Top 10 Posts of the Year

by David Safier

Everyone else is doing top 10 lists. So this is either shameless egotism and self promotion or an attempt to spotlight some of the important issues I covered in 2011 in my attempts to add something extra to what you may have read elsewhere.

1. Vouchers by any other name (Jan.31): This was an early warning about what has been one of the most underreported Arizona stories of the year, Education Savings Accounts, which the legislature voted into law as Education Empowerment Accounts. This is the educational equivalent of SB1070 in its potential national importance.
2. G.I.s Matthew Ladner receives NEPC Education Bunkum Award (Feb. 3): It delighted me to see the National Education Policy Center is onto Matthew Ladner, who has moved from the Goldwater Institute to Jeb Bush's education foundation, as I have been for years. NEPC called this the 'If I Say It Enough, Will It Still Be Untrue?' Award. Yes, Matthew, it will still be untrue.
3. Russell Pearce: "You’re not a citizen of the United States" (March 22): Pearce actually said at a Tea Party rally in Oceanside, " Do you know, you’re not a citizen of the United States. You’re a citizen of a sovereign state." Though Pearce has been electorally removed from the State Legislature, the malady lingers on.
4. Why the Right should hate "Waiting for Superman" (April 9): The right has trumpeted the film, "Waiting for Superman," as the ultimate takedown of district schools and a celebration of charters. The right loves to say, Schools don't need more money, and We don't need to fix the social situation, just the schools. Yet the 3 schools spotlighted in the film all spend lots more money than district schools — lots more — and 2 out of 3 are committed to improving students' out-of-school situations.
5. Al Melvin's Jobs Committee met 4 times: 3 hours, 54 minutes total (April 19): Sen/Cap'n Al Melvin campaigned on the idea that all he really cared about was "Jobs, jobs, jobs." Yet he was vice chair of the Senate Committee on Economic Development and Jobs Creation which had 11 scheduled meetings, but met only 4 times, for a total of 3 hours, 54 minutes. Actually, only 2 of those meetings lasted more than 10 minutes — enough time to say, "We're in session, We're adjourned."
6. Don't worry, Atomic Al, you'll always have Paris (May 10): Any port in an [atomic] storm for Al. Melvin talks up the nuclear reprocessing plants in France, even though every conservative is supposed to hate France, even though their reprocessed fuel is so expensive no one will buy it, and even though it is a "socialist" program, government owned and run.
7. Thar's gold in them thar Charter School buildings (June 3): Charter schooling is turning into for profit education. Among other charter-related money making schemes, hedge funds and property management corporations have discovered they can make big bucks by renting school buildings to charters, where they get, according to Entertainment Properties, "a dependable revenue stream backed by a government payer."
8. A funny thing happened at a Terri Proud-sponsored education forum. Truth broke out (June 24): I attended a Terri Proud education event and found she must have picked the wrong guest speaker, an Amphi High physics teacher who told the truth about education funding. His most important finding: charters get the same amount for "regular education" per student as school districts, and sometimes more. Not surprisingly, Proud has not held any education events since.  
9. Republican talking points, circa 1939 (Aug. 6): Imagine my surprise when I watched the 1939 John Ford/John Wayne film, "Stagecoach," and heard the film's only villain, a banker who just ran off with $50,000 in payroll money, spouting very modern-sounding Republican talking points, like "The government must not interfere with business!" "Reduce taxes!" and "Our national debt is something shocking!"
10. Dr. Word notes: The Word(s) on the Street (Dec. 7): I spent 5 days in D.C. covering the Take Back the Capitol events, which led to a number of posts. My favorite was the long-overdue updating of chants during the marches. Gone were the old Civil Rights/Vietnam War era chants. In were newly minted slogans like "Banks got bailed out. We got sold out," "Hey millionaires, Pay your fair share," "All day, All week, Occupy K Street!" and a few Spanish language chants including "Obama, escucha, Estamos en la Lucha! ("Obama, listen, We are in the fight!").
11. OK, I said there were only 10, but . . .: How can I leave out three posts which make me smile every time I think about them: For old school Dylan fans (Jan 16), Calling Mel the Moyle (April 14) and Joe Scarborough IS the new/old Bob Dylan? Really? (Dec. 19)