AZ Gov. Ducey’s selective $alary hike$: lawmakers off his radar

Charitable with other people’s money — Arizona taxpayer’s, to be exact — Gov. Doug Ducey was unconstrained as he awarded generous salary increases, along with hefty bonuses, to his staff and administration appointees in 2016. The substantial pay hikes were extended to nearly four dozen state employees.

Ducey was equally magnanimous as he caved to the demands of striking REDsForED teachers who, in violation of their contractual agreements, abandoned approximately 840,000 Arizona students for a week as they followed a 24-year-old hip hop music teacher and avowed socialist Pied Piper. After initially rejecting their demands, Ducey acquiesced and gave them a 20% raise for their part time employment.

Where he draws the line, however, is with the per diem daily allowances for state legislators, which he just vetoed. There is no doubt the effort was a back door route to provide them a living wage, and it’s a shame they had to resort to such drastic measures as SB1558.

In 2013 we wrote, “AZ legislature: It’s not a “part time” job,” pointing out that Arizona legislators haven’t had a pay increase since 1998, when their salary was boosted from $15,000 to $24,000. In the intervening years, several ballot proposals to increase the annual salary to $30,000 have been nixed. Yet our legislators are entrusted with passing multi $billion state budgets and writing the laws that effect each and every state resident.

 Due in large part to the relentless negative publicity hurled at Arizona’s Republican majority legislature in the past by the leftist daily newspaper, voters repeatedly rejected pay increases when they appeared on the ballot. With the newspaper on the skids, and readership in the tank, its negative influence has diminished.

The job is erroneously referred to as part time. But constituents rightly expect to have access to their state senators and representatives throughout the year. Numerous issues arise requiring legislators’ attention. Additionally, governors can, and do, call special sessions after the regular session has concluded.

Because the pay is so low, the legislature has become a haven for retirees, various “consultants,” housewives, and a plethora of school board members, who do not have to rely on the low legislative salary to support a family.

The job’s long hours, coupled with the abysmal pay, restricts many average Arizonans from participating in what was designed to be a citizen legislature. All leftists actually care about, however, is domination. That’s why the legislature has become a Democrat family legacy profession, with parents and children serving together or succeeding one another. Husbands and wives have been legislators. That familial institutionalism is newly exemplified by a Democrat brother and sister team. Alma Hernandez and Daniel Hernandez, Jr., were recently elected to the AZ House in adjacent districts.

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#RedsForEd teachers aggressively stalk legislators

The May 29 edition of the Hillary-endorsing local newspaper features a large photo of teachers, incorrectly headlined as “educators,” clad in their #RedsForEd tee shirts monitoring  state legislators. They filled the gallery of the Arizona Senate chamber to keep a “close eye on the new state budget.” The threat in the tagline is, “they want to hold legislators accountable.” Most are on their cell phones.

Let’s cut to the chase. In 2018 Arizona public school teachers, in violation of their contractual agreements, abandoned over 840,000 students for a week following a 23-year-old avowed Socialist— as they marched, danced to a brass band at the state capitol and clamored for a 20% pay raise for their part-time employment. Gov. Doug Ducey, momentarily balked, then caved to their outrageous demands.  SocialistWorker.org gloated.

SRAZ directs your attention to the 2019 activism expansion, which includes a brief video of how President Reagan handled the PATCO Air traffic controller strikers: May Day: Significant day for teachers to abandon students.

Today’s newspaper’s account calls their “activism more subdued.” They are given credit for sitting in the gallery through the late night through early morning session, which is often typical for legislators. The irony of the leftwing, unionized teachers* keeping a hawk eye on the state budget negotiations and threatening to “hold  legislators accountable,” is Arizona legislators have not had a pay increase since 1998. Unlike neighboring state California, where legislators are paid $110,459 and a hefty per diem of $192, our legislators receive $24,000 with $35 per diem for those within Maricopa County and $65 for those who often have to find local accommodations in a state that is larger than many eastern seaboard states. Sparsely populated North Dakota pays $177/day plus a lodging reimbursement up to $1,682 per month.

Political activism far supersedes a desire to positively impact students. Arizona public school students continue to under-perform as a shockingly low 41% of Arizona students passed math and reading on the 2018 AzMERIT test administered in grades 3-12 as reported by North Phoenix News.

Teachers are busying themselves electing Democrats. That is their commitment. It is not Arizona’s students. In Cave Creek School District, they’ve teamed with Planned Parenthood to sexualize elementary school children, but the kids can’t read with proficiency.

*Open Secrets

Educrats team with Planned Parenthood to sexualize children

Cave Creek School District disguises kiddie porn as education

Wednesday’s post, “May Day: Significant day for teachers to abandon students,” focused attention on the parallel between Arizona’s #REDSforEd* educrats who walked off their jobs last spring in violation of their contractual agreements  —  and their North and South Carolinian counterparts, who staged walkouts yesterday. 

The May Day timing of the strike was anything but coincidental, as noted by the World Socialist website, which specializes in incendiary and skewed rhetoric to fit its radically leftist agenda, evident by examining other articles on the site.

The report irrationally links American teachers to those in the countries of Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Morocco and the Netherlands where teachers have “struck against the non-payment of wages.” Here, the extortionist teachers, members of far left unions, get paid for abandoning their students and Gov. Ducey, after momentarily playing hardliner, eventually gifted them with a 20% salary hike — which they decided is not nearly enough for their part-time jobs.

All of their antics are infuriating, but the biggest inciter of parental and community rage should be reserved for the “Comprehensive Sex Education” in the process of being implemented in the Cave Creek School District in Arizona. SRAZ commenter “JCF” brought it to our attention, for which we are grateful. Exposing the truth about this insidiously provocative curriculum assists parents in shining a disinfecting dose of sunlight on the shocking agenda that the district and its partner, Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider — are attempting to peddle to young children in grades 4 – 8.

It’s critically important to take time to read, “Not In Our Schools: Stop the Planned Parenthood Invasion,” and pass it along to others. The graphic imagery being presented to young children is pornographic and normalizes deviancy. In no way is it educational.

* SRAZ adds the “S” to Red for clarity.

May Day: Significant day for teachers to abandon students

Last year, Arizona public school teachers, in violation of their contractual agreements, abandoned 840,000 students for a week — as they clamored for a 20% pay raise for their part-time employment.

In unison, they donned red t-shirts emblazoned with #RedforEd. Here at Seeing Red AZ, we dubbed their slogan #REDSforEd, in acknowledgement of the fact that, lemming-like, they followed a 24-year-old avowed Socialist and 2016 AZ Bernie Sanders campaign coordinator who had only a “provisional” teaching certificate having failed to complete the required history and government courses for certification. His mantra,“Teaching is political and silence is complicity,”is enough to send chills down the backs of any responsible parents.

It turns out we were more correct than we realized in using the term “REDS.” Today, May 1, is celebrated as May Day by Communists. And wouldn’t you know…it’s the day the predominantly left-leaning union members have chosen to take a unified national hike from their students and jobs.

In North Carolina, out-of-the-political-closet teachers, poised to strike today, have even adopted the communist symbol of a clenched fist as their emblem.

Arizona’s recently elected Superintendent of Public Instruction Kathy Hoffman’s ‘State of Education’ speech demanded additional teacher’s salary increases, as she thumbed her nose at the 20% raises foolishly given by Gov. Doug Ducey, who caved to the pressure. Educrat thugs responded by promising “Armageddon,” a catastrophic calamity of biblical proportions.

The formerly esteemed profession of teaching has veered off the rails into a leftist, youth propagandizing machine while running an ongoing  heist of taxpayer’s dollars.

When the PATCO union air traffic controllers threatened a nationwide walkout, President Ronald Reagan responded accordingly:

AZ educrat Pres. Joe Thomas instructs in “Thugocracy”

Educating students takes back seat to educrat’s intimidation agenda

Breitbart exposes — via video — the ruthlessness and intimidation techniques advocated by Arizona Education Association (AEA) president Joe Thomas. He was caught instructing teachers who act as union liaisons in their schools how to intimidate any colleagues who refuse to participate in future walkouts planned by #RedsforEd at the State Capitol in Phoenix.

The Arizona Daily Independent initially uncovered the video instructing teachers in bullying of their colleagues.

Scroll through the notoriously left-wing Teachers Unions* site funded to the tune of $millions by dues paying teachers. Bear in mind,  the “underpaid” teachers, who work 81/2 months a year, are able to support the far left unions which almost exclusively support liberal candidates and causes.

In May 2018, Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), a position reportedly paying over $500,000 yearly, came to Phoenix to rally the acquiescent teachers against the 20% pay increase/bribe foolishly offered by Gov. Doug Ducey.

Weingarten does double duty as a Democrat operative who gave impassioned speeches introducing Dem presidential nominee Hillary Clinton at both AFT’s 2016 convention and the Democrat’s national convention.

During the strike Joe Thomas, president of the Arizona Education Association (AEA) was front and center issuing statements about the need for more money for the teachers — who care so much for their students that last year they abandoned 840,000 of them for over a week in violation of their contractual agreements.

Paid by the union, Joe Thomas received in excess of $400,000 in compensation each year from 2011 through 2016. That swank sum has no doubt been upgraded in the past three years. Thomas and his teacher wife are Democrats. Following the Nov. 2018 General Election, we posted, “If you like AZ’s leftist election results, thank a teacher.”

In January SRAZ posted, Educrat thugs promise “Armageddon,” as AEA Pres. Joe Thomas threatened another strike. We described Arizona teachers, who received 20% pay increases —- and are now demanding more —- as resembling emboldened thugs pulling a heist.

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.

Falling prey to the teacher’s demands was foolishness personified. It’s like attempting to bribe a mobster. No amount will ever be enough.

*Center for Responsive Politics

Scandal rocks AZ State University, Pres.Michael Crow slides

ASU’s Michael Crow’s salary exceeding $1.55 million in base pay and bonuses vaults him to nation’s top paid public university president

The local newspaper can’t get enough of Arizona State University President Michael Crow. It devotes numerous articles to extolling the virtues of the overpaid liberal,* who has put together programs providing financial assistance to illegal aliens, as tuition and fees continually skyrocket  for Arizona students and wildly spiral for out-of-state American citizens. 

Today’s edition of the Hillary-endorsing newspaper headlines a front page report, “Audit: ASU misspent more than a $million, questions raised over use of research funds.” The 3-page article includes references to redacted information throughout the audit, and “questionable expenditures.”  Missing is any mention of Michael Crow.

Since Crow is in charge of the university, why is there not a single reference to him? 

Money magazine in June 2017, named Crow as the nation’s highest paid public university president, at that time raking in $1.55 million in base pay and bonuses, with a package that vaulted him into the top spot.

His future brightened considerably in May 2018, as he received a 15% raise in his base pay bringing his salary — excluding bonuses and perks — to $690,000 applied retroactively to January 2018. Crow also receives automatic annual 3.5% increases in his base salary starting in September 2019  His salary was unanimously approved by the Arizona Board of Regents.

ASU’s website still extols President Barack Obama Scholars Program, which is described using these words, “President Barack Obama represents outstanding academic achievement, thoughtfulness, a long record of service to others, inspired leadership and a commitment to building strong communities across this country.” It includes a “coaching component.” to elevate failing minority students.

Obama has been out of office since 2016, but still rates high at ASU.

*These figures, published by The Chronicle of Higher Education, reflect Michael Crow’s base salary as of 2016-17. His bonuses and other compensation, including car and a housing allowance for his nearly 5,000 sq. ft. Paradise Valley mansion, personal and social club benefits are in addition to his base plus a $150,000 bonus and a $550,000 payment from the university foundation as a 10-year retention bonus.

#REDSforEd teachers followed actual dunce, Noah Karvelis

For many Arizona parents, the anger over their children’s teachers abandoning them and sneering at their contractual obligations as they went out on strike for over a week, still rages. The bond of trust was irretrievably broken as they deserted over 840,000 students while over demanding a 20% pay increase for their part-time employment.

Newly elected Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Kathy Hoffman boasted she “proudly voted to walk out” with her fellow #REDSforEd striking teachers as they followed Socialist Pied Piper Noah Karvelis a 24-year-old hip hop music teacher and avowed Socialist. Hoffman, whose own teaching credentials are paper thin, says she was “inspired by unity within the movement.”

Not only are these educrats intent on dumbing down Arizona students, ironically Noah Karvelis is now being exposed as also being a failed student himself.

Breitbart News reports Karvelis only holds a “provisional” teaching certificate, having failed to complete the required coursework and pass tests on the U.S. Constitution and the Arizona Constitution — documents on which he places no value. Popular KFYI-550 AM conservative talk show host James T. Harris, previously outed Karvelis‘ insufficient credentials.

Important to remember is the fact “underpaid” teachers, who work 81/2 months a year, are able to support the far left teacher’s unions* to the tune of $millions a year, earmarked for Democrat candidates and liberal causes.

These same people are undermining the values conservative parents try to instill in their children. Karvelis’ résumé states he served as campaign manager to elect leftist Kathy Hoffman and was also a volunteer for Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign. Additionally Karvelis has been a political consultant and staff writer for the Progressive Times, which defines itself on its masthead with this banner: “Progressive, independent journalism for the political revolution.” His mantra is, Teaching is political, and silence is complicity. Karvelis, a young white male. is also a self-hater.

This is akin to putting Marxists in charge of educating our children. Noah Karvelis, and those who march to his extremist tune, are dangerously influencing America’s youth, steering them away from democracy that flourishes in our representative Republic, and into the killing fields of Socialism.

Rare truth was contained in the words of then-retiring NEA legal counsel Bob Chanin. Listen to his admission carefully.(brief video.) He admits that the unions are about money, power, and a leftist agenda —- clearly stating “It’s not because we care about children.

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.

Falling prey to the teacher’s demands was foolishness personified. Akin to attempting to bribe a mobster, no amount will ever be enough.

* Center for Responsive Politics