by admin | Mar 31, 2022 | Misc, News and Updates
For years now, we’ve heard the same old talking points from the left when it comes to our state’s schools. It always goes a little something like this:
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- Education is underfunded in Arizona…
- Teachers aren’t paid enough…
- We need to raise taxes to pay our teachers more…
Do these lines sound familiar? They should. Anytime a new proposition is rolled out to voters, teachers’ unions and other liberals push this same narrative. We heard it when they campaigned for Prop 208 a couple years ago. And despite the fact that the Arizona Supreme Court struck down Prop 208 because Arizona is already funding schools at historic levels, we continue to hear it from Red4Ed and others as they target the state’s $1.8 billion tax cuts.
That’s what makes the latest news out of Mesa Public Schools (MPS) even more outrageous. Earlier this week, AZ Free News reported that MPS won’t explain where more than $32.3 million of their federal emergency funds slated for COVID expenses went. The investigation came after reports that MPS teachers were asking parents to donate basic school supplies they were running out of because the district wouldn’t cover them.
But instead of having a clear explanation for the money that was buried under expenses listed as “other,” “indirect costs,” and “etc.,” MPS officials repeatedly dodged the question and mentioned that no records exist for those categories.
So, while their teachers are begging parents for reams of paper to finish out the school year, MPS is content to let them struggle for the sake of all these “other” expenses that are apparently too important to disclose. And all the while, Red4Ed continues to push the underfunding myth.
But maybe, just maybe the problem with education funding and teachers’ salaries isn’t a question of how much money districts have, but how districts are, you know, spending that money. Because it feels like $32.3 million in hidden expenses could go a long way toward fixing the issue. And this is just in one school district. What could this say about the rest of the school districts in our state?
Naturally, Arizona’s corporate media decided to sit this one out. They spill gallons of ink writing about charter schools and how they spend their cash. But when it comes to holding their beloved public schools accountable, they show no interest. After all, corporate media largely ignored the Higley Unified School District scandal when former superintendent Dr. Denise Birdwell was indicted on 18 felony counts related to procurement fraud, misuse of public monies, fraudulent schemes and practices, and more. And they were late to the party to report on the secret dossier on parents in the Scottsdale Unified School District back in November.
Would we expect anything else with this new situation in Mesa? Of course not. Because local news anchors don’t exactly win awards from teachers’ unions when they call into question their spending habits.
If corporate media is content to ignore this story again, at least we have some good independent media in Arizona willing to call it out. Now, our public school districts need to be held accountable when it comes to spending your hard-earned tax dollars. And if MPS won’t disclose where that $32.3 million is going, then it’s time for the State of Arizona to conduct an audit and find out how that money is being spent.
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by admin | Jan 27, 2022 | Misc, News and Updates
People are waking up. And you don’t need to look for proof much further than the amount of people who have left California recently. In fact, the migration from our neighbors to the West got so bad that the state lost a congressional seat, which also shrinks its number of votes in the Electoral College.
Instead of California dreamin’, people are California leavin’. And when you look at the state’s vast array of woke policies, who can blame them? It’s almost hard to believe that more people haven’t left. But perhaps there’s a reason for that. They can’t find a moving truck….
U-Haul’s top state for out-migration
At the beginning of the year, U-Haul, the nation’s largest renter of do-it-yourself trucks, reported that its outlets in California actually ran out of one-way trucks for most of 2021. That puts the Golden State, once again, in U-Haul’s top spot for out-migration. And while California’s net loss of trucks wasn’t as high as in previous years, U-Haul admits that this is partially attributed to the fact that the company ran out of inventory to meet customer demand.
So, which states top U-Haul’s list for in-bound trucks? You’ll probably be shocked to find that Texas and Florida ranked #1 and #2, respectively, with Tennessee coming in at #3, South Carolina at #4, and our home state of Arizona at #5. Do you sense a theme here?
It’s almost as if people are sick and tired of paying exorbitant taxes while having wokeness shoved down their throats. And yet, California’s leaders still don’t seem to care.
A proposal that would double tax collections
At the beginning of January, a group of Democrat legislators in California proposed a package of bills in order to create a universal health care program. Isn’t that so thoughtful?
Democrats say that they are all about making health care affordable, so this proposal couldn’t possibly stretch the wallets of the state’s residents any more than they already are, right?
Nope.
To pay for the single-payer health care system, California is considering nearly doubling its tax collections through a constitutional amendment. If that happens, it will increase taxes by $12,250 per household!
For a state already known for its ridiculously high taxes, this is insane. (You can almost hear the U-Haul team trying to find ways to get more one-way trucks out to California.)
But higher taxes are just one part of California’s problem.
Woke policies are destroying the state
In 2014, California passed Prop 47. One of the key aspects of this criminal justice “reform” moved the felony threshold for petty theft and shoplifting from $400 to $950.
So how has that worked out?
The state has been slammed with a wave of smash-and-grab robberies that have cost businesses millions of dollars. But that’s what happens when you tell people they’ll no longer be held accountable for theft.
Of course, Governor Newsom still continues to defend Prop 47, but at least some Democrats have realized what a failure this legislation has been. And now they are beginning to call for a repeal of parts of the law.
While they’re at it, they might as well look at the how their policies led homelessness to rage out of control too. In 2016, California adopted Housing First. This policy provides the homeless with lifelong, permanent housing.
The result? (You can probably see where we’re going here.)
California homelessness increased by 16.4% in 2019, which was the second largest increase of any state! And that’s while they were giving homes to homeless people and throwing billions of dollars at the problem!
It’s amazing that people still live in the Golden State. And the only logical explanations at this point are that there just aren’t enough moving trucks, or California must really know how to party.
But if recent history shows us anything, the migration from California will not end anytime soon. Now these people need to remember why they left. We’re happy to take them in Arizona—as long as they make a commitment to leaving their Blue-state ideas behind.
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by admin | Oct 15, 2021 | Misc, News and Updates
As if COVID hysteria hasn’t been bad enough, President Biden took it to the next level last month. In a troubling press conference, Biden announced vaccine mandates for private companies that employ 100 or more people—making sure to emphasize that this is not about “freedom or personal choice.”
But this wasn’t the first time we’d heard about mandatory vaccines. Some employers around the country, especially those in healthcare, already had their own mandates in place.
And so far, the consequences have been disastrous. In the past month:
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- One hospital in New York (which had announced its own vaccine mandate in August) had to pause delivering babies after experiencing mass staff resignations due to the vaccine mandate.
- Also, in New York, Governor Hochul had to deploy the National Guard to fill hospital staff shortages.
- In Houston, 153 hospital staff members either resigned or were fired for refusing to get the vaccine.
- And in Louisiana, the CEO of the state’s largest hospital system said in August that they “cannot find” nurses to bring in for help with the shortages. So, what did he do about it? The hospital doubled down on its mandate, now instituting fines for employees with unvaccinated spouses!
Arizona certainly hasn’t been immune to the problem. Right here in our very own state, one hospital administrator told AZ Free News that there have been issues ensuring beds at smaller hospitals due to delays in replacing equipment. But the main issue, the administrator said, is that Arizona’s larger hospital chains are losing staff due to the vaccine mandates.
Despite all this, the establishment media continues to beat the same drum. They want you to believe that hospitals are near or over capacity even though the current wave, which is subsiding, has been much smaller than previous waves.
But perhaps the problem isn’t more cases and COVID hospitalizations. Perhaps the problem is that hospitals are overwhelmed because they are experiencing staffing shortages due to the vaccine mandate. Or what if the capacity issues are tied to other contagious illnesses, such as RSV? Or maybe it’s because people are now starting to deal with other ailments and elective surgeries that they’ve been putting off because of COVID.
Of course, corporate media doesn’t want to look into these possibilities. Nor do they want to ask questions about why so many good healthcare professionals, who have stood on the frontlines of the pandemic, are refusing the vaccine.
Instead, they want to turn these medical professionals into villains, simply because they refuse to fall into line and get the jab. No dissent, discussion, or debate is allowed in the woke media echo chamber.
These divisive and authoritarian tactics must stop. If someone wants to get a vaccine for COVID, or anything else, they should have the freedom to do so. And if they don’t want the vaccine, that should be their choice.
But no free people should ever be compelled by force of government into certain medical decisions they disagree with.
Giving up that freedom could cost us a lot. And now, it’s costing us a lot of vital healthcare professionals—and some hospital beds.
Help Protect Freedom in Arizona by Joining Our Grassroots Network
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by admin | Sep 17, 2021 | Misc, News and Updates
It felt like we were heading this direction for quite some time. Well, here we are. Last week, President Biden made an outrageous announcement. Any employer that has 100 or more employees will be required to mandate vaccines. Not only is this a blatant abuse of power, but it ignores the fact that issues like this are supposed to be left to states.
And Arizona’s lawmakers, who were elected by the people, did address this back in July, taking keep steps to protect our state from more COVID overreach. In particular, the state legislature passed SB1819, which includes a provision that amends the ability of the state to require vaccination during a public health emergency to allow for an individual to refuse vaccination based on their personal beliefs.
But apparently, our president—or is he our king now—does not care one bit about your freedom or personal choice.
Instead, King Biden would rather maneuver around the U.S. Constitution and use the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to establish this ridiculous “emergency workplace safety rule.”
Remember when this was just about “flattening the curve”? It wasn’t that long ago.
And it also wasn’t that long ago when then-Senator Kamala Harris said she would not take the vaccine if President Trump mandated it. This administration can’t even get its own talking points straight. Or maybe that’s just something else they don’t care about.
But there is something they do want: to take away more of your freedoms. That’s why the Arizona Free Enterprise Club jumped into action immediately. For the past week, we’ve been urging Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich to sue the Biden administration. This vaccine mandate will affect more than 100 million Americans. And it is one of the most extreme infringements on both businesses and individual rights in U.S. history.
No free people should ever be compelled by force of government into certain medical decisions they disagree with.
Thankfully, earlier this week, Brnovich did take action, making Arizona the first state to file a lawsuit against the Biden administration over the unconstitutional vaccine mandate.
While this is an important step, it’s not enough. We need to do more to fight this.
That’s why the Club is now urging the Arizona state legislature and Governor Ducey to call a special session. And during that session, it’s essential that our lawmakers do two things:
- Protect any company from liability for not complying with the vaccine mandate, along with the assurance that Attorney General Brnovich will defend them.
- Ensure that the State of Arizona will pay any fines enforced against employers who do not comply with the mandate.
Vaccines should always be voluntary and never be forced, which is why our lawmakers cannot afford to wait. By protecting Arizona’s companies, they can give these businesses the fuel they need to stand strong against the Biden administration. And they’ll show the people of Arizona that there are some elected leaders who do care about their freedom and personal choice.
Stand Against Biden’s Vaccine Mandates — Sign the Petition Now!
Governor Ducey and Arizona’s legislators MUST fight back to protect Arizonans from Biden’s UNCONSTITUTIONAL vaccine mandates! And it’s critical that they hear from YOU. No free people should ever be compelled by force of government into certain medical decisions they disagree with.
By signing this petition, you will send a direct message to Arizona’s lawmakers that you want them to act immediately against Biden’s unconstitutional vaccine mandates by calling a special session to protect Arizona’s employers and employees. You can do so instantly by using the button below. (The process is simple and secure. And it will only take a minute of your time.)
by admin | Aug 20, 2021 | Misc, News and Updates
It needed to be done. At the end of June, Governor Ducey signed HB2898, which included a provision prohibiting a city, town, county, school board, or charter school governing body from requiring students or teachers to wear masks.
Bear in mind that this law doesn’t mean students and teachers can’t wear masks. They certainly can if they want to. But it keeps the heavy hand of government from enforcing unnecessary restrictions—especially on students who should be focused on learning.
Predictably, the liberal left has had a meltdown. The board president at Northland Preparatory Academy in Flagstaff went on a tirade in a now-removed Facebook post, referring to parents and students who disagree with mask mandates as “the worst of humanity.”
And some schools have decided that their first lesson for the year is to teach kids it’s ok to violate the law. A growing number of Arizona school districts are openly defying Governor Ducey by requiring students and staff to wear masks if they want to set foot on campus.
Our children have become pawns in a game of COVID chess—all at the mercy of the kings and queens on school boards throughout the state.
While parents are speaking up, they need help. Thankfully, Arizona’s House and Senate Republicans heard their cries. Last week, a group led by state representative Jake Hoffman called for Governor Ducey to do something.
And earlier this week, he delivered. Governor Ducey announced an initial $10 million investment for Arizona’s COVID-19 Recovery Benefit Program. This means that families facing financial and education barriers due to unnecessary school closures and mandates that are not in compliance with state law now have a choice.
Starting on August 20, families that have a total household income up to 350 percent of the Federal Poverty Level can apply for up to $7,000 per student for needs related to childcare, transportation, online tutoring, and tuition. Parents and families that apply simply need to show that their current school is isolating, quarantining, or subjecting children to physical COVID-19 restraints—like requiring the use of masks or giving preferential treatment to those who have been vaccinated.
This is an important decision by Governor Ducey. And it’s the right one. While COVID was certainly an issue that warranted some action, it never should have included trampling on the rights of the people.
And our kids should never be forced to wear masks. No study has been completed to back them up, and there’s a very good chance that widespread masking could cause children psychological harm.
School districts need to follow the law. And if they don’t, they should be held accountable. It’s time to put the power back into the hands of parents. They should be given a choice to find alternative learning solutions for their children because students deserve access to the best education possible.
Thankfully, Governor Ducey took a step in the right direction this week by putting the needs and development of our kids first.
Help Protect Freedom in Arizona by Joining Our Grassroots Network
Arizona needs to have a unified voice promoting economic freedom and prosperity, and the Free Enterprise Club is committed to making that happen. But we can’t do it alone. We need YOU!
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by admin | Aug 13, 2021 | Misc, News and Updates
They went from denying Critical Race Theory exists, to denying it is taught in schools and universities, then claiming it is exclusively researched in law schools, suing parents requesting access to their child’s curriculum, to now just openly defying new laws prohibiting CRT to continue indoctrinating and propagandizing students with anti-white bigotry.
But around the country, citizens have stepped up to push against schools, school boards, universities, and government agencies pushing CRT. State legislatures have stepped up too. In Arizona, Republicans successfully passed, and the Governor signed, two bills prohibiting this ideology.
HB2906, sponsored by Representative Jake Hoffman, prohibits any government agency or political subdivision of the state from expending public monies for or requiring as training anything that presents any blame or judgement on the basis of race, sex or ethnicity. Additionally, in the K-12 budget, HB2898, are provisions to prohibit the same CRT tenets in K-12 schools and comes with teeth for enforcement: $5,000 fines for schools in violation and up to the suspension or revocation of teaching licenses.
Nevertheless, Maricopa Community Colleges has decided to openly defy these new laws and push forward with “Cultural Humility and Equity Office Hours” that reportedly run through the end of 2022. While advertised as optional, board member Kathleen Winn expressed that it is essentially a requirement.
And that should ring true to most Americans these days. A requirement doesn’t need an outright mandate. CNN host Don Lemon stated on air in reference to COVID vaccines, “Don’t get the vaccine, you can’t go to the supermarket. Don’t have the vaccine, can’t go to the ball game. Don’t have a vaccine, can’t go to work. You don’t have a vaccine, can’t come here. No shirt, no shoes, no service.” By making life impossible without it, vaccines would become a requirement even if they aren’t mandated outright. The same can apply to “optional” trainings in institutions like Maricopa Community Colleges.
But what exactly would be taught in these Office Hours? Just look at one of their listed readings, Critical Race Theory in Education: A Review of Past Literature and a Look to the Future, which calls for “re-educating Whites via raced curriculum” and equates “White supremacy” to “colorblindness, meritocracy, integrationism, postracialism, etc.” It also contends that “social justice oriented White teachers should endeavor to move away from White liberal tendencies of savior and missionary mentalities toward a Critical Race teacher activism.”
That was written in 2015. Not in the last year or past few months, but 6 years ago and relies on “academic research” from the 1990s and early 2000s. What was once hidden has now come to light. Turns out conservative conspiracy theorists were right after all.
Parents don’t want teachers that are “activists.” Students don’t pay tuition and taxpayers certainly don’t foot the bill so that woke professors can “re-educate Whites” and propagandize college students into equating meritocracy, the idea that the most qualified gets the job and one of the bedrock principles of western civilization, to “White supremacy.”
Republicans in Arizona and around the country were spot on in their concern about what was going on in our public schools, regardless of leftist democrats and the woke media calling it a conspiracy theory. Even more timely was their move to prohibit it. But now, what are these elected officials going to do when political subdivisions openly defy the laws they duly passed?
Perhaps with counties refusing legislative subpoenas and cities and schools ignoring mask mandate prohibitions, Maricopa Community Colleges feels emboldened to flex their power and defy state law. But now is the time for legislators, the Governor, and the Attorney General to step in and shut it down.
Help Protect Freedom in Arizona by Joining Our Grassroots Network
Arizona needs to have a unified voice promoting economic freedom and prosperity, and the Free Enterprise Club is committed to making that happen. But we can’t do it alone. We need YOU!
Join our FREE Grassroots Action List to stay up to date on the latest battles against big government and how YOU can help influence crucial bills at the Arizona State Legislature.
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