Featured Stories
The Coming Week – Legislative Edition
March 7, 2010
Posted by Craig McDermott As usual, all info gathered from the website of the Arizona Legislature, except where noted, and subject to change without notice (and given the activities expected for this week, short-notice changes are likely)… As noted earlier this weekend, a special session (#7!!) is on tap for the week. Look for more
Fire staffs at “failing schools”?
March 7, 2010
by David Safier This has been going on for over a decade, but it's moving to center stage. Poorly performing — often called "failing" — schools sometimes fire all the people who work there. Then members of the old staff can reapply, if they wish, with no guarantee they'll be rehired. There's a story in
G.I.’s Clint Bolick, an illegal immigration lib
March 7, 2010
by David Safier Of course, the "lib" in the headline refers to "libertarian." It looks like there's a dust-up going on among conservative bloggers over the candidacy of Shawnna Bolick, running in LD-11. She's the wife of Clint Bolick, G.I.'s litigator in residence, and Seeing Red AZ wants to hang Clint around Shawnna's neck like
My old school ratio
March 6, 2010
by David Safier I was thinking about that 1-to-1 teacher-to-bureaucrat ratio the Goldwater Institute has been throwing around. Let's ignore for a moment the ridiculous term "bureaucrat" and just look at the ratio: one non-teacher for every teacher. I thought back to the high school where I taught, outside Portland, Oregon, and started counting up
Special Session #7 on tap for Monday
March 6, 2010
Posted by Craig McDermott, cross-posted from Random Musings The Governor has called for a 7th Special Session of the 49th Arizona Legislature to address the state's current budget deficit (~$700 million) and to formulate a budget for next year. According to the AZRep article on the matter, the basic framework of the package worked out
G.I. Guarantee Watch: Letter declares “fair use”
March 6, 2010
by David Safier It's official. According to the Goldwater Institute, the definition of "bureaucrat" includes bus drivers, maintenance workers and food service workers — I think. I got a [kind of] definitive letter in the mail on an official piece of G.I. stationery. Here's the word from G.I. "We believe the term bureaucrat accurately describes
Early graduation from high school? Discuss
March 6, 2010
by David Safier I'm throwing this out as an open question for the comments section. Should there be ways for students to leave high school early, say at the end of their sophomore or junior years? These aren't new ideas, but they're being tossed around again, and not just in academic or educational circles. One
GOP Senate primary gets ugly early
March 6, 2010
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: The GOP Senate primary between Senator McNasty and Jack Abramoff's friend J.D. Hayworth is getting ugly early. Grab some popcorn and enjoy the show. The Arizona Republic reported that Sen. McNasty got his panties all in a twist over a J.D. Hayworth ad portraying him as an Avatar for "nominee for best
