So far as I can tell, no one in the media has reported on Tuesday’s Classrooms First Initiative Council Meeting where school funding proposals were considered, nor has Ducey or anyone in his office made a statement about it. The minutes may be published soon, though based on minutes from earlier meetings, the document will be short and general. However, we now have an online audio of the meeting, all 2 hours, 45 minutes and 50 seconds of it. I’ll try to wade though the thing, though I imagine I’ll do some skipping around. If anyone else wants to venture in, please report your impressions in the comments.
As I wrote in an earlier post, this meeting is the kind of “next step” Ducey was talking about before the Prop 123 vote, which involves looking at ways to shift around existing education dollars, not add more funding. So the question is, what funding shifts will the council recommend, and since this is a zero sum game, who will be the winners and losers?
This article appears in Jun 23-29, 2016.
Nobody in the local media reports. They promote agendas, they speculate and they assault character and reputations.
We see how it works.
Smoke and mirrors, or more likely, noxious fumes and broken glass; however, just like a kid with his mail-order magicians kit (purchased from Koch Brothers Novelties, who the coyote used to use before he switched to Acme), little Dougie is going to try to divert everyone’s attention – which is unnecessary in the case of the media – while he and his gang continue to defund anything meant for the masses and refund as much as possible to their dark money benefactors. So without further ado, drum roll please and POOF! There goes education in Arizona.
I am not surprised that Duchey or his office have not responded to this. They have no intention of working with any committees to shift monies around effectively in the name of education. They don’t need no stinking committees! Their agenda was set in cold stone when Dougless was elected. This is only about maximizing the revenue that can be acquired by stripping the state of any opportunities for real public education. Make no mistake, this administration has no interest in educating the public.
I hate to say I told you so.
I attended the entire meeting; I was there to present/defend my funding proposals. The focus of my presentation was that any attempts to change funding formulas within a zero-sum environment will be severely distorted by the hostile takeover approach of the privately-owned school groups. I urged that the elephant in the room be acknowledged and turned out. A few of us were urging extreme caution to watch for robbing public schools to fund the charter school, and more accountability for charter schools, but the majority mood was to marvel at how the two camps are working together. The actual Council members may indeed be realistic and cooperative, but the constituencies they represent are not.