I can’t help but think if Alice were to fall down this rabbit hole we currently call “public education” in Arizona, at the very least, she would say “Curiouser and curiouser!”
For the record let me be clear. I don’t doubt there is a virus, and my heart goes out to the people who are or have been severely impacted by it. What I do question is the ever changing “benchmarks” by which we are measuring and upon which we are imposing potentially irreversible damage to our children’s education and emotional well-being under the guise of a virus that has shown to be of minimal risk to the vast majority – especially children. But let’s set all that aside.
Rather let’s look at the current circumstances in Paradise Valley Unified School District (PVUSD) ostensibly created by the virus. Effective November 23, PVUSD closed its school to in-person instruction based on 106 cases (i.e. allegedly “positive” tests) of COVID per 100,000 residents or .00106 of the general population of the district as a whole, not the district schools’ enrollment.
Then on Monday December 7, the superintendent, Jesse Welsh, resigned and while not cited as the “official” reason it has been implied the cause was “harassment” he endured over the closing of the district’s schools. And while I will never condone such activity, it is a sad reality of public service with which anyone serving at such a high level should, if not anticipate, at least be prepared to deal.
Just when one thinks things can’t possibly get “curiouser” the PVUSD governing board awarded Welsh over $413,000, in the vernacular of game shows, parting presents.
And although the taxpayers of PVUSD (and Arizona) are on the hook for the almost HALF MILLION DOLLAR gift of public funds (IMHO) “severance” the 18-month employee Welsh will be receiving, they are not privy to the reason he has resigned. Especially considering, according to governing board minutes, the discussion of his “evaluation” started on November 19th before the shutdown of viable education services and alleged harassment began; continuing on Nov. 24th and culminating, ironically, on Pearl Harbor Day.
Where it gets even “curiouser” is immediately upon accepting Welsh’s resignation the PVUSD board was prepared and announced its intent to rehire the former, retired PVUSD superintendent James Lee – pending contract negotiations of course – potentially allowing him to join the abundant ranks of Arizona’s highly compensated, double dipping superintendents.
And while, quite frankly, one would be hard pressed to find a superintendent contract in AZ that doesn’t have some form of lucrative “escape” clause (several years ago the Peoria Unified board paid off a superintendent who packed up his office in the wee hours of the morning and walked off the job) that doesn’t make it any less an abuse of the taxpayers’ trust and dollars.
Since 2016 AZ government schools have received three substantial funding increases – Prop. 123, Ducey’s 20×2020 and Prop. 208 (these in addition to any increases the legislature may have appropriated to the base level funding) – and still it is never deemed enough. At a recent conference there was a presentation citing the need for increases to all sales/income/property taxes for education.
Yet despite the “inadequate” funding there is plenty of money for lucrative “severance” handouts or double dipping contracts. Quite frankly, that is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to wasteful spending by a system that cannot fulfill its prime directive – teaching our children to read, write and do basic arithmetic; not to mention such things as the proud history of our Republic and scientific truth.
When it comes to educrats’ insistence that huge increases in funding are insufficient or that “remote learning” is quality education, well, to paraphrase the Cheshire cat – their reality is just different than ours!
It is LONG past time we in Arizona, and America, rethink how we educate our children; how we ensure parents have the available resources to make the best educational choices for their children without government control, mandates or intervention. God gives children to parents, not government bureaucracies – no matter how well-intended that monopoly professes to be.