Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas says Arizona's education is poor and that too many children are not receiving the education they deserve.

Douglas gave her first speech to members of the state House Education Committee yesterday, following news that the recently released "Quality Counts" report—which rates all states on overall student achievement, students' chances for success and school finance policy—had given Arizona a D+, raking us 47th out of 50.

"As a former school board member, who has talked with countless parents and teachers and has visited innumerable classrooms, it isn't news to me," she says in a statement.

The former Peoria Unified School District board member highlighted the Common Core Standards, which were later renamed here as Arizona's College and Career Ready Standards, as one of the problems that could continue contributing to the state's crippling education system.

"The continual disruption of standards, accountability, assessment and educator evaluations has caused uncertainty and stress in the education community as well as among Arizona parents," Douglas says. "This is not the first time Arizona has changed its entire education system to reflect the latest fad, top-down approach, or cure-all sold as the solution for student achievement."

She also touches on the newly-established AzMERIT test, which is substituting the years-long standing AIMS test. She refers to both as unproven methods. Really, she feels the two were forced down the state's throat by the federal government, so she urges the state Legislature and Gov. Doug Ducey to "stop the madness."

Then there is the whole thing about teachers leaving the profession "at alarming rates."

"In fact, 24 percent of first year and 20 percent of second year teachers in  Arizona quit after the 2013-2014 school year," she says. 

I'm glad she recognized that teachers' shitty salaries contribute to that problem—Arizona's average teacher salary is ranked 42nd in the country.

Throughout, there isn't mention of Ducey's proposal to cut millions from public schools', community colleges' and universities' budgets. 

But there's this:

"I fully realize the strain that previous expenditures and tight budgets have placed on all involved. Our current fiscal environment does not make our job of putting education on the path to improvement any easier," she says.

These are her solutions:

Continuous Improvement of Arizona Standards for Arizona Students

First, Arizona’s children deserve high standards in education. I intend to establish an annual deliberative and ongoing process for standards review by a broad spectrum of Arizona classroom teachers, colleges, businesses and, yes, parents to ensure continuous improvement. It is long past time that we start asking parents what they expect for their children’s education rather than telling them what they must accept. Our continual improvement process will allow us the flexibility to make whatever changes are needed―without asking permission from Washington, D.C. or seeking agreement from more than 40 other states. We can make moderate changes in a transparent process each year. This will allow students and teachers to absorb changes without disruptions and without major costs to districts.

Support for Our Teachers

Standards and assessments cannot take the place of effective teachers connecting with
individual children. Make no mistake, standardized and high stakes testing measure
demographics, not student achievement or teacher performance. For many children, the personal confidence shown in them by a caring teacher is something they will remember as a key moment in their life. Our teachers’ content knowledge and skills must be built upon, rather than erased and replaced with new fads. I know first-hand just how hard our teachers work and how much they care about their students. We must commit to work just as hard to support them. We have an opportunity to build upon the teacher preparation programs that are training the next generation of Arizona educators. By enhancing the quality of these programs, we can positively impact teacher retention and work to stabilize the growing need for highly qualified teachers.
For many years teachers have been asking for additional support. I intend to listen and come to their aid.

Safe and Meaningful Education Data

Next as Superintendent, I will build on the information technology progress the Department of Education made during the previous administration. 
Our first step is to complete accurate data systems. But data is not useful, unless it can be distributed to teachers as information they can actually use to improve classroom instruction. In addition, I am committed to strengthening our data security. Every child should have their data collected only if necessary, and it should be protected with the care that parents expect and deserve.

She mentions her support for the inclusion of Chicanos', Latino-American', Native-Americans' and African-Americans' heritage and contributions to state and country in history classes.

But she's been playing devil's advocate with this whole thing since the Tucson Unified School District mess and saying teachers are teaching the content wrong.

"All ethnicities will be properly represented in history, language arts, music, civics and all other appropriate areas of study," she says. "Teaching children by ethnicity is academic segregation, reinforcing in young minds that somehow we are different and separate from each other. These standards changes will allow children statewide to look at each other not by color or ethnicity, but as fellow Arizonans, respected for their own unique history and culture, which has contributed to this state."

J.D. Souther, who counts Linda Ronstadt and the Eagles as just a few of his many collaborators, will be performing on Saturday, Jan. 24, as part of the inaugural Tucson Jazz Festival that is now underway.

Souther will be performing with the legendary Billy Childs at 8 p.m. at the Fox Theatre.

Find a full festival schedule and much more here.

Prompted by the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson and cops choking Eric Garner in Staten Island as he screamed "I can't breathe," Democratic state Rep. Reginald Bolding of Phoenix today filed a bill that would require police officers to wear body cameras.

Arizona is no stranger to these events. Last year, police in Phoenix shot and killed Rumain Brisbon, an unarmed African-American man who was allegedly selling drugs.

From HB 2511:

A. EVERY PEACE OFFICER SHALL WEAR A CAMERA THAT ELECTRONICALLY RECORDS AUDIO AND VIDEO WHILE THE OFFICER IS ENGAGED IN THE PERFORMANCE OF OFFICIAL DUTIES THAT ARE LIKELY TO RESULT IN A CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION OR ARREST.
B. THE ATTORNEY GENERAL SHALL ESTABLISH GUIDELINES OR DIRECTIVES, AS APPROPRIATE, TO IMPLEMENT AND ENFORCE THIS SECTION.

Bolding also sponsors another legislation that asks for police shootings to be investigated by an outside group.

On the other hand, Republican state Sen. John Kavanagh is considering legislation limiting the release of video captured by police cameras, according to The Associated Press.

Kavanagh says the increasing use of wearable video cameras raises serious privacy concerns for both police and the public.

A group of Arizona lawmakers—two of them from the Tucson area—has introduced a bill that would force companies to label foods that have been entirely or partially genetically engineered. 


From HB 2462 authored by State Reps. Victoria Steele, Juan Mendez, Ken Clark, Richard Andrade, Diego Espinoza and Rosanna Gabaldón:

If a food is required to be labeled pursuant to subsection A of this section, it shall be labeled as follows: 

1. In the case of a packaged raw agricultural commodity, the manufacturer shall label the package offered for retail sale with the clear and conspicuous words, "Produced with genetic engineering."

2. In the case of any raw agricultural commodity that is not separately packaged, the retailer shall post a label appearing on the retail store shelf or bin in which the commodity is displayed for sale with the clear and conspicuous words, "Produced with genetic engineering."

3. In the case of any processed food that contains a product of genetic engineering, the manufacturer shall label the package in which the processed food is offered for sale with one of the following phrases:
(a) "PARTIALLY PRODUCED WITH GENETIC ENGINEERING".
(b) "MAY BE PRODUCED WITH GENETIC ENGINEERING".
(c) "PRODUCED WITH GENETIC ENGINEERING".

Also, manufacturers wouldn't be able to falsely advertise food products as "natural" or "naturally made," if any ingredient was genetically engineered.

If these foods are not labeled, the retailer wouldn't be punished. However, the manufacturer would be liable for a civil penalty of "no more than $1000 per day per product." They could also be prosecuted by the state's attorney general or dealt with "in a private manner."

State groups, such as GMO Free Arizona, have been pushing for a measure like this one. A similar bill, SB 1180, was brought forward in 2013 by state Sen. Ed Ableser. That bill didn't make it out of the committee it was assigned to.

We'll see if this one gets a hearing and moves through the pipes.

Diablo Burger, my favorite place to indulge in rosemary fries and a smokey burger, announced a partnership with The Screamery yesterday on Facebook.

The Screamery, in case you're new here, is an ice creamery on the eastside that pasteurizes on-site to make absolutely unbelievable ice cream. 

Save your calories for Feb. 1, the day the ice cream moves in, and I'll see you there.

An article in today's Star talks about a proposition to create an International English Spelling Congress to make the way we spell words more logical and consistent. The article mentions the letter string "ough," which can be pronounced at least seven ways—as in the words "though," "through," "cough," "rough," "plough," "ought" and "borough." As an old English teacher, I know more time is spent—"wasted" would be a better word—teaching and correcting spelling than would be necessary if words were spelled something like the way they sounded.

This isn't a new idea. In the 1870s, someone came up with the word "ghoti" as an example of our ridiculous spelling system. The "gh" is pronounced as in "tough," the "o" as in "women," and the "ti" as in "nation." Put it all together and it spells "fish." (I always thought "ghoti" was a George Bernard Shaw creation. Apparently not—according to Wikipedia, anyway.)

If they were talking about this 150 years ago, I doubt if anything is going to (gonna?) change any time soon.

Word Nerd Note: In James Joyce's Finnegans Wake, he made reference to "ghoti" in typical Joycean fashion:

"Gee each owe tea eye smells fish."

Now you know.

While our neighbors up north are gearing up for tons of out-of-towners flooding in to watch some sportsball, down here we can keep it a little classier and head to the sixth annual Tucson Sculpture Festival's opening night event on Saturday, Jan. 31. 

The event features over 75 local and international sculptors, including artists from New York, Germany and China. Hosted by the Drawing Studio, the event takes place at the Art Gallery at 1122 N. Stone Ave., just north of Speedway Boulevard. Works will also be on view at satellite locations including the Moen Mason Gallery, the Granada Gallery and the Sculpture Resource Center.

According to event director Tanya Rich, last year's festival brought over 800 attendees to the event and with more artists and participating galleries for 2015, they expect an even larger showing.

The opening reception will run from 6 until 9 p.m. on Jan. 31 at the Art Gallery, featuring North Indian classical duo Jugalbandhi who will play traditional Hindustani music during the event. Food and drink will also be served.

The festival runs for a total of two weeks, with the closing reception on Saturday, Feb. 14 from 6 until 9 p.m. You can also see the sculpture fest anytime between then from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m. when the gallery is open.

Mexico in Season has carved out a place in the hearts of Tucsonans looking for vegan Mexican cuisine in a fast, casual, and friendly atmosphere. However, now the family-owned restaurant, which is known for options like nopalitos and seitan fajitas, might be forced to shutter. Owner Priscilla Teran says community support wasn't the issue for her one-year-old restaurant located at on the southwest corner of Ajo Way and Palo Verde Road.

"The business is doing good and our clientele keeps growing, but we lost our partner and now we are faced with the decision of closing our doors," Teran says.

Although Kickstarter campaigns can sometimes carry a stigma, Teran explains that they decided to go with crowdfunding due to demand from their regulars.

"Our customers don't want us closing our doors and asked us to start a Kickstarter campaign to see if we could raise funds to keep our doors open," she says.

With 29 days left, the restaurant has raised just over $500 of a $25,000 goal, and, unlike other sites such as Indiegogo, Kickstarter is an all or nothing fundraiser—either Mexico in Season gets $25,000 or nothing by the end of it. If Teran doesn't find an investor or partner for Mexico in Season, she says she still plans to offer her fare to her loyal customers by using the Kickstarter funds to purchase a food truck.

You can help keep Mexico in Season pumping out those unique vegan Mexican eats by visiting their Kickstarter campaign page. Rewards for donors include free lunch for a $10 donation, a meal for two for $20, and a meal for eight that can be gifted to others for a $50 contribution.

2014 was a good year for Tucson filmmaker Alex Italics: His short film, Sheltered Love, won enough awards at festivals to fill the average bomb shelter; John Hodgman declared him the winner of a contest to make a music video for They Might Be Giants (watch it here); and on New Year's Eve, he got married to his sweetheart.

He's starting out 2015 strong, too: His new video for Tucson band Head Over Heart landed an Entertainment Weekly exclusive last week, although the filmstrip-based video has since been released into the wild, so we can post it here.

Italics told Entertainment Weekly:

I was immediately struck by the beautiful nervous paranoia of the lyrics, which lent themselves very well to a trip to a psychoanalyst’s couch. To compliment the band’s unique modern take on vintage synth pop, I chose to resurrect and repurpose the long-forgotten educational filmstrip, an archaic blip in technological history that went the way of the dodo as soon as VCRs became economically feasible for public schools in the 1980s.

Yesterday I wrote a post condemning Ducey's decision to take money donated to help living post-9/11 veterans and use it to keep cemeteries for veterans running. My headline was, Vets Join Arizona's "Budget Balanced on the Backs of" List. A line from the post:

Let this be a wake-up call to people who think these sons of bitches hold anything—other than cutting taxes for corporations—sacred.

I sent it to Chelo Grubb, the Weekly's web editor, for her to put on The Range. A little while later, she sent me an email saying Ducey had backed down, so my post was on hold. Consider this a replacement for that post and a retraction of the above unpublished quote.

Contrary to my assertion, Ducey & Co. do consider something sacred other than corporate tax cuts: their heads, which were nearly bit off by veterans groups and Republican legislators. Parents and educators can yell all they want about Republicans withholding funding from schools. No problem. Courts can even tell the legislature its cuts are illegal to the tune of $330 million. Republicans appeal the decision, and Ducey talks tough but does nothing. College students and their parents can raise a fuss over regular increases in college tuition because state funding for universities keeps getting cut. Ducey says students need to pay their fair share of the cost of college. The governor can brush off those complaints with a quick swipe of his hand. But he learned an important lesson from his latest attempt at a funding sweep. Don't mess with vets.

Ducey's change of heart shouldn't be the end of this story about the donated money. It says on the Arizona Department of Veterans' Services web page, the money "directly impacts the lives of Arizona's heroes," and that's what it should do. But it's not happening. Ted Vogt, Ducey's chief of operations, said the original plan to sweep the fund wasn't such a big deal (a word of advice to Ted: Never use a phrase like "not a big deal" when referring to veterans) because the fund has $5 million in its coffers. He failed to mention the reason for the unused balance. The advisory committee hasn't decided how to spend the money—because, I guess, they figure Arizona's veterans are doing just fine. The $5 million unused balance is a scandal which was brought to light by the hubbub over Ducey's proposed sweep. The governor's next move should be to make sure the committee does its job and spends the donated funds to offer veterans much needed, and much deserved, help.