AZ Republic: Foolish reports take center stage again

Transgender “migrants,” carping school principals rate front page coverage

Last weekend we ran a post titled, “Major reason to steer clear of deceptive AZ Republic.” It was an instant hit, garnering an exceptionally high number of hits, proving common sense still resonates.

Today we bring our readers yet another couple of reasons to ditch the newspaper. These latest Page One offerings shared the same issue on Wednesday, May 30.

First we bring you “Looking for a safe place to call home.” You might be inclined to think this concerns abandoned pets up for adoption, but you’d be wrong. The article details the “new struggles” of “transgender migrants.” Their advocates — yes, they have advocates — say “U.S. officials haven’t done enough to protect transgender women from assaults and abuse.” The article continues to two full inside jump pages. The caption accompanying the above-the-fold photo identifies two of these “transgender migrants” by their femme name, continuing, “they often face difficulties in remote detention centers when applying for asylum in the United States.” They complain they are unable to get decent jobs and the only work open to them is in the “sexual servitude industry” working as prostitutes. One reported that “clients became enraged” when discovering the prostitutes ware born male. ‘Ya think?

Article two, also given prominent above-the-fold exposure is titled,” Principal: ‘D’ grade is public shaming.”  Numerous valley principals appearing at the State Board of Education meeting addressed their concerns that the low school grading labels hinder their success.

The principals have it exactly backwards. Their schools’ lack of success in teaching hinders the students, whose abysmal testing scores are reflected in the grades given to the schools by the state.

One by one, they requested their specific schools grades be bumped up a notch or the system that alerts parents to the success or failure rate of individual schools be discarded altogether. These are representatives of the same public schools that abandoned their students — over 180,000 of them statewide — for a week, while the REDsforEd teachers went out on strike demanding a 20 percent salary hike.

The Arizona State Board of Education’s website states:

Arizona Revised Statutes § 15-241 requires the Arizona Department of Education, subject to final adoption by the State Board of Education, to develop an annual achievement profile for every public school in the state based on an A through F scale. The development of the Accountability System was informed by public input through 17 public hearings across the state and a survey that yielded almost 1700 responses. Additionally, a broad-based committee consisting of school administrators, teachers, parents and data experts provided the Board with additional input.

The system measures year to year student academic growth, proficiency on English language arts, math and science, the proficiency and academic growth of English language learners, indicators that an elementary student is ready for success in high school and that high school students are ready to succeed in a career or higher education and high school graduation rates.

This accountability is what the left-wing union educrats* are fighting.

* Open Secrets notes its data for the current election cycle was updated by the Federal Election Commission on Monday, May 21, 2018.