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There is no financial freedom or justice with payday loans
There is no financial freedom or justice with payday loans. Instead these financial bottom feeders prey upon people with the fewest financial resources.
Arizona should improve education rather than making it worse by legalizing marijuana
With considerable discussion about Arizona’s education funding, along with high school and college graduation rates, shouldn’t we do all we can to improve our state of education instead of making it much worse by legalizing marijuana?
When it comes to water, Arizona needs to build on its record of stewardship
In preparation for our recent agricultural water summit, the undersigned commissioned a poll to separate fact from fiction. Sound policy requires conversation and cooperation, but should be preceded by solid data.
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Media (Ironically Speaking)
Irony,” says literary critic Harold Bloom, “demands a certain attention span, and the ability to sustain antithetical ideas, even when they collide with one another.”
Education proposal is a heist of our children’s future
The current proposal to get more money to schools is quite simply, terrible. A manufactured crisis to make sure there is plenty of room for tax cuts this upcoming session.
Arizonans have no reason to fear the future of school funding
Some participants in these funding discussions express a lot of fear and anxiety about efforts to enhance equity and school choice in our school finance system. A brief walk though time might help to alleviate such concerns.
All Americans deserve access to short-term credit
At one time or another, we’ve all had to pinch pennies to make ends meet. But for some households – too many of them minority households – access to credit when times are particularly tight can mean the difference between putting food on their table and watching their family go hungry.
Cancer advancements contribute to Arizona’s robust health care sector
From a local, economic-development standpoint, Arizona’s health care sector has all the right ingredients: high-wage jobs, a highly educated workforce and a growing impact on the state’s economy.
For-profit prisons are bad public policy and contrary to Arizona values
The for-profit prisons have become very prolific lobbyists, shoveling more than $10 million to candidates since 1989 and have spent nearly $25 million on lobbying. GEO Group alone reported $650,000 in federal lobbying expenses in 2014. In addition, they spent over $5.7 million on state and local political contributions between 2003 and 2014, according to data compiled by the National Institute on[...]
Teachers become scapegoat for Arizona’s failure to invest in students
Over the past year, growing media and policy has focused on Arizona's “teacher shortage.” Contrary to popular perception, Arizona does not have a shortage of teachers – at least not by the numbers. Our state has approximately 75,000 people holding active teacher certifications, but only 61,000 are choosing to remain in the teaching profession, according to an Arizona Department of Education [...]
Empowerment Scholarship Accounts serving Arizona well
Just as a child needs a pediatrician, dentist, and in some cases, even a physical therapist for their health, so they also may need a tutor, educational therapist, and an online class for their education. Moreover, new learning experiences require flexible options to pay for these services.
ASU’s Public Service Academy is a model that must be emulated
Michael Crow and his wife Sybil Francis recently made headlines for their donation of $1.2 million to fund an Arizona State University program to train the next generation of leaders. The Public Service Academy is the first of its kind in the nation.
