As you have done your part today by being an engaged citizen, please continue to be civically engaged. These are important conversations to have on a community, regional and state level.

We would love to hear your continued thoughts and encourage future discussions. Feel free to post comments to the blog and please follow us on Twitter (@MorrisonASU).

Again, thank you.

“We are at a pivotal point in Arizona’s history.” O’Connor adds, “Today is just one page of the next chapter, but a very important page.”

She continues, stressing the importance of action among Arizona’s people. “We have to embody a can-do attitude.”

She goes onto state, “We all have something to say. We all have something to offer.”

O’Connor adds, “Arizona, we really can do better.”

After expressing her deep love for the state of Arizona, Former Justice O’Connor adds “you can’t go in alone and have a successful round-up. You need help.”

She wishes to leave us with posing Lattie Coor’s question, What kind of Arizona do we want?

She says, Arizona is a blank canvas. Let’s paint it in with clarity, creativity and confidence.

“If there was ever a time to turn civic talk into civil action, now is that time”

What do you want to know about the educational system?

Another participants says that this is because schools do not have to go to the local communities to have their budgets approve, such as in Eastern states.

What about a public-private model for the K-12 system?

“The model is promoting, at best, mediocrity.” Not excellence.” This is the statement of one vocal participant, who highlights the divorce in the system of the school systems, the state and the local communities. She calls for state accountability in providing baseline quality education. She additionally states that there “has to be a balancing factor” within the disconnected funding mechanism.

Carlson states, from the panel, that the system was created to provide equal dollar equity to all schools throughout Arizona.

Bottom line? Hopefully your child’s education will fuel parents to get involved in the politics of school funding.

Are you involved? What do you think about the issue of school funding. How do you hold those in charge accountable?

A participant begins the discussion with the statement that we can not ignore the piece that differentiated instruction requires funding. “Politics matter!” We need to realize how this plays into our school system, he adds.

Another calls for individuals to collectively come together and organize their thoughts on what they want out of their educational system.

Paul Koehler, panelist, counters with the need for transparent funding to be targeted and flexible. School systems need to be able to adjust the funding and put it where it works, Koehler claims, citing North Carolina’s school system as an example. He goes on to cite the tremendous opportunity that this presents.

Carol Peck looks at what is being done in Arizona to improve quality in schools, such as, full-time kindergarten, rewards for excellence in teaching, reducing class sizes, and proving extra help, such as summer and Saturday school.

Susan Carlson of ABEC calls for research to have a stronger role in spending. While another participant calls for the need to overhaul school financing in the state, citing that it is just too hard to do what we need to do to succeed. She calls for political figures to put aside the fact that it would be a lot of work, and to focus on what it truly important, our children’s education.

• Eric Anderson, Maricopa Association of Governments
• Peggy Fiandaca, Partners for Strategic Action, Inc.
• Mary Peters, Former US Secretary of Transportation

suggestions to trigger out of the box thinking:

• usage fee instead of fuel fee? technology enables us to do this now.
• encouragement for home-offices, telecommuting,
• taxation of users against imporving mass transport
• schools and youth getting off roads – should age limit go up? should they be given free bus passes?
• 20% of road-users are retirees – so people who have to be on roadsat peak times are affected by non-urgency travellers
• trucks only at night and non-peak hours
• effective planning by the government that distributes hubs of activty and then connects them by public transit

“There is simply not the viability in graduating high school that there once was,” one participant adds. Although it is necessary, it is not sufficient for success.

This leads another participant to directly question what Arizona specifically should be basing it’s measure of success on. How do we independently offer standards? The participant adds that this was to be the purpose of the AIMS testing. “We need a standard beyond the wall of Arizona.”

“The concept of holding schools accountable is what AIMS was designed to measure,” says another participant. She claims the test was created to align the school systems and to align the transitons from lower to middle and upper schools. She adds, we also need to be mindful of not only the AIMS test, but how it was put in place and what it (AIMS) makes possible.

Panelist Garcia  stresses that the AIMS test is about assessment, standards and consequences.

Other panelists chime in to say that there are models in AZ that are working, and that we need to replicate the models that in our own backyards.

What do you think about AIMS testing???

Next, Carol Peck addresses the K-12 school systems in AZ. She cites several initiatives as reasons for success, including:  math initiatives, quality teacher initiatives and school leadership (Principals) initiatives.

Paul Koehler of WestEd, a educational think tank follows Peck to continue the discussion on K-12 education. He stresses the lack in correlation between spending and success; adding that we need to more forward carefully. “Our system of K-12 is a mess,” adding that we really need to look at that when we talk about funding.

Susan Carlson of Arizona Business & Education Coalition speaks to the work that her organization is doing to aid in school system reform. She goes to five ideas as a guide to reform: sufficiency, fairness, flexibility, reward and incentives and transparency; stressing that citizen leaders are calling for greater understanding and transparency for the common person. We need to break it down for people, “the devil is in the detail,” Carlson adds. She closes with the need for us to try and create change in regard to special interest groups.