This headline in Education Week kinda caught my eye: School Police in Los Angeles Will Give Up Grenade Launchers. That's nice, I thought, the school district giving up its grenade launchers. Not much call for those in schools.

Then the article continues:

But school police there plan to keep other supplies received from the federal agency—61 rifles and a Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (or MRAP) vehicle, the paper reported:

"L.A. Unified says that the M-16 automatic rifles, which were modified to semiautomatic since they were acquired in 2001, are 'essential life-saving items' and will continue to be available to trained officers. The armored vehicle will be used only under extraordinary circumstances, officials said."

When the issue is surplus military equipment like Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles for police forces, at least there's an argument to be made, though I disagree with it. But schools?

This Guns R Us defense department giveaway is going on in school districts around the country, at the K-12 and college level. Here's a list of goodies given to Arizona colleges:

A review of state-level data on the Department of Defense Excess Property Program showed 70 M-16s going to ASU and nine M-16s going to Arizona Western College in Yuma. Pima Community College received nine M-14s that a school official said are used by an honor guard.

All this excess firepower lying around, not doing anyone any good. Maybe someone should propose an initiative to beat some of it into plowshares, or John Deere tractors, or iPads or something.

• Image courtesy of shutterstock.com

Hey, I always thought our teachers, like all those "government workers," are underworked and overpaid (said the retired high school English teacher, sarcastically). So imagine my surprise when I learned that U.S. teachers spend more time in the classroom than teachers in other developed countries.

The average teaching time for elementary school teachers is 782 hours per year. The U.S. tops the list at 1,131 hours (We're number 1! We're number 1!). You have to go 20 stops down the list before you hit the countries with the highest scores on international tests. Japan's teachers spend about 660 hours teaching each year, Korea's teachers about 640 and Finland's teachers about 620.

In middle and high school, U.S. teachers also top the international list of hours taught per year, and they're also required to spend more time at school.

It's an unusual strategy for someone running for state office. Keep a low profile. Stay out of sight. Duck calls from the media. But that seems to be the campaign Republican Diane Douglas is waging in her bid for Superintendent of Public Instruction. Candidates in down-ballot races usually do whatever they can to attract some attention, get a little press. Since the primary, Douglas has gone in the other direction. Democrat David Garcia, meanwhile, is working hard to increase voter awareness of his candidacy.

According to an article in the Capitol Times, Douglas has been a no-show for three debates since she beat John Huppenthal in the primary.

For example, 256 school business managers and school employees showed up to hear a debate between Garcia and Douglas on Sept. 10 in Mesa at the bi-monthly meeting of the Arizona Association of School Business Officials. The group lobbies the Legislature and has traditionally has a working relationship with the schools chief.

The event turned into Garcia giving his views and then answering questions from [Chuck] Essigs.

A fourth debate may be canceled because she hasn't responded.

Douglas hasn't done media interviews or updated her website since the primary. She doesn't return phone calls.

Atlanta's schools were held up as a example for the nation, showing how to turn students from low income families into high achievers. Just look at those test scores! Until . . .

Here's a segment from this month's "Education: The Rest of the Story" where I try to put a human face on the Atlanta test cheating scandal.

Read Tim Steller's column in today's Star: Tucson school board race turns partisan. Steller does a terrific job of laying out the dynamics of the TUSD board race. At the same time, he reveals the "Me"-centric world Mark Stegeman inhabits.

When Stegeman writes his constituent newsletters and his op eds, he's very careful to create an objective, scholarly persona. He comes across as someone who simply has the best interests of the school district at heart. But when he talks off the top of his head, he's not quite as adept at hiding his "Me"-centric world view. I did a first-person count of the Stegeman quotes in Steller's article. He used "I" 8 times, "Me" 4 times and "My" twice. That's at total of 14 "I/Me/My's" in 102 quoted words. More than one out of every seven words is a reference to himself.

Here's how Stegeman describes what it's like being in the voting minority on the TUSD board.

"There are a lot of things I want to do, or oppose doing, where Hicks is my only vote,” Stegeman said. “In supporting him, I’m protecting the vote I’ve got. He doesn’t vote with me all the time, but he does a lot of the time.”

It's Hicks voting "with me," not the two of them voting together. Hicks is "the vote I've got." Stegeman is the alpha male here. Hicks is a bit player, the foot soldier to Stegeman's general.

Why is Stegeman supporting Debe Campos-Fleenor?

“Debe, I think, would probably help me on almost all of those issues,” Stegeman said. “That’s my guess, so I’m going with the person who would do the most good for me.”

Again, it's all I/Me/My. His language doesn't describe Campos-Fleenor helping the district. Stegeman says she "would probably help me." She's "the person who would do the most good for me.”

It was just a matter of time. TUSD school board member Mark Stegeman, who had his Precinct Committeeman status with the Democratic Party taken away because he actively supported Republican candidates (it's a violation of the bylaws) has declared himself an Independent. From his Facebook page:

I have changed my voter registration status to Independent. I appreciate all of my friends in the Democratic Party and have not changed my views on issues, but too much of the internal party discussion revolves around personalities and purely partisan issues instead of the policy choices that form the reason for the party.

Just to be clear, Stegeman could have kept his Democratic Party registration, but he could no longer serve as an elected officer—precinct committeeman is an elected position—of the Democratic Party. Becoming an Independent was purely his choice.

Stegeman contributed $1,200 to the TUSD school board campaign of Republican Debe Campos-Fleenor, and possibly an unspecified amount to Michael Hicks' campaign, to pay for someone to circulate nominating petitions. When I looked over the petitions the two campaigns submitted, I found he collected signatures for both candidates as well.

Add one more big endorsement for David Garcia, Democratic candidate for Superintendent of Public Instruction: The Arizona Chamber of Commerce & Industry. That's on top of the endorsements Garcia received from three former Ed Supes: two Republican, one Democrat.

I called the earlier endorsements possible game changers, since under most circumstances, Republican superintendents could be expected to support the Republican candidate. This new endorsement of a Democrat for state office by the Chamber of Commerce is equally, if not more, significant.

Here's the Team Garcia press release:

The Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry announced its endorsement of Dr. David Garcia for Superintendent of Public Instruction today.

“We are excited to endorse a candidate who shares our mission of advancing Arizona’s competitive position in the global economy by advocating for a world-class education system and policies that stimulate economic growth and prosperity for all Arizonans,” stated President and CEO Glenn Hamer.

K12 Inc., the for profit, publicly traded online charter school corporation, has been going through some rough times lately, and it looks like times are going to get even rougher. Let's forget about the achievement of K12 Inc. students (generally lousy), the schools' "churn rate" (about a third of its students leave every year) and the corporation's student recruitment practices (despicable and deceptive). Let's concentrate on what's really important: stock prices. After all, this is a company that trades on the New York Stock Exchange. It answers to its stockholders more than it answers to its students or their parents. The bottom line for K12 Inc. is the bottom line.

In September, 2013, stock prices were at $38 dollars a share. A month later, in October, the stock plummeted to $18 in a single day. Since then, it's been limping along but gradually gaining ground. This July, the price was fluctuating between $20 to $25. Then in one day, Aug. 14, the price dropped to $19.42. As I write this post Wednesday morning, the price is $17.39.

K12 Inc. is a good-sized corporation with schools all over the country (its Arizona Virtual Academy has more than 4,000 students) and a CEO who makes $5 million dollars a year. Arizona's own Craig Barrett—ex-CEO of Intel and Gov. Brewer's right hand education man—sits on the board (though he doesn't talk about it much, preferring to brag about his relationship with BASIS schools). It's the largest purveyor of online education for K-12 students in the country. If it topples, that's going to be big news.

In a column in The Arizona Republic, EJ Montini makes a point that needs to be repeated every election season, just so people don't forget. You can use facts to distort the truth. Political campaigns do it all the time.

Montini is writing about the ad being run against Democratic gubernatorial candidate Fred DuVal stating that he voted to raise tuition at our state universities when he was on the Board of Regents. What a terrible guy, right? Why does he hate our kids?

The Republic fact-checked the ad and said it was true. Montini's response:

Was the ad factual? Yes. Was it true…? Ahhh, no.

Yes, DuVal and others on the board raised tuition. The legislature made big cuts in university funding. The Regents made up for the shortfall with tuition hikes. A pretty straight-forward cause — less funding — and effect — higher financial burden on students.

This is a follow-up to my Wednesday post, Strange Political Bedfellows In The TUSD Board Election, about board member Mark Stegeman's connection to Debe Campos-Fleenor's campaign for a seat on the board, as well as his probable connection to Michael Hicks' campaign. Stegeman is a Democrat. Campos-Fleenor and Hicks are Republicans.

Since I wrote that post, I visited the Pima County School Superintendent's office and looked over the nominating petitions Campos-Fleenor and Hicks turned in. I confirmed that both campaigns used the same paid petition circulator: Patrick Wear from Sarasota, Florida. Campos-Fleenor lists a $1,200 expense for the circulator on her campaign finance report and also lists a $1,200 in-kind contribution from Stegeman for “Collection and Validation of Signatures.” Hicks’ campaign finance reports list no contributions or expenditures, which appears to be a direct violation of campaign finance law.

However, until I looked through the three inch stack of petitions for each candidate, I didn’t know that Stegeman collected signatures for both of them. I found five pages of signatures for Campos-Fleenor — 49 signatures — and two pages of signatures for Hicks — 14 signatures — with the back signed by Stegeman, indicating that he circulated the petitions. Based on the date following each person’s signature, it's clear that Stegeman collected for Campos-Fleenor on a regular basis from June 20 to July 30, 2014. Stegeman got one signature for Hicks on June 20, but most of the signatures were collected between July 27 and August 3. Eleven of the fourteen signatures on Hicks’ petitions were also on Campos-Fleenor’s petitions, collected on the same date.

Also, Stegeman was one of the people who signed Campos-Fleenor’s nominating petition, on July 3.