a 50% growth in the 1.4 billion people currently dependent on fossil fuels to meet their basic needs. The means the goal will only get harder to achieve.

Maybe the climate change deniers don’t care what happens over the next 50-plus years because they won’t be around when it gets really bad. Unfortunately, their children and grandchildren will, and they will be forced to deal with the reality we created but were collectively too weak and/or unwilling to confront. What a sad legacy to leave.

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June 22, 2018

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Arizona Fails Another Test

Yesterday, the Network for Public Education and the Schott Foundation for Public Education, released a report titled “Grading the States” that serves as a report card on our nation’s commitment to public schools. At the onset, they challenge the belief in privatization as the solution and write,

Although the public school system is not perfect and has continual room for improvement, it is still the cornerstone of community empowerment and advancement in American society.

Therein, I believe, lies the rub. Those driving America’s economic engine, don’t want everyone aboard the train. Instead, those who most “have”, are working very hard to leave the “have nots” at the station. As Stephen Brill writes in his new book “Tailspin”,

Conservatives have always preached self-reliance while liberals favored an activist government that assures the common good. However, [what we are seeing now] is a new, wider, and more dangerous divide – between those at the top, who enjoy unprecendented power, and everyone else. For those at the top, the common good is no longer good for them.

Even though many Americans have become polarized into either the Conservative or Liberal camps, the real fight isn’t there. Increasingly, it is between the MEGA “haves” and the “have-nots”. Truth is, for these MEGA “haves”, political ideology and allegiance to our nation, are likely much less important than maintaining and improving their status. After all, in our global economy, our country’s borders are no barrier to their multi-national interests and in their gilded worlds, not only do they increasingly not care about the common good, they don’t even need it. And nothing, is more all about the “common good” than public education. It provides opportunity to all and is largely responsible for building the strongest middle class in the world, once making the American Dream a possibility for many.

Now, that Dream is largely out-of-reach by the vast majority of Americans and the assault on public education is a real threat to our nation. As “Grading the States” points out,

Privatization in public schools weakens our democracy and often sacrifices the rights and opportunities of the majority for the presumed advantage of a small percentage of students.

Those paying attention, are aware of the threat. What “Grading the States” does, is drive home the havoc being wreaked by grading each state according to “instituted policies and practices that lead toward fewer democratic opportunities and more privatization”, as well as “the guardrails put into place [or not] to protect the rights of students, communities and taxpayers”.

It should surprise no Arizona public school advocate that our state received an “F” rating. It also should not surprise that Arizona was ranked 51st overall, 50th in voucher policy and 49th in charter policy.

Delving into further details, the report notes that,

Of the 18 states with Tuition Tax-Credit Programs, 9 fail to require any accreditation of the schools that receive a benefit from such Tuition Tax-Credit Programs. Arizona has the worst accountability over their Tuition Tax-Credit Programs. Except for requiring background checks for teachers and employees, Arizona’s Tuition Tax-Credit Programs fail all the reviewed accountability categories.

It also points out that although privatization advocates claim “vouchers and charter programs are more accountable than public schools”, research just doesn’t bear this out.

For example, the ESA program of Arizona, the largest in the country, expects no evidence or monitoring of student achievement, while placing 90% of the public school funding on a debit card for parents to find non-public education services.

Only public district schools after all, have locally elected governing board members, who are accountable to the voters and taxpayers, and must adhere to open meeting laws.

Perhaps craziest of all, is that we are all being sold a bill of goods that aren’t, by and large, delivering better results and that most of us really don’t want. According to the report, a poll conducted in October 2017 found that,

among all registered voters, only 40 percent supported vouchers while 55 percent are opposed. This number further decreases to 23 percent with opposition at 70 percent when voters were asked to consider support if it meant less money for public schools.

In Arizona, a December 2016 poll supported these findings, showing that 77 percent indicated the state should spend more money on our schools and 61 percent indicated they would support a tax increase to provide additional funding for education.

To understand why then, the push to privatize is being pursued with such vigor, one need only follow the profit and power. The U.S. K-12 education market is estimated to be worth some $700 billion. The oversight of public education is the most fundamental exercise of our right to self-govern and in many communities, our districts are the hubs of those communities. If the privatizers succeed in killing our right to, and interest in, engaging on behalf of our children, what engagement will we still care about?

 

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Hey Ducey: 19% of what is already owed, isn’t “new” money

When I went to bed last night, I intended to write a post in the morning about Governor Ducey’s unveiling of his school safety plan yesterday. Now, as I sit down to write, I learn of yet another school shooting, this one in Maryland. As of March 8th according to CNN, there had already been 14 school shootings in 2018 which averaged out to 1.5 per week. Delving into the numbers, only 2 of those are what I would call “mass shootings”. The rest of them, although they all occurred on school grounds, (grades K through university level), were either a result of gang violence, fights and domestic violence or accidental discharge where someone besides the shooter was shot.

I present this information not to minimize the other shootings but because yesterday someone shared with me that they heard some gun violence statistics that turned out to be misleading. Let’s face it, numbers can be sliced and diced to prove just about any narrative. In the end though, I say what does it matter and why focus on that? America’s school children feel unsafe in their schools…what are we doing about it?

Yesterday, Governor Ducey unveiled his school safety plan. My fellow blogger on Blog for AZ, “AZBlueMeanie”, again scooped me to the story and as usual, his writing is much better than mine. Basically, he writes, Ducey’s plan is to ’“harden” schools with more people armed with guns on campus – exactly the opposite of what student activists are calling for – and to throw a little bit more money at school counselors.’

What money will be allocated to all this is unclear. Ducey’s plan commits “$1.8 million over three years to modernize the reporting system law enforcement uses for criminal records and to populate the state’s background check system.” This, because law enforcement in the state has called the background system “ineffective” and only 63.6% complete according to a 2015 review by the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission. The hope is that a shift from the current paper-based model to computerized, will enable law enforcement to enter new records into the database within 24 hours versus the current standard of 40 days. This, says Ducey’s staff, could become a “model for other states to follow”.

The plan also includes $8 million from AHCCCS for increased mental health resources in schools. This funding will be available to schools for students whose families fall below 200% of the federal poverty level or, are covered by AHCCS or KidsCare. Schools that don’t qualify for this funding can use “new district additional assistance funding.”

I love this last line. You see…there is no “new” district additional funding (or really, much of any new funding). There is only district additional funding (or capital funding as it used to be called), that has been sucked out of our district schools. Over $2 billion since 2009 to be exact, leaving these schools with only 15% to maintain and repair their facilities and buy new busses, technology and other high cost items. The “new” district additional funding Governor Ducey refers to, is just his proposal to return some of that funding, $371 million (split between districts and charters) over five years. Please let this soak in. Governor Ducey is proposing that part of the solution to make our schools more safe, is to take some “new” proposed funding, (only 19% of what our schools need just to get back to where we were in 2009), and use this to help provide more mental health help for our students versus fix our crumbling facilities and unsafe busses. Although gun violence in our schools is deservedly getting the most attention right now, it isn’t the only critical safety issue our schools are facing.

I do want though, to give credit to Governor Ducey in two areas. First of all, he says he does not want to arm teachers. Hallelujah!! In my opinion, arming teachers is the stupidest idea I’ve heard in a very long time. I spoke recently with a teacher who was a Marine security policeman. He said if teachers are armed in the school where his children are enrolled, he will pull them out of that school. If I had kids, I would too. Arming teachers will not make our schools more safe.

Secondly, Ducey evidently also wants our state to be able to seize guns from those who are a danger to themselves and others. His plan includes “an emergency STOP (Severe Threat Order of Protection) order, in which law enforcement can petition the court to seize firearms”, an ex parte STOP order, allowing family members, guardians, school workers and others to do the same, and an extension providision for up to six months.

Governor Ducey’s plan does not however, address the “gun show loophole” allowing person-to-person sales of firearms to evade background checks. His failure to do so could negate the value of STOP orders, and it calls into question the ability to pass his legislation in a bi-partisan manner with House Dems calling his current plan a “missed opportunity”.

For their part, the Arizona School Boards Association released a school safety resolution to the state’s 1,200 school board members recommending each governing board considering passing such to call on our Legislature to take action to make our schools safer. The resolution calls upon “local, county and state public safety agencies to prioritize collaborative threat assessment and crisis planning with school districts and for Congress and state legislatures to pass legislation that: more effectively regulates access to firearms, provides funds above those needed for basic building maintenance and improvement for capital improvements shown to increase safety and security, funds public health research on issues related to gun violence, and advances mental health supports.” Association leadership was also in discussions with Governor Ducey prior to his releasing his plan.

I don’t know which of these ideas will eventually see the light of day and which ones will make a real difference. What I do know is that if we cannot begin to talk to each other about this problem (and it is a problem no matter how much of an ostrich anyone wants to be), and look for common ground, our children will continue to die violent deaths in our schools. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t want our schools to become fortresses, just safe places where our children can learn. Maybe that is the starting point.

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January 24, 2018

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Linda Lyon Responds (Again) to the Same Reader

Fighting against the success of our public school students is unpatriotic!

dianeravitch's avatarDiane Ravitch's blog

Linda Lyon, retired Air Force Colonel and President of the Arizona School Boards Association, responds again to our reader Charles, who tried to convince her of the virtues of privatization.

She writes:

“Dear Charles,

You’ve obviously given a lot of thought to your position on school privatization. At 666 words, you covered a lot of ground. I do though, agree with some of your points.

Yes, children can be educated in a diversity of environments and yes, some rich liberals send their children to exclusive private schools. So do, rich conservatives. I believe that anyone has the right to send their child to any school they want, (provided the education is adequate), as long as they pay for it. When my tax dollars are paying for it, I want full accountability, transparency and to know the return on investment. Yes, legislation could be enacted to provide more accountability and transparency…

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Linda Lyon Responds to a Reader about Fiscal Responsibility and Public Schools

If you want to advocate for privatization of our public schools, how’s about you look at how it benefits ALL American children vs. just disparaging the “government-run” schools!

dianeravitch's avatarDiane Ravitch's blog

Linda Lyon, a retired Air Force colonel and president of the Arizona School Boards Association, responds to a reader who supports school choice, charters, vouchers, and home schooling.

She writes:

”Yes Charles, you are correct that the military industrial complex does provide a valuable service to our military mission. There are many functions that are not a core competency of the military (such as building airplanes) that have made sense to be outsourced. But, outsourcing the defense of our nation is not one of those functions. Where we’ve done that, as with Blackwater, it has not ended well.

“Of course education is “built” on a mix of public and private. After all, our public district schools don’t publish their own textbooks, or build their own buses or computers. But, as with the military, the core mission of our districts — to educate ALL our children, should not be outsourced. I…

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Linda Lyon: Why Our Public Schools Matter

If you believe in REAL fiscal responsibility, where we get what we pay for, watch this quick video about school privatization and then share it far and wide.

dianeravitch's avatarDiane Ravitch's blog

Linda Lyon is the president of the Arizona School Boards Association. She is a retired officer in the U.S. Air Force. She served her country in the military and continues to serve it by her participation in defense of public schools.

Colonel Lyon made this stirring video about democracy and public education. It is short and powerful. Please watch and share with your friends via Twitter, Facebook, and other social media. Show it to your PTA, the school board, the town council, the League of Women Voters, and every other group committed to strengthening the common good.

This video was sponsored by the Network for Public Education and produced, directed, and edited by Michael Elliott, a professional cinematigher

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The Constitution Applies to All

I was honored to do the coin toss for Military Appreciation Night at a high school football game recently. Thankfully, the loss of the toss didn’t determine the outcome of the game for the home team. They went on to win the game and I enjoyed the opportunity to talk to many of the other veterans who had attended the game.

One Air Force vet thanked me for my service and after some small talk, he told me how horrible he thought it was for NFL players to “take a knee” during the National Anthem. I told him I had a different take that I’d like to share with him.

I said my perspective was that I had served to ensure those players had the freedom to exercise their First Amendment rights. He hesitated a second and then said “well, I just don’t think it’s right”. I told him that I didn’t think the Ku Klux Klan’s views are “right” nor do I like how they express them. But, to paraphrase what Michael Douglas’ character said in The American President, “I may hate to the core what you say, but I will fight to the death for your right to say it”.

I believe those football players who “take a knee” have as much right to make a statement in any legal way they see fit, as the Neo-Nazi protesters in Charlottesville had to express their displeasure with the statute removal. But…when such expressions turn dangerous and deadly, that’s another matter entirely.

To all those who claim they love our country and support our Constitution, I say you can’t pick and choose who gets to enjoy the rights bestowed on citizens of these United States. Millions of servicemembers paid the ultimate price because they believed in our ideals. We best honor their sacrifice by continuing to live by, and protecting, those ideals.