With Huppenthal’s Loss in AZ School Chief Race That Makes Barbarians 3, Educrats 0

Diane Douglas beat pro-Common Core incumbent Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction John Huppenthal in convincing fashion 57.78% to 41.50% winning over 66,000 more votes according to the Arizona Secretary of State’s office.

The barbarians at the gate crashed through evidently.

Huppenthal is the third incumbent state school chief to go down in flames over supporting the Common Core State Standards.

Indiana’s Tony Bennett was first losing his general election race to Glenda Ritz.  In Oklahoma incumbent school chief Janet Barressi came in third, completely trounced by Joy Hofmeister who won her primary on an anti-Common Core message.

Barbarians 3, Educrats 0.

Arizona Pulls Out of PARCC

Arizona announced on Friday that the state was pulling out of the PARCC consortium.

With the pending release of a Request for Proposals (RFP) from the Arizona State Board of Education for a new statewide assessment that will replace AIMS, Governor Jan Brewer, Superintendent of Public Instruction John Huppenthal and State Board of Education President Tom Tyree today announced Arizona’s intent to withdraw from PARCC.

Arizona’s College and Career Ready Standards remain intact. Arizona continues to move deliberately towards replacing AIMS with a meaningful state assessment aligned to the new standards.

The state’s withdrawal from the consortium is not a reflection on PARCC, its work, or the quality of the PARCC assessment. The withdrawal is necessary to maintain the integrity of the RFP process. PARCC will  be able to compete for the state’s contract along with any other vendor.

Last week was a lousy week for PARCC.  If I lived in Arizona I would not get excited.  You still have the Common Core (aka Arizona’s College and Career Ready Standards) and the state assessment will align to them and could still very well be PARCC.

“Barbarians at the Gate” Press On in Arizona

John Huppenthal

Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction John Huppenthal yesterday compared opponents of the Common Core State Standards to “barbarians at the gate.”  He then vowed to fight them to preserve the Gate-funded, top-down, data-less, subpar standards.

The Arizona Capitol Times reports:

Huppenthal said Arizona cannot allow a repeat in Arizona of what happened in Indiana, which pulled out of the association of 45 states that adopted the standards. The U.S. Department of Education has warned the state it is at risk of losing waivers from No Child Left Behind, which effectively means fewer federal dollars.

“I have put my career on the line to stave off the barbarians. I very likely could lose this election,” Huppenthal said. “I’m okay with that because I felt I did the right thing for this education system.”

Huppenthal spoke on a panel at the Arizona Capitol Times’ Morning Scoop.  His chances of losing the election do not appear high:  He said he conducted his own poll from his home of 417 highly likely voters and is up 72 percent to 28 percent on his primary election opponent.

Diane Douglas

The news article went south from there describing the fight between moderate Republicans/Democrats against conservatives.  When will these journalists learn this is a non-partisan battle?  They also rehash the tired talking points that Arizona and local school districts will retain control of their own curriculum…. Sure, curriculum that is aligned to the Common Core.  I digress.

Huppenthal is running against Diane Douglas in the Republican primary.  She is a former member of the governing board of the Peoria Unified School District.  She is running to abolish Common Core in Arizona.

The choice is pretty clear.  “Barbarians at the gate” in Arizona (ie. Arizona Moms & Dads) time to bash it down and select a new Superintendent because the one you have would rather insult you than listen to your concerns.