When the Arizona Legislature mixes shortsighted thinking with an all-too-common dose of reality denial, it puts Arizona's students at risk.

The Legislature proved once again that it is willing to do just that - put the interests of students behind rhetoric and fantasy - when it passed legislation to repeal the State Equalization Rate, a tax designated for public schools. Read the rest of AEA President John Wright's op-ed in the Arizona Republic. Take Action - Ask the Governor to Veto HB 2220.

Last week, Senator Paula Aboud held an ELL forum with representatives from the Arizona Department of Education, district superintendents, and AEA President John Wright. The forum focused on ELL funding. Watch the video online and leave a comment about what you thought about the forum.

On March 5th the Arizona Education Association and its members made a lasting impression on the Arizona Legislature while visiting the Capitol for Education Day. Record breaking turn-out and persistent interaction with legislators ensured that lawmakers heard the AEA message on public education through voices of experience and knowledge. AEA efforts to support pro-public education were enhanced and those attempting to damage public education received a clear message – do no harm to public schools.

Click the image below to view a slide show of the day's events.



While we were successful in building connections among teachers, ESP, and state legislators we must now use those connections to support positive legislation, stop harmful legislation, and pass a budget that does not damage public education.

In the coming weeks the AEA will be very active at the legislature. How will you support our efforts? How will you represent the interests of our united membership? How will you express the most sacred union value, collective action?

Respond to these questions and share your experiences at Education Day by commenting below.

Hundreds of schoolchildren scored some reading touchdowns when they huddled with stars of the gridiron on January 30, 2008, to kick off NEA’s Read Across America, the nation’s largest reading celebration.

While millions of Americans await the outcome of Super Bowl XLII—whether it be the New England Patriots scoring a perfect season and a Super Bowl win or the New York Giants nabbing a historic upset — students showed they got game across the Valley of the Sun when National Football League players provided some reading inspiration at two Phoenix elementary schools.

Read the entire story. What are some ways you motivate students to read in your classroom? How do you plan on celebrating Read Across America on March 3?

Last night, KAET's Horizon took a look at this question and hosted a panel of education leaders as they discuss options and opportunities to make the state more responsive to the needs of its students. Scheduled guests included former Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Lisa Graham Keegan, Arizona Business and Education Coalition Executive Director Susan Carlson, and Arizona Board of Regents Vice President Ernest Calderon.

AEA President John Wright is shown in the beginning of the program offering his ideas on how to improve education in Arizona. Watch the video of the program and leave a comment on some of your solutions.

Conservatives at the state legislature and the state’s largest business organization, the Arizona Chamber of Commerce, believe that in the face of a nearly $1 billion deficit this year, Arizona should permanently eliminate a $250 million revenue stream specifically designated to support our public schools. Other stakeholders, including Governor Napolitano and the Arizona Education Association, understand that K-12 education must be held harmless during these times of economic constraint.

While the economic downturn and revenue shortfall may be short-term, the state of Arizona has a history of chronically under-funding public education. The irresponsible ideology of some of Arizona’s legislators and the Arizona Chamber of Commerce is partly to blame. Their false assumption that less taxes is the best way to encourage economic growth is the cause for our current situation.

During the 2006 legislative session a deal was struck between Governor Napolitano and the Republican Legislative Leadership. That deal was to effectively withhold the collection of the state equalization property tax for three years and only three years. This estimated $250 million annual revenue stream automatically comes back on-line in the 2009 tax year. Now, the Arizona Chamber of Commerce wants to pull the rug out from underneath our public schools and students to sustain a tax break for themselves.

Rather than take money from public education, Arizona’s legislators should reallocate this revenue stream to specific education programs that will create quality public schools, such as the Career Ladder program. This will ensure that each teaching professional has access to a performance pay plan that will invest in teachers and their individual professional development. Career Ladder is a proven tool for student achievement and, if implemented statewide, is a program that will benefit every Arizona public school student equally. In addition, this funding can also address the rising utility costs school districts face and create the opportunity for energy cost-saving measures to be implemented in our schools.

Arizona cannot afford to permanently eliminate this tax when we have so far to go just to provide an adequately funded school system. Without this investment, it will be harder to reduce class sizes and retain the best teachers. The divide between our students and those of our global economic competitors will widen. We must make the right choice by investing in the only sure bet—Arizona’s children and those who teach them.

Public education stakeholders including principals and teachers from more than 20 Arizona school districts came together to discuss results from Arizona’s first Teacher Working Conditions Survey. Results from the survey were released in July of this year with data collected from 32,000 certified classroom teachers, school counselors, and site administrators.

“This is just the first meeting of many that are necessary to address working conditions in Arizona’s schools. The next step is to understand how working conditions affect student learning conditions,” said Andrew Morrill, Vice President of the Arizona Education Association.

Morrill continued, “Working conditions matter in every business and organization and that is no different for Arizona’s students and educators. In reality we know that teachers’ working conditions are students’ learning conditions.”

The majority of Arizona educators (72%) say their school is a good place to work and learn and agree that leadership is critical to retaining quality teachers.

Morrill said, “Effective leadership is more than managing a school, it involves a fully engaged teaching faculty and community. Students, parents, and the community can only become fully engaged when there are clear expectations.”

Survey results indicate that a large majority of respondents (69%) receive insufficient time to plan and collaborate with colleagues. Additionally, more than half (56%) say they cannot focus on teaching their kids without interruptions.

When asked which working condition matters most in promoting student learning, more educators identified empowerment and time than any other factors. The data suggests that teachers want to play a role in classroom and school decisions to ensure they can be effective with their students. According to the data, however, 64% of educators say they are not playing a significant role in the decisions that ultimately impact student learning.

“Decisions about our schools and education must be made by those closest to our students. Teachers are natural problem-solvers and can be trusted to make sound professional decisions,” Rhonda Ball, teacher and president of the Amphitheater Education Association, said.

Morrill said, “The State of Arizona must consider its current investment in public education and deliver on the promise of a quality public education for every Arizona child. This investment must ensure that our most important educational resource, teachers, have the time and resources they need to deliver on our promise.”

With more than 34,000 members, AEA is the largest professional organization in Arizona. Founded in 1892, AEA’s mission is Keeping the Promise of Quality Public Education.

by Janie Hydrick

Thank you, AEA members! We’ve been bombarding you in October with requests to call, e-mail, and write letters to tell Congress to slow down on reauthorization of NCLB and get it right this time. At times, it seemed to us that the train had left the station, and that kids and public schools would be left behind yet again. But you did it! You did it! Never doubt the power of a vocal constituency! Your phone calls, e-mails, and letters derailed the train, giving us another opportunity to impact the futures of our students and the crafting of our jobs.

On November 7, Chairman Miller issued a statement on education funding and reauthorization of No Child Left Behind that sounds to me like a tribute to the power of our members’ voices: “All across the country, teachers, school administrators, school board members, and parents are voicing their concerns with the law. They don’t think it makes sense to stay the course. They don’t think it makes sense to preserve the status quo.” It wasn’t just Miller’s Californians voicing their opinions!

Miller’s statement continues, “It is difficult to see how we get a reauthorization bill done in this Congress as long as the President continues to oppose both common-sense improvements to the law and additional education funding.”

The fight has just begun, but at least we’re in the ring! We’ll continue our work on the national and state levels, but remember: although we have the best - the most dedicated, tireless government relations staff - to represent us collectively, it is your individual voices that count the most. It is your voice back home in the Congressional district that ultimately sways politicians and policy. Chairman Miller’s statement is testimony to that!

Thanks again for every call, every e-mail, every letter. Each word from you helped to make the difference. Each word from you brought us closer to leaving a flawed law behind and reauthorizing one that could really hold the promise of great public schools for every child.

Janie Hydrick

Arizona's voters may be asked to consider sweeping changes to school districts on the ballot in November 2008. A group commissioned by the Arizona State Legislature, the School District Redistricting Commission, is addressing school district unification.

The potential ballot referendum would ask voters to approve the unification of elementary and high school districts, creating new, sometimes-larger districts to serve students from kindergarten through high school. This would, in fact, eliminate many school districts while forming new ones under reconstituted lines defined by the ballot measure.

The Arizona Education Association believes that there is great promise in delivering seamless instructional curriculum from kindergarten through 12th grade. The deliberations of the School District Redistricting Commission offer a valuable public forum to describe the best possible configuration of schools in order to best meet students' needs. Unfortunately, the commission appears ready to move forward on redistricting recommendations without completing the needed deliberations. It has left too many questions unanswered.

Voters must have all possible information when making decisions that will affect their children's school and the communities our public schools serve. School district unification will significantly impact the lives of students, parents, and school employees in every affected community. Commissioners themselves have posed some important questions that remain unaddressed. They are exactly the kinds of questions tax-paying parents will want to consider before voting:

• I have been very pleased with the quality of my child's education. How can I be sure that continues?

• The districts in question have different property tax rates. What will happen to my taxes?

• The districts in question have different salaries. How do I know what employees will be paid?

• One of the districts has a Career Ladder performance pay plan. Can the new district keep that plan?

• Unification might cost money in the short term. How will additional costs be absorbed without hurting education?

• What happens if the new unified school district does not have a high school facility?

• One of the districts receives desegregation funding. Will the new district?

This is just a sample of the questions that still need to be answered. The commission has identified some of these concerns on its public Web site and offered possible responses. But the response "the new board will determine that" is too often the answer. Voters deserve some more certainty. Some of the commissioners themselves are asking for more certainty, also. Let's not have such important proposals advance on a split vote of the commission.

A decision on a referral at this point is premature and will be vulnerable at the polls. We can answer these questions - even if it means taking legislative action to get those answers. It is irresponsible to ask the voters to make an uninformed decision when such haste is unnecessary. Let deliberations continue, and let's not have unnecessary division and uncertainty.

John Wright, a classroom teacher, is president of the Arizona Education Association.

The flag of hope that fluttered last November has become tattered for me. Health care for children was vetoed, higher ed opportunities are more expensive and less accessible, and we’re engaged in exhaustive battles for public education and a positive agenda with NCLB.

The only beacon of sanity and hope in all this mess – the only strong advocate for us and our students in these and other issues -- is the National Education Association. No leadership works harder. No government relations staff works harder. And each of us members could not be represented better.

However, as Gandhi and King both realized, there comes a time when the line is drawn in the sand. There comes a time when compromise abrogates integrity, when our core values are tossed aside and trampled. That time is now. We are in the fight of our lives with the NCLB reauthorization. We have principles we cannot sacrifice. Quality public education is truly at risk.

With the support of our e-mails, phone calls, and visits to Congressmen, our leadership and lobbyists have delivered a consistent, values-driven message about NCLB: Fix it and fund it! There is a cumulative $56 billion shortfall that has occurred since 2002. That shortfall continues to be made up by all of us with unfunded working conditions and underfunded learning conditions. But our lines in the sand are not even funding issues. Our lines in the sand include core values regarding pay- for-performance programs. (1) First, there can be NO use of student achievement to evaluate teachers. If a single, high-stakes test is flawed for evaluating students, how additionally stupid can it be to use that test to evaluate teachers? (2) Second, the program cannot bypass collective bargaining. (3) Third, the local union must agree to the program. Arizona has a wide range of pay-for-performance programs in place that support those three core values. Federal meddling and mandating would override those programs and supplant them with programs designed to undermine quality public education.

Watch your e-mails and updates from NEA, AEA, and your local. A six-year reauthorization that violates our values would be a disaster to public education, our members, and our students: a dismantling of public education that would take much more than six years to repair, and educational damage to our students that would be irreversible.

NCLB must have positive changes or not be reauthorized. It would be better to have six more years of the same mantle than six years of a more oppressive yoke.