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.

 

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Fraudulent Flake warns law grads against “degradation of democracy”

Speech sounds like one to inspire uprising in repressive society

Jeff Flake is barely hanging onto the senate seat he won by a mere 3 points until November. Then unless one of the far left networks pick him up as a fake Republican convert to the dark side, he’ll be jobless. His single term yearly senate salary $174,000 will evaporate although he has his congressional pension to tide him over.

Given the realities, he’s been trolling for commencement speaking duties, snagging a gig at Harvard Law School. Due to the fact that Flake doesn’t possess a law degree the choice appears odd. Further reflection provides an answer or two.

Harvard is a school steeped in liberal dogma, so an anti-conservative, relentless Trump-basher, who ran under the Republican banner would have appeal. Attendance costs close in at nearly $100,000 a year. Left-wing indoctrination is included in the price.

Due to his dire circumstances, the desperate Flake would come cheap. Commencement speakers often command big bucks to impart their wisdom. In 2015, the University of Houston paid $135,000 for their graduates to be inspired by none other than Texas native Matthew McConaughey.

“Democracy is in trouble,” Flake warned the law school grads, “If the only acceptable outcome in a matter of law or justice is a result that is satisfactory to the leader.” And it’s in trouble if “the leader attacks the legitimacy of any institution that does not pay him obeisance -– say the independent judiciary or the free press.” He preposterously added, “It will be the work of your generation to make sure that this degradation of democracy does not continue.”

Fudging on the facts, dedicated amnesty proponent and Obama cohort, Flake neglected to mention that he wasn’t running for a second senate term due to having alienated the AZ GOP base to the point that he had an 18% approval rating and didn’t want to risk an embarrassing election defeat. He has never been upfront regarding his time spent as a registered foreign agent in Namibia representing a uranium mining company with ties to Iran.

“Opposing the president and much of what he stands for it not an act of apostasy –- it is rather an act of fidelity,” he farcically intoned.

He deceptively told the graduates, “I urge all of you to challenge your assumptions, regularly. Recognize the good in your opponents. Apologize every now and then. Admit to mistakes. Forgive, and ask for forgiveness. Speak up more, for politics sometimes keeps us silent when we should speak.”

Arizonans would be hard pressed to remember the man who admitting lying about honoring self-imposed term limits pledge when the D.C. headiness caught his fancy, ever apologizing to anyone or asking forgiveness for anything.

Jeff the Flake’s pomposity knows no bounds. He actually said, “There are times when circumstances may call on you to risk your career in favor of your principles. But you, and your country, will be better for it. You can go elsewhere for a job, but you cannot go elsewhere for a soul.” His speech is excerpted here.

We’ll wait and see where the soulless Flake finds his next job. We’re betting it will be in Liberal-land on CNN, MSNBC or one of their like thinking allies where he will earn his keep by battering Republicans

Educrats advocate for shutting down schools …again, nationally

This time the concept of depriving American children of their rightful taxpayer funded education is even more odious than when the Arizona #REDSforED leftist union member schoolteachers, led by a 24-year-old self-identified Socialist and Bernie Sander’s Arizona presidential campaign organizer who teaches hip-hop music, abandoned students for over a week. They marched and shouted, demanding a 20% pay hike. When Gov. Doug Ducey foolishly acquiesced to their extortionist tactics, it wasn’t good enough. They are now pressing forward with a ballot initiative to impose higher taxes on “the rich,” who already pay the lion’s share. There was a time when people aspired to be successful and provide jobs for others. Now the risk takers who worked long hours to achieve their goals — not 8 1/2 months a year — are despised for their accomplishments.

Arne Duncan, Barack Obama’s Secretary of Education has responded via Twitter to a ludicrous suggestion by his former deputy, Peter Cunningham, that America’s 50 million school parents should keep their children out of school until the Second Amendment is eradicated. This came in response to the latest school shooting in Santa Fe, Texas by a teen mass murderer last Friday. Duncan called Cunningham’s suggestion, “brilliant.”

The U.K.’s Daily Mail covered the issue. With strict gun laws imposed in Great Britain, murderous assailants have taken to using knives and intentionally careening vehicles to carry out their bloody carnage, randomly slashing people or mowing down pedestrians in popular tourist locations. Do we outlaw auto dealerships and sales of butcher and kitchen knives as well?

Curbing violence as entertainment would be a better start.

R U appreciating extortionist teachers during Teachers Week?

National Teacher Appreciation Week began on Monday May 7, and runs through Friday May 11. That’s obviously not a week, but the National Education Association (NEA) informs us that it is. Who’d want to take on a group that has mega $millions and marching goons at its disposal? 

We saw teachers at work here in Arizona last week. Not actually “at work,” as they abandoned the students they contracted to educate while they staged their brassy REDSforEd protests over salaries — led by a 24-year-old self-identified Socialist and Bernie Sander’s Arizona presidential campaign organizer who teaches hip-hop music.

When they got the outrageous 20% increase they demanded, it wasn’t enough. Baring themselves as lockstep liberal union thugs, they proceeded to file an extortive Initiative to permanently “tax the rich,” to enrich themselves.

Of course they’ll use that money judiciously, lobbying on behalf of candidates and causes that the organization believes will make our country better for the students entrusted to them. The question is, why are those issues and candidates they back overwhelmingly left-wing Democrats?

The organization is no fan of Charter Schools, which give parents the ability to make educational choices for their own children. Charters often outperform the government schools which have become hotbeds of liberalism, promoting “social justice” and illegal immigration over education — intentionally blurring the lines between actual immigrants and those who invade our country. The NEA site even includes this form to “Tell your representatives to oppose any private school voucher program for military-connected students.”  After it’s filled out, the ham-fisted NEA takes over getting the message to the representatives.

The NEA promotes the now-yearly ‘Day of Silence’ where students remain silent all day in support of all things “LGBTQIA.”  Not much learning going on but celebrating homosexuality in all its incarnations takes center stage. The NEA declares ”sexual literacy will be essential to address through critical comprehensive sexuality education in grades K-12.” It commends the “transition” of a kindergarten boy who became a girl halfway through the school year.

Diversity trumps unity. But their union activism takes first place.

Ninety-four percent of the funds teachers unions (NEA and AFT) contribute go to Democrats.

This video is from 2009, but it clearly spells out the views of the NEA regarding the children they are charged with educating. The words are spoken by Bob Chanin, the NEA legal counsel in a brief excerpt from his revealing retirement speech.

James O’Keefe latest Project Veritas undercover video “School Corruption Exposed” features New Jersey Teachers Union President Dr. David Perry. Watch as he blatantly states, “We need to know the truth so we can bend the truth,” as he covers up child abuse, protects drug-using and shoplifting teachers.

REDSforED socialist extortionists file initiative for $millions more

After holding parents and children hostage for a week with their demands for a 20% salary increase — and getting it — from the foolishly acquiescing Gov. Doug Ducey and legislators nervously facing reelection, Arizona teachers have a new scheme up their collective sleeves.

We use the term “collective” with intent. They are not to be appeased.  The teachers who staged a tantrum-like strike to get their way, followed Pied Piper leftist Noah  Karvelis, a 23-year-old hip-hop music teacher and Bernie Sander‘s Arizona presidential campaign organizer. Do yourself a favor and read Ralph Benko’s excellent expose of Sanders published in Forbes magazine. It addresses the resurgence of Socialism in America.

We’ve all seen the now-faded bumper stickers that said, “if you can read this, thank a teacher.”  Sadly, Americans are experiencing a new twist on that sentiment: “If your kids are Socialists, thank their teachers.”

‘Tax the Rich’ is the teacher’s latest Socialist plan that sounds suspiciously akin to the slogan popularized by Karl Marx:

 “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.”

In fact, Arizona teachers, clad in red tee shirts emblazoned with #RedforEd, while demonstrating at the state Capitol, have filed a ballot initiative raising taxes on “the rich” to get even more money. The ‘Invest in Education Act’  (read it) is aimed at higher wage earners who are their latest enemies.

Liberals conveniently forget that “the rich” supply jobs that raise up individuals and benefit families. None of them work 8 1/2 months a year as teachers do. They are the people who took risks and worked long hours to realize their dreams of entrepreneurship. They are those we should aspire to emulate. Liberals view them with contempt.

SRAZ added an “S” on the teacher’s slogan correctly identifying them in previous posts as REDSforED.

SIXTY PERCENT of the additional revenue they are now seeking would further pad teacher salaries. Forty percent would fund all-day kindergarten and provide raises for “support staff.”

The imitative was filed by former state legislator David Lujan, now VP of the liberal Arizona Center for Economic Progress and Mesa teacher Joshua Buckley — both left-of-center Democrats. Buckley is quoted as saying,  “It’s up to educators, parents and other community leaders to act if the legislature will not provide a new dedicated funding stream.”

That “funding stream” is nearly $700 million a year in forever money taken from taxpayers for the radical unionist and extortionist teachers, who show no commitment to their either their contracts or their students.

Don’t fall for their con.

Yielding to REDsforED Socialist demands emboldens them & Updates

Arizona #REDSforED teachers’ walkout continued through day five on Tuesday, with the strikers still claiming their self-serving actions are “for the children.” Parents are prepared for more of the same today.

Arizona Educators United which organized the thuggish actions is full of demands, Though some of its more revealing pages have been removed from its site the agenda which reverberates with words such as “collectivism” and “solidarity” that would make Lenin and Marx proud, boldly identifies itself as “an open platform that empowers individuals and groups to organize for progressive causes.”

 The latest schemes include a ballot measure to enshrine their liberalism into law and a plan to tax the rich at ever higher rates to fund their increasingly disreputable demands. Like so many liberals, they forget that “the rich” supply jobs that raise up individuals and benefit families. They are the people who took risks and worked long hours to realize their dreams of entrepreneurship. They are those we should aspire to emulate. Liberals view them with contempt.

Noah Karvelis a 23-year-old hip-hop music enthusiast and Bernie Sander‘s campaign worker, has morphed into a leader of the teacher’s group, which explains its obvious leftist lurch. This is a recent Karvelis tweet.

The Washington Free Beacon runs an informative exposé, titled, “Bipartisan’ Arizona Teacher Protest is Led by Democratic Operative.” On April 25, SRAZ posted AZ teachers’ strike leader admits “teaching is political.”

Teachers unions, funded to the tune of $millions by dues paying teachers are notoriously left-wing, almost exclusively supporting liberal candidates and causes.*

On Friday, the Goldwater Institute advised Arizona school districts that the teacher walkout was illegal and warned that if the schools did not “resume educating children immediately; they risk legal action by parents and students.”

But AZ GOP Chairman Jonathan Lines waffles, urging support of the Gov. Ducey’s 20% pay increase magically implemented “without raising taxes” for the striking teachers who have held Arizona students hostage for a solid week. He deserves an F for effort. Lines also runs a reveal of Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), a position reportedly paying over $500,000 yearly. Weingarten is a known Democrat operative who gave an impassioned speech introducing Dem presidential nominee Hillary Clinton at both AFT’s 2016 convention and the Democrat’s national convention. She is coming to Arizona to rally teachers against the 20% pay hike.  They were cheerfully dancing and playing musical instruments at the state Capitol Tuesday.

 “The message is very clear,” Lines naively states. “Democrats are using our teachers as political pawns. Our children are the ones who lose in this partisan stunt.”

Democrats are not using teachers as pawns. They are willingly washing one another’s backs. What would possess Lines, the father of eleven, to support the Ducey plan of acquiescing to the increasingly wild union demands?

*Center for Responsive Politic

WWednesday, May 2

Wed. May 2, 2018:

#REDSforED teachers lie

The poor excuses for Arizona teachers have reneged on their promise to return to their jobs Thursday, now saying they “will call in sick.” Today marks day six of holding the students they claim to care about as hostages.

“Sick” is what many parents feel — along with betrayed, frustrated and distrustful of anything the marauding teachers do or say. Extending the school year to make up for lost instruction time impacts negatively on many of the estimated 800,000 students and families, who have long-planned family vacations and have purchased tickets to travel based on what they regarded as the scheduled last day of school. Others have paid for summer camp. Older students leaving for college, military service or with church mission plans need their transcripts. The self-serving, liberal unionist teachers don’t give a rip, but expect loyalty, nonetheless. Many, protesting and dancing at the state Capitol, are blithely unaware how badly they’ve burned bridges with students, their families and the general public, none of whom could walk off their jobs and expect to have them when they return after first demanding 20 percent raises and now wanting more.

The Hillary Clinton endorsing Arizona Republic headlines Thursday’s lead editorial, “#RedForEd offers lesson in civics,” quoting liberal Democrat state Sen. Steve Farley, who is now running for governor. The week long shenanigans are indeed a lesson, though not in civics.  We are witnessing extreme acts of intimidation by contracted teachers who have morphed into unionist hooligans led by leftist thugs. 

Thurs. May 3, 2018

REDSforEd teachers teach students two important lessons:

1. Students are easily held hostage and provide a useful means to an end. Kids are tools in the left’s arsenal.
2. Mob rule trumps contractual obligations for the members of the far-left Teachers unions, as Gov. Ducey and the legislature caved to their raucous demands

#REDS for ED: Union thugs demand more $ for less

Over 1,000 AZ schools shut down as teachers abandon more than 840,000 students while farcically claiming, “It’s for the children”

Don’t be lulled into taking the bait that striking teachers actually care about their students, as some were reportedly looking for “alternative care” and packing rudimentary sack lunches to sustain students during their union driven absence from schools.

Teaching was a career choice that was entered into by the strikers, with the goal of educating, not providing day care. Yet day care is unfortunately what most students get. Teachers had an idea of the salary range when they trained for the jobs that gave them summers off, numerous and lengthy holidays along with contrived half-day schedules.  If they were looking for six-figure careers, they should have gone into professions that required advanced degrees and expected long hours. Doctors making hospital rounds before and after office hours, CPAs working weekends and into the night during the months leading up to the April 15, tax filing deadline, lawyers meticulously preparing for lengthy trials with life or death consequences, come to mind.

Demanding a 20% pay hike while turning out kids who can barely read, problem solve, find British Columbia on a map, explain the events of 9/11 or comprehend the basics of American history is nothing short of extortion. Cursive, considered passé, is no longer taught, relegating signatures to antiquity status. Our kids are instructed in normalizing LGBTQ issues; global warming, which mutated to climate change when temperatures cooled; and they are recycling whizzes, but unable to keep pace academically with South Korean students.

This 2017 Pew Research Center data shows U.S. students’ academic achievement on science, math and reading scores significantly lags behind those of their peers in Singapore, Hong Kong, Estonia and Taiwan — to name a few.

Gov. Doug Ducey foolishly buckled to the unionists’ outrageous salary demands, claiming there would be no accompanying tax increase. Unless he’s a fool or a sleight-of-hand magician, he knows that’s an impossibility and so do taxpaying parents, who would like to see some bang for their bucks.

An estimated 50,000 Arizona teachers and their hangers-on marched to the state Capitol Thursday — many deriding Ducey for not doing enough — now increasing their demands to include higher wages for support staff, counselors, bus drivers and janitors, who unlike the teachers, were not paid during the walk out.  Many strikers plan to resume their protests today.

We remind you that teachers are represented by far-left unions. The $ millions teachers pay in dues fund liberal politicians and their causes.

Teachers unions have steadily amped up their political involvement: From 2004 to 2016, their donations grew from $4.3 million to more than $32 million — an all-time high. Even more than most labor unions, they have little use for Republicans, giving Democrats at least 94 percent of the funds they contributed to candidates and parties since as far back as 1990 when Center for Responsive Politics initially began collecting data.

Passage of ballot propositions — 301 in 2000 increasing the state sales tax and 123 in 2016 a grab from the state land trust — guaranteed more money for education, which apparently is never enough. School districts routinely hold budget overrides and bond elections to “get more money into the classroom” —- eduspeak for bolstering teacher’s salaries. A major premise of passing the Arizona Lottery in 1980 was that money from ticket sales would fund schools.

We’ve been had, but it’s Arizona’s under-educated children who will ultimately suffer.