Monday, September 13, 2021
In the not-so-distant past, adults were expected to set the example for children. Be role models. Demonstrate respectful behavior. Follow the Golden Rule.
But today, we are unquestionably failing our kids in this regard, especially as it relates to adult behavior toward school officials.
Recently, a Tucson father, armed with “law enforcement-grade” zip ties, threatened to arrest an assistant principal after his son was told to quarantine due to COVID-19 exposure.
Anti-maskers forced a school board to cancel its meeting for safety reasons, then stormed the building and held a mock election to declare themselves the district’s new board members.
A Republican candidate for governor, who set a mask on fire and used a sledgehammer to smash television sets in a campaign video, held a rally at a college campus where she ceremoniously stomped on a mask like a toddler throwing a tantrum and encouraged students to disobey masking guidelines meant to keep students, their professors and the wider community safe from a virus that has killed more than 19,000 Arizonans.
Thursday, September 9, 2021
A strong majority of Arizona voters — but only a small fraction of Republicans — support face mask mandates and vaccine requirements in schools and government buildings to combat the spread of COVID-19, according to a new poll commissioned by organizations representing school boards and public health professionals.
In the live-caller poll of 400 voters deemed likely to vote in next year’s general election, 57% of respondents said people should definitely or probably be required to wear face masks in local government facilities, and public schools. Nearly 41% said people should not be required to wear masks in those settings.
And 53% of respondents said those institutions should also be allowed to determine their own policies on face mask mandates, compared to nearly 43% who said they shouldn’t.
The poll was conducted by the Republican lobbying and political consulting firm HighGround on Aug. 30 and 31.
A new state law that goes into effect on Sept. 29 prohibits district and charter schools from requiring face masks. Several education and other advocacy groups, including the Arizona School Boards Association, which commissioned the poll, are challenging that law in court.
Voters took a similar view of vaccine mandates. Nearly 54% said private businesses should be able to require employees to show proof of vaccination against COVID-19, while 42% said employers shouldn’t be permitted to do that. And more than 52% said local governments and public schools should be able to impose that requirement, compared to nearly 45% who said they shouldn’t have that power.
Wednesday, September 1, 2021
WASHINGTON – Standardized test scores in Arizona fell across the board last school year, as COVID-19 upended learning through the year and led to a sharp drop in the number of students taking the tests, the Arizona Department of Education said.
Results released by the department Friday showed that 38% of students got “satisfactory” grades on the language test and 31% passed the math test in 2021, compared to 42% for both tests in 2019, the last year for which test results are available.
The department warned that results from the pandemic year “need to be viewed with extreme caution” when compared to other years.
“When considering the results of students who did take the test, it is important to remember the learning disruptions from COVID-19 that may have impacted student learning in unforeseen ways,” the department said in a note released with the data.
It also pointed out that “a significant number of students did not take the test” last year. Close to 740,000 students took both tests in 2019, but just 520,912 took the math test last school year and 511,679 took the language skills test.
The AzM2 test, formerly known as AzMerit, and the Multi-State Alternate Assessment test are given to students in grades three through eight and grade 10. Besides measuring student progress, the AzM2 scores are typically used by the Education Department to assign letter grades to state schools, ranking their performance against others in the state.
But state lawmakers last year suspended the use of the standardized tests for the ranking of schools, while still requiring that the test be administered to students. And Gov. Doug Ducey ordered that the students’ scores still be evaluated to “identify the extent of learning loss” during the pandemic year.
Despite concerns that school administrators and state officials can rely too heavily on standardized test scores to assess school performance, advocates said the results of last year’s tests could prove important.
“Standardized tests are an important piece of data, but outside of a pandemic it still doesn’t tell the full story,” said Erin Hart, senior vice president for Education Forward Arizona. “We over-relied on it as a state. It’s really the only data policymakers and people at the state level have, and it has its importance, but it’s not the end-all, be-all.”
Friday, August 27, 2021
When the Arizona Supreme Court ruled against an income tax hike that voters approved last year, it illuminated another K-12 funding issue that could strip $600 million a year out of Arizona schools.
Funding from the legislature’s 2018 extension of an expiring sales tax is likely to count against an education spending limit that voters imposed on the state more than four decades ago. Recent increases in K-12 spending, along with a COVID-induced reduction in the spending cap, are making an urgent problem all the more dire.
Proposition 301, which voters approved in 2000, enacted a six-tenths percent sales tax increase to fund education. That tax hike was only good for 20 years, so in the face of a rapidly approaching expiration date, lawmakers and Gov. Doug Ducey approved an extension in 2018.
But they didn’t replicate a key element of Prop. 301. While lawmakers two decades ago recognized that the sales tax money would violate the constitutional spending limit and convinced voters in 2002 to exempt the recently approved ballot measure, that exemption doesn’t apply to the 2018 extension — and legislators haven’t asked voters to ensure that schools can spend the money.
Lawmakers three years ago copied language from the 2000 ballot measure declaring that money from the reauthorized sales tax hike is exempt from the spending limit, but didn’t ask voters to amend the 1980 spending cap to exempt the sales tax extension.
And the Supreme Court’s ruling last week on Proposition 208 makes clear that that won’t cut it, putting the $600 million in annual sales tax revenue in jeopardy.
The Invest in Education Act, which voters approved as Prop. 208, created a 3.5% income tax surcharge on Arizonans who earn more than $250,000 a year in order to inject an estimated $827 million a year into public schools, much of it aimed at increasing pay for teachers. To get around the spending cap, the ballot measure classified the new money as a grant and declared that the funding was “not considered local revenues” subject to the constitutional limit.
Saturday, August 21, 2021
Students in the Marana School District joined a growing number of classrooms across the state in wearing masks when indoors.
The Marana Unified School District governing board voted 3-2 at a special meeting on Friday to require universal use of masks when indoors on school property and district buses.
The mask requirement starts Monday and will continue until Sept. 29, when a new state law banning mask requirements goes into effect. Masks will remain optional outdoors and exemptions will be provided for medical, religious and specific instructional reasons.
The board considered the mask mandate after Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Randall Warner ruled in favor of Phoenix Union High School District, stating the district did not violate state law with its mask mandate, because the law prohibiting schools from mandating masks does not go into effect until Sept 29, 90 days after the legislative session adjourns.
Marana followed the Sunnyside Unified School District, when its board passed the mask requirement on Thursday, and several other districts, including Tucson Unified, Catalina Foothills, Amphitheater and Flowing Wells.
As of Friday, Marana had the second-highest number of cases reported since July 20 with 184, according to data from the Pima County Health Department. The Vail School District, which does not require masks, tops the list with 186 since July 20.
Vail began the school year earlier than other districts. Its governing board voted to make masks optional at their June 8 meeting and has not revisited that decision. The number of COVID-19 cases has dropped from the peak of 69 cases reported as of Aug. 1 to 35 cases reported between Aug. 6 and Aug. 15.
Marana Unified governing board member Tom Carlson, who opposed the motion along with Dan Post, said he was told by Superintendent Dan Streeter that the district may be over-reporting COVID-19 cases by 40%, because they report cases contracted outside of the school environment. He believes this would put them on par with the Amphitheater Unified School District, which had 67 active cases of COVID-19 as of Friday.
Pima County Health Department Director Dr. Theresa Cullen has said some school cases are contracted in the community, not in the classroom. The standing order for the health department published on Aug. 17 requires that schools report all positive cases to the department and the health department does not specify where they were contracted. Marana reported 153 active cases on Friday. They will update the dashboard in about a week, said district spokesperson Alli Benjamin.
The Tucson Unified School District governing board voted to require masks on Aug. 5, before the ruling on mask mandates. The district reported 142 cases since July 20 and, as of Aug 20, had 63 active cases.
Catalina Foothills and Flowing Wells announced they would implement mask requirements this week, but reported fewer cases since July 20, with 11 and 22 cases respectively as of Aug. 20. They are the only two school districts that have required masks despite relatively low numbers.
As of Friday, the Sunnyside and Amphitheater school districts reported 92 and 65 cases since July 20.
Dr. Joe Gerald, an epidemiologist who has tracked COVID’s transmission since it first arrived in March 2020, noted that in the week ending Aug. 15, children accounted for roughly one-fourth of all COVID cases and for the first time, the rates of cases among children aged 5 to 9 and aged 10 to 14 surpassed those of all other age groups. Gerald said he expected more outbreaks in schools, especially those that don't follow strict mitigation protocols.
“Resumption of in-person instruction in the face of high community transmission, low vaccination rates, prohibition of universal masking, lack of surveillance testing, and minimal physical distancing is leading to frequent school-related outbreaks and has the potential to accelerate community transmission,” Gerald wrote in his weekly update on the spread of the virus. “On a positive note, several K-12 and university systems are challenging the governor’s prohibition of mask mandates.”
Thursday, August 19, 2021
As health experts have predicted, COVID-19 is spreading in Pima County schools.
As of Thursday, the Pima County Health Department reported 836 cases in schools since July 20. Staff accounted for a little more than 100 of those cases, while the rest were students. The county has declared 31 outbreaks in schools.
Along with school cases, Arizona and the county have a high level of transmission of 282 and 172 cases per 100,000 individuals, respectively, for the week of Aug 8.
Last school year, the CDC recommended schools should switch to virtual instruction when they are in an area of high transmission, unless they can successfully implement all mitigation strategies and have few cases.
Prior to the start of this school year, the CDC emphasized the importance of in-person learning and made it a priority to safely return to in-person instruction in the fall 2021. Given the rise in cases since June due to the highly contagious Delta variant, the CDC changed the guidance on masking, recommending universal masking when indoors for K-12 schools on Aug. 4. But the CDC has yet to return to guidance provided last year regarding virtual learning.
Pima County Health Department Director Dr. Theresa Cullen said they do not know at what point the health department would recommend a return to hybrid or virtual instruction, but instead are “doing everything they can to keep schools open.”
“We believe students need to be in school,” said Cullen.
Monday, August 16, 2021
The Catalina Foothills and Amphitheater school districts will require universal use of masks indoors effective Tuesday.
The district informed families and staff in a Monday email that it would require masking indoors, regardless of vaccination status, because of the ruling in the case against Phoenix Union High School District’s mask mandate.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Randall Warner ruled that the district did not violate a state law prohibiting schools from mandating masks, since it does not go into effect until Sept 29, 90 days after the legislative session adjourns.
Catalina Foothills updated their mitigation plan and said “it is aligned with federal, state and county public health guidance.”
Amphi will also require staff and students, regardless of vaccination status, to wear masks while indoors on school district property and on district buses, beginning Tuesday. Superintendent Todd Jaeger notified parents and staff of the new policy through a letter sent out on Monday afternoon.
Jaeger cited the recommendation of health officials that students should wear masks in schools, including guidance from the CDC, the Arizona Department of Health Services, the Pima County Health Department, and the American Association of Pediatrics. He also noted the increase in COVID-19 cases, particularly outbreaks in their schools. On Monday, one school in the district had 23% of the student body absent due to illness, Jaeger said.
Accessing contraceptives is a health necessity for many women. Contraceptives help prevent unwanted pregnancy while reducing the risk of diseases including endometrial, ovarian, and colorectal cancers. However, finding and obtaining the right contraceptive method often places an undue financial burden on women, particularly low-income women.
One of the many achievements for patients in the Affordable Care Act was defining contraceptive as an essential health benefit that could be covered at no cost under the bill. This has led to a dramatic decrease in costs for most contraceptives and a dramatic increase in contraceptive use.
Unfortunately, while the Affordable Care Act mandates coverage across the full range of contraceptive methods, it does not mandate coverage across the full range of FDA-approved contraceptive products, and, despite the intent of the bill, contains loopholes that allow insurance companies to deny coverage of certain products to women who need them and shift costs onto patients.
Why does this matter? Not every contraceptive product is right for every woman. Different products have different side effects interactions with other medications and conditions that impact women to varying extents, and some products that are effective for one woman may not work at all for another.
Sunday, August 15, 2021
The Arizona Education Association and a coalition of education organizations and supporters filed a lawsuit against the state over the constitutionality of the ban on K-12 mask mandates on Thursday.
The Arizona Education Association, the largest professional association for public school employees in Arizona, argues the provisions included in the K-12 budget bill, prohibiting school districts from requiring masks and the COVID-19 vaccine for students and staff are unconstitutional, as they are unrelated to the budget.
According to the lawsuit filed by AEA, the law violates the single subject and title requirements for legislation and equal protection grounds as set forth in the Arizona Constitution,
“Governor Ducey and the GOP legislative leadership are putting our children in harm’s way and our communities at risk,” says AEA President Joe Thomas. “Their actions are reckless and abusive. By tying the hands of our local school board leaders, lawmakers are preventing them from making decisions to keep our students safe.”
Several school districts across Arizona, including Tucson Unified School District, opted to require masks in schools in opposition to the Governor. As of Tuesday, TUSD Board member Adelita Grijalva said the district had yet to receive a letter from the Governor’s office, but expected it to arrive after the legislation technically comes into effect on Sept. 29, 90 days after the session adjourns.
“We know the majority of parents and our educators support our school leaders doing everything they can to keep our students and staff safe and healthy,” says Thomas. “We’re seeing more and more school districts taking steps to protect their students and communities. But they shouldn’t have to break the law to implement common sense protections for our students. We urge lawmakers to listen to their constituents and make the right decision to ensure our classrooms and campuses are safe so we can keep our students learning in our classrooms.”
Ducey spokesman C.J. Karamargin said, “We're confident the legislation we signed is completely constitutional.”
Wednesday, August 11, 2021
A sixth-grade class in the Amphitheater Unified School District will shift to remote learning until Aug. 19 after reported cases of COVID-19 in the class, Principal Jason Weaver announced in a letter to families on Tuesday.
Amphi students returned to school on Aug. 5 during a wave of COVID-19 cases. Most school districts in Pima County, including Amphi, decided not to require masks, which would be a violation of state law. District officials are only encouraging mask-wearing.
In the letter, Weaver said the district provided contact tracing information to the Pima County Health Department for anyone in the Harelson Elementary School class. Close contacts are defined as anyone who was within six feet of an infected person or within three feet if one of the contacts was wearing a mask for a total of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period.
As of Wednesday, the school district reported nearly 30 cases district-wide - six cases among teachers and 21 students - with three active cases at Harelson Elementary. Since July 20, the health department has received reports of 386 COVID-19 cases and 19 outbreaks across Pima County school districts.
The sixth-grade class will receive remote instruction from a certified teacher who has worked at the school for many years and has taught for Amphi Academy Online, according to Michelle Valenzuela, director of Communications.
“During this time and as we move forward during this year, I encourage all of us to provide support and strength to one another,” said Weaver. “I am grateful to my staff and the wider Harelson community for their patience, understanding and dedication to our students.”
