Here's a tidbit that's not likely to make the next edition of AZAwesome: WalletHub has released a new survey that ranks Arizona as the third-worst state in the nation for teachers.

The survey took into account several factors, including teacher pay, class size and per-pupil spending.

Here's how Arizona shaped up in each of the categories, according to WalletHub:

41st: Average Starting Salary for Teachers
49th: Median Annual Salary for Teachers
48th: WalletHub “School Systems” Ranking
42nd: Unemployment Rate
45th: 10-Year Change in Teacher Salaries
49th: Pupil-to-Teacher Ratio
51st: Public School Spending per Student 

Julie Erfle of Progress Now Arizona said the survey showed that "it’s no wonder Arizona teachers are fleeing the profession and leaving our schools with a shortage of teachers and experience."

“The future of hundreds of thousands of Arizona students as well as the economic future of our state is at risk,” Erfle added in a statement to the media. “The time is now to switch course and put funding for our educators and schools at the top of our legislative priority list.”

In early August, I asked people to help me compile a list of all the TV shows and films that involved teachers in a major or somewhat important minor role. You gave me lots of titles. I scoured the internet and added more. Then, using my rudimentary database and graphing skills, I put together a rough picture of how the portrayal of teachers has changed over the years.

Back in August, before I pulled together the information, I wrote what I thought the results would show.

Let me tell you my hypothesis about the changes in the way teachers have been portrayed since the 1950s. First there were the workaday, cut-above-the-average teachers of core subjects. Think "Room 222." Next came the Superteachers who could leap tall curriculum assignments in a single class period — with poor, underprivileged kids, no less — and change the lives of everyone they came in contact with. Think "Stand and Deliver." The next step was the incompetent teacher who was ridiculed and often didn't give a damn. Think, of course, "Bad Teacher."

My hypothesis was a bit simplistic, but the results follow the basic trend I described. Here's a scattergraph of the way teachers in core subjects—English, math, science and social studies—have been portrayed over the years. I've only included public school teachers in the U.S., leaving out the portrayal of private school teachers and teachers in other countries.


Over time the chart moves from the middle—good teachers—toward the top—super teachers—then toward the bottom—bad teachers (A list of the TV shows and films along with my teacher ratings is at the end of the post).

Hi I'm Parrot, my friends at Humane Society of Southern Arizona pronounce it like PER-ROW, because of my obvious French accent. I am a four year old chow mix who loves treats! I'm a good listener and really enjoy being out in the yard or on a walk. My friends at HSSA say my tongue makes me a little different because it’s always showing, but I think it's like that to give everyone extra love and kisses, French kisses! Come by the Main Campus and ask if we can play :)

Au Revoir les amis,
Parrot -760219

Hey Tucson, you all should share your thoughts and talk transportation pros and cons at a community discussion Wednesday sponsored by the Arizona Town Hall.

Remember I mentioned this earlier in the month?

The forums have been happening all over the state, with the purpose of getting citizens involved, and identifying "solutions for critical policy and economic issues" caused by private and public transportation. 

“The overall theme for each forum is exploring how the current transportation system is intimately interwoven and has impact on key factors such as the economy, jobs, community, health, lifestyle, education, housing and certainly, the environment. Through the community forums, we want to inform Arizona citizens of research and recommendations which came from the 106th statewide Town Hall..." said Tara Jackson, president of Arizona Town Hall, in a statement to the media a few weeks ago . "We want to hear from people who are affected by transportation issues. Those range all the way from concerns about roads and infrastructure to thoughts about public transportation, or transportation’s impact on the environment. We want the report to represent people, in the true spirit of a Town Hall which reflects consensus from the broad spectrum of the public."

Comments gathered at the statewide forums will then be distributed to state legislators, the public and others.

To register, visit www.aztownhall.org, or call 602-252-9600. 

The discussion is happening on Wednesday, Sept. 30 from noon to 1:30 p.m. at Pima Community College's Community Campus, 401 N. Bbonita Ave., Room A-109/A-112. Lunch at the event is $20.

Luckily, all buses are in route again, so car-less citizens you will have a ride there. 

Johnny Depp breaks his shit slump with a riveting performance as James ‘Whitey’ Bulger, the notorious Boston crime lord who also acted as informant to the FBI while killing people and destroying lives. Depp goes under some heavy makeup, including some gross teeth, to play the infamous brother of William “Billy” Bulger (Benedict Cumberbatch) and pal of FBI Agent John Connolly (Joel Edgerton). The movie examines the strange dynamic that occurs between one of the worst criminals in Boston history, his high-ranking brother, and his meat-headed FBI friend. All three are very good in a film that, alas, feels like it was supposed to be a lot longer (I suspect there’s a four hour cut of this movie somewhere in director Scott Cooper’s basement). Depp is scary-good, yet his work feels strangely abbreviated, making him feel like more of a supporting player. Edgerton’s Connolly feels a little more well rounded, and continues a fine year for the actor after The Gift. Peter Sarsgaard, Kevin Bacon and Dakota Johnson are all good in supporting roles. As mobster movies go, this is a good one, but it should’ve been a great one. If anything, it’s good to see Depp truly digging into something rather than acting like a goofball for a paycheck.

Zona Politics Eps.42 from Zona Politics with Jim Nintzel on Vimeo.

On this week's episode of Zona Politics with Jim Nintzel: Tom Collins, executive director of the Citizens Clean Elections Commission, stops by to talk about the commission's ongoing conflict with Arizona Secretary of State Michele Reagan over regulating dark-money groups that are spending dollars in Arizona elections. Then Demion Clinco, executive director of the Tucson Historic Preservation Foundation, gives us the preview of Tucson Modernism Week. Watch online here or tune in at 8 a.m. Sunday morning on the CW Tucson, Channel 8 on Cox and Comcast and Channel 58 on broadcast, DirecTV and Dish. Or you can listen to Zona Politics at 5 p.m. Sunday on KXCI, 91.3 FM.

Here's a transcript of the show:

Hello everyone. I'm Tucson Weekly senior writer Jim Nintzel, and we're here to talk Zona Politics. Today, we're talking with Tom Collins, the executive director of the Arizona Clean Elections Commission, the agency that manages Arizona's publicly funded campaign program. Thanks for being here on Zona Politics.

(Collins) Thanks for having me, Jim.

(Nintzel) So you've got a little bit of a dispute between the commission and the Arizona Secretary of State these days. And Michele Reagan, she seems quite upset with your agency right now.

(Collins) Well, I think to just kind of give folks some background, when the voters passed the Clean Elections Act, they did more than just create a public financing program for state candidates, which they did. They also created the Clean Elections Commission that would have oversight over campaign finance law, including folks who make independent expenditures, and that's you know, typically what people refer to as "dark money." People are spending money in races and whether or not they're disclosing their donors or their spending or those kinds of things, they're things that the commission has a role in that the voters gave to it. The secretary's office has decided that they dispute that role, notwithstanding the fact there are court cases and the law itself that say that's exactly what the commission does, and they've essentially said that they would like the commission to stop enforcing the clean elections act and defer or otherwise just accept that the Secretary of State's office is the exclusive authority on campaign finance law in the state.

(Nintzel) They're saying you're usurping her authority. Are you usurping her authority?

As the Weekly has reported in the past, the GOP challengers for Tucson City Council have had trouble raising funds this year.

The news hasn’t gotten much better for the Republicans with the latest campaign finance reports, which were due today and covered fundraising through Sept. 14.

In Ward 1, Republican Bill Hunt had raised just under $11,000 and had less than $4,900 in the bank. Hunt hopes to unseat Democratic incumbent Regina Romero, who had raised more than $54,000 and received an additional $20,000 in city matching funds. Romero had already spent more than $60,000 and had about $14,200 in the bank.

In Ward 2, Republican Kelly Lawton has raised just over $13,000 and had about $10,100 in the bank. Lawton is up against Democratic incumbent Paul Cunningham, who had raised more than $40,600 and supplemented that with more than $34,000 in public matching funds, bringing his total campaign warchest to more than $75,000. Cunningham had more than $24,000 in the bank at the end of the reporting period.

IIn Ward 4, Republican Margaret Burkholder had raised just over $12,000 and had about $6,500 left in the bank. Democratic incumbent Shirley Scott had raised nearly $41,000 and has applied for city matching funds. Scott had about $3,500 left in the bank at the close of the reporting period.

Early voting in the Nov. 3 election begins in less than two weeks.

We're all about giving away sports tickets this week! Enter here for a shot to go to Tuesday's Diamondback/Rockies game. The game (which, obviously, takes places in Phoenix) starts at 6:40 p.m. We'll pick a winner mid day Monday and that person has to be able to pick up the tickets from our Northwest office before 5 p.m. on either Monday or Tuesday. 

Enter here:

After voting last week to cut off all federal funding for Planned Parenthood for one year, Congresswoman Martha McSally was one of 11 freshmen who signed onto a letter opposing a government shutdown over the issue.

But McSally’s office has declined to say whether she still supports shutting off funding for Planned Parenthood in the future. Several GOP presidential candidates as well as Republican lawmakers have vowed to cut off the federal funds Planned Parenthood now receives to provide treatment for STDs, cancer screenings and contraception, among other healthcare services. Federal law prohibits Planned Parenthood from using tax dollars for abortion services.

McSally spokesman Patrick Ptak told the Weekly earlier this week that McSally had pushed to include a provision in the Defund Planned Parenthood Act of 2105 to move the funding that now goes to Planned Parenthood to other community health centers, such as El Rio Community Health Center.

But Tara Plese, a spokeswoman for the Arizona Alliance of Community Health Centers, says the organization—which represents community health centers across the state, including El Rio—doesn’t see that plan as viable.

“While we really appreciate the support we’re getting from both sides of the aisle, we just want to make it clear that we don’t want to take funding from any other healthcare organization,” Plese said. “We don’t think it’s the right approach to do that.”

Plese was reluctant to criticize McSally’s proposal but said the idea of sending Planned Parenthood dollars to community health centers is questionable.

“Quite honestly, I think the assertion that health centers are going to pick up the slack because we’re going to get a little bit more funding is probably not accurate,” Plese said. “Because the way that the health system works, we need our partner organizations working in tandem to be able to adequately deliver these services and one of those organizations is Planned Parenthood. We really rely on them to pick up a lot of the slack for those areas that we cannot cover.”

Plese said part of the problem is that El Rio doesn’t have enough obstetricians and gynecologists to handle the additional patient load. On top of that, many people choose to use Planned Parenthood to get tested for sexually transmitted diseases because the organization offers anonymity and some of those who are getting tested for STDs don’t want their primary-care doctors or insurance companies to know they may have caught an STD.

“They want the anonymity,” Plese said. “It’s a privacy issue and they don’t want that to show up on their explanation of benefits.”

Yesterday I posted about Arizona's new slogan, or non-slogan according to Ducey's press secretary, "AZ-AWESOME: why arizona rocks." The phrase, which comes from the Arizona Commerce Authority, may be getting off to a rocky start, according to state auditors.

State auditors are faulting the Arizona Commerce Authority for inflating the numbers they use in claiming how many jobs they helped bring to the state.

According to the audit, their job creation numbers are "based on commitments companies announce rather than the actual jobs created or capital investment made."

All that "good news" they want everyone to share appears to have a bit of smoke and mirrors mixed in. Could it be that some of the other AWESOME things mentioned in the Commerce Authority's email are a bit inflated as well?

Arizona is the best place in the entire country to live, work, play, retire, get an education, create an innovative business... the list goes on and on.

While you know that, and I know that, I encourage you to SHARE the good news with your friends, so they know what makes Arizona awesome too! 

The email, by the way, is signed "Doug."