Ducey, lawmakers endlessly meddling
Re: the May 1 column “Lawmakers scrounge up $5M for ‘freedom.’”
Tim Steller deserves an investigative journalist award for this article and many others that he has written. Without his reporting, the citizens of Arizona would not know what our dictator and his cronies are doing to undermine the democratic process in this state.
Every day we wake up to another cruel and deceptive law being enacted. Nothing is safe from their meddling. Not education, not city and town laws, not county funding, nor the Arizona Supreme Court. Even guns and women’s rights are fair game. Gov. Doug Ducey and our Legislature have made the state of Arizona an embarrassment.
Investigative journalists like Steller scour documents and do the legwork to keep us informed.
Jacqueline and Dale Alger
Oro Valley
Half-truths pervade ‘freedom’ discussion
In his column Tim Steller insinuates:
1. That the Arizona Legislature’s singling out the Freedom Center for $2 million of funding must have a sinister motive. Is it possible that a) this is a renowned academic program drawing students and scholars from around the world, and b) the Legislature believed it brings credit to the University of Arizona, Tucson and the people of Arizona?
2. That professor David Schmidtz promotes Marxism. Schmidtz coordinates the teaching of economics and philosophy. Perhaps he knows that Marxism destroys human freedom wherever it has been tried, yet it continues to attract adherents. Could he expose students to the evil consequences of that economic philosophy without having studied it?
3. That wealthy donors’ “dark money” should not be permitted into the marketplace of ideas. This rests on the belief that ordinary people are incapable of evaluating competing ideas and therefore must be protected by government from corrupting influences.
Thankfully at our founding “We the people” forbade government from interfering with that free exchange, no matter who promoted the ideas.
C.P. Montgomery
Oro Valley
When neighbors get involved, benefits last
Re: the May 2 article “City has ideas to improve Kennedy Park, seeks input.”
Reading about the lack of funds for improving Kennedy Park, I wondered if the neighbors who use the park could do the work themselves. Maybe they could put together a committee to organize the work needed. Perhaps they could get help from nonprofits like Habitat for Humanity, get neighbor and college kids to help, get donations of materials from local companies, do fundraisers, and so forth. When neighbors pitch in to improve their environment, a sense of pride develops and the community benefits are lasting.
Jean Barkley
Southeast side
‘Reading impairment’ is grounds for waiver
Re: the April 26 article “Third-graders being retained to be notified in the summer.”
In my work as a reading specialist and, now, an assistant professor at the University of Arizona, I have come to understand that, except in very unusual circumstances, retention doesn’t work in terms of academic progress and it often damages children’s sense of themselves as learners.
It is important to know that in 2015 a new waiver was added to Arizona’s Move On When Reading law. In its initial form, this law automatically retained any third-grader scoring at the lowest level on the state standards test, now AZMerit.
However, as of this year, any third-grader who has a “significant reading impairment” is exempt from automatic retention. An official from the Arizona Department of Education told me that the condition of “impairment” can be determined by parents, teachers and administrators at the child’s school. This places decisions about the child’s suitability for retention back where it should be: among those who know her or him best, not with legislators.
Elizabeth Jaeger
Midtown
