House Appropriations vote: leave options open

by David Safier I just opened a News Release sent last night by House Democrats Kyrsten Sinema, David Schapira and Olivia Cajero Bedford. The House Appropriations Committee voted 7-4 to pass Sinema’s substitute motion that the Appropriations Committee remain open to additional options to reduce the revenue shortfall as they consider the 2009 budget solution. … Read more

“It’s not on the test”

by David Safier Thane, a frequent commenter on BfA, usually knows his job: to disagree with everything I say. But today he let me down by linking to a video I like enough to post: "It's not on the test" by Tom Chapin. You'll enjoy it.

Melvin fights liberal media

by David Safier Senator/Captain Al Melvin is at it again. Wednesday the Boy Wonder tried to strike a blow against illegal alien crime without Cutman — aka Russell Pearce — at his side and pretty much swung his crime-fighting fist into empty air. Now he's going after the arch villain of the liberal media, KUAT. His … Read more

950 rally at Regents meeting

by David Safier Two hundred students and a few others showed up at the UA Mall on Tuesday to protest the budget cuts to Arizona universities. Yesterday 950 "students, faculty members, staffers, business leaders and parents" showed up at the Arizona Board of Regents meeting at UA to speak their mind. One of the people who spoke … Read more

Balancing phonics and whole language instruction

by David Safier A first grade teacher from Utah, JC Michaels, just wrote a comment on a six month old post (that's the beauty of the internet, these things hang around forever) about the balance between phonics and whole language instruction. I thought others might be interested.  Since I was a high school English teacher, … Read more