Transparency & Accountability: HB2022

Transparency & Accountability: HB2022
Post Date January 17, 2019
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Category Education

The level of misinformation in the media
today regarding HB2022 is stunning. For a bill designed to address the
complaints of both sides of the political spectrum, as well as ESA watchdogs,
one would think that more rigorous oversight might have been welcomed. However,
the addicted to outrage crowd has sought to posit a fallacious argument that
the proposal somehow violates the will of Arizona voters who voted down
Proposition 305 in the last election. I do not believe for a moment that
Arizona voters said they don’t want more accountability and …

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Who Objects to a Teacher “Code of Ethics”?

Post Date December 21, 2018
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Category Accountability, Education, Ethics

Published with Permission of Kristen Williamson

From: Kristen Williamson [mailto:kristen.williamson@me.com]
Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2018 10:16 PM
To: laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com
Subject: Mark Finchem’s HB 2002: Parents ARE Outraged…At District “Leaders” Who Permit Activism at the Expense of Academic Scholarship

Laurie,

I read the article (https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/laurieroberts/2018/12/19/payback-time-redfored/2365587002/) you wrote in the AZCentral regarding HB 2002 and wanted to reach out to you to inform you that Mark Finchem’s bill and bills other legislators are working on to protect our children in the K-12 schools are absolutely needed. Activism is permitted in the classroom and the situation is rapidly …

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Reprint: Turning Arizona Into New Jersey

Reprint: Turning Arizona Into New Jersey
Post Date August 27, 2018
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Category American History, Education, Educational Outcomes, Free Markets, States Rights

Turning Arizona Into New Jersey

WSJ Editorial, Sat., Aug. 25, 2018

Public unions fund initiatives to raise taxes and kill school choice.

The battle for Congress is drawing most media attention this year, but an underreported story is the campaign by public unions to turn multiple states sharply to the left. A bellwether is Arizona, where a pair of ballot initiatives would raise taxes toward New Jersey levels and reverse years of progress on education choice.

Unions have spearheaded two ballot initiatives to repeal an expansion of education-savings accounts …

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Worth Repeating…”Teacher Vacancies Down”

Worth Repeating…”Teacher Vacancies Down”
Post Date August 3, 2018
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Category Education, Educational Outcomes, Employment

Arizona Public Media: TUSD Supe: Teacher Vacancies Down, Fewer Than 1 Per School
Superintendent Trujillo says the increase in teacher pay from the state funding helped the district hire more people.

Brandon Mejia
Arizona Public Media
August 1, 2018

As kids in Tucson’s largest school district head back to class Thursday, the district has fewer teacher vacancies than in recent years, according to Tucson Unified School District Superintendent Gabriel Trujillo.

The district’s goal was to have fewer than one teacher vacancy per school in the district. For that to happen, TUSD would …

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Report from the Capitol: 7 March 2018

Report from the Capitol: 7 March 2018
Post Date March 7, 2018
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Category Accountability, Business, Education, Employment, Energy, Energy Exports, Energy Imports, Ethics, Free Markets, Healthcare

HB-2003, the bill to eliminate transaction privilege tax (TPT) on coal used to generate electricity to our growing population passed out of the House on a party-line vote. While we see a move to on-demand electric generation, we also see that a 100% renewable electric generation world is not attainable. This bill contributes to the effort to keep Navajo Generating Station (NGS) operating, and baseload power flowing to our homes and businesses. NGS was commissioned by Congress to replace hydro-power dams and has a planned …

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The Reality of K-12 School Funding

The Reality of K-12 School Funding
Post Date February 25, 2018
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Category Education, Educational Outcomes, Employment

The ongoing challenge related to school funding should not be an adversarial, them against us argument, but rather a unified front to claim the solutions that are within reach. In every state, K-12 education funding is paid for with state and federal taxpayer dollars. Each state has its scheme for what to tax, how to tax it and how much taxpayers pay into the plan. There are three basic issues at the foundation of the matter.

Tax Base and who controls it
Tax Rate and who pays …

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Report from the Capitol: 23 February 2018

Post Date February 23, 2018
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Category Accountability, Business, Control, Education, Employment, Energy, Quality of Life, Regulation, state sovereignty, States Rights

It was a very busy week, with many House bills passing through the process and going over to the Senate for hearings and approval. A summary of the activity and what it means is below.

HB-2203, a bill to empower the State Forester to care for our watersheds as well as our forests may seem like an expansion of authority, but it is not. It is a more accurate description of what the State Forester is already doing. This is a move to prevent the potential …

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Call for AG Opinion on ABOR Authority

Call for AG Opinion on ABOR Authority
Post Date November 28, 2017
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Category ABOR, Accountability, Education, Educational Outcomes, Executive Irresponsibility

The Arizona Board of Regents has been in the news a lot lately, and so it will be for many months to come.

In the course of conducting due diligence regarding the authority of ABOR and the Legislature I asked the Arizona Attorney General to provide a written, informal opinion paper on what authority each body has, and where it comes from.  The request was made this past September as part of a larger effort to examine the restructuring of ABOR.

Yesterday’s press release…

Representative Mark Finchem Requests …

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Bias In The Media? Yer Kidd’in

Bias In The Media? Yer Kidd’in
Post Date July 9, 2017
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Category Education, Educational Outcomes, Employment, Free Markets

How About A Little Integrity?
In his recent recent Op-Ed, Abe Kwok of the Arizona Republic stated the following:
 
“At the Capitol, lawmakers who so championed ESAs, such as Sen. Debbie Lesko, have been less enthusiastic about authorizing money for oversight that the law entitles and silent about the opaque inspection of the program”
 
There was one small problem with Abe’s statement, it was blatantly inaccurate.  Abe has been asked to correct his statement publicly to reflect the fact that the legislature did indeed take into account the …

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Where Does It All Go?

Where Does It All Go?
Post Date June 26, 2017
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Category Accountability, Education, Educational Outcomes, Healthcare, Power, Quality of Life, Teacher Pay, Water

The Fiscal Year 2018 State of Arizona Budget totals over $9.86 Billion and taxpayers are funding a lot of priorities.  The highest among them is Education.

Budget Basics
Each year, the Joint Legislative Budget Committee Staff publishes an Appropriations Report, which includes summary information on the most recently enacted budget and agency-by-agency details.  The Report reads like a book including both numbers and descriptions of what the Legislature intends to see happen with the appropriations that are authorized on behalf of the Taxpayers.  In this book, you …

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