Three notes of praise for today’s Star

by David Safier

Note this in your diaries, BfA readers. Today I praise the Star three times ("Once, Twice, Three Times a Paper") without a hint of snark.

1. The ever-praiseworthy Fitz just keeps getting better in his weekly column. Too many great lines to quote, but here are a few:

Attorney General Tom Horne issued an injunction stopping Tucson's "Fiesta de los Vaqueros" celebration from proceeding because "it sounds like ethnic studies to me." His office is looking into criminalizing note-taking at the Spring Mariachi Conference.

[snip]

A Chandler lawmaker gave up on his idea of making the debit cards used by food-stamp recipients neon orange. He explained: "As best as I could recollect – the good book says, 'Blessed are the poor, for they shall be humiliated; blessed are the self-righteous, for they shall be re-elected.' "

2. Praise to Alexis Huicochea for her excellent coverage of the Diane Ravitch talk. Ravitch is one of the most important voices in education today, and getting her to Tucson was a coup (Give Robin Hiller of Voices for Education credit for bugging Ravitch until she agreed to come). Ravitch went from a progressive educator/scholar in the 70s to someone who worked with H.W. Bush and was all for high stakes testing and charters, to someone who looked at the data, saw the error in her ways, and returned as a leader on the progressive side. You won't read a better book on the current state of education than her recent "The Death and Life of the Great American School System."

3. Praise to Howard Fischer for his article — and to the Star for printing it — noting that Intel made its decision to build its $5 billion plant in Chandler before this week's tax giveaway to corporations. After its decision to locate here, Intel pushed for the new legislation, of course, because it knew the tax cuts would save them big bucks. So the first "payoff" of the new bill is to give away money that was already destined for Arizona's tax coffers.