Pat Fleming answers Peggy Judd

by David Safier

When I read that Peggy Judd (R, LD-25) said, “We are spending more money (on public education) in Arizona than we need to,” I wrote,

LD-25 Democrats, fire up your laptops and start your engines.

Silly me, thinking I had to remind Pat Fleming, who lost her LD-25 seat in last November's deluge, to call Judd to task. She had already written an op ed for the Nogales paper that carried the quote. It ran Tuesday. Here are some excerpts.

As a former state representative, it’s disappointing to see what our current representatives for Nogales-Rio Rico are doing to our education and health care.

Reps. Peggy Judd, David Stevens and Sen. Gail Griffin chose to cut another $200 million from K-12 education after the biggest cuts to our kids’ schools in the history of the state. Even though Arizona ranks last in the nation in education funding, teachers have been laid off and our classroom sizes are growing exponentially, Judd said: “We are spending more money (on public education) in Arizona than we need to.”

Tell that to our rural school districts.

We want our kids to learn and grow in school, not get lost in a crowded classroom. Cuts to funding in the classroom are cuts to our kids’ futures.

A good education is the key to future opportunity for our children and grandchildren. It’s time we invest in Arizona’s public schools instead of bailing out Wall Street and big corporations.

Yet our state lawmakers chose to do just that. They voted in favor of a corporate bailout package that gives away corporate tax breaks to giant, out-of-state retailers that won’t use it to create a single job here in Arizona; rather, rich CEOs likely will keep it to themselves. That’s not a jobs bill — it won’t help middle-class families in Arizona at all.

[snip]

We need to hold Judd, Stevens and Griffin accountable for their actions and for failing to give straight answers to the public. Griffin told Nogales International that she couldn’t remember how she voted on immigration bills and even asked for a “rain check.” Stevens didn’t return phone calls.

So what are our state representatives doing at the capitol? All three voted for the “birther” bill, the “guns on campus” bill, and the “official state gun” bill.

Translation: wasting our time and money, while our student to teacher ratios increase and our families and friends who were laid off are having trouble putting food on the table.