Heat Wave Day 1

What a great turnout for the Heat Wave!

We had over 70 parents, school employees, and public school advocates attend the first day of the Heat Wave. Remember, it is running every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday in June.

Valley Interfaith held an early morning press conference calling for legislators to support budget proposals which would bring relief to struggling Arizonans during the difficult economic times.

The Arizona Education Association also brought parents and school employees from as far as Sierra Vista to try to convince legislators to protect vital public school funding.

All in all it was a great day.

At left you will see the crowd AEA and VIP turned out to come and talk to any legislator smart enough to listen to engaged citizens.

I want to personally thank Jeff and Jenny Medlock and Sylvian and Kirby Clark for making the trip. I would bet they found the day interesting, infuriating, and worthwhile.




Bill Konopnicki (R-Yuma, pictured left) was the only Republican legislator to attend the Valley Interfaith's accountability session. I will post video later of his remarks. He was candid as he called for legislators to find common ground to build the budget upon. I was pleasantly surprised to listen to a legislator cast aside partisan politics and speak about what Arizonans needed.





In all, eight Democratic members of the legislature attended the Valley Interfaith's accountability session. They spoke mainly to their frustration at being cut out of budgetary talks by the majority leadership. House Minority Whip Chad Campbell (D-Phoenix) was particularly critical of the process in which he says three separate budget proposals (the governor's, the Republican leadership's, and the Democratic's proposal) are in play.



We ended the day by watching a Committee of the Whole (called COW... seriously) session in the Arizona House of Representatives. They discussed numerous bills, one of which would allow parents to override most any school district decision regarding students. It was an amazing discussion (I hope to post video of the debate later) which showed that the old adage about sausage and laws to be true-- you do not want to see either made.

Again, it was a great turnout, and I believe many people left with a better understanding of the politics surrounding the budget process.