The University of Arizona (UArizona) has gone back to the basics — way back, in fact: one course fulfilling the university’s mandatory diversity & equity (D&E) curriculum requires students to play pretend as bugs.
The Goldwater Institute, a libertarian public policy think tank in Phoenix, discovered that a UArizona course fulfilling the diversity and equity requirement directs students to experiment with “living like a bug” by wearing tissue paper “wings” as they walk around, an exercise meant to provide symbolic understanding of the experience of others from different races, social classes, or physical or intellectual abilities.
Additionally, students engaging in this play pretend of bug life must submit a written reflection on the “assumptions that inform popular attitudes toward insects” and then identify “ways that attitudes of othering interfere with self-identity and foster systems of privilege or oppression/marginalization.”
The course, Entomology 106D1, is marketed as assessing the impact of insects on human history, including human inequities, cultural diversity, and new ways of understanding sexuality.
“Bugs have built and destroyed human empires, aided our advances, propelled our catastrophes, and exacerbated our inequities. We learn how arthropods have shaped human history and cultural diversity, improved our health, wealth, and art, and continue to teach us new ways to understand human nature, sexuality, intelligence, and even how to approach \”alien\” ideas,” reads the course description.
The course is part of a track to earning an undergraduate certificate in entomology and insect science.
Insect play pretend isn’t the only option for UArizona students to fulfill their required D&E credits. As Goldwater Institute noted in their vast report, other courses offer different learning opportunities to fulfill diversity and equity requirements.
An anthropology course on race, ethnicity, and the American Dream instructs students to learn how the U.S. is deeply embedded with racism — systemic — through its history, society, and institutions. The course declares that only white people can attain the American Dream because they “hold unearned privilege,” unlike people of color.
In order to remedy the proposed inequities, the course then directs students to learn about different reparations plans.
Another course, “Constructions of Gender,” offered students extra credit to undergo training at an LGBTQ center on campus, or to attend an allyship development training.
UArizona quantified valid D&E courses as those which center on one or more marginalized populations in the course content, such as racial or ethnic minorities, women, LGBTQIA+ people, economically marginalized communities, and disabled people; explore historical developments, causes, and consequences of structured inequality; and examine how power, privilege, and positionality shape systems related to the discipline of the course and how knowledge is constructed.
Valid D&E courses, according to the university, shape the student to understand which historical and contemporary populations have experienced inequality — specifically, racial and ethnic minorities, women, LGBTQIA+ people, disabled people, the marginalized, the socioeconomically disadvantaged, and those from colonized societies — and how various communities experience privilege and/or oppression or marginalization.
At the end of their D&E courses, students must be able to theorize the means to creating a more equitable society.
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Low-income Arizona families can get some relief this summer on their grocery bill, thanks to a federal program organized by the state.
The Arizona Department of Education (ADE) and Department of Economic Security (DES) are offering a federal summer grocery benefits program, “SUN Bucks,” to provide grocery money to low-income households.
These households may receive $120 per eligible child to purchase groceries.
DES began distributing funds earlier this week to nearly 288,000 children according to a press release. These children were receiving Nutrition and/or Cash Assistance benefits.
The agencies estimate about 600,000 children will benefit from SUN Bucks this summer. Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne said that the department wanted to ensure continued health and development of students over the summer.
“We are working with the USDA and DES to bring this federal grocery benefits program to Arizona, which is projected to provide additional assistance to over 600,000 students who might not otherwise have the meals they need this summer,” said Horne.
SUN Bucks may be used at an in-person or online store that accepts Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. These funds must be used within 122 days from the day the benefits are added to the account. Lost or stolen benefits can’t be replaced.
SUN Bucks may be used for fruits and vegetables; meat, poultry, and fish; dairy products; breads and cereals; snack foods and non-alcoholic drinks. They may not be used for hot foods, pet foods, cleaning or household supplies, personal hygiene items, or medicine.
Eligible families include those participating in the National School Lunch, Breakfast, or Head Start Programs; those who are eligible to receive free or reduced lunches; and those who have received Nutrition, Cash and/or Medical Assistance from July 1, 2023 to July 1, 2024, may receive SUN Bucks assistance. Medical Assistance recipients must be below 185 percent of the federal poverty level.
Those children not enrolled in a National School Lunch Program participating school must be 6 to 16 years of age between last July and the end of this June, and have participated in one of the following: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Medicaid assistance with a reported household income at or below 185 percent of the federal poverty level, Migrant Education Program, and foster child.
SUN Bucks go onto the same Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards where families normally receive their other benefits. Those families without an EBT card will receive a new one next month.
ADE also plans to launch a new application for families to submit a free or reduced-price meal application or alternative income form with their child’s eligible school, which must be on the National School Lunch Program roster.
For further questions, the SUN Bucks hotline is 833-648-4406.
SUN Bucks, through the USDA’s Summer Nutrition Programs for Kids, are also offered in conjunction with SUN Meals from local meal sites or SUN Meals To-Go. SUN Meals are available to children aged 18 and under with no application or other information needed.
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Peoria Unified School District (PUSD) has approved an application for expansion of federally-funded mental health clinics to seven schools. Board member Heather Rooks was the sole “no” vote on the measure.
The funds are part of a five-year award with the Mental Health Service Professionals (MHSP) Demonstration Grant through the Department of Education (ED).
PUSD was one of 27 school districts nationwide to receive MHSP grant funding originally in 2019. Through that grant, expiring at the end of September, PUSD has maintained three social work field instructors. This new round of funding will maintain and expand the mental health services to those schools without them.
The 2019 MHSP grant funded partnerships with the internship pipelines in Northern Arizona University, Grand Canyon University, and Arizona State University; social work intern field instructors; training for school social workers and school mental health counselors; conference attendance; training school social worker interns (totalling 83); training for teachers, staff, and administrators; purchasing of skill building materials and resources; and parental resources. All of these would be funded through the 2024 grant to a greater degree to include those schools without MHSP resources.
The district’s seven schools, which represent 24 percent of the student population, that don’t have direct mental health services are: Cactus High School, Liberty High School, Oakwood Elementary School, Sunset Heights Elementary School, Frontier Elementary School, and Vistancia Elementary School.
Across these schools, the district reported in its grant narrative draft elementary students exhibiting greater instances of self-harming behaviors, suicidal ideation, anxiety, depression, aggression, bullying, cyberbullying, poor relationship skills, and poor conflict resolution skills. High school students were reportedly exhibiting similar behaviors, including a handful of suicides and attempted suicides in the last school year.
In that school year, the district reported just over 1,200 “crises events” that required intervention: suicide risks, child abuse or neglect, or severe emotional distress.
The district has about 34,700 students across 43 schools, with about 47 percent qualifying for free or reduced lunch. PUSD is the fourth-largest district in the state.
Public comment against the measure expressed concerns about student safety, such as data mining and “lab rat” handling of the students. Some wondered why the district would offer such a private service that they considered to be a parental responsibility.
A supporter of the measure, Vanessa Goolsby with the Peoria Education Association, said that it was the social workers that prevented the “bad things” from happening to children.
The board defended the expansion of social workers as a much-needed resource.
Melissa Ewing said that concerned community members were confusing the mental health services provided by schools and the medical community. Ewing said the former isn’t comprehensive, in that the district doesn’t staff doctors, provide diagnoses, or prescribe medications.
Ewing stressed that social work intervention doesn’t occur without parental consent, and that the data supports social work intervention as effective in improving academic performance.
David Sandoval said the expansion of services was needed due to the rise in mental health issues.
Board member Bill Sorensen said that the social workers have done good work for children in need beyond mental health services.
Rooks expressed concern that the district was taking on mental health cases instead of referring families to outside providers, and contested that some diagnoses must be happening for the district to be able to report identifying certain behavioral problems.
Rooks said that State Representative Beverly Pingerelli, a former board member, described the initial MHSP grant from 2019 as part of a much smaller initiative that, she says, has grown way out of proportion. She also contested the claim that the social workers operate under parental permission, noting that one parent’s son had been pulled numerous times from classes to discuss his mental health with a social worker — without parental consent — despite undergoing outside treatment arranged by his parents.
President Becky Proudfit said that she trusted the district social workers to provide healthy and safe services to students, and that her own children have benefited from them.
Watch the PUSD discussion of the MHSP grant here:
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A speaker at Arizona State University’s George Floyd-themed art exhibit claimed Floyd died for “each and every last one of us.”
“Had not George Floyd died, we wouldn’t be here,” said Eliza Wesley, Minneapolis resident and “gatekeeper” of the Square. “God chose him. He was a chosen vessel.”
Wesley said she “almost had an emotional breakdown” on her way to the exhibit in response to Floyd’s death, the four year anniversary of which is on May 25.
The art exhibit, titled “Twin Flames: The George Floyd Uprising from Minneapolis to Phoenix,” features Black Lives Matter 2020 protest posters and an image of Floyd wearing a crown of thorns.
One of the displays draws parallels to religious figures, with George Floyd wearing a crown of thorns. Why does the left continue to lift up and idolize a man we know was a convicted criminal?@TPUSApic.twitter.com/Qfr0cZVgnl
The exhibit opened Feb. 3 and will remain at the ASU Art Museum until July 28. According to the website, the exhibit showcases “the thousands of offerings laid by mourners and protesters at George Floyd Square.”
“This exhibition recognizes that creative and artistic expressions of pain and hope exist beyond the walls of museums, in all forms and a myriad of cultural expressions, and that George Floyd Square is a public space that can teach us how to mobilize as we mourn victims of police violence and imagine a more just world,” ASU’s description of the exhibition reads.
Frontlines Turning Point USA shared the video of Wesley’s speech on X. The exhibit “features shocking imagery and narratives that elevate Floyd to a near-mythical status,” Frontlines wrote.
EXCLUSIVE: At the opening of a George Floyd-themed art exhibit at ASU, the “Gatekeeper of George Floyd Square” in Minneapolis makes a bold claim: George Floyd died for “each and every last one of us.”
The state spends billions more on wealthy students who attend public schools than through the Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA), or universal school choice program, according to a new analysis of federal census data from the Goldwater Institute.
The study released earlier this month culminated data from the last five U.S. Census Bureau Household Pulse Surveys ranging from last year to this year assessing school enrollment types for K-12 children across various household incomes.
The Goldwater Institute found that together, the data revealed that nearly one-third of public school students came from households earning over $100,000, of which about half came from households earning over $150,000.
The study disclosed that the Census data, though aggregated, was limited as general approximations due to coming from sample sizes.
Over 80 percent of children from higher-income households enroll at taxpayer expense in Arizona public schools, at a much higher rate than the ESA funds. About 1.1 million students in all attend public schooling.
Goldwater estimated that the higher rate amounts to anywhere from $2 to $4 billion annually for children from households earning over $100,000, and anywhere from $1 to $2 billion for children from households earning over $150,000.
“[W]hen it comes to funding higher-income students in the public school, the state is being charged specifically for those students, whose collective presence in the public school system does add significant cost to the public school system: both variable and fixed costs, including the necessity to hire additional staff or construct or renovate for larger campuses,” read the report.
The minimum formula funding for one public school student is about $7,500 annually for a baseline. That number rises to $12,200 with the inclusion of other funds like district overrides, bonds, and school facilities funding. The minimum tops out at over $14,700 with the inclusion of federal funding.
By comparison, Goldwater reported that average ESA funds amount to about $7,400. These students also lose out on several sources of fixed and variable costs, such as the Classroom Site Fund, and those funds revert back to the public school system.
Overall, the institute estimated that it costs taxpayers 10 to 20 times more to educate students of wealthy families in public schools than it does for similarly-situated families in the ESA Program.
The Goldwater Institute issued the study on the heels of Governor Katie Hobbs’ January announcement of a budget plan to revoke ESA Program scholarships from nearly 50,000 students.
Aggregated data collected by Goldwater in the course of their research further suggested that about 20 percent of private schoolers came from households with an income under $50,000, while about 50 percent came from households with an income under $100,000.
As for homeschoolers, the institute found that nearly 60 percent of those students hailed from households with income levels under $100,000.
In addition to state and Census Bureau data, the report relied on research from the National Center for Education Statistics, Reason, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
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One of Arizona’s official tutoring programs for the state’s children is getting results.
Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne recently highlighted the success of the Arizona Department of Education’s Achievement Tutoring Program, noting that “student registrations total 17,324 over three six-week sessions so far this year.”
In a statement to champion this news, Horne said, “So far, more than 20 percent of those students tested have seen academic gains representing half a school year of learning within six weeks of tutoring. This helps these students to be better prepared for success at the next grade level. Other students have seen smaller gains, and some have exceeded a half-year’s progress, but every increase in the proficiency rate is important.”
The state’s schools chief added, “I urge parents of public-school children to take advantage of this opportunity. It is available at participating schools or through private tutoring services at no cost to the parents. A child who is struggling in reading or math deserves this chance to be more successful in the classroom and children already doing well can do even better.”
According to the department’s website, the Achievement Tutoring Program is “a new tutoring program designed to provide reading, writing, and mathematics tutoring for students in grades K-12. The tutoring is provided by both public school districts or charters and approved tutoring providers with the goal of increasing student proficiency on the statewide AASA in alignment with Arizona State Standards as well as improving reading, writing, and math in every grade level.”
The department offers this program to “any student enrolled in a public or charter school in gradesK-12with an emphasis on those who tested below proficientin reading, writing, or mathematics on the Arizona Academic Standards Assessment (AASA) and are not eligible for an existing support service the Arizona Department of Education offers.”
Horne’s release shared several testimonials about the success of this program. One was from “a parent who reported her first-grade son received tutoring at his elementary school and is ‘now the fastest reader in his class… This program is revolutionary…very, very powerful and successful! Keep it up!’”
Another was from a tutor who “said her student faced ‘just the right amount of challenge. He is so cute, he said ‘There is no stopping me’ – and his mom said she can really see his confidence growing!”
Another was from a parent who said, “I just want to take a moment to thank you all for this amazing program! Our oldest child was at risk of failing this year math and thanks to the tutoring program is now scoring at 82% (was at 23%)! The impact has been tremendously positive!”
The program was started late last year, “using federal dollars earmarked to address learning loss due to the COVID pandemic” – per the information from the Arizona Department of Education.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
