Here's a press release from Grijalva's office:
Grijalva Announces Bill To Help Struggling Schools Prevent Dropouts, Encourage Pursuit of Higher Education
Washington, DC – Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva today announced the release of H.R. 4122, the Graduation for All Act, which seeks to decrease dropout rates and provide assistance to [...]
Ad for the President Obama, United We Serve and NFL Team Up fitness and service campaign.
This goes out to friend of the blog Steve Gall who is trying once again to get a 30 minute mandatory recess bill through the legislature and is talking to and working at [...]
by David Safier
The Rs planned to cut $144 million in soft capital funding from district schools. The snafu Thursday only delayed the move.
But now some legislators are asking, Why aren't charter schools feeling the budget ax as well?
Here is among the lamest reasons imaginable for not making cuts to' [...]
by David Safier
A few days ago, I posted about problems with the survey Goldwater Institute's Matthew Ladner used for his study about how little high school students know about Civics. It seems the company that conducted the survey, Strategic Vision LLC, has a history of complaints about their methodology [...]
If you've been watching Rachel Maddow or following the blogs, you've probably seen that one of the latest anti-Obama slogans is a line from one of the Old Testament Psalms of David, 109, verse 8:
Let his days be few; and let another take his office.
This isn't just a' [...]
No, not Sarah for Arizona. I want Sarah in Arizona during the 2010 primaries supporting the Senate candidate of her choice. Will it be her running mate, John McCain? Will it be her more natural ally, J.D. Hayworth? Or will it be Chris Build-a-wall-around-the-entire-country Simcox? Arizona wants to [...]
This is about Maricopa and it's about community colleges -- a bit out of my usual physical and educational geography -- but really, it's about a rogue members of a Board trying to use the colleges for personal and political ends, educational mission be damned. And that kind [...]
You know that special session called by the Accidental Guv to do some budget cutting? It didn't quite work out that way.
A fragile budget deal collapsed in the Senate Thursday when Sen. Thayer Verschoor skipped the floor session and tied his support to a last-minute amendment to' [...]
I happened to be at the Capitol Wednesday, camera and notepad in hand, so I took in the Dem press conference.
The thrust of the conference was to criticize the Rs for their piecemeal approach to budgeting: cut some stuff today and worry about everything else [...]
If you live in Tucson and you want to know about the tuition tax credit/STO mess, there's currently only one place to go: my posts on BfA. The Star has been AWOL when it comes to covering the story. I don't think it would take all the fingers [...]
In the post below, I wrote about the recent meeting of the R-created committee looking into painting a happy face on the tuition tax credit mess. I mentioned it brought in an "expert," Charles North, to explain that tuition tax credits save Arizona millions and millions of tax [...]
The other legislative committee looking into tuition tax credits and STOs met Monday. I call it "the other committee" because it was set up by Rs to counter the task force set up by Ds. The D-created task force is trying to probe tuition tax credit abuses. The [...]
I thought I would never have to write about this one charter school principal again. But a news story from KPHO Phoenix let me know the principal, who should never have been allowed to be around students after what she did in 2005, is back in the [...]
Sonoran Alliance had a reply to my post on Vic Williams the other day. I particularly enjoyed their citation of David Safier:
It what is best described as a case of wishful thinking, both Tedski over at Rum, Romanism and Rebellion, and David Safier at My Gay Arizona…are playing up [...]
In case you missed it yesterday (between Blue Meanie's posts and mine, things move down the page pretty fast), I wrote about the possibility that the survey Matthew Ladner based three public/private school comparisons on was totally fabricated by Strategic Vision LLC, the company paid to do' [...]
I don't usually blog about this kind of thing, but the Phoenix connection makes it irresistable.
There have been lots of questions about Bonner & Associates, a Republican outreach firm which apparently uses all kinds of shady tactics to do its clients' bidding. But this is a new one [...]
David Safier, who reads the Northwest Explorer so I don’t have to, linked this article by Emil Franzi over at Blog for Arizona. As expected from a Franzi column, you get your typical “why won’t these ignorant people listen to me?” plus a gratuitous sexist [...]
Another strong article about tuition tax credits and STOs from Pat Kossan and Ronald J. Hansen at the Republic. It focuses on taxpayer-funded scholarship money going to families that don't fit most people's definitions of "needy," though it also mentions examples of families who are well within [...]
As you know if you've been reading this blog, I've had several bones to pick with the Goldwater Institute's studies comparing public and private school students in their knowledge of civics, tolerance of others and feelings about the schools they attend. (My criticism of the' [...]
Another update on the Imagine Schools in Fort Wayne, Indiana, which have been the subject of scathing investigative work by the Journal Gazette.
The dean of the Teachers College at Ball State University, the group that authorized the charter for Fort Wayne's Imagine schools, wrote an op ed' [...]
I'm participating in a panel on blogging this Monday, Nov. 16, 6:30pm, at the Saguaro Eastside Democrats meeting -- New Spirit Lutheran Church, 8701 E. Old Spanish Trail (northeast corner of Camino Seco).
Joining me will be some guy who goes by the nom de pixel of Tedski --' [...]
This hearing will not be televised
by David Safier
[Note: In classic blog fashion, Part 3 is at the top of the page with Parts 2 and 1 following. Scroll down if you want to read them in the order they were written.]
These days, state legislative business is videotaped and streamed on [...]
Crandall thinks some public testimony is inappropriate
One of the people who testified at Wednesday's House task force on tuition tax credits and STOs was Ann-Eve Pedersen, one of the Tucsonans who have worked hard to uncover information about misuse of tuition tax credit funds and are trying to' [...]
An STO fund sweep? What an idea!
by David SafierThe House task force on tuition tax credits and STOs met Wednesday. This is the House group started by Ds, then joined by some Rs, not to be confused with the Senate committee started by Rs in response to earlier task force.
Both [...]
Just thinking here. I've written lots of posts about problems with Imagine Schools. Some have come from national reports and some has been based on my research into AZ DOE school funding reports and IRS tax records. I haven't received any criticism of what I've written.
It's not that [...]
It makes me feel slightly dirty giving Sarah Palin any more ink pixels, but reading AP do a take-down on the "facts" in Palin's new book gives me a certain joy, and I want to share it with others. I get the sense the writer had as much' [...]
I'm not one to sympathize with Tom Horne, but I think the guy needs a friend, and a hug, about now. Not only do people like me snipe at him from the left, but the Sonoran Alliance tore him a big ol' new one on his right flank [...]
Remember that wonderful 5 part investigation of tuition tax credits and STOs in the East Valley Trib? And remember how the Trib reporters as well as others at the Republic kept adding to the story? And remember how all this journalistic attention led to not one, but two [...]
I've heard rumors to this effect over the past month, and I guess Tedski has heard them as well.
A question fresh from the rumor mill: is Vic Williams contemplating a primary run against Al Melvin?
It would certainly make things interesting up here in my LD.
A SIDENOTE: About' [...]
