At one time or another in his life, dumbass Kyrie Irving of the Brooklyn Nets has stated that he believed that the Earth is flat, that Man never landed on the Moon, and that the COVID vaccine would make him sterile and/or Bill Gates’ B-word. But, in Kyrie Irving’s defense, not even he is stupid enough to believe that even one Republican in the Arizona State Legislature gives even the slightest crap about education.
Over the past 15 years, the record of Arizona Republicans when it comes to education has been boneheaded, shameful, and (I contend), for an extended time, criminal. Would-be lawmakers were willing lawbreakers.
When the Great Recession hit in 2008, Republicans in the Legislature went to school leaders, hat in hand, begging for a one-year pass from having to live up to constitutionally mandated funding for schools. “Oh please,” they pleaded, “just this one time! The national economy is in the polluted aquifer that’s under the foaming septic tank that’s under the overflowing toilet. We simply don’t have enough money to keep all the rich white people happy AND pay for the schools. So, please, just this once, okay?”
The educators, foolishly believing in crazy ideas like shared sacrifice and the integrity of one’s word, said OK to the one-year deal. Then, one year turned into five and then 10 and then…we’re still counting. The legislators, having duped the teachers, used the severely slashed (“one-time only”) education budget as the new benchmark. They shirked their responsibility, flipped off Arizona’s school kids, and dared anybody to try to do something about it.
Finally, a huge majority of Arizonans from across the political spectrum said, “Enough!” They told the Legislature, in no uncertain terms, that our schools are more important than tax cuts for the country clubbers. This, of course, did not go over well with those who believe that they know so much more than the people whom they are supposed to be representing. (The dead giveaway for these toads is when they chant the brain-dead mantra of “this isn’t a democracy; it’s a representative republic.”)
Well, it is that until the People get tired enough of the jackasses in the State Capitol and start bringing forth petitions and propositions and referendums and changes to the State Constitution, effectively going over the heads of the “lawmakers.” That, of course, really makes the elected members of the Goldwater Institute Claque angry. They don’t like being told what the People want. They already know what the People NEED!
And so they have now come again with the Vouchers For Everybody routine, which got slapped down by the People by a 2-1 margin in a direct democracy vote. Vouchers are stupid, they’re selfish, and (I hate to tell them this) they go against everything that the Republican Party used to stand for. Some of us remember when the Republican Party was the party of self-reliance. Now it stands for (or perhaps kneels before) the concept of welfare for the rich. Someone once said that NFL team owners (who share almost all revenue) are “32 Republicans who vote Socialist.”
The Republicans in the Arizona State Legislature talk Republican, but vote Socialist when it suits their narrow purposes of putting money in certain people’s pockets.
The whole idea that vouchers can help low-income people send their kids to private schools is preposterous. Tuition at a decent private school is probably in the $20,000 a year range. What good is a $7,000 voucher going to do? There are only two types of people who will benefit from the universal vouchers—those who can already afford private school tuition and private school operators.
Here’s how it works: The private school has the tuition set at $20,000 a year. Jonathan Smythe can afford that amount and happily sends his kid to the school. Then, the Republicans in the Legislature tell everybody that there’s an extra seven grand to be had for nothing. The school raises its price by $5,000 to help keep the riffraff out (and to substantially increase its bottom line). Mr. Smythe passes the voucher money along to the school and ends up making money on the deal as he now only has to pay $18,000 in tuition.
Arizona’s voters saw through this scam when the Legislature passed similar legislation in 2017. A ballot measure was drawn up, petitions were circulated, and in 2018, voters killed the voucher expansion by a two-to-one margin. Now, it looks like we have to do it all over again as the Arizona Legislature last week passed an even larger expansion of vouchers than it did in 2017.
Pastor (and voucher advocate) Drew Anderson of the Legacy Christian Center is quoted as saying that what voters did just four years ago doesn’t matter. He points out that Donald Trump won Arizona in 2016, but lost the state four years later. With Arizona’s leftward shift, the voucher giveaway will probably go down by a 3-1 margin next time.
There is a slang move in Spanish that involves the right index finger being slammed down into a cradle in the left hand, accompanied by the shouting of the word “toma!” It basically means “f—- you.”
By odd coincidence, the push for universal vouchers is being led by House Majority Leader Ben Toma.
Yeah, Toma, indeed.
This article appears in Jun 30 – Jul 6, 2022.
Democrats kept Blacks in chains for 65 years during the 19th century using political power. Now, they are at it again, using political power this time to trap minorities in a district education system designed by white supremacists after the civil war, designed to keep Blacks out of good schools.
District education is not public education. Superintendents and principals across the country have been convicted of the crime of allowing the public into their district school.
District education, particularly the Tucson Unified district, is the last bastion of white supremacy. Minorities are behind educationally in kindergarten and more behind every year they attend a district school. It is morally repugnant, it is ethically repugnant, to trap them in the Tucson Unified School district when other opportunities for a public education are both far less expensive and burdensome on the taxpayer and give the student, a member of the public, a chance for a better, a much better, public education.
The equal protection clause of the constitution is real. You can’t provide $10,000 to support a rich white atheist to attend Catalina district schools and simultaneously refuse to provide $6,000 for a poor Hispanic Catholic, a member of the public whether Danehy acknowledges it or not, to receive her public education at Saint Johns Elementary in Tucson’s highest minority, highest poverty, highest crime zipcode.
I attended Saint Johns. All of my buddies made it out. Lucero, Rodriguez, Peralta, Sanchez, Castro, Ortega: pharmacist, avionics engineer, principal, associate superintendent, architect, teacher.
That’s what’s really going on here. A system that keeps minorities far below their potential is screaming in agony at losing its ability to parasite on their souls. Like vampires, they trap minorities and feed on their blood.
Yes, you have the political power, the votes to keep this reprehensible system in place. But, let’s not pretend that it is public education, its not. Its district education and it sucks. It was designed after the civil war to keep minorities out of good schools.
Public Ed has sunk to never before seen low levels of decency that it must have full competitor access. Our children do not deserve to be trapped in this abyss of incompetency and indecency. Just look at the language of the author.
What they failed (once again) to tell you was the truth. This law gives even more money to public schools while eliminating many from it’s student base. Where will all the extra money go?
We have found a great private school where tuition is $5500 per year. Research before you write because , just like the President you are so close to yelling “fire” in a crowded theater.
This has to be my favorite:
“until the People get tired enough of the jackasses in the State Capitol”
Weren’t they elected by a vote of the people using the democratic process?
Sitting here wondering if the $300,000,000 million taken from Education in 2008, (When Ducey was Treasurer) and a few years ago was required by the Courts to be returned to the Schools as a result of a lawsuit against Ducey, was ever returned?
Look, at this point it doesn’t really seem to matter what party you vote for or what agenda is important to the people, both parties are so locked into their non-ending political gamesmanship that ANY business applicable to all of the people is not even on their radar.
When concerns of the public arise, they are quickly weaponized, and the original point is lost in all the rhetoric and fixing the blame is more important than fixing the problems.
Just saw an article talking about a “whisper campaign” beginning to bring back Hillary Clinton for a run as president in 2024….
WTF! This person and her elitist cabal (not the one beneath the pizza parlor that traffics children for pedophiles) are directly responsible for disenfranchising scores of Americans as her “basket of deplorables”, sidelining Bernie Sanders — probably the only person who could have defeated Donald Trump in 2016 — and they are talking about bringing her back! WTF!
The “choices” the two parties are providing to the American people have forced us into this cycle of voting out the last person because they didn’t get anything done, to voting out the next person because they didn’t get anything done, to voting out the last person because they didn’t get anything done — see a pattern here?
WE THE PEOPLE need to seriously get together and come up with a third party because the two that we currently have are so out of touch with reality and the full spectrum of all the American people that I fear more for our nation now than I ever did during the Cold War.
Perhaps Volodymyr Zelenskyy has some ideas
There is a difference between the two parties. One supports infanticide, $5 a gallon gas, open borders and climate hoaxes meant to surrender our sovereign nation’s rights. Notwithstanding destruction of the US Constitution.
I think I just identified all those on the Jan 6 hearing fiasco that nobody is watching.
Double impeachment attempt idiots. And we are paying their salaries for this nonsense? There is a reason democrats refused Police and Guard support on Jan 6 at the Capitol. Think it through.
knows…so you support a bunch of legislators who wish to disregard your vote and the votes of millions if they don’t like the outcome.
Sounds pretty communistic doesn’t it ?
But thats ok with you.
sgsmith….the “they” talking about hillary are on fox so you can figure it’s a bunch of lies.
As to hillary….nope. she’s done and thats ok by me and many many others.
Timothy…Your analogy is no different than threatening Supreme Court justices when you dont like their LEGAL interpretation of the Constitution.
And you’re ok with that?
By the way point out the people that voted for $5 a gallon gas and no baby formula.
Inflation and high gas prices are across the globe, it’s ignorant to blame Biden for that.
All you right wingers got is dredging up old news on Hillary. Maybe we should have more hearings on Benghazi.
Tom D. makes an excellent point, Republicans take advantage of any power they get… they cheat… i.e. Merrick Garland… they ignore the will of the voters i.e. abortion rights and gun restrictions… and now school funding and vouchers.
Vote blue… Dems aren’t perfect…. But Republicans are destroying democracy.
We can always depend on the former school super guy to have a completely data defuddled, response to just about anything. Its absolutely criminal how the One Party, by one vote, dictatorship, has had utter contempt for referenda and initiative voters in this State on just about every issue including vouchers. And how the packed Supreme Court said, if you money launder taxpayer money enough, it magically isnt taxpayer money anymore and indirect vouchers are OK. I asked our genius LD representatives, all in the one party dictatorship, if they ever checked with ANY local school board in their LD, what they thought of vouchers. Of course, never did, as they take their orders from the unelected Goldwater Ins. and Betsy DeVos crime families.
“Data defuddled”. That would be you Frances Perkins: 32% of Tucson Unified parents grade their child’s school an “A”. That number is over 65 for Mesa and 72 for Chandler Unified. The nation as a whole is 26%.
It’s ok to trap students in the Tucson Unified System? It’s ok to say that the poor Hispanics attending Saint Johns on Tucson’s south side, in its highest crime, highest poverty, highest minority zipcode are denied their public education because they attend a Catholic school? No equal protection clause for them right?
Fine for all the rich atheists attending a Catalina Foothills district school to get their $12,000 per year. But, not for those poor Hispanics to get their $6,500??
I figured you would umderstand fractured words combined with your fractured fairy tales data analyses. We did meet at a school event once when you were, unfortunately, in office. Our current School Super is a great supporter of public schools, in contrast.
Timmothy (like your avatar)
Nope, read it at CNN, but then again too many so-called journalists today just find stuff, tweak it a bit and call it news, opinion or analysis.
Used to work at a place that had Faux Gnus on 24/7. I talked to the boss about creating a toxic work environment, but he was an antivaxxer to boot and said all the news is the same. I advised him that the only way we would get any news from Fox was if it could be blamed on Biden, Hunter Biden or Obama even if it was about an asteroid from space hitting the Earth or California falling into the ocean (which, of course, would be because of their liberal and ungodly ways).
“supporter of public schools” I not only supported public schools by creating a Department of Education that worked, I created public schools.
When I came into office in 1993, every government school in this nation was a district school. Numerous Superintendents and Principals had been convicted of the crime of allowing the public to attend their district school.
Despite the opposition of the entire Alphabet, the NEA, the AEA, the ASBA, ASBO I cast the 16th and deciding vote to allow the public to attend district schools.
And, thus, finally, the United States had schools open to the public. Not all of them mind you, just those of the few daring school boards and superintendents that decided to make their districts open to the public.
Mesa Unified created a “red carpet” culture. Welcoming anyone who wanted to attend and allowed them to attend. From 1996 to 2016, the percentage of parents rating their child’s school an “A” school increased from 48% to 64% while the nation dropped to 26%. It might be over 70 by now.
Francis, you are a dysfunction thinker and part of a dysfunctional culture: the city of Tucson.
Record Homicides, same number of jobs as in 2017, five years with no new jobs. 380,000 miles of potholes and cracks in 2,500 miles of streets. Only 8% of parents rating their neighborhood an excellent place to live.
A looting mindset. The only good tax is a higher tax, when tax money comes in, it is divided among the thieves.
Residents, parents, students, all last in line. No culture of continuous improvement, no sense of mission of service. A culture of continuous paycheck comparison.
I spent the last three weeks building a garden at an elementary school; thinking deeply about how you organize garden education to give each student the maximum joy and experience; thinking how you design it to minimize the burden on the participating teacher. Cost me over $900 in parts and over a hundred hours to build it. Oh, yes Frances, I care very deeply about the education of the public, but not a wit about protecting a district’s right to own a student and extract the money that comes with that ownership. No more vampires in education. No more slavery. No more ownership of human beings.
Every TUSD student needs 5 to 20 excellent choices.
Hey jhuppendink!
You can drone on about what ever you drone on about all you want — the dislikes should be your first clue that you’re putting us all to sleep — but when you start calling my city dysfunctional, them’s fighten’ words you pompous, verbose, self-aggrandizing political has-been hack!
My family moved to Tucson in 1964 and minus some 20-plus years serving in the military, I’ve seen a lot a change, some bad and some good. But the one thing that never seems to change is how you Phoenix and Phoenix suburb LA-wannabes from your concrete slab-covered land of labyrinth freeways look down your nose at the city and people of Tucson. Next time you have a Superbowl — if they look the other way from your racist fascist-loving truck-nutted goobers — find another city to bus all your homeless people to Karen!
Response so Smith:
Your family moved to Tucson in 1964? Big deal. My family moved to Tucson in 1954. My 98 year old father still lives in the home that we built for $500.
And, yes, I will keep commenting on Tucson. I biked thousands of miles on its streets, grew up on its south side and still visit frequently.
I know a lot about cities because I was on the Chandler City Council for 8 years, 1984 to 1992. When I started on Chandler, it had 30,000 people. Today it has 280,000 a 900% increase. Tucson? An 18% increase.
We prepared Chandler for the future with a powerful transportation system.
Tucson has done little to nothing for its children. Tucson is the closest thing to a communist country in Arizona.
I am Frances, not Francis. I guess Huppster’s great education cant tell the difference. Please remain out of office.
JH,
I am in aw — not awe — just aw.
So, did the $500 house have wheels?
Wow, a 900% increase — the Climate thanks you.
I see that nobody hear is defending Biden any longer. Is it because of the SPR sale to China? That is impeachable based on him telling us to suck it up and pay higher fuel prices because it is wartime. How stupid are you?
Might be making progress:
A majority of Americans believe the fall elections will experience fraud, according to a new poll by Rasmussen Reports. It also revealed the surprising evidence that a clear majority of Americans believe the results of the 2020 election were blighted by cheating.
Historical video now shows Trump leading by 100,000 votes when counting stopped. Ballots were brought into the arena at 3 am, and magically Biden assumed the lead. It will be pursued in court. Those ballots were not only fraudulent, but
ineligible.
Cheating did bring us the most inept President in the history of the US. Why won’t his 82M voters defend him?
Because they are befuddled as is he. They have no economic sense and if you have noticed, everything Joe Biden has done, hurts Americans.
“I am Frances, not Francis. I guess Huppster’s great education cant tell the difference.”
Live by the sword, die by the sword. The word you were looking for is, “can’t”.
I made a serious error in my comment. Tucson doesn’t have the same number of jobs they had in 2017, they have the same number of jobs they had in 2007, March of 2007 to be exact. That’s 15 years without increasing the jobs.
So, on a side note, who else noticed that the “Editor’s Note” for this issue by Steve T. Strickbine (the publisher), initially had a single posted comment that was not too flattering, and that version was replaced with the same text, a more complementary corporate photo of Strickbine, and WITHOUT an opportunity to post comments — to include deleting the earlier-posted unflattering comment?
Is this a preview of things to come from the new Tucson Weekly?
Pretty sad state of affairs when a business that makes its living on the First Amendment has no problems censoring comments that they do not like.
@jhuppent: What happened soon after March of 2007, and what party was in the white house? How many jobs did Tucson have on January 20, 2021?
@jhuppent: What happened soon after March of 2007, and what party was in the white house? How many jobs did Tucson have on January 20, 2021?
Arizona has added 320,000 jobs since March of 2007. If Tucson had added its share, it would have added 50,000 jobs. Instead, it has added zero.
That’s why Tucson suffered record murders in 2021. Young men fall apart when they are unemployed. All 12 cities with record murders are suffering the same malaise as Tucson- long periods of time without creating jobs.
Tucson government is dysfunctional. Its 2,500 miles of roads have 380,000 miles of cracks and potholes. It is over taxed and underserved. It does not measure citizen satisfaction with city services or the primary services that citizens expect from city government.
It stopped measuring because it never consider that serving residents was its core mission. Tucson city government’s core mission is the maximization of pensions of its management employees.
It has a dysfunctional school district, perhaps the worst in Arizona, that is incapable of competing with charter schools and has lost over 20% of its student population since 2000. This despite city government protecting that school district by regulating charter schools to death.
Not a pretty picture.
What is wanted is more McNamara’s uneducated ignorant kids to fight in foreign wars and recognize them for their service