While tail gaiting a car today I was delighted at the newly designed State of Arizona license plate it wore. That is, until I could make out the "It shouldn't hurt to be child" imprinted across its bottom edge." This is addressed to whom? To people who abuse their children? How is this statement possibly going to help the situation? Isn't it in our genes to protect our own children? This is just another example of government feel-good poof, being eaten up by well meaning, but non-thinking citizens. It won't do a thing to lower child abuse. But imagine how many people visiting Arizona who upon reading these plates come to the logical conclusion that Arizona is a state populated by child abusers?

Har! Can you believe radio person Camille Kimble announced the news phrased as above? Lets see, this year, after the passage of "Shanon's Law" (which made random gunfire a felony) there were 295 "random gunfire" calls to police.Last year there were 409 reports of "random gunfire." In both years there were no deaths and no arrests. The law is being hailed as a stunning success! Our legislature has enacted a law that is 100% public relations. They created a felony act, whose every prosecution would be entirely based on doubtful hear-say evidence. That is, unless a moron pulled out a weapon in front of a law officer and began shooting the moon. I believe our police have more pressing tasks than chasing down reports of "random gunfire." For instance, chasing down the three Mexican Nationals who ambushed and using "directed gunfire" attempted to murder a Phoenix Police officer earlier this week.

Governor Hull, like any unqualified administrator, believes she can fix the sad state of affairs in our schools by throwing money at them. Our  money via a .6% sales tax increase. Added to the recent .4% Phoenix City Sales tax escalation, taxes in Phoenix will have gone up a numerical 1%. Resulting in an actual 14% increase in taxes inside of eleven months. Hell, gasoline prices increase that much and Congressional investigations are rushed to the scene of the 'crime.' Not with taxes, eh? I know that the voters will get their say on the proposed .6% increase come November. But Arizona citizens are typically more concerned with voting Diamond Back Luis Gonzales onto the All Star Team than with tax increases. And Governor Hull knows this. Increased funding will not solve our public schools sad educational status. Expelling the thousands of illiterate illegal alien children and restoring absolute discipline to our classrooms would rectify most of Arizona's educational challenges. But, Governor Hull, with the power to tax and  the power to make needed cut backs, reorganization and enemies, takes the road more traveled, increased taxation. Increased taxation without any demonstration that higher funding in the past has resulted in any positive changes. This governor and this legislature, can be likened to a teenager tearfully promising to do better in the future if she can only have her allowance today.

Arizona's Instrument to Measure Standards, the AIMS test, may be scrapped and totally revised. It seems the professional educators who assembled the exam failed to take into consideration that many questions involved skills or knowledge that Arizona students had not yet been taught! With unlimited funds and no accountability, Arizona government can push out crap like this. In private industry the individuals behind this fiasco would now be combing the "Want Ads" in the newest Gannett publication. This reveals one more reason to oppose any federally generated national quiz for our children. If Arizona's professional educators cannot design a test that will actually evaluate our children on subjects and methods they've previously been taught, can you imagine what a test designed by Washington bureaucrats would smell like? Remember, that as with any comprehensive test, a test whose results could be used to grade the educational system or the educators, what will be taught during the school year is the answers to that test. And if the answer is "William Jefferson Clinton was the head of the most moral administration since the founding of the Republic" that, my friends, is what will be taught and what will be learned.

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