The Game Has Changed For The Education Debate in Arizona

by admin | Dec 21, 2020 | Misc, News and Updates

The narrative around education funding in Arizona has been dominated by the K-12 establishment, teachers’ unions, and their cheerleaders in the mainstream media.  For years they have told the public, despite billions in new education funding pouring in the past several years, that schools remain woefully underfunded. Sadly, this has resulted in a bidding war with the K-12 lobby on how much more to spend, regardless of educational results or accountability.

That prevailing narrative has now hit a brick wall.  The Arizona education lobby and their out-of-state special interest friends cashed in all their chips for Proposition 208 – the largest tax increase in Arizona history.  They were able to convince a bare majority of voters to pass it.  And now they have a real problem. 

Proponents promised that Prop 208 would restore our state to “pre-recession” funding levels, the watermark they use to define the ever-nebulous “fully funded” concept.  The architects of Prop 208 claimed that its passage would pump a $1Billion into the K-12 system.  Based upon what they promised Arizona voters, our schools are now fully funded. 

Despite opponents of the measure sounding the alarm on the devastating effects Prop 208 would have on our economy, advocates assured voters it did not impact small businesses and would not drive high-income earners and job creators out of the state.

But that is exactly what it is doing.  Inevitably, Proposition 208 will not generate the revenues they promised voters, leaving proponents in an awkward position.  They asked voters to pass this to “fully fund” education, knowing full well it would not generate the revenues they “projected” and they would be back asking for more money.  Some people call that a bait and switch.

This crisis in credibility is sure to be at odds with lawmakers this legislative session when the education community predictably demands more money, being unsatisfied with gobbling up 52 percent of the entirety of the state’s budget.  However, they have a second glaring problem divorced from the soon to be public revelation that they lied throughout the entirety of the Prop 208 campaign.

There is an exodus of students from the district schools and no one knows if these students are ever returning.  Since the pandemic, public schools have seen a 5 percent decline, while enrollment in Empowerment Scholarship Accounts, which allows parents to use their tax dollars to homeschool or choose an alternative learning solution for their children, has exploded. 

Understandably, the school districts have always enjoyed natural sympathies from parents who support their children’s schools and teachers.  But that implicit trust has been cracking under COVID as teachers’ unions threatened to strike if schools reopened in the Fall, school boards vacillated between distance and in-person learning, and schools opened daycares but not classrooms.  Parents were left with no other alternative but to seek out better options for their kids.

Since funding levels are tied to student enrollment, the education lobby will have to explain why they should receive more money when fewer families are choosing their product, especially when they have already secured their big bucket of money from Prop 208.

The passage of Prop 208 and the fracturing of the trust between the public schools and families have changed the framework of the debate around education in our state.  For the 2021 legislative session, that means the conversation will not center around how many unaccountable dollars can be poured into the K-12 system.  Rather – it is likely the session will be dominated by two prevailing policies – backpack funding and expanding school choice.  And this is very good news for the kids of Arizona and for taxpayers. 

COVID-19 Provides Opportunity to Revolutionize Education

by admin | Aug 11, 2020 | Misc, News and Updates

All across the country, K-12 educators and staff are holding families hostage and threatening to strike (again) if schools open up in the Fall for kids to learn in person.  They are claiming that it is not safe enough to teach, despite the fact that many districts are opening up to offer in person daycare services and are charging for the service. Parents and students that need an in-person learning option have become political pawns in the teacher union chess game to further their agenda.

If the unions and school shutdown lobby think they are winning the debate, they are sorely mistaken. With families getting their first glimpse of substandard online classroom instruction, parents are already sprinting out of their district school and opting for better alternatives.  In states such as Arizona, where school choice is popular and plentiful, parents easily have other options. 

As consumers, we are well accustomed to the luxuries of customization and flexibility.  In fact, we have come to expect it in almost every realm of goods and services.  Yet when it comes to education parents don’t realize they have a right to demand these features for their children. 

Families should have a market of options in which they consider the unique aptitude, learning style and interests of their child. Organizations and school choice advocates have been working for years to advance innovation and diversity in education and to question the top-down system of the status quo.   Additional demand from Covid-19 and opportunistic teacher unions is likely to expedite the revolution of educational options in Arizona.

Microschools

Just as it sounds, microschools are small learning environments between 8 – 10 students that blend homeschooling with an in-class community environment.  In Arizona, this concept has been popularized by the company Prenda whose goal was to create a learning environment that was self-guided and fueled by a child’s own enthusiasm for learning. Prenda created an online platform that has made its model for learning accessible to students across the state.  Even in the most isolated and economically challenged areas of the state, such as the Apache Reservation, a microschool has popped up and is serving a small number of tribal students who would have had no other option but failing district schools.

Homeschooling

Though certainly not a new concept, homeschooling is quickly gaining popularity.  Many parents who were thrust into “being the teacher” at the end of the 2020 school year have discovered they are rather good at it and are opting this year to take on the role full time.  In fact, in Maricopa County the number of families opting to homeschool their children this Fall has tripled over last year.

Pandemic Pods

Similar to microschools, parents are also forming “pandemic pods” for children in their families and neighborhoods; small groups of kids taught under either a parent or paid teacher or tutor.  This allows families to pool their resources and share the costs of a more personalized education.  Companies from Manhattan to San Francisco have popped up to facilitate the matching of families with tutors and teachers; a similar model that already exists with nanny agencies. This model has raised concerns over equity – how do children in families with limited resources and means ensure they still receive a quality education?

Right now, parents are figuring all this out on their own.  Policymakers could help. 

Expanded Empowerment Scholarship Accounts

Arizona already has a vehicle set up for “backpack funding,” a finance system for education that follows the student no matter what educational option they choose.  Currently Empowerment Scholarship Accounts are only open to certain qualifying students – such as for children with disabilities, in the bounds of schools rated a ‘D’ or ‘F’, children of military persons or tribal children. 

The legislature should expand this program for the COVID-19 pandemic.  Doing so would allow all families struggling with the difficult educational choices right now to access needed funds to tailor an education best for their child in this chaotic environment.  This could be done at a fraction of the cost of traditional district school funding.   

These models are the tip of the iceberg.  As families, educators and policymakers navigate what education looks like during the current pandemic; this is an even greater opportunity to explore how to revamp archaic school finance systems, outdated education models, and make parents expert consumers of educational options.

Parents Should #WalkAway From Public Schools Unwilling to Educate AZ Kids

by admin | Jul 29, 2020 | Misc, News and Updates

The would-be school year is fast approaching and thousands of parents across Arizona are panicking. 

How will their children learn this year?  When will they have a physical place to go?  Will parents be able to return to work?  Will they have to pay for tutors out of pocket? 

With most of the critical reopening decisions now in the hands of Superintendent Kathy Hoffman, school districts and ultimately the teachers’ union, it’s obvious now that crafting a system that works for parents and kids won’t be the top priority for the educational establishment.  Every decision from here on out will be to cater to the desires of administrators and teachers. Period.

Come August 17^th, district school families will be forced to accept whatever dysfunctional Covid-schooling platform that is thrusted into their laps.  Parents of low-income families will be hit the hardest, especially those who can’t work from home. Special needs children will be hung out to dry. Kids in abusive households will continue to have no escape from a hostile environment.

And if any parent or taxpayer questions why their needs appear to be secondary to those of the educational establishment, they are immediately shouted down and told that they just want people to die.  So what if your child needs in person learning—you should just accept paying unlimited amounts in taxes to feed a substandard educational system that only adds to the chaos in your life.

Even more infuriating is the “solution” now being offered to parents that require in person schooling to address their work/life situations. Rather than open up for learning, several school districts are now offering paid childcare services. 

That’s right – residents already paying over half of their state taxes to education are now expected to pay to have their kids in school to not learn.   Representatives of the teachers’ union claim it is too risky to teach kids in a classroom, but apparently it is plenty safe to not teach them in a classroom. 

Parents and kids deserve better than this. 

Families were willing to extend grace at the end of the school year when districts scrambled to reformat the educational experience for online and distant learning.  The legislature passed emergency measures to ensure funding would be uninterrupted. And instead of developing a real plan that catered to families that MUST HAVE in person learning, the school districts and education lobby instead put all their time and energy into a public relations campaign to push back the start date of school to October 1^st. 

It should be noted that there are many schoolteachers and administrators ready and willing to resume in person learning.  Afterall, through the peaks and valleys of the pandemic, essential workers have stepped up and done their jobs.  Truck workers continued to deliver critical goods, grocery store workers continued to stock shelves, and doctors and nurses continued to man hospitals and treat the unwell.  Those teachers that recognize that education is an essential service and wish to provide in person learning to our children should not be stopped by administrators and union thug bosses.

If district schools believe that there is no limit to the mistreatment of hardworking families, they are in for a rude awakening.  Most parents are very supportive of their local district school, but they will have no problem walking away from a broken K-12 system if it benefits their child.   

They may not be vocal or have active twitter accounts, but these parents are paying attention and are wide awake to this rolling disaster. They are thinking creatively about education and observing more closely than ever the best ways in which their children learn.  This will lead to rapid innovation and adoption of flexible models. 

Post-pandemic, there may very well be an explosive demand for testing new educational models, from micro-schools, “forest schools,” digital classrooms, to expanded ESAs.  An educational Renaissance is a possible and welcome outcome. 

Scottsdale Community College Walks Back Actions Violating Academic Freedoms

by admin | Jun 18, 2020 | Misc, News and Updates

It is no secret that most universities and colleges across the country are teeming with professors and adjuncts unafraid to insert their liberal biases into their courses and teachings.  A survey of 40 leading universities in the country found that Democrat professors outnumber their Republican colleagues at a ratio of nearly 12 to 1.  Conservatives are a genuine minority on higher education campuses and intellectual diversity has become nonexistent.

The result is an ideological double standard that is destroying our colleges and universities. If you are liberal college professor lecturing your students on the evils of capitalism or how America is a cesspit of bigotry, your academic freedom is sacrosanct. Students that don’t agree with this sentiment are wise to keep quiet and not rock the boat.

What happens when conservative students and speakers don’t fall in line and decide to stand up for their beliefs? They are discriminated against by their professors, or are “shouted down” and attacked for expressing the minority position on campus.

Conservative professors that refuse to embrace the liberal Marxist worldview of their peers don’t fare much better. Case in point: Professor Nick Damask at Scottsdale Community College.

Professor Demask teaches World Politics at SCC and is considered an expert in the area of international terrorism.  This spring he had his students take a quiz that included several questions about Islamic terrorism.  One student in the class claimed that he was offended by the quiz and wrote the professor about his complaints. Professor Damask provided a clarification of his questions and offered to discuss the issue further with the student, but before further discussion could occur, the student posted the quiz on social media. 

The professor and the college were excoriated by liberal pundits and the media for suggesting that there are terrorists that self-identify with Islam. At that point SCC had a choice—treat Professor Demask like how they would have treated every other liberal professor and protected his academic freedom, or throw him under the ideological bus. To no ones’ surprise, they chose the latter option.

SCC immediately voided the test results, issued an apology from the college to the student and sent the professor a pre-written apology letter for him to sign. To his credit Professor Damask, who has taught at SCC for 23 years, did not apologize but instead pursued legal representation for violations of his academic freedom.

After Professor Damask decided to fight back the Maricopa County Community College Board opened up an investigation to determine if SCC handled the situation properly. Nearly a month later the interim Chancellor of Maricopa Community Colleges published his findings and determined that administrators acted inappropriately, and that the school violated the professor’s academic freedom. 

Though Professor Damask was vindicated, in many respects it is a hollow victory.  His reputation has been permanently damaged, which shows that college leadership can’t be trusted to provide due process or protect individuals with different beliefs than their own.

This freezing of any divergent speech on campus is a double-edged sword.  If serious steps are not taken to address this issue it won’t take long before conservatives start playing thought police on campus and engage in their own guerilla tactics to point out every liberally slanted lesson they deem offensive. 

Senator Kyrsten Sinema Pushes for Liberal Wish List in Coronavirus Relief Package

by admin | Mar 24, 2020 | Misc, News and Updates

Over the weekend Republicans and Democrats in Washington were working toward an agreement on a Coronavirus relief package to assist businesses and employees being hammered by the economic shutdown. A bipartisan deal was close until at the last second Democrats moved to block the legislation, followed by an announcement by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that she would be drafting her own package.

The reason for the opposition? Democrats are trying to use the bill to pass their wish list of radical reforms! Some of the demands from democrats include:

• Mandated Climate Change Studies
• Increased fuel emission standards for airlines
• Diversity reporting for corporate boards
• Expanded collective bargaining power for unions
• Same day voter registration
• All mail-in elections
• Elimination of all debt at the post office
• Retirement plans for community newspaper employees
• Study on all climate change mitigation efforts by all businesses benefiting from the legislation

Looking at this absurd list of demands from Pelosi and Schumer brings clarity to what House Majority Whip Rep. James Clybern meant when he said that the Coronavirus crisis, “is a tremendous opportunity to restructure things to fit our vision.”

They don’t care that none of these items help patients, hospitals or the regular person currently sitting at home waiting for this to end. They see an opportunity to exploit the process and will try to bully Trump and Republicans into accepting their demands.

Make no mistake, every democrat sees this as a political opportunity to implement the Bernie Sanders plan, including Senator Kyrsten Sinema. Earlier this week she joined the democrats in blocking the Coronavirus relief package and then tried to spin it to be about providing enough help to small business and the health care community.  How exactly does eliminating the debt at the Post Office and mandated diversity on corporate boards keep small businesses open?  How does implementing the Green New Deal help hospitals fight Coronavirus?

It was a shameful display and exposed every Democrat in Washington. They may talk about the need to fight the current crisis, but when it came time to act it turns out that expanding union power clout is more important to them. Even Sen. Sinema was seduced by this power grab and went along.

Republicans have rightfully excoriated Democrats over their antics, and so far have not given in to their demands. They must hold firm—the public will understand why they are rejecting the liberal wish list and will hold them accountable. Not even the compliant media will be able to save them—although they will try.