David Safier will begin blogging on the topic of education on February 1st. Dave is a retired educator with a background in urban studies and graduate studies in education. Dave is deeply concerned with the status of public education in Arizona and keenly interested in bringing greater awareness and understanding of those issues to the … Read more
GOP legislative leaders have made their opening offer in the 2008 budget battles. They want to slash hundreds of millions from state programs including education. Faced with a deficit of roughly $800 million, Gov. Napolitano is proposing financing school construction over the useful life of the buildings (just like a mortgage) to save almost $400 … Read more
Our own Mohur Sidhwa, Chairperson the Democratic Party in LD 28 and First Vice-Chair of Pima County, recorded a commentary recently on science and religion and the necessary separation of the two. Mohur grew up amid sexism and religious intolerance in the land of her birth and escaped to a place she expected to be … Read more
UPDATE 10/30: The Arizona Education Association just issued a press release announcing that it has filed two complaints with the Maricopa County Elections Department regarding these incidents on behalf of their over 32,000 members. This is good news. A good scandal seems to be the only way to get voters to seriously consider a down-ticket … Read more
There is a war between the GOP and the Democrats for the hearts and
minds of Latino voters. One of the key battles of that war is the issue
of undocumented immigration and that battle’s front lines are in
Arizona.
I propose to take a closer look at an exchange of fire in that battle
that has caught a considerable amount of press attention: the speeches at Tucson
High of Dolores Huerta and Margaret Garcia-Dugan.
All that most people
know about this controversy is that Huerta was invited to speak to
students and said, “Republicans hate Latinos.” Following a firestorm of
protest from Arizona Republicans, SPI Tom Horne arranged for his Deputy
Superintendent, Ms. Garcia-Dugan, to present a rebuttal at Tucson High.
From all the hoopla, you’d think this was practically the
Lincoln-Douglas debate. But this was not fight between two evenly
matched opponents, it was a rout from the very first shot.