In a recent e-mail blast, Ward 6 City Councilman Steve Kozachik released a long and varied list of projects that the City Council will be contemplating and potentially voting upon in the coming months. The list is below. In addition, rumor has it that the City Council is considering scrapping or at least knee-capping the Sign Code. If you hate billboards as much as I do, go tell the City Council that you want to see the mountains and sunsets– not the Clear Channel advertising!

There is a City Council Meeting today– May 24, 2011. As always, the meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m. and include a call to audience, when you and everyone else can voice their opinions.

In last week’s newsletter I promised to share with you the Strategic Work Plan items that the city is contemplating. These are projects with varying levels of urgency and funding. We will be discussing them over the next several weeks. I’m interested in your thoughts about the items on the list.

1. City/County Courthouse – build a new courthouse to house both City and County operations
2. Expand City Court self-serve kiosks program – to allow remote filing of court documents
3. Graffiti Reduction Pilot Program – has already begun in the downtown area with purpose of identifying taggers and bringing charges
4. Implement PCWIN Project – interconnected communications system for and in between public safety agencies
5. Wireless data communication for Public Safety – new proprietary data communications system
6. Replace Public Safety computer aided dispatch – relates to 911 call center.The intent is to streamline that operation
7. Partner with UA for downtown development – has already begun with Roy Place Building and more plans are being developed
8. Downtown Civic Events coordinator – comprehensive plan for coordinating the planning and staging of community events
9. Management of downtown performing arts centers – consider options for how to manage and co-promote performing arts venues
10. Downtown links overlay zone – optional overlay for zoning of properties located within the downtown links urban overlay district
11. Create downtown entertainment district – meant to designate an Entertainment District primarily to ease restrictions on sale of alcohol
12. Ronstadt Transit Center redesign – consider adding retail/mixed use to the southern border of the RTC
13. Create plan for City owned facilities and land downtown – to create both short and long term returns to the General Fund, HURF and CDBG programs to the community.
14. Westside projects / Mission Garden – seek out funding and continue in conceptual design on the properties.
15. Implement new Clean Renewable Energy Bonds – full debt service is dependent on approval from the Rio Board.
16. Aerospace and Defense corridor – continue working with TREO to create cluster development in this sector.
17. Implement energy efficiency and conservation block grants.
18. Revise Small Business Enterprise programs – create program for giving incentives to local businesses bidding on City work
19. 2012 Bond Election – earmarked at this time to fund projects in police, fire and other core services.
20. Procurement Card program – expand use of PCards in operating departments to save City processing costs and receive rebates for their use
21. Identify economic incentive package for attracting businesses – identify appropriate incentives the City can offer prospects
22. Expenditure limitation – create a permanent expenditure cap, a level beyond our projection capabilities that is fixed, unless changed by a simple majority from the council.
23. Marketing, communication web strategy – put out through social media some positive news stories and other City news worthy items.
24. Extend public pensions TSRS end of service plan – provide an incentive for people to retire if they have met certain criteria.
25. Retiree wellness program – offered to retirees as an option within their health plan coverage
26. Develop Health Insurance RFP – put out on the street provision of health insurance to all City employees
27. Consolidation of Boards, Committees and Commissions – streamline BCC process in order to save volunteers’ time and hopefully expand volunteer pool.
28. Community services dialogues – hear Budget 101 from staff and offer input
29. ERP I.T. Technology – upgrade the software being used by the City and enhance the communication processes.
30. Comply with recent State mandates relating to maintenance of financial data – keeping records per State statute
31. Deferred maintenance plan – put together a comprehensive deferred maintenance plan and begin to perform work under the plan to protect taxpayer assets
32. Comply with recent State and Federal mandates regarding technology and personal data – identity theft protection measures
33. P4 program – allows virtual meeting option through upgrade to City communications system
34. 792-CITY – citizen virtual information center
35. Update building code – more user friendly code system
36. Environmental Services and Tucson Water greenhouse gas inventories – conduct greenhouse gas inventories in ES and TW
37. Plan Tucson – General plan for Tucson, as per State mandate
38. Greater Southlands habitat conservation plan – plan to protect habitat and provide for responsible growth in undeveloped lands south and east of Tucson
39. Modern Streetcar – design has begun and work on the tracks will begin soon
40. City/County water-wastewater study – program to set goals and recommendations related to water supply, integrate planning, demand management and respect for the environment
41. Seawater Foundation – provide alternatives to use of CAP water in Yuma region – crops grown in seawater freeing up CAP for jurisdictions.
42. Complete Land Use Code parking amendments
43. Continue to amend Land Use Code – should have Clarion Study done this year.
44. Sustainable Land Use Code amendments – should have additions to LUC in the area of sustainability later this year
45. Zoning along streetcar route to facilitate development – mixed use, residential, and commercial
46. Houghton Road - change from Scenic Corridor to a Gateway Corridor
47. Expand Houghton Road Area master plan to include areas southeast on State Land
48. Parks and Recreation 10 year growth plan
49. Planning for future events at Hi Corbett field
50. Clean City initiative – multi-departmental program to address pot-holes, graffiti, landscaping, etc.
51. Barrio Viejo drainage project – determine funding sources for this project that was placed on hold when Rio Nuevo pulled funding.
52. West University ”transition area” plan amendment – land use code alterations
53. Transit Fare shift to use of Smart Cards
54. Five year financing plan for Sun Tran/Transit
55. Update Chapter 25 – relates to neighborhood cleanliness – landscaping, removal of unsightly items from private property, etc
56. Riparian Preservation and Restoration – revise the City’s existing riparian preservation ordinances
57. Urban landscape/heat island management – Land Use Code changes to address urban landscape issues
58. Net Zero Energy Program – energy conservation program
59. Planning & Development Services stakeholder group to be formed
60. Developmental Services to adopt “best practices” as found in researching other progressive localities
61. Sign Code program administration improvements
62. Update Tucson Floodplain Ordinance
63. Catalina High School Skate Park fencing project

 

Staff will be making presentation of these proposed Work Plan projects over the next several weeks. Council meetings are always open to the public, so come on down to 255 W. Alameda, Council Chambers, on Tuesday at 2 p.m. for our study session or wait until after 5:30 p.m. to get your time at the microphone during Call to the Audience.

I must admit that two of the big reasons I moved to Tucson in 1981 were the blizzards of 1978 and 1979– that and the fact that my significant other said, “I can’t stand this. Let’s move!”

Since I heard that the Vermont Legislature has passed single payer health insurance, I find myself pondering snow again.

Vermont’s Governor Peter Shumlin has scheduled a bill-signing ceremony for later this week. From the Daily Kos…

While the silence from most of US mainstream media remains deafening, the print and online news publication for physicians published by the American Medical Association – American Medical News – reported yesterday May 16 that Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin has scheduled a bill-signing ceremony for May 26 during which he will sign a bill approved by the Vermont Democratic-controlled legislature, with the state Senate voting 21-9 to pass it on May 3, and the House adopting it on May 5 with a 94-49 vote “that paves the way for the state to launch a health system approaching a single-payer model later in the decade and to create a state health insurance exchange”…

All Vermonters would be eligible for the plan, which would cover hospital services and prescription drugs.

Shumlin had pledged to enact a single-payer health system during his January 6 inaugural address, saying “Let Vermont be the first state in the nation to treat health care as a right and not a privilege.”

Check out the whole story here. It gives many details.

Republican presidential hopefuls like Mitt Romney are pushing the state-by-state patchwork “solution” to rising healthcare costs, as an alternative to the Affordable Care Act (AKA Obamacare). I think that’s a really dumb idea that is obviously driven by ideology and not common sense or fiscal responsibility. If you live in the United States, you live in the United States. Vermonters shouldn’t have universal healthcare while Arizonans have death panels.

This week thousands of Arizona high school seniors will don caps and gowns and receive their high school diplomas, while others who successfully completed 12 years of schooling but failed the state’s infamous AIMS test will be left feeling dejected and betrayed by our failing public education system. How can students pass all 12 grades and not pass the high-stakes test? What happens to these students now? These are but a few symptoms of Arizona’s broken educational system.

Perhaps also reflecting on graduation day and the state’s failing school system, the Arizona Republic recently published an editorial on education reform: 5 vital ways to reform K-12 education.

The five suggestions read like a right-wing wish list: 1) competition; 2) high expectations; 3) quality teachers; 4) intelligent use of technology; and 5) private sector involvement. Not surprisingly, the editorial was written by Craig R. Barrett, former CEO of Intel and current president and chairman of BASIS, a system of charter high schools.

So, Barrett’s solution to education? Treat it like a business– build in market competition, push for excellence, use technology wisely, and hire quality employees (ie, teachers). In my opinion, there are multiple problems with applying a business model to education– unless of course you are in the business of education, like Barrett and the hundreds of other businessmen who are financially and ideologically invested charter schools.

What has been left off of Barrett’s list is just as interesting as what is on his list: parental involvement, the importance of early childhood education, teacher salaries, class sizes, teaching methods, tutoring for struggling students, English language assistance for students who grew up speaking other languages, poverty and unemployment, and– the big kicker– the crushing influence of Arizona’s right wing Legislature, who offers devastating, bold-faced cuts to public education while incentivizing privatization and profiteering in education. Heavy sigh.

Barrett’s first three paragraphs solicited a loud “duh” from me.

To carry out any discussion of K-12 education reform, you have to focus on both the numbers and the history. The numbers are pretty simple – and pretty devastating. About 30 percent of Arizona kids do not graduate from high school, and of the 70 percent who do graduate, about half do not have an education of sufficient quality to succeed in college.

Of the 35 percent of the total who are so-called college-ready, about a third require some remediation to be able to take college-level math, science and English; and, eventually, only about 25 percent of all kids earn a college degree.

This places Arizona in the bottom half of the United States, which has fallen from No. 1 among countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), insofar as college completion rates, to its current position of No. 13…

The common-sense solutions outlined in all these documents parallel what we find in today’s high-performing education systems around the world. The simplified interpretation is that you need high expectations, great teachers who know their subject material, and some tension or feedback loops in the system to help struggling students, teachers and administrators.

The last paragraph above is capitalist’s spin on education. The biggest problem with education in the US is that we are allowing weak-willed politicians and hard-nosed businessmen to devalue the public education system, while glorifying the for-profit charter school system.

From Democracy Now… interview with two educators…

Karen Lewis [president of the Chicago Teachers' Union]: The problem is the system is obviously broken. I don’t think anybody will argue with that, that the system is broken. It is—it has not basically changed since the 1900s—1800s, for that matter. And as a result, it has never been able to absorb real innovation. And the problem is it’s just a lot easier to test, test, test children. Our curriculum has narrowed in Chicago. If you look at the average day for an elementary school kid, it’s reading, reading, reading, reading, reading, reading, math, math, math, reading, reading, reading, reading, math. I mean, kids are bored to tears. They’re hating school at an early age. There’s no joy. There’s no passion. And the results show that. They’re very indicative of that.

Well, the problem is that the whole idea of the business model doesn’t work in education. In the business model, you can select how you want to do something. You have an opportunity to innovate in a way that discriminates. It’s very easy to do. Whereas in a public school system, where we do not select our children—we take whoever comes to the door—what we need is actually more resources and more support for the people that are there and the work that’s being done. However, again, Arne Duncan [US Secretary of Education], Michelle Rhee, Joel Klein—I don’t know about Joel Klein—none of these people are superintendents. You have to have, again, credentials for that. These are business folks. Look, the business model took this country to the brink of Armageddon in 2008. And yet, we want to follow a failed business model and imprint that on top of public education? No. And these things are not innovative. What they are is they’re terrorism. They’re “my way or the highway.” And they’re still not producing, quote-unquote, “results.”

Nobody disagrees with accountability. That’s not the issue. The issue is, what do you use? We still know that high-stakes testing basically tell us more about a student’s socioeconomic status than it does anything else. And until we’re honest about that and want to deal with the fact that we have neighborhoods in our cities and across the nation that have been under-resourced, have been devalued for decades, and for some reason or other, the schools are supposed to fix all that and change that. [Emphasis added.]

In their efforts to reform education, people like Barrett and Duncan ignore a little country called Finland. For years, Finland’s students and its public education system has been ranked #1 worldwide.

Somehow, Finland succeeded in having the world’s best education system– without the help of CEOs, business models, charter schools, privatization, or meddling politicians. How is Finland’s educational system different from Arizona’s? (How much time do you have?)

From the Toronto Globe and Mail…

Finnish children do not begin primary school until they are seven years old. But from the age of eight months, all children have access to free, full-day daycare and kindergarten. Finland has had universal access to daycare in place since 1990, and of all preschool since 1996.

Primary-school teachers all have master’s degrees, and the profession is one of the most revered in Finnish society.

“We see it as the right of the child to have daycare and preschool,” explained Eeva Penttila, head of international relations for Helsinki’s education department. “It’s not a place where you dump your child when you’re working. It’s a place for your child to play and learn and make friends. Good parents put their children in daycare. It’s not related to socio-economic class.”

Yesterday, former Ontario deputy education minister Charles Pascal released a long-awaited report that called for an overhaul of the province’s early-childhood education, which he described as a “fragmented patchwork of supports,” and the introduction of full-day kindergarten for four- and five-year-olds. Elementary schools would be converted into learning hubs with after-school programs and include classes for parents on nutrition and health. The goal is to provide students with a mixed program that would increase literacy, graduate rates and postsecondary participation. [Emphasis added.]

From the BBC World News…

The Finnish philosophy with education is that everyone has something to contribute and those who struggle in certain subjects should not be left behind.

A tactic used in virtually every lesson is the provision of an additional teacher who helps those who struggle in a particular subject.

This video from the BBC offers a great overview of the Finnish system. According to the reporter, Finnish students spend the least number of hours in the classroom of any students in the developed world but receive the highest scores? How does that happen? Besides the fact that the Fins have “a culture that values education”, their classrooms have multiple well-trained teachers. While one teacher is working with most of the students, one or two other teachers are working one-on-one with struggling students.

The BBC reporter ends his story by saying that Finland has “relaxed schools– free from politicians– in which no one is left behind.”

This last sentence is particularly biting– not only because it takes a jab at the United States’ wrong-headed No Child Left Behind program initiated by President George W. Bush, but because our system does leave children behind and then punishes them by not granting diplomas when they don’t pass a test at the end of 12 years.

I was talking with a Tucson second grade teacher at a party on Saturday night. She said that she had a little girl who– at the end of second grade– was having trouble recognizing letters. She said her heart breaks for that little girl because she needs individual attention, but with 30+ seven-year-olds in her class, she can’t give it to her. Reading proficiency by the end of third grade is a benchmark for success in the US. Sadly, without intense individualized help, this little girl will be written off by Arizona’s schools at age 8. We Arizonans have failed this little girl and thousands more like her.

This is a travesty. How can one of the world’s richest countries treat its children with such disregard? How can our country– and particularly our state– continue to devalue education and work to de-professionalize the teaching profession and hope to succeed? Our politicians are slaves to the capitalist ideology that values market forces– even when highly inappropriate– and are too weak-willed to fight for increased funding for public education. How can we compete in a global economy when our heads are stuck firmly in the sand?

File this under the “so close but so far away” category.

Hundreds of volunteers from all over the state have been passing and signing petitions to recall Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce, and it looked as if Citizens for a Better Arizona was going to pull this off.

Now Arizona Elections Director Amy Bjelland said she gave the recall organizers the wrong date– thus causing them to miss the real deadline for petitions– May 10, 2011 and not May 25, 2011.

I don’t know about you, but this smells like dirty tricks. I am outraged. If any politician deserves to be recalled, it’s Pearce. Bjelland should be fired, and this should be investigated by a federal elections fraud commission– not Attorney General Tom Horne, who obviously would have a conflict of interest.

From AZCentral.com…

Arizona’s elections director said she inadvertently gave an incorrect timetable to the organizers of a drive to recall controversial Senate President Russell Pearce, forcing a change in strategy in the historic recall effort.

Elections Director Amy Bjelland said she initially told recall organizer Randy Parraz that if he filed his signatures by May 25, there would be enough time to verify them and schedule a November election.

But Bjelland since has notified Parraz that Gov. Jan Brewer has 15 days to officially call an election if the signatures check out, not five. The difference of 10 days in the recall timetable means Citizens for a Better Arizona already has missed the actual deadline, May 10, to turn in the signatures for a November election and can only hope for a March 13, 2012, election.

On Monday of this week, Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) Superintendent John Pedicone sent conciliatory letters to two groups integrally involved in the fight to save TUSD’s Mexican American Studies (MAS) program from being reorganized– the MAS Community Advisory Board and UNIDOS (the young adult activists group who chained themselves to the school board dias and shut down the April 26 board meeting).

In nearly identical letters which were meant to smooth tensions, Pedicone said he urged the school board to table the controversial reorganization plan and asked to meet with the two groups.

Buried in the middle of today’s Arizona Daily Star is a follow-up story which states that neither group has responded Pedicone’s letters.

TUSD Superintendent John Pedicone has reached out to supporters of the Mexican American Studies program in an effort to improve relations.

Pedicone sent letters Monday to the youth-formed coalition Unidos and to the Mexican American Studies Community Advisory Board asking for an opportunity to speak and listen to one another.
He said he has yet to hear back from them.

Relations between the groups and the district have been strained since former Arizona schools chief Tom Horne declared the Mexican American Studies program in violation of state law.

In my article about the letters, I stated that I supported Pedicone’s suggestion to table the reorganization plan, and I hoped that UNIDOS and the MAS Board would accept his peace offering. Sadly, five days later, they haven’t.

UNIDOS and the Latino activists, educators, and politicians (Councilwoman Regina Romero and Pima County Supervisor Richard Elias) on the MAS Board should put down their sabres and step up to the table for an open discussion with Pedicone, representatives from the Center for Civility and Understanding, and others. They also should be willing to participate in a community forum– where everyone is allowed to speak– not just those who shout the loudest.

The time for fighting and divisive language by MAS supporters– including their attack dog blogger– is over. This behavior is tearing our community apart.

It has been reported that soon– maybe even later today– State Superintendent of Public Instruction John Huppenthal will announce his finding regarding MAS compliance or non-compliance with HB2281 (the legislation that started all of this last summer when governor Brewer signed it). If MAS and TUSD are found to be out of compliance, the district will be fined 10%– in the neighborhood of $15 million. On facebook, MAS supporters are calling for TUSD to ignore the fine and fight the state in court. There are too many questions about exactly what is being taught in the MAS classes; there has been anything but transparency.

I think it would be fiscally irresponsible for TUSD to lose $15 million– enough to fund 500 new teachers– over this battle. TUSD has to think about all of the 50,000 students it serves; they should not bow to the tyranny of the minority.

.

John Pedicone, the much-maligned Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) Superintendent, has extended an olive branch to the supporters of the Mexican American Studies Program.

On Monday, in nearly identical letters– one to UNIDOS (the young adult activists group who chained themselves to the school board dias and shut down the April 26 board meeting) and the Mexican American Studies Community Advisory Board– Pedicone said that “actions taken by the district have resulted in high levels of concern and, in many cases, frustration[understatement of the year].” He goes on to say that he has recommended that the TUSD board withdraw the proposal to reorganize Ethnic Studies, brought forth by Mark Stegeman, TUSD board president.

The intensity of the discussion has reached a point where it makes it difficult to consider any resolution at this time. [duh] The deep-seated feelings surrounding this program, either as a result of a strong affiliation to its purpose or, in other cases, a rejection of the premise for its inclusion has created a counter-productive atmosphere that must be changed.

This is a smart move by Pedicone, and I hope the board takes his suggestion. The hate speech fueled by a continuous blogging drumbeat and media blitz on radio and social media often distorted the intent of the proposal and blew the situation way out of proportion. On the day that Osama bin Laden– the world’s most wanted man was captured and killed– what was on the front page of the TucsonCitizen.com? Five stories related to Mexican American Studies.

Since the April 26 board room takeover, there have been several calls for civil discourse to bring out the facts surrounding the Mexican American Studies debate and allow for open discussion with respect from all sides (1, 2, 3, 4). Maybe the hate speech and spin will stop for a while, so this can be accomplished– before Attorney General Tom Horne and State Superintendent of Public Instruction John Huppenthal step in.

It’s time for radical love for humanity.

People send me links to interesting articles all the time– hoping I will write about the issues– but I have a life beyond the TucsonCitizen.com and can’t write about everything. Here are several interesting stories you also may find worth reading.

On the topic of Republicans…

Republicans Plan To Pay Off The Deficit By Literally Selling America
Are more toll roads in our future? How else can Republicans pay for further tax cuts for the rich?

Freedom From Regulation?
New UA Freedom Center funded by Koch brothers. That doesn’t sound like freedom to me.

Fiesta Bowl Scandal Update: The Navy Sinks ‘King’ Russell Pearce
Can scandal and the recall bring down Russell Pearce? Let’s hope so!

On the topic of ending the wars…

We Got Osama bin Laden – Now Let’s Get Out of Afghanistan
Congressman Raul Grijalva says, “Bring the boys home.” I couldn’t agree more.

On the topic of Latino voting…

Digging into Latino voter trends
The Latino voting rate is 18% below that of the Anglo population.

National Tequila Party Tour Will Kick Off in Arizona
Tequila Party encourages Latinos to vote.

On the topic of healthcare…

Why healthcare costs so much in the U.S.
Myths and facts about the US healthcare non-system– nice graphics!

The myth of undocumented immigrants using American health care
Dr. Keven debunks a popular myth.

Birth Control And Sexual Attraction – The Wall Street Journal’s Breathtakingly Bad Reporting
Better Health blog slams the Wall Street Journal for sexist reporting. (WSJ sexist? Imagine that.)

And on the topic of TUSD…

Comprehensive Annual Audit Report for the year ending June 2010
Very long budget report for last fiscal year– good reading if you’re in insomniac.

TUSD’s Desegregation Funding Summary FY10-11
This is hard to read but still interesting. You can see salaries, program funding, and school funding. It’s difficult to parse out specifics because some categories are so vague.

TUSD’s Ethnic Studies Audit: Institute for Transformative Education
Tucson Independent Daily examines the TUSD Board report from May 3, 2011. This gives the budget for the Mexican American Studies’ summer institute and a bit about the speakers. It seems to me that the budget is incomplete, since it primarily focus on speaker fees and stipends for attendees and doesn’t include other standard conference costs (room fees, audio-visual, travel expenses, etc.) but who knows. I’m surprised the Star didn’t cover this. Yes, some consider this a right-wing blog, but I have not seen this material covered anywhere else.

Loretta Hunnicutt on Glenn Beck
OK– a little spooky– but you have to see what the right is saying in order to organize against them. If you bury your head in the sand and try to ignore them, they’ll kick you in the ass.

US Congressman Raul Grijalva penned a moderate Op-Ed on ethnic studies for Sunday’s Arizona Daily Star:

Political Fight over Ethnic Studies Should Never Have Been Ignited at All

In his commentary, he places the blame for the problems  facing TUSD squarely where it belongs– with the Arizona Legislature, Governor Jan Brewer, and Attorney General Tom Horne. He ends the piece with a call for public comment, fairness, and due process…

Thankfully, TUSD has avoided premature decisions about the fate of the program. We need to let the legal, administrative and public comment processes run their courses. All of us, whatever our background, share the American history and values of fairness, democracy and due process.

That’s what we need here, not more overheated rhetoric.

Ironically, two days before Grijalva’s piece appeared, I also called for continued free and open public dialogue and less “overheated rhetoric.”

Focusing so intensely on this one small program is clouding the bigger picture: Education in Arizona is in trouble, and public education nationwide is under attack. As long as were fighting and drawing lines in the sand, nothing will progress. We need full transparency, and we need a public forum where everyone’s voices can be heard– not just those who shout the loudest. We need to come together to fix this– or Tom Horne will fix it for us.

From the Arizona Daily Star…

A former TUSD teacher and opponent of Mexican-American Studies has filed a defamation lawsuit against the district and two of its employees.

The lawsuit, filed by John Ward on Monday, names the Tucson Unified School District along with Mexican-American Studies Director Sean Arce and Jose Gonzalez, a curriculum specialist.

Ward is seeking damages for harm to his reputation and for mental pain and suffering; compensatory and punitive damages; and other relief as the court deems proper.
He alleges that defamatory statements by Arce and Gonzalez have damaged his reputation as an educator.

The lawsuit stems from statements made late last year in which Arce and Gonzalez reportedly said that Ward was removed from a Mexican-American Studies classroom because he had used profanity and was slamming books in front of students – statements that Ward says are false.

Ward argues that while employed at TUSD, he was recognized as an outstanding teacher. But conflict arose when he began voicing opposition to instruction in his U.S. history class that was to be taught from the Mexican-American perspective.

He felt that rather than teaching American history, the students were being taught a politicized view of the mistreatment of Hispanics, the suit states.

Click here for the rest of the story.

I find it highly ironic that this story appear in the Star on the same day I posted this story about stopping the smear spin and reporting the news accurately.
In Mexican American Studies debate, Tucsonans need less spin and more truth

One of my lifelong inspirations has been my journalism professor, mentor, and advisor at Ohio State:  Martha Brian, a lifelong newspaperwoman and one seriously tough customer.

I knew how to write when I took her entry level reporting class, but Ms. Brian taught me to be a journalist. She taught me to dig for the truth, stick to the facts, check my sources, write concisely, meet the deadlines, think on my feet, never accept anything at face value, and always ask questions.

Ms. Brian suffered no fools, and she could spot a slacker a mile away. Her class was the flunk-out class. As the gate-keeper of the School of Journalism at The Ohio State University, you had to pass her class in order to progress. As budding journalist, she hammered four primary rules into us:

1. News stories should be 100% factual– no excuses. If a student journalist wrote a story with any factual error, she gave them a zero for that story– regardless of how exciting the story or how beautifully it was written.
2. Journalists meet their deadlines. To teach us this, she locked the door of the class room when the bell rang. It didn’t matter if you were sprinting down the hall toward the door, you didn’t get in, and you got a zero for the day’s work. No make-ups. No excuses.
3. Journalists investigate stories and seek out credible sources. We were taught to ask questions– lots of questions. We investigated and wrote one original news story during every class period.
4. The public has a right to know the truth. And it’s a journalists job to tell them. We were instilled with the ideal that journalists should be beholden to no one– not corporations, not politicians, not religious groups, not advertisers, not political parties, not activist movements– because it was our job to be unbiased in our reporting of the news to the American people. (Remember, these were the days of Woodward and Bernstein.)

Oh, Ms. Brian, how times have changed.

It’s a good thing Ms. Brian isn’t alive to see the degradation of  our profession. I can see her now in heaven in her neatly tailored suit, well-manicured hair, and little pillbox hat– a scotch on the rocks in one hand and a cigarette in the other– shouting “Error of fact! Error of fact!” at the blogosphere, sneering at FOX News’ “fair and balanced” slogan, and cursing the disappearance of news print  and paid journalists.

Ms. Brian’s Legacy and the Mexican American Studies debate

In the spirit of my mentor and the public’s right to know the truth about Mexican American Studies (MAS) debate, I’m calling on fellow bloggers and journalists to:

1. Stick to the facts and forget the spin.
2. Don’t take anything at face value.
3. Ask more questions.
4. Fight for transparency.
5. Check multiple sources and cite those sources. (We are the storytellers– not the authorities.)
6. Drop the editorializing– unless, of course, you’re writing an editorial.
7. Stop the name-calling, the bullying, and the put-downs.

And, again in the spirit of Ms. Brian, here are a some of my unanswered questions about the MAS debate:

1. What is the real budget for the MAS program and the other programs under Ethnic Studies? I have seen three budget figures published– one provided by TUSD School Board President Mark Stegeman and two others published by the Three Sonorans. I want full transparency in the funding for this and other TUSD programs supported by the desegregation monies.
2. What does the evaluation data reveal? MAS supporters claim that the program has been evaluated and proven effective multiple times. The Arizona Daily Star reported that a TUSD statistician found no statistical difference in graduation rates when he compared MAS graduates with others in TUSD. Dr. Stegeman’s statement said it resulted in 10 more graduations per year over the three years studies. Where is the truth here? How many studies have been conducted? How were they conducted? Who conducted them? Was quantitative or descriptive (ie, more casual) data collected?  Where is the data published?
3. What text books are being used in the MAS classes? I think the MAS program should provide a complete list of text books– since the course content is coming under fire from the right wing. (They’re teaching communism! They’re teaching Chicano Nationalism!) MAS supporters claim that the right is “cherry-picking” inflammatory passages from the texts (watch the attached video for some doozies). OK, I wouldn’t put it past them to be using that tactic, but how does the public know what they are teaching when no book list has been provided?
4. What are the course descriptions for the MAS classes? The curriculum link on the MAS website is very vague. Surely, course descriptions exist. Why not make them public?
5. Why has the MAS Community Advisory Board backed away from TUSD’s public forum? After the takeover of the TUSD meeting on April 26, MAS supporters chided the TUSD board for not holding the following meeting at a larger location. Now that the TUSD board is willing to hold a public forum– so all voices can be heard– they’re backing away from a meeting that the University of Arizona MAS faculty (many of whom also serve on the MAS Community Advisory Board) called for. (I guess that link has now disappeared from the TucsonCitizen.com.)
6. While we’re on the subject of the MAS Community Advisory Board: Are their meetings open to the public? If so, how are they publicized? How are people appointed to this board? How long are their terms of service? Are board members compensated monetarily for their time? How often do they meet? Why is there no diversity on the board? What is their relationship to the MAS programs at the UA and TUSD and to the TUSD Board? What is their authority over a taxpayer-funded public school program? Mark Evans’ article from the Tucson Citizen morgue explained the origins of the MAS program and the advisory board, but I still have questions.
7. How do the multiple familial and collegial relationships through the past four decades and across the multiple MAS support groups impact what is unfolding? Reading the Tucson Weekly’s article about MAS program and Chicano Nationalism movement of the 1970s connected many dots for me. There is a lot of cross pollination out there.
8. And the bottomline: Has the MAS program improved graduation rates among Latino youth? The 1998 article said the Latino dropout rate was 8.33%. What is it today?

And, finally, what is being done to help the tens of thousands of TUSD students who are not in MAS succeed? What is TUSD doing for those Mexican American, African American, Native American, refugee, mixed race, and poor non-minority students who need our help? Focusing so intensely on this one small program is clouding the bigger picture: Education in Arizona is in trouble, and public education nationwide is under attack. As long as were fighting and drawing lines in the sand, nothing will progress. We need full transparency, and we need a public forum where everyone’s voices can be heard– not just those who shout the loudest. We need to come together to fix this– or Tom Horne will fix it for us.

UPDATE: And while we’re on the accuracy in reporting theme, check out this story. MAS smear campaigns have resulted in a defamation of character lawsuit.
TUSD’s Ethnic Studies Saga Continues: John Ward files lawsuit against TUSD