by David Safier The Goldwater Institute's Education Director, Jonathan Butcher, only has one problem with Jan Brewer's Performance Funding plan. It doesn't reward the wealthy and punish the poor nearly enough. That's not how he put it, of course, when he wrote about his qualified support for SB1444, Brewer's Performance funding plan in bill form. … Read more
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Announcement from Arizona Women's Political Caucus:
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Remember way back to the start of the legislative session when Arizona's media villagers prognosticated that there would not be any bills for guns in schools or guns in public buildings this year in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in December, and especially now that "Second Amendment remedies" wingnut Sen. Ron Gould (R-Crazyland) was no longer in the legislature? Boy, were they wrong.
Ron Gould was among the usual suspects who sponsored SB 1201 in 2011, which would have required that guns be allowed into
public buildings and events unless they have metal detectors, armed security guards, gun lockers and signs.
The bill was drafted by the Citizens Defense League (not to be confused with the Justice League, even though these gun-totin' vigilantes with a Superman complex believe they are). Our Tea-Publican legislature passed this bill, only to be vetoed by Governor Jan Brewer.
And who could ever forget SB 1448 in 2012, the "guns at municipal swimming pools" bill, sponsored by then Sen. Steve Smith (R-Maricopa), which would have
modified the definition of public buildings and public events to only
apply to those with armed security. Under the bill, it would only be a
crime to knowingly enter a public building or event with a gun if the
entrances were secured by an armed guard. If there's no guard, there's
no crime. This bill was held in the House after passing the Senate, and died sine die.
Lobbyist Charles Heller of the Citizens Defense League is back again with an only slightly modified bill to try again, with Rep. John Kavanagh (R-Fountain Hills) as his water boy this year. HB 2554 would force local governments in Arizona to allow people to carry guns into public buildings unless secured in gun lockers.
by David Safier
I have two columns appearing in two different papers this week. The Weekly asked me to write a Guest Commentary to discuss Al Melvin's SB1239 — his $30 million special interest giveaway to Imagine Learning. And my monthly column in the Explorer came out as well — a takedown of the Republican attitude that some problems simply can't be addressed because they call for "Big Government," and we can't have that.
People who have read my series of posts about Melvin's SB1239 (You can start here and link back to the three earlier posts if you're interested) are familiar with the territory I cover in the Weekly column. Here's an analysis of why it's wrong for Melvin to tell schools what reading approach to use, even if Imagine Learning puts out a good product.
[I]t's absurd for Al Melvin, sitting in his lofty legislative perch, to dictate how schools teach reading to struggling students. There are no one-size-fits-all solutions in education, and certainly none that will fit the needs of every child who has difficulty reading. Some struggling readers are ELL students who don't know enough English to speak the language fluently, let alone read it well. Others are English speakers who didn't go to preschool. Others are children with brain-related learning disabilities. Will the Imagine Learning program be right for all of them? I doubt it. Rather than putting $30 million behind one reading program, it makes far more sense to allow each school to look at its student population and decide what approach or variety of approaches, to spend the money on.
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
The TanMan, Weeper of the House John Boehner, took to the pages of Rupert Murdoch's The Wall Street Journal today seeking to reinforce the GOP talking point for low information voters that "the sequester is all President Obama's fault," and if he would just capitulate to my extortionary demands and give me everything I want and grovel before me to ask "please sir, may I have another," we could avoid the sequester going into effect next Friday.
Boehner is either a contemptuous pompous asshole, or is delusional. We have already established that he is the "Worst. Speaker. Ever."
As to Boehner's repeated use of the GOP talking point that "the sequester is all President Obama's fault," John Avalon today puts the truth to the lie at The Daily Beast, The PowerPoint That Proves It’s Not Obama’s Sequester After All:
With deep sequestration cuts just days away, Congress is on vacation. [That's how concerned Boehner really is.] But they’ve still got plenty of time to play the blame game.
The latest semantic spin is to call the looming $1.2 trillion in cuts, which could throw the whole economy back into recession, “Obama’s Sequester.” House Speaker John Boehner indulged this approach half a dozen times in a floor speech before he went on break, establishing its place in the talking-points firmament.
There are a couple problems with this tactic, as my colleague Michael Tomasky pointed out Tuesday. Congress passed sequestration before the president signed it, and the whole self-defeating exercise was carried out in response to Tea Party Republicans’ insistence that we play chicken with the debt ceiling, which ultimately cost America its AAA credit rating.
But here’s the thing. I happened to come across an old email that throws cold water on House Republicans’ attempts to call this “Obama’s Sequester.”