by SapirAZ.com
With over half of the State budget committed to education, why aren’t Arizona children doing better? Why are we lagging the world leaders in education?
The main answer is that we’ve lost our way in education to fads, gimmicks, and radical ideologies. For example, Common Core was sold to Arizona as a higher order and more rigorous set of standards. Since then, it’s not improved anything and wasted billions of taxpayer money to overhaul curriculum and teacher training.
Another dangerous trend is the teaching of “woke” ideologies such as equity, critical race theory, inclusion, and social justice. These ideas are sold as innocent ways to bring peace, love, and harmony to society. In reality, these ideas divide people into classes and teach our children to hate each other. These dangerous teachings are often hidden from parents and taught by radical teachers who have no business in the classroom.
Earlier this year, over 200 Arizona teachers signed a pledge by socialism-pusher Howard Zinn to teach Critical Race Theory to their classrooms even if laws are passed to prohibit this dangerous doctrine of hate. If I’m superintendent, I will direct the Department of Education and the Attorney General’s office to investigate these teachers to ensure they are keeping their commitment they made to follow the law when they were granted a teaching certificate. If they are breaking the law, they will have their certificates revoked. This must stop.
As your next Superintendent, I will work with our schools to elevate the level of instruction in reading, writing, and arithmetic. In the higher grades we must do better in civics, science, and technical education. Our children’s future depends on sound and relevant instruction in our classrooms by dedicated and talented teachers.
Another item I will fix is the requirement in our teacher preparation programs to train our teachers how to push on our children the highly political agendas of social justice and equity. This has been a requirement in our State Board of Education Rules for a few years.
Board rule, R7-2-605 B. – Standard 1.3 reads, “Articulate, advocate, and cultivate core values that define the school’s culture and stress the imperative of child centered education; high expectations and student support; equity, inclusiveness, and social justice; openness,”.
Our teacher preparation programs should help new teachers learn to be effective in the classroom in the areas of reading, writing, mathematics, science, history, and languages, not groom them to be political peddlers of woke activism.
How do we improve education in Arizona? Let’s start by removing the politics of division and hate from our classrooms that create a chilling effect on learning. Let’s focus on the values and ideals of America and the unifying virtues that will make our children free and prosperous. We can do better. We must do better.
On August 2, please join my rescue team to take back our schools from under the jack boot of the woke mob. Learn more about my goals and campaign at SapirAZ.com.
– – –
This article was republished with permission from SapirAZ.com.
Photo “Teacher and Students” by Ilmicrofono Oggiono. CC BY 2.0.
