State Sen. Steve Farley and state Reps. Sally Ann Gonzales and Victoria Steele attended the Tucson Unified School District board meeting this evening to give a legislative update on a bill that seeks to defund desegregation programs at several state school districts, including TUSD, which would take the "biggest hit" at $64 million cut from the annual budget.

While Farley, who is a TUSD parent, expressed his discontent at the fact that TUSD board member Michael Hicks sent a letter to legislators urging them to pass that bill, Hicks stood up and, pretty much, threw a handout on the podium and told Farley to read it, which the state senator did not. But it wasn't until Farley suggested Hicks to resign his position that the board member lost it.

He slammed his chair and mumbled that he was leaving, but then less than 10 seconds later he changed his mind. "You know what, I'm not leaving," Hicks said while some meeting attendees laughed at his shenanigans. 

On Feb. 11, SB 1371 passed a Senate Finance Committee hearing, which TUSD Superintendent H.T. Sanchez attended to defend the hell of the desegregation programs' funding. The committee's chairwoman, state Sen. Debbie Lesko, who is also the sponsor of the bill, agreed to add an amendment accommodating to TUSD's special needs, according to a phone interview I had with Sanchez while he drove back to Tucson from Phoenix that afternoon. The district still has to obey a federal court order and is under the Unitary Status Plan. Sanchez says without those funds, the programs they offer to reach unitary status wouldn't survive.

Farley thanked Sanchez for attending the hearing. 

But, "Our purpose was undercut severely when I noticed that one of your board members, Mr. Hicks had signed in a testimony to the members of the committee asking for the bill to pass, asking us to cut $64 million from our own district," Farley said. "Giving comfort to those who would shut down public education in Arizona, and, in my mind, compromised his oath of office to protect and defend the students, teachers and parents of (TUSD)..."

Right in the middle of that, Hicks stood up and grabbed that handout or sign I mentioned earlier.

"You do not believe that your oath of office for the TUSD board involves protecting and defending students and parents of the district? You have damaged those efforts, and frankly Mr. Hicks, your signs are cute, but if you are going to damage our children like this, you are not for kids and I believe you should resign your position," Farley continued. The crowd started clapping.

Hicks said that was an attack not a legislative update like it was described on the meeting's agenda. 

Before Farley arrived, Hicks had already gotten it during the call to the audience, including one of the attendees who said Hicks wants to screw children in low-income neighborhoods out of a good education. And someone else called Hicks a racist. 

When it was time for board members to respond to criticism, Hicks had an essay to read.

He thanked the speakers who shared their views.

"I do support the concept of schools receiving desegregation funding, what I don't support is the mismanagement and the misappropriation of the desegregation funding that TUSD has been receiving for over 30 years...but I am more than willing to compromise on this issue," Hicks said. But right in the middle of his remarks, the speakers in the room mysteriously let out a very loud noise that sounded like a phone off the hook or like when you call someone and the line is busy.

"Really?" Hicks said. He kept reading but that noise was quite loud until nearly the end of Hicks' defense so I'm unclear of how that ended.

He tried to argue that while he is outside, in the real world, he had been told that he is not representing the board. However, the note he sent to legislators supporting the bill was signed, "TUSD Board Member Michael Hicks."

"We always represent TUSD because that is the oath that we took," TUSD Clerk Kristel Foster said. 

The bill isn't due for a vote for now. Farley said the process on that has slowed down, but until the state Legislature officially kills the bill, it means that it could get picked up again any time.

"This is a bill being pushed by the Arizona Tax Research Association. ATRA is funded entirely by the big utilities...their entire purpose is to reduce property tax burden from their funders," said Farley, a member of the Senate Finance Committee. (The TUSD desegregation money comes from a local property tax.) "You might want to have a word with (Tucson Electric Power) as to why they are supporting this effort to undercut school districts...they do this in a number of bills that come forward every year and they are not concerned with the effects of reducing this funding."

(Added after publication) The Goldwater Institute is also behind the legislation, and at the meeting, Farley said the group wants to get rid of public schools and base education completely on private institutions.

Democratic state Reps. Stefanie Mach, Bruce Wheeler , Randy Friese and a few others called into the meeting to also weigh in on the issue.

From the $64 million TUSD gets for desegregation programs, about $11 million go to magnet schools' programs, students outreach and recruiting services. Then there's about $8 million for things like translation and interpretation (ESL, etc.); another close to $8 million go to drop-out prevention and programs that aim to close the academic achievement gap.

Here's the thing about adjunct faculty and working graduate students who are teaching assistants: they save the University of Arizona good money.

Last week, I reported that merely about 25 percent of the UA's budget expenditures goes toward instruction: wages to TAs, adjunct staff, and others at the forefront of students' education, who oftentimes work equally as much and as hard as an actual professor whose salary could be near or in the six digits.

These groups are stronger than ever, especially after news of more budget cuts coming to the UA (could be about $22 million if Gov. Doug Ducey's wish is granted), demanding the UA administration transparency to know where the hell the remaining 75 percent of the money is going. 

Classrooms feel these budget cuts the most, so why not include adjunct, TAs, or undergrads trying to make ends meet, in the conversations of how the shortfall absorption plays out within the institution?

In the meantime, the Arizona Board of Regents approves bonuses for UA President Ann Weaver Hart, who's salary package is already near the $500,000 realm, as thanks for her "accomplishments." Last year, she got a $40,000 bonus. ABOR is also put in a difficult position, where they propose a budget for the universities, but the state Legislature has the last word on the cuts...It's just a mess.

This is exactly the reason I ignore all envelopes I get from the UA asking me to donate money as a former student, because it doesn't end up in the classrooms. A lot of it ends up in big, fat salaries for the administration, and they couldn't be more detached from the reality of adjunct, grads and undergrads.

Tomorrow is National Adjunct Walkout Day, a form of protest that's been greatly promoted by the Service Employees International Union—a group fighting for better wages, benefits, among other demands in academic jobs—and the UA adjunct is officially participating, as well as graduate students and all other allies.

From the event's Facebook page:

We know the University of Arizona greatly values its students and recognizes the direct link between student learning outcomes and teachers’ working conditions. Let’s come together to re-commit to education and all Wildcats.

Please join your fellow faculty, staff, students, and community members and don’t forget to wear red to show your support!

The event is happening from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Alumni Plaza, near the UA Mall.

The state and the UA have to meditate on the priorities...is it education or is it administrative pay or is it a nice REC Center? 

Also, here is a list of all UA salaries. Have fun. 

Conservatives have been talking for years about how our "failing government schools" waste money, but they didn't start cutting K-12 education budgets in earnest until they had the 2008 financial crisis to blame. "It's not our fault. We can't afford to keep funding schools at the current level with our state revenues plummeting." The implicit promise was that school funding would increase when the economy turned around. But now that things are trending upward, the new message is, "We're going to keep cutting money for schools. Get used to it."

We've been getting hints from conservatives that they want to keep cutting education funding in Arizona and elsewhere, but now things are moving into a new phase: explaining why, no matter what happens to the economy, we have to continue cutting. Here's a new document that puts a pseudo-academic face on the idea: Turn and Face the Strain: Age Demographic Change and the Near Future of American Education. It's another steaming pile of bad data and worse conclusions from Matthew Ladner, who had the honor of receiving the first ever Lifetime Achievement Award for shoddy educational research from the National Education Policy Center in 2011. Ladner was the education guy at the Goldwater Institute, where he was instrumental in shaping bad education policy in Arizona, until he became Senior Advisor at Jeb Bush's conservative education reform/privatization organization, Foundation for Excellence in Education. And Ladner was one of the three privatization experts who formed Ducey's education transition team where, I'm sure, he whispered this idea in Ducey's ear more than once.

Here's Ladner's thesis in a nutshell: We have a growing number of old people and young people in our future, so face it, we're going to keep cutting funding for education—and if we're going to cut funding, we should put more of it into charter schools and private school vouchers.

For the first 25 pages of Ladner's report, he barely mentions education. It's all about the growing number of old people and young people in the country and the put-upon workers who have to shoulder the load of taking care of them. No mention, of course, of income inequality or the shrinking tax burden on corporations and the rich. It's all about how regular folks will see their taxes go up if we don't curtail our extravagant spending on all those dependent young and old people.

What we need, according to Ladner, is "a virtuous cycle of climbing [educational] outcomes and declining costs." In Ladner's form of magical thinking, we can cut costs and increase achievement at the same time. He didn't suggest we should give everyone a magic pony—because, I guess, that would be ridiculous. At one time not too long ago, Ladner suggested—I'm not making this up—that we could save money if we rounded up all the great teachers, who he called "rock stars," paid them six figure salaries, then put 40 or 50 kids in each of their classes, because Ladner, who has never taught, believed a great teacher can get great results with 40 to 50 first graders in class. I haven't heard him talking about that since he started pushing Education Savings Accounts (aka Empowerment Scholarship Accounts), so I guess he decided it was a ridiculous idea. As usual, he's sure his latest idea is a winner, proven by the studies he puts together citing facts carefully tailored to fit his conclusions.

You might still be reeling from The Abbey's closure last year, but now you can have a taste of something familiar at Brian Metzger's other joint Jackson Tavern. That's because the Old Fort Lowell area restaurant is bringing back one of The Abbey's signature dishes: the Abby Burger.

Although other places in town serve up English muffin-topped burgers, the Abby Burger is unique with its bacon jam, caramelized onions, aged cheddar and aioli, blending sweet, savory and smoky flavors all in one handheld package. Now that it's a regular menu item at Jackson Tavern, they've decided to switch it up by offering the option of a single patty Abby with a side of fries for $10.50 or a double burger with fries for $12.

If you're ready to take your tastebuds on a trip down memory lane, you can head to Jackson Tavern, located at 2900 N. Swan Road.

If you're already pining for the weekend, you can consider getting it all started a little early on Thursday when Tap & Bottle offers up the ultimate triple threat: free local music, a ramen food truck and an encyclopedic stock of craft beer.

Starting at 5 p.m., Fat Noodle food truck will be slinging bowls of slurpable noodley goodness and maybe even a ramen burger or two out in front of Tap & Bottle. Then at 8:30 p.m. on the inside of the beer and wine bar, you can catch Tucson's electro indie band with alt country tendencies Golden Boots.


Of course, you'll have your pick of Tap & Bottle brews, including, maybe if you're lucky, a pint of Ten Fifty-Five's re-released Sugar Skull stout or some of the super rare Arizona Wilderness beer that was tapped on Saturday. If those kegs run dry before Thursday, Feb. 26, they'll have something else tasty to sip when you start your (early) weekend off right at 403 N. 6th Ave.

Prominent Arizona medical marijuana researcher Sue Sisley has given up on any of the state's public universities to house the research she's been doing for years on the effects pot has on post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms.

Sisley brought that research to the University of Arizona close to five years ago, and got approval from the Food and Drug Administration in 2011 and the Public Health Service last March. She was then laid off from the UA this past summer, and she had been hoping to continue her research at NAU or ASU. 

A few months later, NAU's president passed on the study, so Sisley and the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, which sponsors the research, turned to ASU—that move, too, without any luck.

Veterans who suffer from PTSD and other advocates for months pleaded the Arizona Board of Regents to keep the study here, but the demand was ignored.

On Friday, MAPS' Executive Director Rick Doblin sen this message:

It's now February 20, 2015, about eight months after Sue initiated discussions with ASU about possibly hosting our marijuana/PTSD study. Despite all this time, Sue has not received an offer of an unpaid academic appointment and our questions about how we might interact with the ASU press office have not been addressed.

In order for us to proceed with our study, we are going to go forward with submitting our protocol to an independent IRB and will conduct the study without affiliation with ASU. It's a shame and intellectually backward that no academic institution in Arizona was willing to work with Dr. Sisley on the first controlled study to ever be conducted on a matter of crucial importance to the many veterans and others suffering from PTSD who live in Arizona and elsewhere.

In December, Sisley and MAPS were awarded $2 million from the Colorado Board of Health for the research.

While approval and funding are in place, the National Institute on Drug Abuse still has to give Sisley her pot. A process she's said it's taken too long, since they've already overcome all federal hurdles. 

NY Times columnist Paul Krugman is an economist and a college prof, so he's very qualified to talk about the intersection of education, economics and the job market. He gets it right in today's column. His basic thesis: today's weak job market and low wages aren't the fault of a broken education system.

Just to be clear: I’m in favor of better education. Education is a friend of mine. And it should be available and affordable for all. But what I keep seeing is people insisting that educational failings are at the root of still-weak job creation, stagnating wages and rising inequality. This sounds serious and thoughtful. But it’s actually a view very much at odds with the evidence, not to mention a way to hide from the real, unavoidably partisan debate.

As an educator, I'm expected to proclaim, "Education is the answer." Just give people excellent schools, I'm supposed to say—from quality kindergartens through a strong undergraduate degree and throw in the possibility of grad school—and people's vocational problems will take care of themselves. Good paying jobs will always be there for the well schooled. But I won't say it, because it ain't so. A good education is  necessary, almost essential, to land most good paying, personally rewarding jobs, but it's not sufficient. Wages have stagnated for the highly educated as well as the under educated, and there simply aren't enough jobs paying solid middle class salaries out there for everyone to have a nice, tasty piece of the economic pie. These problems are in the marketplace, not the schools.

Is there a skills gap, too few educated people to fill open jobs? No, says Krugman.

[T]here’s no evidence that a skills gap is holding back employment. After all, if businesses were desperate for workers with certain skills, they would presumably be offering premium wages to attract such workers. So where are these fortunate professions? You can find some examples here and there. Interestingly, some of the biggest recent wage gains are for skilled manual labor—sewing machine operators, boilermakers—as some manufacturing production moves back to America. But the notion that highly skilled workers are generally in demand is just false.

Well, I'm giving you a little more notice than last week. We are giving away four tickets to the following UA Baseball games:

Tuesday, Feb. 24 against Oakland at 6 p.m. 

Wednesday, Feb. 25 against Oakland at 3 p.m.

We're drawing names for Tuesday's game tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. and we'll draw Wednesday's tickets three hours later, at noon. If you enter before 9 a.m., we'll keep you in the drawing for both games.

The winner has to be able to pick the tickets up from our newsroom on the Northwest side of town. We lock up at 5 p.m. Enter here and good luck!

A second single from Calexico's upcoming Edge of the Sun debuted on SoundCloud today. "Falling From the Sky" features Band of Horses' Ben Bridwell. Click play to give it a listen.

Edge of the Sun, recorded at downtown Tucson's WaveLab Studios and featuring a whole bunch of guest stars, drops on April 14.

Fans of the Professor Blastoff podcast already know that Tig Notaro's performance is a must-see this Wednesday, but, in case you need convincing, consider one of the moments that rocketed Notaro into the national gaze:

One night at LA's comedy hotspot the Largo, Notaro took the stage and instead of carrying on with her normal set, she starts hesitantly, "Hello. Good Evening. Hello ... I have cancer."


Notaro had been diagnosed with breast cancer earlier that day, and, rather than pretending like nothing happened, she stood up there and told the truth. The beauty of the moment is Notaro bounces between making the audience sad and uncomfortable to laughing and uncomfortable at every turn, even so far as reassuring the crowd several times that it's okay.

The moment has been lauded by comedians like Louis C.K. for its raw honesty and emotion. It was featured on NPR's "This American Life." Marc Maron even chose to replicate the scenario in his show. Of course, Maron was the heroic truth teller for the "Maron" rendition because it's his TV show and he likes to keep the focus on him, but it's still flattering maybe since he used Notaro as the concierge.

As for standout moments in recent stand up history, Notaro's is definitely up there, which is why you should go see her when she performs as part of her "Boyish Girl Interrupted" tour at the Rialto Theatre on Wednesday, Feb. 24 starting at 7 p.m. Tickets are $25 and available, along with more information, on the Rialto Theatre's website.