G.I.’s Darcy Olsen tells “1-to-1 teacher-to-bureaucrat” lie on Arizona Illustrated.

by David Safier

Not once but twice Thursday, Darcy Olsen, President and CEO of the Goldwater Institute, repeated the statement which first appeared in a Matthew Ladner Daily Email — that there is a 1-to-1 ratio between teachers and bureaucrats in Arizona's school districts. The first time was on the John C. Scott show. The second time was on Arizona Illustrated (passage begins about 50 seconds in):

"In the K-12 system there are just a little bit over 100,000 employees. Bill, only half of those are teachers. So you basically have one bureaucrat or official or administrator per teacher, and that's the wrong ratio. And that's one of the reasons our students are struggling so much to keep up with students in other states."

Notice Olsen casually threw in the term "official" between "bureaucrat" and "administrator." "Official" is the wiggle word Ladner uses to excuse including bus drivers, maintenance workers and food service workers in his definition of "bureaucrats."

In an earlier post, I mentioned Ladner wrote in an email to me that he wouldn't use the term "bureaucrats" in his "1-to-1 ratio" statement anymore. Here's the passage, in an email he sent me on February 17:

I looked up the word "bureaucrat" and it has rather broad definitions:
 
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bureaucrat

The word does however bring up a more narrow image in the minds of many of a paper-pushing administrative types. I'll use a term like non-teachers going forward. [bold face added]

Olsen has a  different idea. She apparently swears by the conservative rule: Never retreat. When you're caught in a lie, repeat it over and over again.

I know Bill Buckmaster wasn't ready for such a bold faced lie, which (I hope) is why he didn't question Olsen when she made her 1-to-1 statement. From what I hear, John C. Scott wasn't aware he was lied to either until Jim Nintzel told him after Olsen finished her interview on the show.

And that's the point. If you believe G.I. people are honest brokers, you're going to get snookered. Media people need to fact check these folks. There are plenty of us out here who can tell you when G.I. is playing fast and loose with the facts.