Sunday, January 29th, 2006...8:28 am
What Are They Working On?
After the Governor vetoed the second Republican corporate tax giveaway massive wealth transfer disguised as an English language learners bill, members got right back to work to give her a bill that she could actually sign.
Wait, that didn’t happen. The legislature went back into regular session, and even took the weekend off.
Near as anyone can figure, if the bill is being worked on at all, it is only among the leadership and maybe a few select members. They would do well to listen to some of their own members on this one, here is Representative Russ Jones, as quoted in the Yuma Sun after Napolitano’s first veto:
I hope and pray we’ll be sending back just the Flores bill without anything attached to it. If they do want to run a voucher bill, they should run it as a separate bill.
Some legislators have been asking that the leadership bring in some Democrats to hammer out a bill that the Governor can sign. It sounds like if they just get a couple of responsible people from their own side, it might be good enough for the Governor.
Jones’s comments brought up another interesting point:
If it passes without my vote, I become superfluous to the discussion. I want to be part of the discussion. I’m decidedly not in favor of the vouchers, but unfortunately sometimes you end up having to make compromises that are distasteful but necessary.
So, you thought the bill was bad, but you voted for it anyway because you wanted “discussion”? As Dr. Phil might say, how is that working out for you? Does it look like the leadership is the least bit interested in discussing this with anyone?
Carry this to its logical conclusion, and every member of the legislature should vote for any bill that might pass. It would foster more discussion and comprimise, right?
If Jones had been able to find only four other colleagues who agreed with him on this (or heck, only one more Senator), this thing would have failed to pass the legislature. As long as leadership knows they can get it past the House and Senate, they won’t find any reason to negotiate with anyone.
Of course, all of the potential votes against this went ahead and voted for it anyhow with the same excuse, “it was going to pass anyway.” Count up the number of people who say this, and you will probably find that it wouldn’t have passed if they had all voted against it.
So, either the excuse is bogus, or these guys are so cowed by their leadership (which they elected) that they aren’t willing to stand up for their own values or their constituents.
NB - I congratulated Sen. Toni Hellon and Rep. Pete Hershberger before for voting against both bills, I should throw in Sen. Carolyn Allen’s name as well. Also, it turns out that Hershberger apparently voted for HB 2004, the second bill. Pete, why must you disappoint me?
8 Comments
January 29th, 2006 at 11:21 pm
Massive wealth transfer is a great term. It could well be used to describe what happens when the State of Arizona heavily taxes homeowners and corporations and spends the money to fund government schools. Once funded, the state then forces parents to send their child/children to attend the nearest school, regardless of the needs, wants, or desires of the parents/students. “You live here, you go to public school #7. End of conversation.”
Public funding of education should be focused on the best learning environment for each student, not on supporting a huge government bureaucracy. Parents are more qualified to decide where that “best environment” is than the state. Year after year the state has been sending kids to under performing schools. That is a record that speaks for itself and which many people rightly want to change.
January 30th, 2006 at 9:44 am
johne said: “Year after year the state has been sending kids to under performing schools.”
And why are these schools “underperforming?” Because of the GOP approach of starving any program that doesn’t make the rich even richer.
If this country wanted the best schools in the world then that is what it would get. But what the GOP wants is division and a good education for only a select few. Such a system, of course collapses in time, as the rich, but increasingly degenerate, rise to the top.
Look around, starting with the White House resident.
January 30th, 2006 at 10:23 am
Johne is perhaps unaware of several factors in school choice options in Arizona.
Once funded, the state then forces parents to send their child/children to attend the nearest school, regardless of the needs, wants, or desires of the parents/students. “You live here, you go to public school #7. End of conversation.”
Arizona does have local schools run by local school districts, but children are not forced to go to the school that is the closest to them. Parents have several options. For instance, Arizona is an Open Enrollment state. From the Catalina Foothills website:
Arizona has an Open School Enrollment law that gives nonresident families–Arizona residents who do not live in the school district they want their children to attend–the option of enrolling their students in any public elementary (grades K-8) or high school (grades 9-12) in the state. It is a parental choice statute that has been in effect since September 1994.
In District 16, Open Enrollment students make up almost 7.5% of our total K-12 student population. Parents are aware that we are admitting more Open Enrollment students, and the number of applications has increased commensurately over the last several years. For a few years we did not admit nonresident students to our middle and high schools, and we had just a few openings for elementary school age children. Our capacity has increased over the last four years, and we now have nonresident children attending schools at all grade levels. This year there are 366 Open Enrollment students: 197 in grades K-5, 77 in grades 6-8, and 92 at the high school.
Beyond that, there are many districts that have Magnet Schools that provide additional specialized options for parents to pick from.
Perhaps you have heard of charter schools? There are quite a few charter schools in Arizona. They are public schools but they have no local attendance area.
A number of parents chose these schools (although a fair percentage send their children back to traditional schools and an even greater percentage will have children in both charter and traditional schools at the same time).
Year after year the state has been sending kids to under performing schools.
Ah, but you said that the parents are the best people to decide what school is working for them. Did you know that Title I schools that are found to be in need of school improvement under NCLB are required to allow students to attend a school that is not under school improvement? Some parents take this option, others choose to stay with their neighborhood school.
Public Schools in Arizona are evaluated by both the State and Federal accountability systems. This is how we know if a school is under performing or not. What methodology is used by private schools to help parents know if the private school is performing well for all of its students? NCLB requires that schools are effective with all students, and looks to see that white, black, Hispanic, Asian, native American, poor, English language learners and special education students are making adequate progress each year. If a school lets down any one of these groups, parents and the community are told. Will private schools agree to be held to the same standard?
January 30th, 2006 at 10:30 am
Wow Gail, I had no idea that the GOP was that powerful. Are you saying that for the last 30 years the GOP has been in control of the education colleges, the teachers unions, and the education bureaucracy ? Are you also saying that it is just a matter of money to fix the public schools ? How much more money exactly because the system is receiving are very large amount of funding already. Have you seen the lighted football stadiums at most public high schools ? That is where the money went.
If the GOP is so fixated on keeping divisions in society why do they support vouchers ? A system where the poor and middle class would have a chance to attend non-public schools, just like many rich kids do ?
January 30th, 2006 at 10:48 am
Anonymous, to answer your last question. Private schools are held to a higher standard because they are purely voluntary. They do not confiscate private wealth through taxation and then keep the money just for their particular site. Their measure of performance is the satisfaction of the parents and performance of the student. I think the parents are in much better position to decide what is best for their children then the state or some abstract so called accountability system.
Open enrolment is great but does it come with transportation ? If not then it only helps the rich who can affords to transport their kids to a school further away.
Charter schools are great too. But if charter schools are working OK then why not have vouchers so that parents could choose to send their child to a local religious school or a private, non-charter school. And don’t tell me that there is no oversight of religious or private schools. The worst public school in Arizona has state oversight. Oversight does not fix a school, it just confirms that it is performing poorly. The real oversight is the parent. The vast majority of parent will pull their kids out of a non-public school if it is not performing.
January 30th, 2006 at 11:07 am
johne said: “If the GOP is so fixated on keeping divisions in society why do they support vouchers ? A system where the poor and middle class would have a chance to attend non-public schools, just like many rich kids do ?”
Ah yes, vouchers will create a marvelously equal world of education for rich, middle, and poor. Do you really believe that? And do you really believe that the GOP is ‘fixated’ on vouchers because this is what they really expect the result to be?
If so, I have some shares in a bridge you might want to buy …
January 30th, 2006 at 2:50 pm
With the judge’s decision last week to rack up $500,000 per day in fines and deposit them into an account that will go to fund English learners, why does the Governor have to do anything. The way I read it is, that if the legislature continues to play games with this issue, she can do nothing at all and it will get funded anyway.
February 4th, 2006 at 1:58 am
I think the schools need to be better funded; however, I also think the biggest determinant of how well a kid does in school is the amount of importance the kid’s parent places on education. Has the parent been encouraging the kid to read and making sure the kid does his/her homework? And how much interest does the parent show in the kid’s school?
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