David Safier

by David Safier

I'm blogging while traveling, meaning I'm a bit distracted — always a dicey proposition — but I want to chime in on TUSD's vote to implement the literature component of its newly created "culturally relevant" curriculum. This is the district's response to the court-ordered Unitary Plan. It's the program the district is putting in place after dismantling the Mexican American Studies program.

The TUSD Governing Board voted 3-2 to approve the curriculum for the courses Tuesday night. The courses are taught from the African American and Mexican American perspectives. Board Members Mark Stegeman and Michael Hicks dissented.

The classes will be offered for core credit through pilot programs at Cholla, Tucson and Pueblo high schools, and students will still have the option of taking traditional literature courses.

I read over the curriculum when it was first made public, and it looks pretty good, and pretty good is good enough. In the final analysis, the courses will only be as good as the teachers who teach them, so it's a waste of time to try and "perfect" the written course guidelines. The teachers chosen need to have the intelligence, sensitivity and dedication it takes to pull off the courses successfully. Not every teacher is willing to devote the time and energy necessary, nor does every teacher have the needed passion for this particular approach to make the courses vibrant, relevant and honest.

by David Safier This falls into the "What could possibly go wrong?" category. It's something I've wondered about. If teachers and other staff members other than trained police personnel and hired campus security are allowed to carry guns and a staff member wounds or kills a student, or someone gets ahold of a staff member's … Read more

by David Safier When Ann-Eve Pedersen's son left school one day, he was handed a flier promising him $100 if he enrolled in Rising School, a charter scheduled to open this school year. Someone was handing the fliers out to all the students leaving school, but not to parents waiting in cars to pick up … Read more

by David Safier Oregon is developing an innovative way to make state colleges more affordable. It's called Pay It Forward. The concept — called Pay It Forward — calls for students to attend public universities tuition free and loan free. In exchange, students would have 3 percent deducted from their post-graduation paychecks for about a … Read more

by David Safier

First it was the Capitol Times. Now it's the Sierra Vista Herald. The two papers are surprised that Barbara McGuire changed her vote on SB1363 at the last minute to pass an expansion of Arizona's educational savings accounts (ESA), aka "Vouchers on steroids."

It's no surprise. McGuire is a pro-"education choice" Democrat who was endorsed and given independent expenditure campaign help by the very conservative, very pro-privatization PAC, Arizona Federation for Children (AFC). It wasn't a simple quid pro quo to get some of her legislation passed like the papers suggested; it was part of her long-standing commitment to the conservative privatization agenda. Democrats shouldn't be shocked by her vote either. It's time to see McGuire for what she is and look into finding a candidate for her seat who's less conservative on education issues.

People were surprised by McGuire's vote because they assume all Democrats are against vouchers by definition. But across the country, pro-voucher Democrats are being voted into state legislatures with considerable help from conservative money. It's a methodical, high priority part of the "education reform" agenda. Barbara McGuire is only one of a number of Arizona Democratic candidates who benefitted from work on her behalf by the AFC. Another is Rep. Mark Cardenas, who was endorsed by the AFC and is an Arizona board member of the faux-Democratic PAC, Democrats for Education Reform (DFER). Some losing Democrats had AFC support as well. I discussed the topic at more length in an earlier post, Barbara McGuire and Mark Cardenas: AZ's voucher-supporting Democratic legislators.