The Arizona Republic didn’t simply endorse David Garcia for Superintendent of Public Instruction. It called him a “great choice” in its headline. The endorsement could hardly be more glowing.
David Garcia has the experience, temperament and vision to be a great superintendent of public instruction.
He invested his career in education and — unlike some past superintendents — does not view this job as a stepping stone to higher office.
He is well-prepared for a complex and multifaceted job.
The next sentence sums up the Editorial Board’s view of Diane Douglas:
This sets [Garcia] far above his opponent Diane Douglas, a one-note candidate who gives little indication that she understands anything about modern education.
There’s much more in the endorsement worth reading, but I’ll just pull out one more sentence. After saying Garcia is endorsed by two former Republican Superintendents, Lisa Graham Keegan and Jaime Molera, the paper quotes a comment Molera made:
In explaining his endorsement, Molera said, “Arizona does not need someone who will bring extreme and nonsensical views into our K-12 system.”
That’s not coming from some Democratic Party operative with a partisan agenda. That’s a Republican calling Douglas’ views “extreme and nonsensical.”
According to a Media Release put out by the Garcia camp,
[T]he League of Women Voters announced it had to cancel a televised Superintendent of Public Instruction debate because Garcia’s opponent, Diane Douglas, declined to participate.
Since the primary, Douglas has turned into the invisible woman. The Garcia campaign said she has refused to participate in over a half dozen debates. And according to the Capitol Times, she doesn’t answer phone calls from the media.
In an earlier post, I said Douglas may be waiting to put together a media blitz using the limited public funds she’s got for her campaign, to define herself without the media getting in the way, or maybe she’s stunned she won the primary and has no campaign organization or strategy for the general.
Bob Lord at Blog for Arizona has another theory: that the other statewide Republican candidates told Douglas to keep a low profile and just work on her tea party base to get them to support the ticket. He imagines the message went something like this:
“Diane, we need you to hang out with the tea-party base for the next two months and get them to turn out in November. But the anti-Common Core nonsense and your [Michelle] Malkin endorsement won’t sell with the rest of the electorate, and it’s the opposite of the image Doug Ducey needs to present, so it’s best if you run a quiet campaign. We’d prefer not to have to publicly distance ourselves from you, so try not to put us in a tough position.”
Since Douglas isn’t talking, all of this will have to remain as speculation.
This article appears in Sep 18-24, 2014.
Well what would you expect from such a liberal rag as the Republic? Everybody needs to look at Garcia’s history compared to Douglas”. Anybody who supports Common Core is retarded. Nuff said!
This is really good news! I think the Republic is anxious to redeem itself after its prior endorsement of Huppenthal.
Regarding Douglas being unwilling to show up, I find it interesting that extreme candidates with authoritarian tendencies seem to have difficulty dialoguing openly in public as equals.
Safier, I know with your deep roots and total commitment to public education it must scare the devil out of you to know the odds favor Douglas for Superintendent. I’m not sure if the apolitical in this state realize the storm that could take over education with the election of Douglas.
First of all, are you a parent or expect to be a parent concerned about the education of your child? Are you a senior citizen worried about your local schools and your property values? Are you a business person or professional thinking about your future financial opportunities or perhaps someone watching your children about to end their college education and wondering if a job will be available for them to stay at home in Arizona?
The wholesale filling the Superintendent of Public Instruction’s office with like-minded employees must toss fear and restless nights in your life.
Think who may be the spokesman for the Constitutional mandate to provide education in Arizona. The person in charge to work with the legislature to insure schools have the necessary funds and give leadership to all educational advancement in Arizona.
The total picture of the future of education in our state depends on who votes, will there be the usual total sweep by the Republicans statewide? The odds, chances we end up in the words of the former Republican Superintendent, Jaime Molera, “Arizona does not need someone who will bring extreme and nonsensical views into our K-12 system.”
Voter turnout will tell the tale. The matter rests on this election being a statewide referendum on education, job skills, and future economic growth for the state. In both the Superintendent of Public Instruction and Governor election contests the stark differences are as wide and deep as the Grand Canyon.
Forty-five or so days to sound the alarm!
Get out and VOTE Arizona.
Independents will be the key to turning away Douglas and I suspect Garcia will prevail with their support. There are many reason to reject Common Core embraced by folks on all sides of the politico-education spectrum; Douglas it can be assumed (because she’s been MIA on the campaign trail) is anti-Common Core for reasons that have little to do with the substance of arguments against it by it detractors on all sides. A debate on Common Core would be welcome in all state and local elections of those vying for election to state departments and boards of education. The silence is deafening.
If this guy is anything like Horne was, Education will finally be killed in AZ. the Tea Party and Republicans, like ISIL, hate education. They don’t people to be educated. I choose Republicans and ISIL, it the choice between a quick death or a slow one.
People have big choices to make and defeat the Republicans and the Tea Party. As we see in Republican controlled states, citizens are quickly losing their rights. Republicans have passed laws to enable them to always win an election. They are suppressing those that would vote against them.
Sam nothing is ever as good or bad as it seems, but linking them to beheading terrorists?
You would think education was broke. What causes people to believe that?
I googled the Tea Party position for you on education, because I didn’t know what it was.
Key Points
Parents should be able to choose the best education for their children.
Wanting to send your children to better schools shouldn’t get you arrested, a reality caused by the current anti-choice, monopolistic system.
All teaching methods, teachers, schools, curricula, principals, administrators, and school boards should be measured and the results published.
Failing schools should be shut down and failing teachers should be fired.
Downsize the educational bureaucracy that funnels money away from students and classrooms.
We need more local control of schools and curricula, not less.
Education funding should follow children, not bureaucrats.
Teachers should have the right to join a union or not, and union contracts that limit choice in education should be dissolved.
http://www.teapartypatriots.org/education/
You can search the site but I wasn’t able to find anything about terrorism.