Arizona Education Association

Winter 2014

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6 Winter 2014/15 x AEA Advocate Arizona voters have spoken, and while the outcome is disappointing for our public school students and employees, it does not diminish the extraordinary efforts by teachers and education support professionals to get out the vote in support of candidates who will stop the cuts to our schools and stand up for what's best for our students. "Superintendent candidate David Garcia lost by a narrow margin, as did many candidates, during a mid-term election, demonstrating the pendulum is swinging away from extremist ideology here in Arizona," says AEA President Andrew F. Morrill. Out of 1.4 million ballots cast, David Garcia lost by 1 percent of the votes, despite having won in Apache, Coconino, Greenlee, Maricopa, Navajo, Pima, and Santa Cruz counties. The superintendent race overshadows some big wins at the local level. "The Gilbert School Board race's move back to sanity and the passage of several school districts' bonds and overrides shows that Arizona voters support their neighborhood public schools," says Morrill. In Phoenix, educators celebrate the defeat of Prop 487, an ill- written initiative that threatened the benefits of Phoenix firefighters and police officers. Phoenix voters already voted overwhelmingly to make changes to the pension system and said loud and clear in this election that they will not vote for reform that hurts our loyal public safety servants who lay their lives on the line to protect our citizens. In addition, Arizona bucked national trends in Congressional and state legislative races. The majority of AEA's recommended candidates were victorious and the balance of power in the Arizona Legislature remains the same. The state senate continues to have 16 public education friendly senators and the state house has 31 friends of public education, including newly elected AEA member Chris Ackerley in Legislative District 2. Last legislative session AEA was able to stop many bad bills targeting labor unions and pensions with the support of these legislators. Educators rejoice in the victories of Congresswomen Kyrsten Sinema and Ann Kirkpatrick and Congressmen Ruben Gallego and Raul Grijalva. "The National Education Association congratulates Rep. Kyrsten Sinema's (D-AZ) reelection to represent Arizona's 9th Congressional District," said NEA President Lily Eskelsen GarcĂ­a. "As one of NEA's 3 million members, Kyrsten knows first-hand the vital role public schools play in our students' lives. She has listened to the growing chorus of voices from parents, teachers, students, and entire communities expressing concern about the detrimental effects and harm caused by the overuse and misuse of high-stakes standardized testing. By introducing the 'Student Testing Improvement and Accountability Act' (HR-4172), Kyrsten opened the door for commonsense reform to the over- testing currently required by the No Child Left Behind Act and paved the way for a better system of accountability that puts student learning first." The Congressional District 2 race is still too close to call at the time this publication went to print and it is likely this race is heading to a recount. "The citizens have entrusted our state's leaders to find common sense solutions to our budget deficit in order to address our school's severe underfunding and teacher shortage," says Morrill. "Arizona voters must keep our elected officials accountable to their campaign promises as we move towards the 2016 election. As always, AEA leaders and staff commit to bringing the experience, expertise, and best thinking of our membership to all serious dialogue about education policy and building a great public school for every student in Arizona." 2 AT THE CAPITOL AT THE CAPITOL AT THE CAPITOL AT THE CAPITOL AT THE CAPITOL AT THE CAPITOL AT THE CAPITOL AT THE CAPITOL AT THE CAPITOL AT THE CAPITOL AT THE CAPITOL AT THE CAPITOL AT THE CAPITOL AT THE CAPITOL AT THE CAPITOL AT THE CAPITOL AT THE CAPITOL AT THE CAPITOL Arizona Election Results 47 Friends of public education in the AZ Legislature 2014 V o t e 4 S ch o o l s v o t e 4 s c h o o l s a z. c o m

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