Gov. Janet Napolitano’s parting gifts to Arizona include reforms to prevent racial profiling by the Department of Public Safety.

She appointed nine Arizonans to review traffic stops and racial profiling as part of a 2003 court settlement.

Their recommendations, released Tuesday after 19 months of work, should go a long way toward protecting not only the privacy rights of motorists, but also the professional conduct of DPS officers.

Officers now must get a driver’s consent before searching a vehicle – by signature, an audiotape or on video.

The officer also must complete a form enumerating what factors raised suspicion about the vehicle.

If a driver won’t consent to a search, the officer can try to get a warrant. But that requires probable cause, a higher standard than reasonable suspicion.

The American Civil Liberties Union had filed a class-action lawsuit after citizens alleged that DPS officers were stopping Hispanic drivers at a higher rate than white motorists.

Indeed, DPS data from 2006 and 2007 showed that Hispanic drivers were much more likely to be ticketed and less likely to receive warnings for infractions.

Hispanics, Native Americans and black drivers also were “significantly more likely” to be arrested and searched, says a November report.

Whether race was the motivation wasn’t proven, but the data certainly suggest a propensity for targeting minorities – whether consciously or subconsciously.

Arizona is a major conduit for narcotics, guns and illegal immigrants brought north out of Mexico, so DPS officers have plenty of interaction with criminals from Mexico.

Arizona also is a heavily Hispanic state, however, with many residents who have been here for multiple generations, long before whites ever arrived in this country.

So while our state desperately needs rigorous law enforcement to curtail illegal trafficking, we also must have state officers who are mindful of Arizona’s rich ethnic diversity.

We depend on DPS officers to exercise good judgment, sans preconceived notions toward any group.

Sound, dispassionate, professional law enforcement is essential to any society, but it is particularly important in Arizona, which bears the brunt of more border-related crime than any other state.

We appreciate the work by the Citizens Traffic Stop Advisory Board, its use of experts from the University of Cincinnati Policing Institute and its recommended reforms, some of which DPS already has instituted.

We appreciate our DPS officers, too. And we’re glad the new practices will protect them from any suspicions of wrongdoing.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s resolution for 2009 is to make inmates pay for their meals – even though the jail’s food sometimes is rotten, expired or moldy.

It’s an absurd notion, but it’s also a charge the Legislature allows. Arpaio also charges inmates for medical care, and he’s going to ask legislators if he can charge inmates for their beds, too.

The jail is under a federal order to provide the constitutionally mandated level of care, including safe food.

The inmates work about 10 hours a day without pay. Their only money is what they had upon arrival or what family and friends donated to them.

If they must pay for meals, they may not have enough money for medical services, one lawyer noted.

About $900,000 a year might be saved by charging $1.25 a day for meals. Those without money would be fed but would pay if ever jailed again.

Some inmates are in on charges but unconvicted. Others have serious medical needs. And the jail is obligated to feed and treat them, money or no money. Arpaio, get real.

The victim: Mia Janelle Henderson

There can be no feeling of satisfaction in the tragic case of two Navajo students at the University of Arizona.

Galareka Harrison, 19, was sentenced this week to spend the rest of her life in prison without the possibility of parole. She was convicted of murdering her UA roommate, 18-year-old Mia Janelle Henderson, last year.

It was a horrible outcome to two stories of promise. The girls didn’t know each other before coming to UA. Both grew up on the Navajo Nation, both were outstanding students and both were determined to use their education to benefit their people.

Now two families who were proud of their daughters are left in ruins.

Henderson’s family asked for the life-without-parole term, and Superior Court Judge Nanette Warner agreed. But there is no closure in such a painful case. Our thoughts are with the families of both young women.

The killer: Galareka Harrison

We hate traffic tickets as much as the next guy, particularly from sneak attacks by radar vans and stop-light photos.

But we’re happy to accept that technology, given the positive effect such devices are having on public safety.

Fewer citations from radar vans are being issued every month; average speeds are down near some intersections; and the number of traffic deaths and injuries has fallen since last year, police report.

Sure, Tucson has pulled in more than $1.9 million from traffic fines levied as a result of the new devices.

And absolutely, no one likes to shell out hundreds of dollars for going 10 mph over the speed limit or sloppily running a red light.

Nonetheless, the documented improvements in traffic safety are worth $1.9 million – or even more. After all, what’s the worth of a saved life or spared injury? Priceless.

Drugs, prostitution and violence no longer define the 29th Street corridor, thanks to an organized effort by residents and police.

For this dramatic turnaround, we credit and commend the Midtown Division of the Tucson Police Department along with people living in the zone between South Country Club and South Craycroft roads. The U.S. Department of Justice has provided Weed & Seed crime prevention money to help, as well.

But it is the community members – from schools, low-rent apartment complexes, businesses and elsewhere – who came together to form the 29th Street Weed & Seed Coalition.

They are to be applauded for working with police to prevent and fight crime in the area’s five neighborhoods, an effort that has been extremely successful.

Since residents and police started the work in 2001, serious crimes such as homicide, sexual assault, robbery and aggravated assault have dipped by about 43 percent.

Such crimes decreased by only 15 percent in Tucson overall.

At Freedom Park, once the province of drug dealers, children now play happily and adults walk their dogs – even after dark, neighbors report.

TPD’s Midtown Division has painstakingly guided the crime-fighting process.

And the Pima County Adult Probation Department has voluntarily provided neighborhood cleanups, also making itself available to help anyone who is physically unable to keep his or her own property in good shape.

Owners are taking pride in their properties nowadays, and landlords are booting unruly tenants.

The drive-through Windsor Liquor, 4000 E. 29th St., has been converted into an ice cream shop that also will offer cappuccino and other coffee drinks.

And the coalition’s Community & Law Enforcement Team meets monthly, affording residents an opportunity to privately report any criminal activity in their areas.

This turnaround shows what progress can be made when neighbors organize and cooperate, stand up to criminals, clean up their properties and, in general, take pride in their surroundings.

The coordination with the police Midtown Division has been key, ensuring prompt responses to reports of crime.

As a result of all these mutual efforts, residents are safer, property values more secure and amenities such as the ice cream shop more likely to materialize.

The 29th Street Corridor is proof of famed anthropologist Margaret Mead’s belief: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever does.”

Two years ago, law enforcement agencies in Arizona and elsewhere around the nation put their trust in CMI Inc.

But now that company, which makes a device measuring alcohol in the breath of drivers, has turned on those very law enforcement agencies. As a result, dozens of DUI cases have been thrown out of court and thousands more may follow the same path.

This clearly is a company that should not be given more business. And it is is a lesson in what must be established before future breath-testing equipment is purchased and put into use.

CMI is based in Owensboro, Ky., and manufactures the Intoxilyzer devices used to identify drunken drivers and provide fair and verifiable evidence that can be used in court.

Dec. 1, 2006, Tucson police started using the Intoxilyzer 8000 – a machine used by most law enforcement agencies in Arizona.

But there have been allegations by defense attorneys that the machine is inaccurate. And prosecutors have been unable to adequately rebut that because despite repeated court orders, CMI refuses to turn over its software to be independently analyzed and tested.

Without a way to challenge the information, dozens of DUI cases have been thrown out of local courts. Thousands more may be thrown out if the company continues to ignore court orders to provide the information.

The company is so insistent on being uncooperative that it has paid more than $1 million in fines rather than comply with similar court orders in Florida.

CMI claims it is protecting trade secrets, but that seems unlikely. Manufacturers of competing devices note that CMI software works only with CMI machines. Unless another company makes an identical machine, the software is useless.

CMI’s refusal to cooperate with the judicial system in which it seeks to participate is deeply troubling. Instead of helping police identify and prosecute drunken drivers, CMI is making it more difficult for police to do so.

Arresting drunken drivers is an important aspect of making roads safer. But the accused have rights – including the right to challenge the evidence presented against them. CMI has effectively deprived them of that right and forced the dismissal of cases.

Are the machines accurate? Who knows? CMI has issued repeated software updates without explaining what needed to be fixed.

There is a lesson here for local law enforcement authorities: When the CMI equipment is replaced – as it has to be – there must be a contractual guarantee from the new vendor that it will stand behind its equipment and fully cooperate with court orders needed to successfully prosecute DUI cases.

This contempt for the justice system cannot be repeated.

Book sets out to remove misinformation from debate

A study of U.S. employment patterns over generations shows no tie between unemployment and immigration rates, author Aviva Chomsky writes.

You’re a law-abiding American citizen, so you should have no trouble answering this simple question.

It’s from a civics lesson that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security provides to help prepare people for the citizenship test:

Q. Whose rights are guaranteed by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights?

a) All American citizens.

b) All people living legally in the United States.

c) All people living in the United States.

The correct answer is c – something likely to shock those who believe that illegal immigrants are not and should not be afforded the same constitutional rights as you and me.

But there is a lot about the immigration debate that we have wrong. Not wrong opinions, but wrong facts upon which our opinions are built.

It seems we’re never going to have agreement on much having to do with immigration. But if we start from the same baseline with accurate information, at least the debate would be better informed.

That’s the premise that led Aviva Chomsky, a professor of history at Salem (Mass.) State College, to write “They Take Our Jobs – and 20 other myths about immigration.”

The title of the book is the first myth Chomsky debunks. They aren’t taking our jobs.

“I don’t think there is any support for that factually,” Chomsky said in an interview. “People just repeat it because they hear it.”

First, Chomsky said, the economy is so globally integrated that there is no such thing as “our jobs.” Business owners seek to keep expenses as low as possible, so they move jobs, often to other countries. Illegal immigrants can’t be blamed for that.

And second, the economy is a very complex organism. There is no simple relationship between the number of people and the number of jobs. Because people consume things as well as produce things, population growth creates jobs and provides people to fill some of them.

A study of U.S. employment patterns over generations shows no tie between unemployment and immigration rates, Chomsky wrote.

She further said that the economic arguments against illegal immigrants – that they don’t pay taxes and are a drain on the economy – also are not supported by facts.

Some immigrants work under the table and don’t pay taxes. But the same is true of some citizens.

Immigrants who receive paychecks and have taxes withheld – and the Social Security Adminis-tration estimates that’s about 75 percent of them – pay the same taxes as everyone else. They also pay Social Security taxes but have no hope of ever getting any money back from the system.

Social Security receives about $7 billion per year in deposits to fake Social Security numbers, Chomsky wrote. That’s about equal to the annual deficit for the system.

So instead of being a drain on the economy, immigrants are keeping Social Security afloat.

And as to other government services – health care and the like – studies show that immigrants as a whole pay more in taxes than they cost in services.

Any book, regardless of how comprehensive and well-sourced, will not persuade the hard-core anti-immigrant crowd to rethink its position.

Chomsky said she wrote it not for them, but for “people who are confused and don’t have the arguments marshaled at their fingertips.”

Chomsky also noted that the immigration debate and anger we now are experiencing is nothing new in American history.

The same thing happened when African slaves arrived, and again when immigrants from Ireland and other European countries arrived, and later when Chinese laborers came to the United States.

Existing residents were so upset at the Chinese that all visitors and immigrants from Asian countries were banned from 1882 to 1943.

And many of us living here now are turning on the most recent immigrants – those largely from Mexico and other Latin American countries.

Which group will be next?

Mark Kimble appears at 6:30 p.m. and midnight Fridays on the Roundtable segment of “Arizona Illustrated” on KUAT-TV (Channel 6). He may be reached at mkimble@tucsoncitizen.com or 573-4662.

———

20 IMMIGRATION MYTHS
1. Immigrants take American jobs.

2. Immigrants compete with low-skilled workers and drive down wages.

3. Unions oppose immigration because it harms the working class.

4. Immigrants don’t pay taxes.

5. Immigrants are a drain on the economy.

6. Immigrants send most of what they earn out of the country.

7. The rules apply to everyone, so new immigrants need to follow them just as immigrants in the past did.

8. The country is being overrun by illegal immigrants.

9. The United States has a generous refugee policy.

10. The United States is a melting pot that has always welcomed immigrants from all over the world.

11. Because we are descendants of immigrants, we start on equal footing.

12. Today’s immigrants threaten the national culture because they are not assimilating.

13. Today’s immigrants are not learning English, and bilingual education adds to the problem.

14. Immigrants come here only because they want to enjoy our higher standard of living.

15. The American public opposes immigration, and the debate in Congress reflects that.

16. The victory of Prop. 187 in California shows that the public opposes immigration.

17. Immigration is a problem.

18. Countries need to control who goes in and out.

19. We need to protect our borders to prevent criminals and terrorists from entering.

20. If people break our laws by immigrating illegally, they are criminals and should be deported.

Source: “They Take Our Jobs”

Trade schools a good option for many

In a Feb. 16 letter, I suggested public schools with decreased enrollment be converted into trade- or service-oriented schools.

Employers might express their desired skills and performance and provide hands-on experience.

Professionals and retirees could form a group to share their most effective techniques and skills.

Enrollees would have completed basic education and would be in such programs by choice.

Suggestions are most welcome; e-mail rsitz@dakotacom.net.

RON SITZ

Charter schools need more funding

House Bills 2480 and 2658 are crucial for Arizona children in charter schools, but legislators disagree whether charter schools deserve desperately needed money over tax cuts and other sweetheart pork barrel projects for the wealthy.

Remember, charter schools are public schools and may not charge tuition.

But they receive $1,700 less per student than traditional schools, the Joint Legislative Budget Committee reported several years ago.

That’s $255,000 yearly for a charter with 150 pupils. Do you know any other business the Legislature shorts a quarter of a million annually and expects to operate on a competitive basis?

How can legislators create more charter schools than any other state only to cripple and impoverish them? Especially when charters have such an outstanding record on curriculum, teaching, behavior and character building.

Why penalize charter schools for performing their legislative assignment too well? Jealousy? Envy? Ignorance?

We voters must promptly urge all legislators to pass both of these bills. For our children’s sake, tell legislators you will remember at election time those enemies of education who fail to support these bills.

DOWLING G. CAMPBELL

professor emeritus

Northern Arizona University

Camp Verde

No Child Left Behind Act works in Arizona

Re: your March 14 editorial “Many children left behind: Act needs rewrite”:

Ridiculous, Dickensian images of joyless children, helpless teachers and heartless schools are no substitute for reasoned argument about the No Child Left Behind Act.

Our response to your editorial is simply to resort to the facts:

● NCLB is not an unfunded mandate. Numerous independent studies, including one by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office, confirm this. States may opt out of the law; none has done so. Arizona receives nearly 200 percent more in overall federal education funding since President Bush took office, including $144 million more in Title I funding for the state’s neediest children.

● States develop their own academic standards and assessments. And they receive unprecedented flexibility in targeting federal funds to meet students’ “needs,” whether through proven reading instruction, professional development, technology grants, grants for English-language learners and so on.

● NCLB does not mandate curricula; the law specifically prohibits federal control of local curriculum. Under the law, “core academic subjects” are defined to include science, history, geography, civics, economics, foreign languages, and, yes, even the arts.

What are the results in Arizona? A 14-point increase in third-grade math proficiency since 2002, and double-digit reductions in the math achievement gaps between Hispanic and American Indian third-graders and their white classmates.

Repeated myths cannot change reality. The No Child Left Behind Act is working for Arizona’s kids and deserves to be reauthorized.

CHRISTOPHER WRIGHT

Region IX representative

U.S. Department of Education

San Francisco

Making a difference – the right way

Wow! What a lovely, inspiring piece (Feb. 27 Family Plus article “TUSD’s Tolson Elementary School puts emphasis on positive reinforcement with its students using notes of praise”).

Thank you for letting your readers know about this program and how it has helped so many children.

As grateful parents, we thank the staff at Tolson and the originator of this successful program.

We have been saddened and outraged by the indiscriminate use of psychiatric medication given to millions of schoolchildren across our country, resulting in immense physical and mental harm.

These outstanding leaders should be praised and rewarded for their care and help in making a difference the right way.

JAMES and LORRAINE WRIGHT

Salt Lake City, Utah

Tolson story would be great TV special

Mary Bustamante is to be highly commended for her wonderful article on Tolson Elementary. It is indeed refreshing to see such positive press about the importance of respecting children for who they really are and validating them for their accomplishments instead of using insipid drugging and discipline that would destroy their lives and undermine their futures.

Those implementing this method at Tolson are truly setting a good example for other schools and setting a precedent for how children should be treated.

I just hope the word spreads throughout every school in the country. It would make a great TV special!

ANNE FEWELL

Los Angeles

Good educators find nonmedicated method

What an excellent program! Putting the attention on what kids do right motivates them to do more good things, and the negative behavior falls by the wayside. And this program helps the kids with ADD and ADHD, making medication virtually unnecessary.

I went to elementary school during the ’50s and ’60s, when schoolchildren weren’t on psychoactive drugs. We did fine without the drugs then, and I’m happy to see someone has figured out how to do without them now!

MARLIN ANDERSON

Tampa, Fla.

Spotlighting success breeds more success

The educators and administrators of Tolson Elementary should be given a standing ovation for using intelligence and good judgment in eschewing Ritalin, Prozac, Zoloft and the like in their school or for use with their children.

How smart to use social grace, praise and reinforcement of ethical and moral behaviors or conduct by the children in their care. The odds are those children will continue to succeed, since success breeds more success.

Drugging children and trying to find more children to drug with standardizing insane policy such as the ongoing “Teen Screen” programs is breeding social madness.

What kind of a society that is constantly drugging itself will take responsibility for remedying its own social problems, such as illiteracy, crime, drug abuse, immoral character and poverty?

Drugged and desensitized people who have been so since childhood do not, cannot and will not rise to great heights of responsibility or trust. They are and will be too soft, cowed and, well, drugged.

So hats off to the management and educators at Tolson Elementary. Well done!

MARYANN O’DONNELL

Los Angeles

Active, genuine care for kids is refreshing

For nearly a year, I have been following the disturbing trend in various states toward “treating” (usually with drugs) young and innocent children diagnosed with so-called learning disorders, or giving psychological “screening” to children in order to put them on expensive drugs being touted by Big Pharma.

What refreshing news to hear the teachers in Tucson’s Tolson Elementary are taking an active, genuine interest in the children and their education, with real results!

I am sure there are many more “breaths of fresh air” like this, and we need to hear more of them.

My wife and I, with five school-age children, care very much about what is happening in your country, because trends that start there get exported, particularly to Canada.

The U.S. has a huge responsibility in this regard and should do everything within its power to ensure it exports the right message.

Don’t let your education system and, more important, your children be ruined because a very few, lacking in personal integrity, are trying to profit through drug sales.

Hats off to all of the teachers at Tolson Elementary School!

GARY McKAGUE

Toronto, Canada

These letters to the editor appear online only and not in the Tucson Citizen’s print edition.

Bustamante

Re: the Feb. 27 Family Plus article “TUSD’s Tolson Elementary School puts emphasis on positive reinforcement with its students using notes of praise”:

I loved your article. It is so great to see they are doing away with Ritalin and celebrating their students instead of drugging them. Keep up the good work, Mary. You are a great writer!

JOAN RAMM

Burbank, Calif.

How wonderfully refreshing and enlightening to see that just applying some TLC could make a difference to what were problem children. Bravo to Principal Maria Figueroa for the courage and foresight to break through the status quo of medicating our children instead of loving them and for turning a school back into a place of learning instead of a ward.

LARRY JAFFE

poet

Clearwater, Fla.

I applaud you – the school, the paper, anyone involved in telling this story. Children aren’t lab rats, and childhood is not a disease.

Real education worked 100 years ago, and it still works today. Schools have turned into psych wards where drugs are dispensed more readily than dictionaries. What a breath of fresh air this school and this story are.

RON MEYERSON

Coral Gables, Fla.

This article was excellent. It is quite obvious that drugs are not the answer to handling children. By focusing on positive behavior with communication, care and validation, the children respond positively.

We need to praise each and every one of the public school officials for doing such an incredible job. They are a perfect example of what our schools across this country are in desperate need of.

JENNIFER TARLING

Dunedin, Fla.

What a fantastic story about a school getting it right! Praising children for what they do right rather than constantly disciplining them for negative behavior is simply applying a biblical principle: You reap what you sow.

“Whatever gets attention will become big, strong and solid,” said philosopher L. Ron Hubbard.

History gives many examples of this principle in action. Unfortunately, there are even more examples of this principle being violated.

Society needs to change, and here is a school being a great example of how it could be done very simply.

Thanks for letting us know.

SHARON HILLESTAD

teacher

Clearwater, Fla.

I was delighted to see the focus on positive actions by youngsters and ignoring their not so great behavior. All of us love praise and strive to get it.

I was also extremely happy to note that Ritalin usage was next to nothing. This is great, as I feel it merely masks the problems without addressing them.

Thanks so much for setting such a good example. I hope many other schools follow this excellent example.

VICKIE CHANDLER

San Jose, Calif.

What a wonderful story of hope for our children. Thank you for sharing the good news.

J.C. HUGHES

grandfather

Tujunga, Calif.

What a refreshing article. As a former elementary school teacher, I know a system like this really works.

The administrators and teachers using this approach should be highly commended.

The results and statistics shown are going in the right direction for once. Thanks for writing this article, and I look forward to even more positive results.

CAROL BEENY

Los Angeles

Figueroa

Don’t make dropouts of math-challenged kids

Re: your Monday Citizen Voices opinion page on “A Debate Over Numbers”:

I agree with state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne. Math, like music, art or athletics, requires talent.

My dad ran a successful business and didn’t own an adding machine. He could add a four- column set of figures in his head – four columns at a time.

He tried to teach me, without success.

I ran a successful business without knowing calculus, geometry, etc. He had it. I don’t. Arithmetic I understand.

Balance and clear thinking are sorely needed in the political arena. Don’t force kids who cannot learn higher math to drop out.

JERRY PULLIAM

Sahuarita

Weak skills impede teaching of science, too

Your “Debate Over Numbers” raises many interesting points but also misses the point from my perspective.

As a professor who enjoys teaching science to nonscience majors, I am continually dismayed by the lack of basic arithmetic skills displayed by otherwise excellent students.

Not only do they not understand simple fractions, decimals, percentages and the very word “ratio,” but they also cannot figure out how many halves are in a whole, how many seconds are in an hour and how to measure with a ruler.

Their lack of such skills is a major impediment to the teaching of science and, I strongly believe, to the productivity of our society at large.

A very revealing aspect is that even excellent students and future teachers see no value in math! It seems no one has demonstrated to them that skills in quantitative expression and analysis are relevant to life, both at work and at home.

At a minimum, we need to incorporate arithmetic across the curriculum, not just in “math class,” and to do so continuously at all age levels (K-12).

If students are not encouraged to utilize arithmetic as a powerful tool, like a good vocabulary, then we will have failed them, not the other way around.

DON MCCARTHY

astronomer

Forced coursework doesn’t equal quality

Sheila Tobias and Tom Horne argued about whether high school students should be forced to take four years of math.

While they argue about how math affects high school graduation rates, they both seem to be oblivious that up to 25 percent of high school dropouts come from the 3 percent to 7 percent of the population that is academically gifted.

Gifted students are not dropping out because math requirements are too high.

Specific examples of these gifted children include:

● A third-grader who is excitedly manipulating complex numbers, yet is forced to do endless mind-numbing arithmetic enforced by state and district restrictions.

● A first-grader enthusiastically plowing through the Harry Potter series, but forced to read “Dick and Jane” in school to meet curriculum red tape.

The disproportionately huge dropout rate of gifted children is largely due to multiple years of boredom caused by inappropriate material forced on them by state and district bureaucracy.

We certainly do not need more restrictions in education, whether it is four years of math or four years of underwater basket weaving.

We need high-quality education where each child is able to develop his or her gifts – academic or otherwise.

“Schooling” does not equal education, and forced coursework does not equal quality.

MATTHEW LEIGH

Involved parents can stem youth violence

Assigned a paper on school shootings, I was overcome by the reality: Parents no longer play an active role in their children’s lives.

For 10 years, our country has been plagued with school shootings yearly.

Everyone seems to have an opinion why, from music to neighborhood to video games.

But whether you live in a tiny religious community or a ghetto, it can happen any time.

A child with a good upbringing will not be influenced by a video game. I’m not talking about wealth; I mean family values – family dinners, study time, a bedtime or curfew.

Parents should know what classes their kids take, their teachers’ names, their friends and what they do before and after school.

My mom always knew where I was and made sure I was supervised.

If a child has a bad day, he should be able to talk about his problems.

Last but by no means least, children should be taught right and wrong and have a family support system, discipline and love.

You can install the greatest metal detectors, monitor gun sales, even clean up the ghettos.

But if people won’t raise their children in the most stable environment possible, we are fighting a losing battle.

VALARIE ALVAREZ

student

Pima Community College

Schools find what was fixed wasn’t broken

TUSD just cannot seem to get into the right decade.

I recall conscientious teachers leaving Naylor Miccle School because of lack of discipline. Now they want to relive the 1950s with the Joint Technological Education District.

Remember those great vocational schools and programs in the ’50s and ’60s?

The basic three R’s still had to be passed to graduate. The curriculum was the same for all, and you took the course over until you got it right. Most got it right the second time.

Then the 1970s brought “rights without responsibility.” Do your own thing! Don’t harm the little one’s psyche!

Parents were no longer responsible for their child’s actions. Vocational programs became a violation of civil rights. Stigma was placed on those programs they now want to reintroduce.

A little late advice for those “do-gooders” of the ’70s: “If it works, don’t fix it.”

TUSD now wants to reintroduce discipline and basic education at Naylor. Way to go, even if you are a decade late!

JUDITH ANDERSON

Don’t blame teachers for Naylor situation

Naylor Middle School is not failing because of the teachers but because of TUSD and local political leaders.

Administrators have designated Naylor a “dumping school,” setting it up to fail.

Naylor has a lot of students who have been kicked out of their home schools, and it has a higher proportion of special education and refugee students compared with other TUSD schools.

Administrators accept that a certain number of students won’t do well. But rather than distribute them equitably, these students all are concentrated in one school – which might look bad for that school but looks better overall for the district.

Politicians and Super- intendent Roger Pfeuffer can’t say they have not been to Naylor.

The guest list at Naylor’s legislative forum last November included Pfeuffer, former state Sen. Gabrielle Giffords, Senate Majority Leader Tim Bee and state Reps. Dave Bradley and Tom Prezelski.

I know because I was the host. I am a former social studies teacher at Naylor, coordinator of the after-school program and talk-show host at Access Tucson.

These people came to Naylor to explain the legislative process to my students.

I worked very hard to provide the best education for Naylor’s students under the circumstances.

Instead of blaming the teachers, who are victims like the students, blame TUSD administrators and local politicians.

NEAL ROCHLIN

former TUSD and Naylor teacher