Sen. Karen Johnson has always disliked the federal government telling states what to do. She may find herself at odds with Washington next year, when she heads the Senate K-12 Education Committee.
In answer to e-mail questions from the Arizona Capitol Times, Ms. Johnson, R-18, hinted she will be flexing some muscles to have the pros and cons of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act debated on the floor.
“One issue in particular that I would like to see at least discussed is No Child Left Behind,” she said. “With NCLB soon up for renewal, I think it would be prudent to take a closer look at this issue, as I know other states are starting to do.”
Ms. Johnson has, in the past, introduced a measure that would allow Arizona to opt out of NCLB. S1326 died in committee in 2005. It stated: Any school district, charter school or other public school that does not accept federal money for the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 may opt out of participation in the act by notifying the Superintendent of Public Instruction in writing. Ms. Johnson was the first sponsor.
“What is salt in the wound on this specific issue,” she continued, “is that some analyses have indicated that it costs more to implement the measures of NCLB than what is actually received in federal aid.”
Applying this view at home, the senator said she prefers local governing boards taking charge of schools.
“I believe the local boards should be making the decisions that best fit with their school needs as much as possible,” she said.
Many factors are at play why a school is performing below par, and the solution is not always to have the state come in to try to fix things, she said. “It might be more beneficial to have the local board replace the school’s leadership while maintaining control of the school at the local level,” she said.
Reaction to criticism
Recently a Tucson daily criticized her as the choice to chair the K-12 committee.
In a Dec. 2 opinion piece, the Arizona Daily Star protested her appointment. Any person subscribing to the “most outlandish conspiracy theories imaginable,” the newspaper’s opinion piece argued, should not head the K-12 committee.
In a column published by the Arizona Capitol Times recently, the senator accused the Bush administration of forging an agreement to merge the U.S. with Canada and Mexico. She was referring to the Security and Prosperity Partnership, agreed upon by the heads of the three countries in March last year.
Ms. Johnson charged the Bush administration of pushing ahead with the program behind Congress’ back.
“I’m not really sure that my ‘outlandish conspiracy theories’ have anything to do with my ability to chair the Senate K-12 Education Committee,” Ms. Johnson said.
“K-12 education is one issue, and Bush’s efforts to form a North American Union are another, an issue which, as you know, I am more than happy to elaborate on at another time,” she said.
As the K-12 chair, Ms. Johnson has the power to steer proposals and debates and sit on or ultimately kill a measure that may run contrary to her views on what is best for Arizona’s students.
Before landing a seat in the Senate, Ms. Johnson had held several jobs — from being an assistant to former Gov. Evan Mecham to being legislative liaison for Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and campaign director for Pat Buchanan when he ran for president in 1996.
Asked if it would be fair to say she has little direct experience dealing with schools, the senator said not at all. Ms. Johnson, who served as a member of the Education Committee this year, said she had had a lot of practical experience. She also pointed out that she had 11 children move their way through the public education system.
“I served several years as a volunteer teacher’s aid when my children were in their early elementary years of school,” she said, adding that skeptics will find her a reasonable person to work with, even if “I do like to spice things up with an ‘outlandish conspiracy theory’ from time to time.”
The committee Ms. Johnson will be heading will have a full agenda in 2007.
According to reports, Arizona schools chief Tom Horne wants to allow the state to take over districts and school boards for poor student performance.
Mr. Horne will ask the Legislature for two changes next session:
One is to give the state power to withhold funds from a school district that “deliberately and substantially” ignores any state education law.
The other is to shift the load of responsibility from principals to local board members and administrators for improving any schools ranked “underperforming” by the state.
Regarding power, Ms Johnson said, “One of the Legislature’s primary sources of power rests with its ability to appropriate money. And sometimes it can be an effective way of encouraging entities to follow the laws we pass. Thus, I could go along with the idea of withholding funds from districts that deliberately and substantially ignore our laws. The bills we pass serve a purpose, and they are not mere suggestions!”
Ms. Johnson reiterated that she heavily favors empowering the local boards to make changes as they see fit and would entertain state control only under “extreme circumstances.”
Mr. Horne also said he would ask the Legislature for nearly $80 million more for charter schools next year, a move aimed at equalizing the per-student funding that charter schools and school districts get.
One overriding concern is, of course, the effort by everyone to improve the test scores of Arizona’s elementary and high school students, considered by many to be fair indicators of how well schools are doing.
The Arizona Department of Education this year noted an improvement in the test scores of students, citing the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which showed Arizona ranking 22nd across the nation. Other tests also placed Arizona pupils above the national average.
Even the AIMS test has showed a marked improvement — only 20 percent of kids were failing it today compared to 55 percent three years ago. But Jason Williams, who ran against Mr. Horne in the Nov. 7 election, said the AIMS result is deceptive. The minimum passing score, he pointed out, has been lowered and determined only after all the scores are tabulated.
For the moment, Ms. Johnson said she wants to see AIMS through over the next few years but would allow a legislation incorporating grades in determining graduation to end, as lawmakers had intended.
“We passed legislation that helps ease students into the AIMS graduation requirement a couple of years ago. It allowed grades to be incorporated in determining graduation. The legislation only applied for two years — we are in the second year now — and I think I am content to allow that provision to end in a year as the legislation intended. It is time to take the training wheels off and allow these kids to ride on their own,” she said.
Ms. Johnson also said she is interested in “protecting the rights of parents to determine how and where their children are educated.”
Asked to elaborate, Ms. Johnson said there is no better person to oversee a child’s best interest, including their educational experience, than the parent.
“Furthermore, the local community is far more likely to have a better understanding of a school’s need than the state. This extends across the entire educational system, not just the public sector. I would love to see parents able to send their children to whatever school they think best, whether that be traditional, charter or private school,” she said.