AZ teaches’ strike leader admits, “Teaching is political”

Propagandizing students is educrats’ game plan

Today Seeing Red AZ is taking a road never previously traveled since our inception in 2007.  We are sending our readers directly to another site — in this case, Breitbart — where Dr. Susan Berry Ph.D, has written an illuminating exposé on Noah Karvelis, a radically leftwing elementary school teacher leading the indefensible teachers’ strike set to take place in our state on Thursday.

Twenty-four-year-old Karvelis has urged his colleagues on Twitter to teach political activism to their students and to discuss with them gun control, white supremacy, and anti-capitalism.

Never forget the “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, a cool hip-hop music teacher, volunteered on the presidential campaign of self-admitted Socialist Bernie Sanders. 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.”

This is akin to putting Marxists in charge of educating our children. Noah Karvelis, and others like him, are dangerously influencing America’s youth, steering them away from democracy that flourishes in our representative Republic, and into the liberty killing fields of Socialism.

* Center for Responsive Politics

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AZ Gov. Doug Ducey caves to teachers’ outrageous demands

Though his press secretary denies it, Ducey is looking ever more like a guy with senatorial aspirations

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey had a chance to stand tall. Instead he rewarded the abysmal behavior of union teachers who abandoned their students to strike for a massive 20% raise.  He played tough for a nanosecond, telling the teachers there was no pay hike in the near future, then reneging, followed by an acquiescence or two preceding the final capitulation. If nimble Ducey didn’t have his eye on a mighty political payoff, he could fill the role of state contortionist.

Instead of emulating President Ronald Reagan who on Aug. 5, 1981 fired 11,359 unionist air traffic controllers of the almost 13,000 who went on strike in defiance of his order for them to return to work, issued two days earlier.

Reagan, a former two-term Screen Actor’s Guild union president, didn’t stop there.  He declared a lifetime ban on the rehiring of the strikers by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Within days the FAA began accepting applications for new air traffic controllers, and ultimately the Federal Labor Relations Authority decertified the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Association (PATCO).  Robert Poli, PATCO president, was found in contempt by a federal judge and ordered to pay $1,000 a day in fines, for the disruptions his union caused. 

There were inconveniences during the strike and after Reagan made good on his threat, (video) but such a strike never happened again.

Ducey is thinking politically instead of on behalf of Arizona students abandoned by their striking teachers, who should also have been fired if they didn’t return to work.  He appears to be letting his future political aspirations get in the way of sound judgment. Ducey’s longtime friend and mentor John McCain, diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer in July 2017 has remained at his compound in Cornville, AZ. missing crucial votes. The Arizona senate seat is not a museum piece. 

Ken Rudin, Political Junkie, answers the question about governors appointing themselves to the U.S. Senate. It has happened. Of the nine going back to 1933, all but two were Democrats and the results were uniformly dismal.

Joy Pullmann, an author and executive editor of The Federalist, does a masterful job with this commentary, “Fire All Striking Teachers And Send Their Paychecks To Students’ Parents.” Obviously it was not on Ducey’s reading list.

It should be.

Education Week, a publication of the liberal teachers’ union, clearly states teachers plan to ride this victory to effect changes across the Arizona political landscape.  The teachers, who overwhelmingly vote Democrat, have no allegiance to Ducey.

Today’s front page shows a smiling Ducey surrounded by educrat admirers, who got their way, via protests and walk-outs, which the teachers coyly termed, “walk-ins.” The headline blasts, “The winners today are the teachers”

A further look reveals the truth, with this line under the photo, “K-12 advocates skeptical, say walkout still planned.” There is no pleasing a riotous mob. They should have been fired.

Don’t lose sight of the fact that this is where the people who influence our children and grandchildren put their union dues.*

* H/T Center for Responsive Politics

Teen anti-gun marchers, influenced by leftists, descend on DC, other cities

Teen mobs led by liberal celebrities march throughout USA

Under-educated students who haven’t been effectively taught the history of our nation’s founding and the enduring greatness of our American Constitution, are flexing their political muscle and threatening to remove members of congress who support the Second Amendment.

Think about that.

Many of them will be first time voters during this fall’s midterm elections. Voter registration activists were among throngs of young Americans who marched for tighter gun laws on Saturday, signing up thousands of soon-to-be voters who want to eject lawmakers who oppose gun control.  Organizers of the voter registration drive hoped to sign up at least 25,000 participants in the DC march alone, a promising boost for Democrats.

Estimates of the March for Our Lives crowd size ranged in the hundreds of thousands, who lemming-like flocked to DC as they flock to rock concerts. Since they are teens, the question is who financed their trek to the nation’s capitol, where food and lodging are not inexpensive. Did they all have parental consent? With or without consent, we find that their benefactors were the left-wing Hollywood elite, who provided funding and buses for the trip. The NAACP was among the co-sponsors of the event, with Martin Luther King, Jr’s young granddaughter calling for the elimination of all guns. Breitbart provides info on the celebs.

This is 17-year-old David Hogg, (video) a survivor of the Parkland Florida high school massacre. Seventeen of his classmates were slaughtered by a crazed, recently expelled fellow student who should have been on the FBI’s watch list, and disallowed to purchase a gun, since the police had been called to the family home two dozen times prior to his murderous rampage at the school.

Rather than engendering compassionate action, cocky, foul-mouthed Hogg uses his new-found status to disparage parents, senior citizens, Florida’s Gov. Rick Scott and issues threats to congress and the Second Amendment. And wouldn’t you know?  He‘s an aspiring journalist. In his profanity laced interview, Hogg calls himself the NRA’s “worst nightmare.”

HeadCount conducts voter registration drives at concerts, and claims it has registered over 500,000 young voters since 2004 — “translating the power of music intro real action.” Missing is any mention of learning about our system of government or the views of individual candidates. These are liberals on the rise. Though they claim to be disconnected from a political party, they direct people to the AFL-CIO union scoreboard and announce, “We balance the power of the wealthy,” (those are the job creators, folks) whom they claim exploit workers — referring to Right to Work laws as “racist.”

Rock the Vote, calls Arizona a “vote blocking state,” claiming it restricts voter rights, appears on DiscovertheNetworks.org: A Guide to the Political Left. RTV also works to register and mobilize voters aged 18-29 to support left-wing Democrat political candidates. Like HeadCount, it forms partnerships with music-industry and popular-culture icons who share the organization’s left-wing values, and use their celebrity status to influence the opinions of young voters.

If your kids are concert goers, you need to get up to speed on these insidious groups and their agendas. Who would have thought music would become a political menace to our Constitutional freedoms?

AZ teachers shamefully shut down schools

Wearing red T-shirts emblazoned with “#RedForEd,” hundreds of Pendergast School District teachers staged a fake “sick out” abandoning their classrooms Wednesday protesting what they claim are low wages. Their actions left working parents scrambling for day care — many had to leave their own jobs, putting their livelihood risk — as teachers taught students the valuable lesson that not showing up for work is a productive way to air grievances.

We hear a lot about underpaid teachers. Teachers protest and school districts 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 purchases would make its way to schools. 

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, which apparently is never enough.

How is it that “underpaid” teachers are able to send union dues specifically earmarked to fund mostly liberal politicians?  These are the people who spend more time influencing American students than their parents do. Consider why leftist Barack Obama and self-declared Socialist Bernie Sanders cornered the youth vote.

Open Secrets/The Center for Responsive Politics shows the $ millions the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) lobbying arms give to the most left-wing elected officials. The AFT gave not one thin dime to Republicans.

There are problems that appear endemic to the schools of education from which the teachers graduate and, consequently, the teachers as well, that have nothing to do with money. Sample certification test questions are included in Dr. Walter Williams’ column “Educational Rot,” with Arizona represented, exposing the shockingly low bar for getting hired. Reading it will  arm you with crucial information about many of your kid’s teachers, without having to join and pay dues to radical teachers’ unions.

Arizona Education Association members recently marched at the Arizona Capitol protesting tuition tax credits. Allowing taxpayers to make tax-deductible contributions to the private, parochial or charter schools of their choice is anathema to the educrat unionists, who want unfettered control as they indoctrinate students, denying parental choice.

Arizona Education Project disproves the educrat notion that due to low wages, Arizona schools are at the lowest rung in the nation. You’ll read that five of the top seven public high schools in America are located here in Arizona, according to US News & World Report – in Scottsdale, Tucson, Oro Valley, Peoria, and Chandler.

Read 10 Facts You May Not Know About Education in Arizona. It’s news you need and aren’t getting. Armed with the facts, it’s time for informed parents to march. The only roadblock is they have jobs where their presence is required. And unlike teachers, they don’t have the luxury of frequent half days, lengthy holiday vacations or the entire summer off.

SPI Douglas follows predecessors: rebrands Common Core

Breitbart News stuns with the headlined article, “Arizona State Board of Education ‘Rebrands’ Common Core.” Yes, the same Common Core that had parents throughout the state so riled, they elected unknown Diane Douglas as Arizona’s Superintendent of Public Instruction based on her promise to repeal the so-called standards.

Seeing Red AZ celebrated Douglas’ huge win opposing Common Core as she trounced the incumbent in the Sept. 2, 2014 Primary Election. In the comment section of this post, she noted she was “honored to have our support and endorsement.” 

Conservative syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin was an early endorser. She also praised Douglas for calling out Arizona Common Core promoters for their devious rebranding scheme.

Arizona parents have previously been through this “rebranding” con. Gov. Jan Brewer and Douglas’ predecessor John Huppenthal already pulled a fast one as they magically re-christened Common Core as “Arizona’s College and Career Ready Standards” — hoping no one would notice. Malkin devoted countless columns to exposing the federal overreach that aims to place control of local schools in the hands of unelected Washington bureaucrats.

In Sept. 2013 SRAZ posted “Educrat trio: Huppenthal, Brewer, AZ Republic,” exposing the deceitful scheme to which Diane Douglas appeared to be the antidote. She wasn’t. 

Diane Douglas rode the anti-Common Core horse to the winner’s circle. Now she’s exposed as throwing the race.

H/T commenter azgary

Republicrats readying for battle with Trump

Donald Trump is still 38 days away from his Jan. 20 inauguration as the 45th president of the United States. That fact hasn’t kept Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan from placing him squarely in their sights and giving him more grief than they ever gave to Barack Obama. Hang on tight. Gird your loins. We’re in for a rough ride.

Patrick Buchanan sheds some much-needed light on the back story in this excellent commentary titled, “Will Trump defy McCain and Rubio?” It’s today’s reading assignment to make us smarter.

AZ joins states fighting Obama bathroom directives

Obama’s transgender bathroom mandate meets with resistance

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich and state Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas have announced that they have joined ten other states in a federal lawsuit to challenge Barack Obama’s mandate requiring all public K-12 schools to open up boys’ and girls’ locker rooms and restrooms to students of the opposite sex, based on student perceptions of their “gender identity.”

Since the President has threatened to deny federal funding to all schools that object to this outrageous decree,  Arizona has joined Texas, Alabama, Louisiana, Maine, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, Georgia, West Virginia and Wisconsin in a lawsuit filed in the United States Court for the Northern District of Texas. The lawsuit is focused on who should set these sensitive policies —- the federal government via executive order or states and local school districts. The challenge seeks declaratory relief against a number of federal agencies in order to block the implementation of the administration’s unconstitutional interpretation of the law. The Heber-Overgaard Unified School District has also joined the state’s lawsuit as a plaintiff.

The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas in response the Obama administration’s issuance of a broad directive advising every public school district in the country they must allow transgender students to use the bathrooms that match their gender identity rather than their biological sex.

The implicit threat is that schools that do not abide by the Obama administration’s interpretation of the law could face lawsuits or a loss of federal aid.

Read the formal filing of the complaint which states in part these truths regarding the overt attempts at social engineering by the radically left-wing lame duck president:

“Defendants have conspired to turn workplaces and educational settings across the country into laboratories for a massive social experiment, flouting the democratic process, and running roughshod over commonsense policies protecting children and basic privacy rights. Defendants’ rewriting of Title VII and Title IX is wholly incompatible with Congressional text. Absent action in Congress, the States, or local communities, Defendants cannot foist these radical changes on the nation.”