Linda Lyon

Linda Lyon retired from the Air Force as a Colonel in 2007 at Andrews AFB, Maryland where she served as the Mission Support Group Commander (city manager) for a community of 20,000. After retirement, she was a program manager for a large logistics contract for the Department of Energy and then deputy program manager for L-3 Communications on the Secure Border Initiative. She moved to Arizona in 2008 with her wife, Hollace and since then, managed a non-profit, helped establish the Oracle Schools Foundation, and worked on multiple political campaigns. Linda is in her 11th year on the Oracle School District Governing Board and is a past-president of the Arizona School Boards Association.

Tom Horne: An Old Dog with a CRT Bone

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AZ Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne is the living embodiment of the saying that an old dog can’t learn new tricks. His campaign gave us a preview that he was not going to change his ways. After all, he didn’t tout plans to improve our public schools (he was vying for the position overseeing … Read more

How $200M Could Have Been Better Spent

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Although the real total costs will likely never be known, the Arizona Republic reported yesterday that Governor Ducey’s five-month effort to close gaps along the U.S.-Mexico border with shipping containers will cost Arizona taxpayers more than $200 million. I’m not writing to debate the wisdom of Ducey’s actions, (okay, just for a second, it was … Read more

Drowning Public Education in the Bathtub

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Those of you who’ve been around a while will remember lobbyist Grover Norquist, who founded Americans for Tax Reform in 1985. This was during the Reagan years when government was seen as a drag on the free market. Norquist is probably best known for this quote in 2001: “I don’t want to abolish government. I … Read more

Fighting for the Soul of Our Nation

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Diane Ravitch published a great update on her blog yesterday, about Save Our School Arizona’s latest fight against universal vouchers and their urgent need for additional resources. Please read the post and then help support the effort by donating at, http://sosarizona.org/donate. If you live in Arizona and haven’t yet signed a petition, please go here … Read more

“Deeply Embarrassed and Frustrated”

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My last blog post was an evisceration of the Pinal County Board of Directors for their September 2021 refusal to accept almost $3.4M in Federal funding to hire a vaccine equity employee and distribute COVID-19 vaccines to underserved communities. Two months later, they reversed their decision with an amendment that, “the public health department or … Read more