I’ve never used emoticons before, but these angry little guys may be just what I need right now.
“Read my emoticon. Damn right I’m mad! I plan to stay mad through November 6. After that, we’ll see.”
Republicans are doing everything they can to tell Arizona educators to calm down, there’s really nothing to be upset about. It’s your own fault the Invest in Ed initiative isn’t on the ballot. As for your salary problems, blame your school district, not the legislature or the governor. You educators shouldn’t bother your pretty, pedantic little heads about all this complicated governing stuff. Just stay in to your classrooms where you belong. After you vote us back into office, don’t worry, everything will be fine.
Republicans hate it when their opponents get mad. Oh, they love to rile up their own base. The Tea Party named itself after a bunch of colonists in Boston who were so pissed about taxes, they threw a shipload of tea in the harbor. Our Liar in Chief inflames his base with a steady diet of hate directed at his growing list of enemies. They know it works.They know it brings their supporters out to the polls.
Which is why they want the opposition to stay calm and quiet. Get sad, not mad. Lose gracefully.
I was surprised to find myself featured in an op ed by Jonathan Hoffman in Sunday’s Star. I was the poster child and whipping boy for every educator who is angry at Republican elected officials and their fat cat donors and plans to vote them out of office. Hoffman was complaining about a quote from one of my recent posts, Don’t Get Sad. Get Mad!:
“We need to be Red-hot angry over the decision by Ducey’s Supreme Court, backed by the Arizona Chamber of Commerce, to take the Invest in Education initiative off the ballot.”
Hoffman hated that “Red-hot angry” phrase so much, he repeated it four times. If anyone missed the point about how dangerous it is to be that angry, he warned teachers they’re turning into “Antifa thugs” instead of quiet, staid “college-educated professionals.”
Your problems are your own fault, he said.
“You created the problems with the Invest in Ed initiative, not the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry or the Arizona Supreme Court. So, be professional, own the screw-up, and do it right next time.”
Take the blame. Slink away quietly. Lick your wounds. You can try again two years from now.
To which I say, Hell no! Hell. No. Years of underfunding and constant attacks by the “dismantle public schools” crowd have gone on long enough. In spring, educators showed what they were made of when they took to the streets and forced Governor “One percent for salaries” Ducey to up his offer to ten percent. They took to the streets again to collect signatures for the Invest in Ed initiative so the richest Arizonans would have to carry their fair share of the burden to educate our children, and ended up with all the signatures they needed, and nearly 100,000 to spare.
Then came the lawsuit from a group calling itself, shamelessly, Arizonans for Great Schools and a Strong Economy. It was funded by — who else? — the Arizona Chamber of Commerce & Industry, which fights for all those poor, downtrodden rich people who make more than half a million dollars in taxable income, to make sure they don’t have to pay any more taxes than they can get away with.
The Chamber of Commerce lost its suit in Maricopa County Superior Court. No problem. They appealed it to the Arizona Supreme Court which, as recently as 2016, was composed of five justices. Ducey raised the number to seven, adding two hand picked judges. Not surprisingly, his business-friendly Court saw things the Chamber’s way and struck down the initiative.
Educators are slow to anger, but it looks like they’re mad enough at Republican’s history of underfunding and under-appreciating public education, they’re ready to do something about it. Teachers, administrators, classified staff, parents, long-time friends of public education, including lots of Republicans and Republican-leaning Independents, are paying attention. If they’re riled up enough to vote en masse in a low turnout, off-year election, they can make the difference in local and state-wide races.
(As for those angry emoticons at the top of the post. The two scowling red faces at the top are appropriate for the #RedforEd movement, but I’m not much of a scowler. My emoticon of choice is the little guy on the left pointing at his watch. “Time’s up, Republicans. Get out of the way so people who support our children can run this state.”)
This article appears in Sep 6-12, 2018.
Tone it down David. You could be inciting other less stable individuals. You’re starting to sound like Maxine Waters. And by the way Ducey appointed a liberal democrat friend of mine in Phoenix.
And to end with “so people that support our children can run this state” Really David? My fear is that you somehow include TUSD past and present in that comment. We all know different Sooner or later, everybody is in it for the money.
I disagree I know they fear the latino vote more as it will destroy the republican az party.
There is plenty to dislike in the Hoffman article. The assertion that teachers are starting at the top, for one. REALLY? Mr. Hoffman?? Your byline reads that you have written for the Star for 40 years, and you have never covered Arizona education or school districts? You have never noticed that teachers have been agitating in front of their districts time and time again? Yes there are problems at the district level but at some point the state has to be held responsible for giving crumbs to them to educate our future.
Additionally, “the court had no option” is more than a little strong. After all,when we got handed the most recent giveaway in taxes to the 1% by Trump and his minions in Congress, it did not include the line “the middle class is supposedly the beneficiary, but actually it is getting screwed by this tax “reform” while the 1% will rake in money hand over fist”—so the bit about inaccuracy is overdone to say the least.
That said, this proposition was written by the teachers’ association, and indeed, particularly since they did not START the RedforEd movement, they came in later (as did unions and associations all over the country), they DID have a responsibility to be more careful in its writing. After all, they DO elections and electoral politics. They should have known that a challenge would be headed their way, and before they got thousands of Arizona teachers to put their heart and soul into gathering signatures, the association should have checked and rechecked its work. There should be some anger and calls for restructuring at the association level.
But for that to replace the anger at the Ducey machine would be completely misplaced. The proposition started NONE of this problem,and Hoffman is being a toady for saying that this was the case.No, sir,the problem is that in the schools there are a bunch of people who love their students and work constantly with little to try to educate them. And this David is up against a Goliath –the legislature and the governor–who hate kids and have shown that time and time again with their corruption and their greed. Sorry to say it, but look at the record. People with kids should simply not move to Arizona if they have a choice. We might as well have signs at the borders saying “Kid unfriendly zone–State of Arizona”. So as a parent who didn’t know this, and moved here anywhere, I am unfailingly grateful to the teachers who took to the streets for their work with our children. And the ledge? Well, November can’t come soon enough for me: they can go back to their ideological hidey hole and commune with the Koch brothers in some other state as far as I am concerned.
Can you imagine if a Democrat governor or Preident tried to accomplish court packing like Ducey pulled off? And to the Arizona legislature, education is just a potential money making scheme, via the charter industrial complex or the tuition organization tax credit scam. Its entirely appropriate in these models to have a pyramid scheme millionaire as education secretary. One thing is absolutely clear, the education and success if children is not their priority.
The state should be taking every chance they can to support citizen-led initiatives. What better way to show their concern for citizens? Or, alternatively, they could stop enacting laws and stuffing the government with sure things for their way (or the highway). I don’t think this article was particularly shrill and the educators have a case. Shame on the Ducey Administration.
So now you’re attacking the Tea Party – the patriots that literally founded your country. I’ve heard everything now.
Bottom line, David et al., is that accuracy, honesty, and competence matter, and if you do not have them on your side, you have no right to get ANGRY when you are defeated.
“Which is why they want the opposition to stay calm and quiet. Get sad, not mad. Lose gracefully.”
Yeah, it was O.K. when it was Obama as “liar” in Chief, but not when Trump takes the helm. A wee bit hypocritical on YOUR part isn’t it?
“Educators are slow to anger, but it looks like they’re mad enough at Republican’s history of underfunding and under-appreciating public education, they’re ready to do something about it.”
Wow, that’s just an arrogant lie there David. These so called “Educators”, are afraid of losing out to privatization of the school system. Where will their institutionalized money come from? Performance in a private school system would be tough for the ,Educated, entitled, elitists.
Safier, California has a LOT of like minds such as YOURs, go, become part of California’s overtaxed, undereducated progeny, you’ll fit right in and find that elusive, life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.