by David Safier Craig Barrett, ex-CEO of Intel and Brewer's education point man, thinks money isn't part of the equation for improving Arizona education. This is from a Howie Fischer article last December: Barrett, while acknowledging Arizona is "not terribly high" on funding per student compared with other states, rejected the idea that more money … Read more
by David Safier What if they held Testing Day and nobody came? At an elementary school in Everett, Washington, 70 parents said their children weren't taking the yearly standardized test. How did they do it? They just said, Our kids aren't taking the test. Give them an art or science project instead. What was the … Read more
by David Safier In Wednesday morning's Star article about Hicks' jaw dropping appearance on the Daily Show, Hicks said, no more interviews. Hicks said he will no longer grant interviews and will only speak during board meetings. The article on the web has a posting time of 2am Wednesday, meaning Hicks must have made his … Read more
by David Safier To my surprise, Brewer vetoed the bill that would have expanded the "empowerment scholarship accounts" to include students at D or F schools, gifted students and children of people in the armed forces. Right now, they only apply to students with learning disabilities and, I believe, children in foster homes. My surprise … Read more
by David Safier
Man!
When I got up this morning, I planned to write more about Hicks' comic stylings on the Daily Show and add some other comments Hicks made earlier, like the way he connected TUSD middle school students going into a UA Mexican American Studies class to the alleged sexual abuse at Penn State. "And then I'll write," I thought, "and then I'll write . . ."
But first, I open the Star, take a few sips of coffee . . . and there on Page 2 is an Alexis Huicochea article about Hicks' Daily Show appearance — a decent piece of reporting — followed a few pages later by another Alexis Huicochea article about Sean Arce not having his contract renewed — again a decent article which includes the award Arce received from the Zinn Education Project. So far, so good.
And then — BAM! An editorial with the following subhead and head:
The more I read, the more I kept thinking, "Great stuff! I have almost nothing to add."
Almost nothing (though I'm sure I won't be able to restrain myself later today). Let me just add one quote from Hicks on a friendly website, the Arizona Daily Independent, where he is given all the rope he needs to hang defend himself against the Recall Hicks efforts. At one point he talks about how important it was to get rid of the MAS program.
"This is about kids," said Hicks. "This is about the exploitation of children by political predators."
He just can't stop himself from comparing the MAS administrators and teachers to sexual predators.
Excerpts from the Star editorial are below the fold — though you should really just read the whole thing.