by Corinne Murdock | Dec 9, 2023 | Education, News
By Corinne Murdock |
The University of Arizona (UArizona) reinstated two professors last week after they were suspended for defending Hamas to their students.
In audio clips published by Israel War Room last month, College of Education professors Rebecca Lopez and Rebecca Zapien made a number of refutable claims about Hamas in explaining the conflict to their students. Zapien ran an unsuccessful campaign to join the Tucson Unified School District last year.
The professors’ comments included the claim that Hamas isn’t a terrorist organization, but rather a resistance group comparable to the Black Panther Party. The U.S. has recognized Hamas as a foreign terrorist organization for well over 20 years. The FBI designated the Black Panther Party as a domestic extremist organization noted for employing violent and guerilla tactics in their attempts to overthrow the government.
The audio clips didn’t distinguish which professor issued the remarks, which occurred in the “Cultural Pluralism For Young Children” class.
One of the professors indicated that she would have engaged in actions similar to those undertaken by Hamas against Israel, in response to what she described as mistreatment of the Palestinians by the Israeli government.
“Hamas is a group within Palestine, they’re a group of people who are responding to that thing that’s going on, so they’re responding, much like I would, enough, they’re not the same, I wanna separate, but for me, I can understand things in a U.S. context, and then it helps me understand them in other countries,” stated one professor.
The professor went on to claim that Hamas doesn’t represent the Palestinian people and aren’t elected officials. The terrorist organization has been the de facto governing body for the area since the early 2000s.
One of the professors also claimed that Israeli forces were targeting civilians, and that Hamas wasn’t antisemitic but anti-Zionist.
The Israel War Room called on UArizona President Robert Robbins to address the professors’ speech.
“[President Robbins], your professors are gaslighting Jewish students, endorsing terrorism, and spreading blatantly false information. We DEMAND you do something about it,” said the Israel War Room.
Leadership did take action — Lopez and Zapien were suspended while the university reviewed the remarks. The pair’s suspension didn’t bode well for students and local groups. The United Campus Workers Arizona launched a petition for their reinstatement and organized multiple sit-ins at the College of Education administration building.
In a statement announcing Lopez and Zapien’s return to the classroom last week, College of Education Dean Robert Berry said UArizona was committed to an inclusive respect of all viewpoints.
“We reaffirm our commitment to an academic instructional setting that respects all viewpoints and is within the scope and educational purposes of our discipline in terms of materials provided in the classroom,” said Berry.
Berry also announced a new faculty-led workshop series, “Educational Dialogues,” to review potentially contentious topics. The first in the series was scheduled for last Friday.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
by Daniel Stefanski | Dec 8, 2023 | Education, News
By Daniel Stefanski |
More Arizonans are saving for their children’s education and benefiting from the stewardship of the state’s treasurer.
This week, the “X” account for the Arizona Education Savings Plan announced that “under the leadership of Arizona Treasurer Kimberly Yee, 33,632 529 accounts have been opened in the last 37 months,” and that “assets are up 16.6% in that same time frame to $1.89 billion.”
Yee serves as the Chairwoman of the AZ529 Plan Advisory Committee. According to its website, this committee “assists the Treasurer’s Office in promoting and raising awareness of the AZ529 Plan in accordance with A.R.S. § 41-179.” The Arizona 529 Plan “is a college savings plan named after Section 529 of the Internal Revenue Code sponsored by the State of Arizona,” and “is designed to provide a parent, grandparent, or anyone else an opportunity to save for a child’s educational dreams within a tax-deferred savings vehicle.”
Last month, the Arizona Education Savings Plan was upgraded to a ‘silver’ rating by Morningstar, which “reflected a superior investment team and/or investment process that should benefit the participants.”
Joining Treasurer Yee on this advisory committee are the following appointees:
- Rural Community College District Representative: Keith Alexander, Special Assistant to the President for Community and Government Relations, Eastern Arizona College
- ABOR Public University Representative: Dr. James Rund, Senior Vice President for Educational Outreach and Student Services, Arizona State University
- Private Educational Institution Offering Advanced Degrees Representative: Brian Mueller, President, Grand Canyon University
- Private Vocational Training Institution Representative: David Eaker, Campus President, The Refrigeration School
- Apprenticeship Program Representative: Gary Schleuger, Vice President of State Government Affairs and Relations, University of Phoenix
- Private School or Organization offering K-12 Instruction Representative: Chris Schoenleb, Head of School, North Valley Christian Academy
- Teacher Representative: Karen Mensing, Technology Integration Facilitator, Paradise Valley Unified School District
- Tribal Representative: Honorable Shaandiin Parrish, Council Delegate, Navajo Nation
- Public Member: Maria Baier, Vice President of External Affairs, Great Hearts America
- Public Member: Christine Burton, Co-Founder, Burton Family Foundation
- Public Member Representing an Arizona-Based Nonprofit Organization: Susan Ciardullo, Executive Director, Life Long Learning Inc.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
by Corinne Murdock | Dec 7, 2023 | Education, News
By Corinne Murdock |
On Tuesday, Gov. Katie Hobbs announced a $2 million fund to pay for new teachers and the final report complete with a lengthy list of recommendations from her Educator Retention Task Force.
In order to counter teacher shortages and improve retention, the task force issued a series of recommendations likely to come at a significant cost to taxpayers.
The task force recommended a permanent educator advisory group to the governor; a $10,000 raise in the average salary for teachers; a reduction in healthcare premium costs; 12 weeks of paid leave for childbirth, adoption, or fostering; more governmental efforts on raising awareness of student loan forgiveness programs; working conditions improvements including decreased class sizes, decreased workloads, increased amounts of support staff such as counselors and social workers, more planning and preparation time, and improving school safety; more stakeholder meetings and state government-level leadership roles to educators; an Arizona State Board of Education study and data collection system on retention rates; greater expansion and funding for statewide induction and mentoring programs; expansion of the Arizona Teachers Academy; child care for educators; more policies and systems to support educator mental health; reimbursement for certifications such as student teaching and counseling; and eliminating the one-year mandatory waiting period for retired teachers to return to the classroom.
Hobbs partnered with Arizona State University (ASU) Morrison Institute and the Hunt Institute to inform the task force, despite ASU having the highest rate of its graduates quitting the teaching profession over the course of five years in comparison to Grand Canyon University (GCU), Rio Salado College, and The New Teacher Project (TNTP) Academy.
ASU also had the highest rate of Arizona State Board of Education enforcement actions against its graduates when compared to other universities in the state. GCU had the highest retention rate of its graduates, and the lowest enforcement action rates from the Arizona State Board of Education.
The task force was divided into four working groups.
A first group focused on compensation and benefits. Its members were Jeremiah Gallegos, Littleton School District financial literacy instructor; Luisa Arreola, San Luis Middle School gifted program coordinator; Lynette Stant, Salt River Indian Reservation third grade teacher and 2020 Arizona Teacher of the Year; Marisol Garcia, Arizona Education Association president; Quincy Natay, Chinle Unified School District superintendent; and Ruth Ellen Elinski, Cottonwood-Oak Creek School District governing board member.
A second group focused on retention innovations and solutions. Its members were Justin Wing, Mesa Public Schools assistant superintendent of human resources; Lloyd Hopkins, Million Dollar Teacher Project CEO and founder; Melissa Sadorf, Stanfield Elementary School District superintendent; and Violeta Ramos, Osborn School District Spanish teacher and governing board member.
A third group focused on teacher preparation and certification. Its members were Curt Bertelsen, Pima Joint Technical Education District director of professional development; Jennifer Gresko, Rio Salado College faculty chair of educator preparation; Ramona Mellot, Northern Arizona University College of Education dean; Zel Fowler, Balsz School District gifted education teacher; and Janine Menard, Tolleson Elementary School District mental health professional.
The fourth group focused on working conditions. Its members were Jennifer Hulbert, Champion Schools – South Mountain second grade teacher; Jesus “Anthony” Lovio, Flowing Wells Unified School District special education teacher; Jonathan Parker, Sunnyslope High School principal; and Sarah Tolar, City of Mesa education and workforce administrator.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
by Corinne Murdock | Dec 4, 2023 | Education, News
By Corinne Murdock |
Two Turning Point USA (TPUSA) journalists have been charged with harassment and assault in an altercation involving an Arizona State University (ASU) professor.
Last month, reporters Kalen D’Almeida and Braden Ellis attempted to ask questions of ASU professor and Drag Queen Story Hour co-founder David Boyles. In response to questioning from D’Almeida and filming from Ellis, surveillance footage shows Boyles lunge and grab at Ellis before D’Almeida pushes Boyles away. Boyles falls from the shove.
D’Almeida questioned Boyles about his involvement in sexual education and drag shows for minors, his writings, and whether he harbors attractions to minors. Boyles refused to answer D’Almeida’s questions.
D’Almeida and Ellis each face a charge of harassment, a class one misdemeanor carrying a prison sentence of up to six months and fines up to $2,500 (A.R.S. §§ 13-2921, 13-707, and 13-802). D’Almeida also faces additional charges of assault (A.R.S. § 13-1203 (A)(1) and (B)) and disorderly conduct (A.R.S. § 13-2904) both class two misdemeanors carrying a prison sentence of up to four months and fines up to $750.
Immediately after the incident last month, ASU President Michael Crow sided with Boyles in a public statement. Crow likened the TPUSA journalists to “bullies.” Crow also claimed that D’Almeida and Ellis “ran away” from the scene before police arrived, but surveillance footage shows the pair, along with Boyles, walk together in the same direction off camera after the altercation.
In a Facebook post, Boyles called D’Almeida and Ellis “right-wing fascists” and “terrorists,” echoing Crow’s claim that the pair “ran off” after the incident. Boyles said that he only moved to block the camera before D’Almeida pushed him.
“And the first thing we can do to stop it is to stop coddling these f*****g terrorists,” said Boyles. “These people should be shunned from society.”
ASU police confirmed they’re investigating D’Almeida and Ellis to determine whether the altercation was motivated by bias or prejudice.
In a statement responding to the charges against D’Almeida and Ellis, TPUSA spokesman Andrew Kolvet declared that neither man committed any wrongdoing.
“Kalen and his cameraman did absolutely nothing wrong,” said Kolvet. “We will vigorously defend them and look forward to taking this matter into a courtroom where the very clear video evidence documenting what actually happened will quickly prevail over ASU’s gaslighting and the media’s propaganda. Our team members will be vindicated.”
TPUSA CEO Charlie Kirk issued a statement of his own, in which he accused ASU of retaliation over their organization’s campaign to pull taxpayer funding from ASU.
“Our two @TPUSA journalists are expected to be charged and arrested for defending themselves against an aggressive weirdo professor at ASU who physically attacked them,” said Kirk. “ASU is retaliating against TPUSA because we’re rallying support to pull taxpayer $ from their institution.”
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
by Corinne Murdock | Nov 30, 2023 | Education, News
By Corinne Murdock |
Democratic lawmakers staged a last-minute boycott of the joint committee on free speech at Arizona’s universities.
On Monday, hours before the hearing began, House and Senate Democrats announced their boycott in a joint statement. They claimed that the Joint Legislative Ad Hoc Committee on Freedom of Expression at Arizona’s Public Universities had no purpose other than to allow lawmakers to grandstand and to sow misinformation and division.
GOP legislators formed the committee following a controversy earlier this year concerning Arizona State University (ASU) faculty members and a T.W. Lewis Center event featuring prominent conservative speakers.
The Democratic lawmakers also accused their Republican colleagues of furthering lies, and of endangering university students and faculty. Specifically, the caucuses cited an altercation last month between ASU professor David Boyles and Turning Point USA journalists.
“It was made clear that Republican elected officials continue to prop up falsehoods and possibly undermine the safety of students and faculty, as happened when an alt-right camera crew subsequently harassed and assaulted a professor who is a member of the LGBTQ community on the ASU campus,” said the caucuses. “We do not think that this committee will objectively help ASU to take the necessary steps to ensure respect for all speakers to be heard.”
One of the Barrett Honors College (Barrett) professors who opposed the conservative speakers earlier this year, Alex Young, praised the Democratic lawmakers’ boycott. Young indicated that right-leaning lawmakers and other public figures had engaged in hypocrisy by similarly opposing an event featuring Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) earlier this month.
“Good call. The far-right forces waging a disinformation campaign against Barrett faculty in the name of ‘free speech’ never had any credibility, but their cheering the cancellation of @RepRashida definitively revealed their attacks to be nothing but a politically motivated farce,” said Young. “This hearing, as ridiculous as it was, should clarify for everyone what the entire disinformation campaign being waged against Barrett faculty is all about: an attempt to restrict free speech on campus, not an effort to protect it.”
ASU issued a 75-page report summarizing its investigation into the state of free speech on its campus, namely concerning the controversy that occurred earlier this year, in compliance with the legislative committee’s directive issued at its last meeting in July.
The committee asked ASU to investigate whether Barrett faculty or administrators ran a national condemnation campaign, violated policy with actions in the classroom, censored speech or interfered with advertising or attendance, or publicly attacked T.W. Lewis Center donors. The university said it couldn’t find evidence to support the accusations.
Monday’s hearing lasted nearly three hours. The committee heard testimony from Tom Lewis, the principal donor of the now-dissolved T.W. Lewis Center, the entity behind the controversial event featuring conservative speakers that prompted the committee’s creation; as well as Lin Blake, the former events operator for ASU Gammage Theater; Brett Johnson on behalf of ASU; Jake Bennett, a policy director with the Israeli American Coalition for Action; and an ASU student identified as “Zack.”
Lewis noted that he began giving his millions to ASU years ago in the hopes of establishing a center to teach courses about success and entrepreneurship, but he reportedly discovered that faculty were reluctant to teach the content and that leaders were more interested in increasing enrollment than ensuring curriculum quality.
“I’ll say about the universities that they don’t take any responsibility for the classroom, but they are willing to sign gift agreements where they receive significant amounts of money from donors,” said Lewis.
In her testimony, Blake linked her termination from ASU with her involvement in allowing two conservative-oriented events to occur at the Gammage Theater. Blake claimed that the theater’s leadership reprimanded her for allowing those events, and that following the events her responsibilities were slowly sapped until she was fired. Blake said the fact that the controversial event still occurred didn’t mean the existence of free speech at ASU.
“If free speech was truly free at ASU, producing events with unpopular viewpoints would not have cost me my job,” said Blake.
Johnson disputed that claim entirely. Johnson also disputed the claim that Ann Atkinson, formerly the head of the T.W. Lewis Center, was let go from her position due to her arranging the controversial speaker event. Johnson indicated there was an impasse over Atkinson’s retainment on condition of her T.W. Lewis Center salary of over $300,000.
Atkinson didn’t testify at this meeting, but she did testify at the previous meeting.
In his testimony, Bennett touched on the trend of local and college student activists engaging in pro-Hamas activity. He suggested the employment of anti-terrorism statutes to defund and deactivate student organizations providing material support to Hamas, which is the designated terrorist organization that governs Gaza. Bennett also suggested the deportation of those terrorist sympathizers on student and temporary visas, as well as the enforcement of Civil Rights laws to secure college campuses.
In closing, the ASU student and self-described conservative political activist “Zack,” claimed that pro-Palestine students protesting the Israel-Hamas War were making general death threats to him and others protesting on behalf of Israel. This included threats like how Adolf Hitler “should have finished the job gassing the Jews,” and students mimicking throats being slit. Zack said that his Jewish friends reported these instances to campus police. Lawmakers encouraged Zack to bring copies of the police report(s) during their next meeting on Jan. 4, 2024.
State Rep. Austin Smith (R-LD29) said that this entire ordeal has made him lose faith in the Arizona Board of Regents’ (ABOR) ability to oversee the universities, which he called “a rubber stamp” for ASU President Michael Crow.
“Our job is not to have to govern the universities. Our job is to implement the laws that the board of regents enforces at these universities. I don’t think that they do,” said Smith. “The Democrats specifically do not want competition. You’re gonna go exactly where we tell you to go to school, and you’re gonna learn, and you’re gonna sit down and you’re gonna shut up and you’re not gonna question anything. And Michael Crow, who thinks he knows better than the Founding Fathers.”
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
by Daniel Stefanski | Nov 29, 2023 | Education, News
By Daniel Stefanski |
Arizona’s Education Department is attempting to engage the state’s children in a greater awareness and appreciation of American citizenship.
Earlier this month, Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne revealed that the Arizona Department of Education would be conducting a “drawing, painting, and poster contest celebrating Citizenship.”
In a statement accompanying the news release, Horne said, “I am a strong proponent of the Six Pillars of Character which are, Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Caring and Citizenship. I am very pleased to announce this contest promoting Citizenship, which emphasizes volunteering, cooperation, being informed and voting, knowing and obeying laws, choosing to protect the safety and rights of others and doing your share to make your home and community better.”
According to the Department, there will be two tiers to the contest: K-8 students “who can create a drawing, painting or poster that conveys the trait of Citizenship,” and high school students who “create a poster that supports character values on social media using the good Citizenship pillar.” The contest is open to all Arizona K-12 students in district, charter, private, and home schools, and the deadline to turn in submissions is at the end of the year, December 31.
The Department also offers a Character Education Matching Grant, which is made available to “any public or charter school that teaches a character education curriculum pursuant to section 15-719.” Programs are expected to include a minimum of six of the following ‘character’ attributes: attentiveness, caring, citizenship, compassion, diligence, discernment, fairness, forgiveness, generosity, gratefulness, initiative, integrity, obedience, orderliness, respect, responsibility, sincerity, trustworthiness, virtue, and wisdom.
The Republican schools chief is a strong advocate for Arizona’s emphasis on character education training in schools. He noted, “I believe every school in Arizona should be using the Six Pillars of Character program to help students understand these basic characteristics that, when followed, result in students having overall strong character and classrooms that have students who respect others. This is foundational for a healthy society.”
There will be a ‘Character Education Celebration Event’ in January, where the winners of this new contest will be honored.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
