Open Letter to Frederick Hess

Cross-posted from RestoreReason.com.

I could barely get through your post on educationnext.org before I began formulating my response. This is not the first time I’ve wanted to respond to a post on this blog, but I definitely couldn’t let this one go unanswered. I read your blog because I try to ensure I am informed about education from a variety of opinions and viewpoints. But, as Daniel Moynihan said, “You are entitled to your own opinions, but not to your own facts.”

In your post titled “Education Is So Far Left, It Can’t Really See the Right”, you condescendingly lay out the “blind spots” of those in “education.” Your interchange of “those in education” and “Democrats” as if there is no difference is your mistake #1. Although more teachers tend to be Democrats than Republicans, teachers are typically focused on their students in the classroom, not in setting education policy. I am a school board member and active in my state’s school board association. One thing I’ve learned in the past four years, is that those who serve with me are politically diverse and it is this diversity that ensures all viewpoints are represented. These governing board members are at the forefront of charting the course of education at the local level and they have many different ideas about how to do that. Its a great strength of the local control our system of district education offers. While I’m on the subject of ideas, I have a few others for you.

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Political topography of Arizona

Arizona Secretary of State voter registration  totals as of Aug. 30, 2016: 7 of 15 Arizona Counties have more Democrats registered than Republicans in:Apache, Coconino, Greenlee, Navajo, Pima, Santa Cruz, Yuma Counties. If you’re wondering where these counties are, here’s a map of the 15 counties. So most of the Democratic counties are in the Northeast and … Read more

Independents can’t vote in Arizona Presidential Preference Election on March 22

Information flyers below from  former ACLU Southern AZ  board member Paul Barby, about the upcoming PPE on March 22, 2016 in Arizona.  Take heed Independents (now listed at 1,201,030 registered voters on the Arizona Secretary of State’s website).  You can vote in the Democratic, Green, or Republican primaries if you register for that party by Feb. 22, 2016 … Read more

Democratic voters sit out yet another off-year election. Let’s examine why.

Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

wheel-of-fortune

This is getting old. Tuesday was election day across the nation and Democrats performed poorly, yet again, as they have tended to do the past several elections that are not Presidential general ones. The reason for it is obvious: low turnout, averaging about 30% nationwide. The explanations behind that reason that liberals will come up with are akin to the game show “Wheel of Fortune”, where in the final round the common letters picked to guess the winning phrase had become so predictable that the show just started spotting them to the contestants years ago: R,S,T,L,N,E.

The R,S,T,L,N,E of Democratic losses are as follows, in no particular order of importance and with no judgment on my part on their veracity, as all are true to varying extents:

1. Democrats don’t have a message.
2. Democratic candidates run as Republican lite and run away from President Obama.
3. Gerrymandering.
4. Voter suppression and other logistical impediments to voting.
5. Citizens United and the flooding of elections with huge amounts of money from well-heeled right wing ideologues.
6. Demographics.

Let’s take them one by one:

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