David Safier by David Safier Hat tip to Steve Muratore for his post in the Arizona Eagletarian digging deeper into the background of Carlyle Begay, who was appointed as LD-7 state senator when Jack Jackson Jr. resigned to join the Obama adminstration. I recommend the post for those who want to know more about Begay. Muratore found … Read more
by David Safier Among the concerns about charter schools is that they're more segregated than school district schools. Now the Justice Department is looking carefully at Louisiana's voucher program because it appears to be increasing school segregation. Many Louisiana districts are still being monitored by the Feds because of segregation problems, much like TUSD which … Read more
by David Safier Voices for Education is sponsoring a town hall with Raul Grijalva Tuesday, August 27, at 5:30pm at the Loft (3233 E. Speedway). It's free, of course. Grijalva sits on the US House Education and Workforce committee and keeps a close watch on education issues. No telling what the crowd will be, but … Read more
by David Safier
TUSD's new Culturally Relevant Curriculum (CRC) is currently being taught in three district high schools after being approved by the board on August 13. John Huppenthal is not happy with the decision, as he made clear on the Bill Buckmaster Show the next day. One of Huppenthal's complaints was that "they" — by which he almost certainly meant new TUSD Superintendent HT Sanchez — misled the audience and the school board into thinking Huppenthal and the DOE not only reviewed the CRC courses but approved them as well. Huppenthal stated that Sanchez created the same wrong impression at an earlier board meeting. The Arizona Daily Independent took Huppenthal's statement on the Buckmaster Show and ran with it.
Huppenthal apparently never spoke to Sanchez about his concerns. Instead, he used the media to accuse Sanchez of misrepresenting the DOE's review of the CRC as approval. That's certainly not the best way to establish a good working relationship with a new superintendent who walked into the middle of the whole Mexican American Studies/Federal Deseg Order/Culturally Relevant Curriculum situation, which he inherited from his predecessor.
Instead of responding in kind and addressing Huppenthal's allegations by talking to the media, Sanchez wrote Huppenthal and J. Elliott Hibbs, Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction, an email on August 18, which you can read at the end of this post.
In his email, Sanchez expressed his preference for commmunicating directly with people about any questions, comments or concerns he might have, and he hoped that Huppenthal will do the same in the future.
A phone call or visit would have clarified that I have never stated to the Tucson Unified School District (herein denoted as the TUSD) Governing Board that the Arizona Department of Education (herein denoted as the ADE) approved any TUSD curriculum. In my letter on the 17th of July, I was very clear in acknowledging that this was not the role of the ADE. I also stated multiple times in open session that the ADE did not approve the curriculum but rather provided feedback.
He ended by writing that he welcomes a direct conversation and will travel to Phoenix to meet with Huppenthal, because "work that relates to our students deserves a conversation among gentlemen."
You can read the entire email below. The "attached article" Sanchez refers to is the Arizona Daily Independent piece I mentioned above.
by David Safier Two updates of previous posts: 1. I posted that Rich Crandall, who left the state senate to be Wyoming's education head, asked for his tenure in the senate to be extended a few weeks so he could keep his health insurance until his Wyoming insurance started up. I was called on the … Read more