opinion

Memo from Legislature to schools: SHUT UP - or else!

EDITOR’S NOTE: This blog – and the bill it mentions – is from 2015.

And a now a message from the Arizona Legislature to Arizona's school superintendents, its principals and teachers and librarians and aides.

Shut the heck up.

You, who have signed petitions protesting yet another year of budget cuts.

You, who have spoken out and even encouraged parents to pay attention to what's going on at the state Capitol. (You know who you are, Mesa Superintendent Michael Cowan, and more importantly, so do we.)

All of you, who have protested the dilapidated state of public education in this state and attempted to speak truth to what passes for power in this state.

SILENCE, we say.

Actually, we DEMAND.

MONTINI: Legislators want to gag school officials

Last week, the Arizona House approved an amendment to Senate Bill 1172 that essentially slaps a gag over the big mouths of any school employee who dares protest anything the Legislature may choose to do. Or at least, anything they might do that could have an impact.

On a voice vote and with not one word of discussion, our leaders shredded the First Amendment. Specifically, the bill "prohibits an employee of a school district or charter school, acting on the district's or charter school's behalf, from distributing electronic materials to influence the outcome of an election or to advocate support for or opposition to pending or proposed legislation."

Like, say, the state budgets that have for years and continue to weaken Arizona's already-underfunded schools.

Like, say, any bills that use taxpayer funds to guarantee loans to help businesses expand their charter school operations.

Like, say, any bills that boost the amount of taxpayer money that can go to private schools, via Empowerment Scholarship Accounts or corporate tax credits, both of which divert money to private school tuition

Like, say, any bills affecting anything. Period.

Like, say, anything about anything about any bond election or override. It would be illegal, for example, for school officials to even answer a parent's question about the impact of a state budget or a school override.

And if we hear from you, it'll cost you. The bill carries a $5,000 fine.

Just sit down and shut up and let us get on with the business of dismantling public education in this state.

Some Republicans are horrified are horrified, which is possibly why a final vote on the bill was delayed on Tuesday.

"We're mandating our students not only to learn about civics but hopefully to inspire them to get involved," one GOP legislator told me. "Yet this bill says the exact opposite. It says if you are a school, we don't want to hear from you."

The amendment, approved last Thursday, comes courtesy of Rep. Anthony Kern, R-Glendale, a first-term tea party politician who told his colleagues that school officials had no business speaking for political purposes.

"If they are going to act as a teacher, which is paid for by the taxpayers, they should not be doing any political activity," he told his colleagues.

It appears Kern's amendment is in part a response to the Mesa superintendent, who in February had the audacity to speak out against Ducey's plan to cut school funding. Apparently, it wasn't enough to employ American Encore, Sean Noble's dark-money attack squad, to go after Cowan and Mesa schools.

And so comes Kern's amendment.

Kern didn't return a call to explain what other professions must give up their First Amendment Rights.

Rarely am I completely and totally rendered speechless by this Legislature.

Then again, that seems to be the point, doesn't it?.