Arizona: David Safierhere

by David Safier

Here's a press release from Grijalva's office:

Grijalva Announces Bill To Help Struggling Schools Prevent Dropouts, Encourage Pursuit of Higher Education

Washington, DC – Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva today announced the release of H.R. 4122, the Graduation for All Act, which seeks to decrease dropout rates and provide assistance to struggling middle schools and high schools around the country.
 
The bill, co-sponsored by Grijalva, House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller and several other lawmakers, authorizes $2 billion in competitive grants for low-performing high schools and their feeder middle schools, increases financial aid awareness and career planning, and supports strategic partnerships between high schools, middle schools and local communities to turn around struggling institutions, among other features.

by David Safier

Here's a statement Grijalva released today about the Baucus health care reform bill.

“Today, the Senate Finance Health Care Reform bill was released by Senator Max Baucus.

“It is telling that Senator Baucus stood alone at today’s press conference. There was no “Gang of Six,” including the absence of Senator Snowe and no Democrats. Even with huge concessions to the legislation, including no public option, it not so shockingly, has not garnered any visible support.
 
 “Now that we've seen that Senate Republicans are not going to support any bill, no matter how weak, it is time to start earnest negotiations among Democrats for what is best for America, not what is best for people’s personal politics.

by David Safier
Here are Obama's prepared remarks for Tuesday's talk to students.

by David Safier
Here's the story. The U.S. Census Bureau says Arizona doesn't spend as much on education as other states. No news there. The only new bit of data is that, relative to our state's personal income, we climb up from 47th in education funding to 34th. In other words, we're a low income, low education state. And if we want to guarantee our status as a low income state, we should just continue underfunding education.

Howard Fischer goes to some experts to analyze the data. Here they are, in order of appearance: Tom Horne, Ed Supe; Matthew Ladner, Goldwater Institute; Justin Olson, Arizona Tax Research Association (In case you don't know the