My Recent Comments

• I appreciate that you admitted you had not read your own material, but you do not respond to the fact that your other complaints are already available, if a district wants to avail themselves of them. Also, when is the article going to appear that excoriates the district school administrators that are diverting funds from the classroom and, by their actions, preventing raises to teachers?? You always blame the legislature for the teachers not getting raises- in spite of the fact that any reductions were more than compensated for by much larger funding from the feds - AND the local actions of the school boards under direction from the administration is the real culprit for determining how much money is spent for that purpose..
  6 months ago
• In addition, Tom Jenney and the Goldwater Institute are as Republican as ACORN and MECHA are Democrat. I know Tom Jenney and Tom Patterson and both of them are clear that they are Libertarians that only work with the Republicans because it is closer to their position than the socialist/green dominated Democrat Party. I never said that all Republicans supported the temp sales tax, but a majority of them did, which is more than you can say about the Democrats in the House did. Governor Brewer, Sreaker Tobin, President Pierce, etc. The bottom line is it did not even get on the ballot without a majority of the support coming from Republicans.
  6 months ago
• Mike, try reading your own stuff. Look at the next to the last sentence in the third paragraph from the bottom of your article and you will find your own words published for posterity. I quoted you correctly, you just forgot what you wrote. In fact, to make sure I quoted you correctly, I copied and pasted the sentence from the article. As to your second point, is there a law against setting up such system? I believe that former Republican Approps Chair Tom Boone has set something similar in the Deer Valley/Paradise Valley/Peoria, etc. districts. As to your third point, that would take away local control. A favorite complaint of the ASBA, AEA, etc. anytime the legislature tries to require anything in the education industry - except more money. If we are on the same side, you have to write articles clearly identifying the fact that the diverting of funds from the classroom is the biggest cause for teachers and students failing to reach the goal of better student achievement scores.
  6 months ago
• Mike, your irrational conclusion about the statement voters were making when they voted against Prop 204 is obviously coming entirely from your self proclaimed bitterness. "In defeating the overrides and Prop 204, you told teachers that you don’t believe they’re doing the job they’ve been hired to do." That is just not true. We don't believe that the ADMINISTRATORS, the DISTRICT STAFF, and the AEA LEADERSHIP are doing the job they've been hired to do. Most of us believe that the teachers, the property owners, the parents and the students are all victims in this messed up situation. It is time to clean out the "leadership" and allow the four groups of victims listed above who have the most at stake in the education process to succeed.
  6 months ago
• Mike, I don't know if you are that unknowledgable or that smug that you believe that you can intentionally fabricate false information and no one will be smart enough to catch you. On the stimulus money, it did not just fill the holes in the budget, it was an explosion of new money that that more than doubled any small negative adjustments while your friends in the education industry kept up the lies about "decimating cuts that were going to force them to lay off teachers and cut sports and social programs. What a load of hockey pucks. On the sales tax referral to the ballot. The fact is that SCR1001 was passed with 9 of the 16 votes in the Senate coming from Republicans (more than 1/2 the minimum necessary) and 22 of the 34 votes in the House coming from Republicans (more than 2/3 of the minimum necessary) In fact, in the House not only Republicans provide 2/3 of the necessary votes, a larger percentage of Republicans voted for the referral than the percentage of Democrats. Of course, it doesn't play well with your victim mentality and false charges that the Republicans hate education if you tell the truth. Let me remind you that the four billion in mortgaged buildings to protect the educatoin industry was passed overehelmingly by Republicans, also. Without that, education WOULD have received huge cuts. Just say THANKS! As to your source, I use the non-partisan government departments responsible for providing the official record (including the reports prepared and published by your district school finance offices) while you use a left wing "non-think tank" to get your skewed "proof." "This reminds me of the Jim Mora Miller Lite commercial. "Sunshinereview, did you say Sunshinereview?" You are obviously a product of an industry that produces an inferior product at an exorbitant price that would have been insolvent decades ago in any other venue. The truth is just beginning to emerge, so go to the sites that show how to prepare for doomsday. The district schools are about to implode under the force of their own false info.
  6 months ago
• Let the dance begin, Mike. You already know most of what I am about to write because you have be brought kicking and screaming to these facts before over many months. I give you credit for consistency and for trying to make people think that your misleading propaganda is presented without your knowing how skewed it is. Oh well, here we go. As a preliminary foundation we have to recognize that due to the reluctance and foot-dragging of the education leaders, acquiring timely numbers is impossible to get, so the last reliable numbers are the FY2011 reports. FY2012 is still listed as estimates. The numbers from the schools are adjusted for more than a year after the fact as a matter of course and are unreliable. So, with that in mind, lets choose a five year period from 2006 to 2010 – a time period that begins with the school industry’s best friend as governor and the economy growing at a great clip and the time period ends with the school industry’s worst enemies (in their propaganda, if not in fact) the Republicans at an all-time high in the legislature and with a Republican governor on the ninth floor. Using the same source that democrats, republicans and your lobbyists use to determine funding for K-12, we will go to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee (JLBC) report entitled “Historical General Fund Revenue Collections.” From FY2006 and ending in FY2010, the Total Tax Revenues to the State General Fund, the K-12 All Funding from the State General Fund and the percentage of state tax revenues appropriated to K-12 were as follows: 2006 - $8,890,091,000//4,286,562,500; 48.21% 2010 - $6,066,423.600 //4,411,699,900// 72.27% (sorry, I misstated that as 72.18%) Now for the K-12 TOTAL Revenues, the K-12 TOTAL revenues have continued to increase in spite of the fact that in 2011, the state actually did reduce the K-12 funding to $4,089,390,900. However, the schools did not have a reduced TOTAL revenue stream because from FY2006 to FY2011 local property taxes revenues increased by $500 million and Federal Funds increased from $1.14 Billion to $1.55 Billion for a TOTAL Revenue stream from the taxpayers that increased by nearly One Billion Dollars over the time period. It is also instructive to note that the total student population has remained stagnant over that period of time and, since charter, private and home schooling is increasing, the student population in the district schools continues to decline even with the growth of total revenues. The JLBC also reported that the state had revenue enhancements in Fiscal Years 2008, 2009 and2010, (otherwise known as mortgaging state buildings that had already been paid off free and clear – debt that our students will have to pay off when they start working) to the tune of $4,131,735,000 Last item for this truth-telling session, the Auditor General of the State of Arizona has reported that the percentage of revenues for public schools that is being allocated to the classrooms has declined every year this decade and is now at the lowest level in the history of the state. If we want better student achievement scores, we must demand that the administrators restore the percentage of funding to the classroom to at least the national average. If we meet the average, it would result in additional $700,000,000 in classroom resources that could be used to improve teacher salaries and provide the latest instructional tools available. Time to stop the dance. Time to stop blaming the legislature and start cleaning up your house with the adequate resources provided.
  6 months ago
• MIke, if nothing else, you are consistent. Now we would like for you to be accurate. Accuracy means putting the numbers together in a way that does not mislead. In the beginning of today's biased, victim mentality whine, you state that the state legislature "cut" over $200 million from the state education budget over the last four years AND that the federal stimulus is now beginning to run out. To put those two statements together is that manner is intentionally misleading. While the state legislature was forced to reduce funding slightly (according to your own figures, less than 5% of state appropriations over the four years or 1.2% per year) from education statewide, increased funding from the federal stimulus appropriations and "special projects" funds over the same time frame was more than double the state reductions. Remember that this 5% decrease in education funding (which comprised about 50% of total spending at the beginning of the time period you cherry picked) from the state occurred when the amount of tax revenues coming into the state general fund decreased by 37%. In fact, the legislature created debt that today's students will have to pay off (mortgaged paid off buildings including the buildings at the State Capitol) by more than $4,000,000,000 in order to keep education basically safe from the draconian cuts that other state agencies suffered. As a result of the disproportionate lower reduction to education, K-12 funding as a percentage of the total tax revenues available actually increased to 72.18% of total tax revenues available. The very least you and your friends in the public school system could do is say THANK YOU!! Instead you whine like kindergarteners on the first day away from their enabling mamas. In addition, local taxes to schools that comprise an overwhelming percentage of total property taxes, also increased. All of this occurred at a time where a vast majority of the school districts was actually seeing a reduction in the student enrollment for the first time in Arizona history. The biggest problem with money available to educate students has been clearly identified by the Auditor General. The fact is that the superintendents and local administration offices- rubber stamped by their friends in school boards - reduced the percentage of revenues to the classroom to the lowest level ever! Your problem is the fact that the voters are beginning to get information from sources other than the misleading, self-serving press releases from those same school administrators. With the facts available to them, the voters are just beginning to look at the K-12 system with opened eyes. This trend will continue to grow, so if you and your friends to not make major reforms on their own on their terms, they will be forced to do so by the newly informed voters. Now federal stimulus funding is running out AND STATE FUNDING IS BEGINNING TO INCREASE. How is that a reduction in total revenues - let me help you, it isn't. Good luck, Mike. The future will be even more challenging for you as the paradigm continues to evolve.
  6 months ago
• Mike, wrong again. Romney lost because he decided to play prevent defense and go soft. His McCain salted establishment campaign staff once again proved that America wants real leadership. Going to the middle to pander to people who have been bought off by government bribes will not work. Romney lost the conservatives who heard way too often in the last couple of weeks that he was going to work across the aisle - politalk for selling out on your supposed beliefs. Nice teleprompter speak though. You can definitely spew the party line.
  6 months ago
• Mike, if you ever fail to cherry pick the dates for your numerical analysis so you can arrive at your predisposed goal, I will have a heart attack. You know that two things happened in the Bush years - an establishment, Rice, Powell controlled moderate administration - that caused the ills you speak of. One was 9-11 and the other was the worldwide recession buttressed by the collapse of the housing market. Neither of those events were controllable by the President, whomever he might be. The facts are that this the worst post-recession recovery in the history of this country - and that is almost totally traceable to the actions of President Obama. The Stimulus for "shovel ready" jobs that weren't, the QE1, 2, 3, 4, 5, . . . ., the irresponsible failure to implement any of the Simpson Bowles recommendations that he commissioned, the enactment of Obamacare that is forcing employers to not invest in hiring. CNN, that right wing bastion, fact checked the new jobs claims, and discovered that there are 400,000 less people working than when the President took office. The growth has been in people who have left the workforce, those who have filed for disability, those who have filed for assistance. If the workforce had remained constant, the unemployment rate would now be Greece like at over 15%. So the real answer to your question as to whether we are better off than we were four years ago can be answered with one overriding statistic. The median household income has dropped more than 8% under Obama. Worse, the median household income has dropped by 11.1% for black households, So the answer to whether Americans are better off than they were four years ago must be a resounding NO!
  8 months ago
• Hey, Mike. I am shocked that we disagree on this subject. Well, not really. After all this issue is the only way your closest friends in the district schools can try to keep up ADMs. Can you post your home address online so we can send a few of our poor employees - that we are paying substandard wages - to set up housekeeping in your home without your permission? Our company has bought off the political leaders with contributions to their campaigns and they have directed the police to not evict them. We figure that after we get a few of our friends in the media to run some heart wrenching stories about the "victim" children, some of your friends will make racist charges against you if you want to restore your property rights. America is our Home. These people have trespassed into our home and illegally taken up residence. They need to be evicted as law breakers.
  8 months ago