Driving home from my student teaching practicum today, I saw this:

Kira Friedman, 7 and her best friend, Rachel Omiecinski, also 7, trying to encourage drivers at the Tangerine Road-Rancho Vistoso Boulevard intersection to vote in favor of Prop. 100

and this:

Austin Witt, 10, and Hunter Volturo, 8, dressed appropriately in '60s regalia for the Vote Yes on Prop 100 protest. Austin's teacher was one of many who received pink slips last week in the Amphitheater School District.

And I think the sign that said it best and said it all, was this:

This is a no-brainer, folks. Vote for the 1-cent sales tax increase on May 18. For once, please, help me have a reason to defend Arizona besides the great weather. And full disclosure here: I’ve got a horse in this race (see below for even more ranch metaphors!) Regular readers will recall that after being axed by Gannett with the closure of the Tucson Citizen newspaper, I fell into a three-month fantasy land of trying to make real money as a freelance writer before taking advantage of some career counseling and discovering the only other career that could hold my attention – and to which I might have something to offer – would be teaching.

Ergo, I entered a teacher-preparation program, and am currently in the final two classes and scheduled to began a teacher internship in the fall. If Prop. 100 fails, there will be at least 30 percent fewer teachers to mentor the hundreds (and I do mean hundreds) of student teachers scheduled to do their internships next fall. Without the internships, no teacher certification. And while I hold no fantasies about being employed in this state, the certification will help me get a job in another country until Arizona sees the light of day where education is concerned. (I actually wrote a story about this trend when I was the higher ed reporter at the Citizen: The college-educated leaving Arizona because there are no jobs. I’ve become my own statistic. Sigh.)

All that said, I’ve long wrote in favor of public education funding because I believe in the system (my entire family is a product of public education), and I’d be writing in favor of Prop. 100 even if I wasn’t in the teacher prep program. So, why should you vote for the temporary sales-tax increase? Well, as the dapperly-dressed Hunter said so eloquently, “If all the teachers are gone, who is going to teach us?” He then explained that not only had his teacher taught him all about the respiratory system this year, but also multiplication – which is normally not addressed until late third grade – “Because we are just doing so good in math!” He grin was so large when he said this it made my cheeks hurt. He had a can-you-believe-it look in his eye that was priceless.

So that’s reason #1- Kids don’t educate themselves and a classroom of 40 to 50 students is not one in which anyone is going to learn much of anything; we need the funding to keep the student-teacher ratio in legal limits. Otherwise, you have little more than paid babysitting.

Reason #2 is tied to that: We don’t need any more unemployed workers in this town than we already have. Trust me on this, all you commenters who HAVE jobs and want to hold on to your measly 1 extra penny-per-dollar instead of giving it to the increased sales tax: It is as hot as Hades out here in Laid-Off Land. Heck, you don’t even have to trust me on it; call up any of the 200+ workers Raytheon laid off yesterday.

Reason #3 is safety: If you think we’ve got problems with street-kids and gangs now, just wait until a whole new boatload of them are crammed into overcrowded classrooms. Ditto Reason #4: There’s a connection between a lack of education and criminal activity. You may think that you don’t want the government having any more of your money, but you want the criminal element having it instead? Pay for schools or pay for more prisons – either way, you’re going to pay. Don’t delude yourself into thinking that money will stay with you. Which leads us to …

Reason #5: The Greater Good. Public education is in the Greater Good; the higher a society’s educational attainment, the better off that society is. Sure there are those family-money rich folks who made it on ranches or by the sweat of their brow, but those days are over. Societies rise and fall with technology now and you don’t learn that on a horse surveying the Back Forty. You learn it in a classroom. But there’s no such thing as a free lunch. It amazes me how the public always cries for schools to produce more graduates, better educated graduates, deeper thinkers, inventors, etc., and yet the public doesn’t want to provide those classrooms with teachers, or technology or any kind of reasonable support. You want less crime? You want the U.S. to be competing with the rest of the world and kicking their collective fannies? Pony up some money for the public schools.

In the U.S., we ALL share the burden of improving society. You don’t just get to think about yourself here – we’re not the wild, wild West anymore. You need to think about what is the Greater Good. (And I can’t help but adding this since this is technically a God Blog: Don’t even think about wearing the mantle of Christian if you aren’t working for the Greater Good. You can’t pull it off and still read all the words in red. That’s my theory on why Glenn Beck cries so much: it’s hard to justify the nasty things he says with his argument that he’s Christian.)

TUSD recently lost its superintendent, a young woman with great vision and foresight where education – especially in urban areas – is concerned. Why? At least partially because Arizona’s Legislature is tight fisted and there are bunches of voters who seem to think being miserly is the Bright Road to Freedom (protected by your no-permit-needed concealed weapons) for this state. She left because she doesn’t want her children to be raised in an environment with so little regard for education. I’ve told people wanting to move to Arizona the same thing: If you’ve got kids, don’t come here unless you can afford private school. The public schools have lived on shoestrings for years, and the only people who don’t believe that are folks who have never spent any real time – by which I mean a week or more – in a classroom, e.g. some of the blog commenters, many of the right-wing radio hosts, and the majority of the Maricopa County representatives.

Voters have a chance to do something good for once here, and to stick it to the legislators who think that the only answer to hard times is to make them harder. Vote yes on Prop. 100 May 18. It’s one cent on the dollar – and yes, I know, I know, it seems sales tax is too much already – but it is desperately needed. Just ask Hunter Volturo.

A student group has been formed on FaceBook called Save the Teachers of IRHS. If anyone knows what it means to butcher education from the inside out, it is the students who are losing their teachers. You gotta love teenagers with their idealism and energy. And for those who keep saying that there’s bloat in the system and lots of room to cut, one must understand the way schools are funded. I don’t have time to explain it all right now (readers should pressure Mark over at Caveat Lector to do it) since I’m working on my homework assignments to become (ha!) a high school teacher, but I can point out this: Usually, about 85 percent of school budgets are tied up in salaries. No one working in the schools make a ton of money, especially teachers. When you’ve been there for more than 20 years, you might be clearing 60K; beginning teachers make so little that, if they have children and are the sole provider in their family, they actually qualify for food stamps in many states.

So … point is, there’s not a lot of fat to cut, and when they cut, they have to cut muscle (the teachers). And, unfortunately, cutting the newest teachers (not necessarily the youngest, but the new blood, new energy, new ideas folks) because of deals with the teachers’ association may not be the decision with the most foresight when approaching the problem. Then again, as an assistant principal told me today, “Not in my lifetime” will Arizona use performance as a measure to retain or let go teachers. So the kids get angry, and start FaceBook groups, which describe themselves like this: ‘This group is to save our favorite teachers from the chopping block due to cuts. It’s complete crap and we need to get them back.” You go, boys and girls. My hat’s off to you.

You would have had to have been living in a cave this past year to not know that Arizona’s budget is a mess, but hundreds of teachers in the Amphitheater School District are going to hear tonight just how dire the situation is, according to a memo sent out from the district’s teachers’ union.

That memo, sent to me anonymously, says that district officials are recommending firing all employees – except administrators – who were hired by Amphi in 2005 or later, as a preemptive step to deal with anticipated budget cuts that will be required if a proposed 1-cent sales tax increase does not meet with voter approval in May.

I have confirmed through various Amphi union members that this memo came directly from the leadership of the Amphitheater Education Association. Apparently, the union’s negotiation team was unable to sign off on a salaries and benefits package for the teachers for next year during their annual “Meet and Confer” process. This memo is a report to union members about what the next step is.

According to state law, the district has to notify potentially laid off employees by April 15 (more good news on tax day!). Ergo, according to the memo, these firings will be approved – or not – at tonight’s Governing Board meeting.

It is listed as the second item on the Board agenda for the open part of the meeting as: Review of 2010-2011 Budget Development – Approval of Required and Contingency Budget Cuts for SY 2010-2011. However, that item is labeled with a superscript of “2” and listed under a heading of “Information.” According to the agenda notes, the superscript means no action will be taken, yet the listing clearly says “Approval of Required and Contingency Budget Cuts,” so I’m not sure how “approval of” jives exactly with “no action will be taken” or with the information from the union.

Here’s a clip from the union memo:

Although, the association acknowledged the need to make drastic cuts to the budget, we were unwilling to agree to a package that placed so much of the burden of the budget cuts needed on the shoulders of the employees. The administration understands our position but will move ahead on making salary and staffing decisions. What we know so far is that the administration will be presenting a salary package to the Governing Board on Tuesday night as well as recommending pink slip notifications for any employee hired in 2005 or later. This will impact approximately 300 fellow employees whether they are Short term, Probationary or continuing teachers.

The memo explains that the reason the district has to notify these employees is so they will be prepared in case Proposition 100 – the sales tax proposal – fails. If the 1-cent sales tax increase passes, then “many of these employees may be hired back,” according to the memo. Contracts aren’t issued until May 15, so the union is apparently going to ask the board to hold off voting on a salary package until April 27 board meeting. From the memo:

By waiting, the district will have time to take into consider any additional resignations or retirements that may result in the announcement of such a devastating package and measure the impact they will make in further reducing the operating budget.

The memo ended encouraging all Amphi employees to aim their anger at the state Legislature, which might be good advice. According to this post at the Campus Correspondent blog, former state senator Tim Bee – who now works directly for the governor – recently said the number one thing people are calling Legislators to complain about is (drum roll) the closure of highway rest stops. They are not calling about the closure of schools or the firings of hundreds of teachers. C’mon, people! Maybe you don’t have kids in schools, maybe you think having another 300 people unemployed in Tucson is a good thing, maybe you are just thinking, to heck with it all – I can’t take it anymore!

But you have to slap yourself across the face and get a grip. Yes, a sales tax increase sucks. But there’s no such thing as a free lunch. We have to pay for what we want in this society and believe me, we want – need – good schools. And we especially want/need people to stay employed; there’s enough competition out here in laid-off land as it is.

If you’ve got an opinion about all this, the board meeting begins at 6 p.m. tonight in the board room at 701 W. Wetmore. There is a brief opening ceremony and then time for public comment – which, considering this news of potential pink-slipping this week, might be significant. Then the board will adjourn to what my former editor used to call “secret session” but which is actually called Executive Session. The open part of the meeting will reconvene at 7 p.m. with the discussion of budget cuts. And, call your Legislators.