Horne: Tax yourselves!

by David SafierA reader sent me a March 10 article from KTAR News with an easily overlooked paragraph where Tom Horne said, in essence, Hey, don't blame the legislators for schools' budget woes: Horne said that state lawmakers have taken an unfair amount of blame for recent cuts in education funding. He said the most … Read more

Putting the voucher discussion to bed

by David SafierThe State Supreme Court has spoken: vouchers are unconstitutional in Arizona. Yet we continue to argue about them here at BfA. Well, no more. Or not for awhile anyway. My sense is that vouchers will sit on a back bench in Arizona for awhile. Though voucher advocates have two basic avenues they can … Read more

A liberal learns “The Blaine Game”

by David SafierI had some other items I wanted to blog about today, but Matthew Ladner of the Goldwater Institute has kept me pinned down on this voucher thing. As Al Pacino said in Godfather 3, "Just when I thought I was out . . ." When I wrote about the State Supreme Court ruling … Read more

The Citizen goes after vouchers

by David SafierToday's Citizen editorial (which may be one of their last) has the subhead, Vouchers aren't just unconstitutional, they're flat-out undemocratic. Here are some of the reasons they give: • Public schools are held accountable. Indeed, under No Child Left Behind, they constantly have to demonstrate student performance on many subjects in multiple grades. … Read more

My love/hate relationship with public schooling

by David SafierI have to hand it to Matthew Ladner of the Goldwater Institute. He keeps on stepping into the lion's den here at BfA. Every time I say something he disagrees with (which is pretty much every time I put keyboard to blog), he's tearing into me in the comments section. And of course, … Read more