by David Safier "Generational theft." It's one of Al Melvin's favorite terms, which he hauled out once again at Friday's Republican PR tour forum. For Melvin and other Republicans who use it, it refers to passing budget deficits onto future generations, period. Today's Star editorial takes Melvin apart for his limited, shortsighted use of the … Read more
by David Safier When jobs and salaries hang in the balance, people will figure out ways to boost test scores. I've written about Eraser-gate, where wrong answers are erased from student tests and replaced with right answers by staff. But there are other creative ways to boost scores, such as . . . De-enroll low … Read more
by David Safier This morning I attended an LD-25 and LD-26 legislators' forum at the YMCA on N. Shannon. Only 3 pols showed up: Vic Williams and Al Melvin from LD-26 and Peggy Judd from LD-25. Forum, however, is the wrong word. It was more like a Republican PR road show. The audience — and … Read more
by David Safier
Save Ethnic Studies, the group defending the Mexican American Studies program, is playing hard ball.
If you remember, Ed Supe John Huppenthal hired an audit team to evaluate MAS to help him decide if the program is in violation of A.R.S. § 15-112. The original head of the audit team, Steve Gallon, was removed after complaints from Save Ethnic Studies that he had a checkered past, to put it lightly.
Now, Save Ethnic Studies is refusing to participate in "a focus group discussion" with the reconstituted audit team. The three reasons: (1) It's hard to trust Cambium Learning Group which put together the audit team if its own "audit" of the team members would allow someone like Steve Gallon to head it; (2) The scope and parameters of the audit haven't been spelled out clearly; and (3) The audit team has no demonstrated expertise in the theory behind MAS or the challenges faced by Mexican-American students in the southwest.
This refusal to cooperate will undoubtedly be used against the group, but I think it's a good move. If the audit team is an honest, objective group, it can find all the information it needs without someone explaining it to them. If the deck is stacked, then anything members of the Save Ethnic Studies group say can be used as "evidence" against the program.
You can read the Media Release after the jump. You can read the letter to Superintendent Pedicone here.
by David Safier The Supreme Court refused to hear the case, Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn, which questioned the constitutionality of tuition tax credits because much of the money pays for tuition at religious schools. As I understand it, the conservative majority said, if these were vouchers from state funds that would be … Read more