Tag: education

Arizona college tax backers cry foul after Andy Biggs hyperlinks their funding to PPP loans

In an Oct. 6 letter supplied completely to Fox Information, Biggs instructed Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Small Enterprise Administration chief Jovita Carranza he was “alarmed” to be taught from constituents that an Oregon-based non-profit, Stand for Kids, was “a serious recipient of between $1-2 million” in Paycheck Safety Program (PPP) funding from final spring’s CARES Act.

The group contributed properly over $3 million within the second quarter of 2020 to advocate for an Arizona poll initiative, Proposition 208, that might increase state earnings taxes to fund public training, Biggs wrote, asking the company heads to assessment the reviews.

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“I’m disturbed {that a} nonprofit seemingly took benefit of a program designed to assist employers meet fundamental payroll wants with a view to extravagantly fund a extremely charged advocacy effort,” he continued.

Biggs Letter to Mnuchin and Carranza Re PPP and Stand for Kids 10 6 2020 by JuliaMusto on Scribd

Stand for Kids has vehemently denied that any cash from PPP loans has been used for its assist of Prop 208, noting that its neighborhood applications and lobbying efforts are dealt with by separate organizations with comparable names.

Stand for Kids Management Middle Inc. is a 501(c)(3) public charity that devotes its assets to instructional actions. Such organizations, to which donations are tax-deductible, are strictly prohibited from participating in any political exercise for or in opposition to candidates for public workplace.

Alternatively, Stand for Kids Inc. is a 501(c)(4) group that engages in political actions together with lobbying. Its contributions aren’t tax-deductible.

Stand for Kids Inc. defined in an Oct. 1 assertion that it had not utilized for a PPP mortgage, although the charity had obtained one.

Stand for Kids Inc. Arizona Government Director Rebecca Gau instructed Fox Information that whereas the organizations share some workers members, they’ve separate boards with firewalls between them. Contributions aren’t shared between teams, she stated.

Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz. (Picture By Invoice Clark/CQ Roll Name)
(Getty)

Stand for Kids Inc. joined the combat for training funding through the 2018 “Purple for Ed” motion, however its work supporting the act was upended when a state Supreme Courtroom ruling kicked Prop 208 off the poll at the moment.

This yr, the group labored with stakeholders to plan one thing “all people may assist” and launched signature-gathering in February.

Gau stated that Biggs was coming after the non-profit “as a result of lobbyists instructed him to.”

“That is their tactic proper now,” she stated. “As an alternative of discussing the precise points actually, they’re making these ridiculous, completely false claims and making an attempt to gin up curiosity in a narrative that’s not a narrative.”

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Previous to her position at Stand for Kids, Gau served as director of the Governor’s Workplace of Schooling Innovation the place she launched and led state efforts to implement former Republican Governor Jan Brewer’s Schooling Reform Plan. Her two youngsters had been educated in Arizona public colleges.

Gau highlighted her group’s roots within the Arizona neighborhood, with 11 years of engagement within the Phoenix space and assist from revered native foundations.

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“Stand [for Children] is targeted on guaranteeing all college students obtain a top quality, related training, particularly these whose boundless potential is ignored and under-tapped due to their pores and skin coloration, ZIP code, first language, or incapacity,” she wrote.

The group turned concerned with Prop 208 “after years of frustration over the funding cuts to training in our state,” she stated.

If accredited by voters, the measure — producing an additional $940 million a yr — would levy an extra 3.5% earnings tax surcharge on Arizona taxpayers with taxable earnings over $250,000, or over $500,000 for taxpayers who’re submitting joint returns.

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Tax hikes can be positioned on the highest 1% of earners within the state, and a “sure” vote would imply elevating the most earnings tax fee for prime earners to eight%.

Proponents of the poll measure, or the Spend money on Schooling Political Motion Committee’s “Spend money on Ed” Act, need the extra income to go towards elevated pay for lecturers in addition to classroom and scholar assist and the addition of profession and technical education schemes.

“I’m very upset that Congressman Biggs has blindly picked up the opposition marketing campaign’s determined lies about Stand for Kids,” Gau stated.

Based on the Arizona Secretary of State’s election fund’s portal, the Spend money on Schooling PAC has obtained over $4.67 million in contributions.

Prop 208 is co-sponsored by “Spend money on Ed” chairperson and highschool instructor Amber Gould, a lot of the state’s Democratic state legislators, and State Faculty Superintendent Kathy Hoffman, who can be a Democrat, in accordance with 12 Information.

Its critics embrace Molera Alvarez LLC and Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, who argue Prop 208 would hurt Arizonans, not enhance training.

Opposition teams declare that Prop 208 doesn’t assure funding would go towards elevating instructor salaries as a result of an expanded definition of who’s deemed a instructor would supply loopholes for directors to pocket the cash.

NEA President Lily Eskelsen Garcia stated lecturers, principally girls, have picked up the slack by offering assets for lecture rooms for too lengthy.
(AP Picture/Ross D. Franklin)

The “Sure on 208” camp retorts that the state’s current definition of a instructor is simply too slim, stating that colleges will probably be topic to the identical accountability measures they’re now.

A key a part of the dissent in opposition to Prop 208 is that the measure will damage small enterprise house owners by inserting an onerous tax on them. Opponents estimate that fifty% of these affected by the tax are small enterprise house owners.

“Spend money on Ed” supporters unequivocally deny that, stating that a surcharge is not calculated till deductions are factored in.

Based on the U.S. Small Enterprise Administration, the median earnings for self-employed people is about $50,000.

The impartial Joint Legislative Funds Committee estimates the common tax improve for these making $250,000 to $499,999 can be $120, the common improve for these making $500,000 to $999,999 can be $5,549 and the rise for these reporting earnings of $1 million to $4 million can be $40,287, in accordance with an evaluation by The Arizona Republic.

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Gau instructed Fox Information she had carried out her personal evaluation in accordance with the research and located that 99.95% of Prop 208 {dollars} “will go precisely the place supposed” to assist lecturers, assist workers and mentorship applications.

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The amount of cash that is flowed into training in Arizona since 2018’s “Purple for Ed” demonstrations is critical. In its 2020 price range, the state spent $6.5 billion on training, in contrast with $5.3 billion two years in the past.

Nevertheless, not each instructor obtained a 20% increase promised by Ducey’s phased “20×2020” plan as a result of allocating the cash was left as much as college districts and constitution colleges.

Julia Musto is a reporter for Fox Information Digital. You could find her on Twitter at @JuliaElenaMusto.

March 19, 2025
Siri Fiske: Social isolation amid coronavirus – listed here are the risks dealing with our kids
Between Sunday, Nov. 22 and Monday, Nov. 23, the proportion of scholars solely attending college on-line jumped from 36.9 to 40 %.

As soon as once more, college leaders and authorities officers are scrambling to determine logistics.

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However there’s an enormous distant studying aspect impact they’ve but to think about: Pupil loneliness.

Youngsters are struggling terribly because of government-imposed lockdowns, college closures and excessive social distancing. By way of early mortality danger, social isolation may be simply as damaging as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, in accordance with a research in Views of Psychological Science.
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As colleges shut down in-person lessons, dad and mom and educators have to prioritize social interplay. Our youngsters’s emotional and psychological well being rely on it.

As a consequence of COVID-related lockdowns and restrictions, youngsters are lacking out on play dates, sports activities competitions and different afterschool social actions.

This lack of social interplay is already taking a toll on younger college students. Earlier this yr, after no less than two months of COVID isolation, 23 % of elementary college students in Hubei, China, exhibited melancholy signs. Right here in the US, practically a 3rd of oldsters say social isolation has inflicted psychological or emotional hurt on their youngsters, in accordance with a June Gallup ballot.

The scientific group has lengthy understood that play and playdates aren’t simply frivolous enjoyable. They’re an integral a part of children’ happiness and improvement.

Unstructured playtime reduces youngsters’s stress ranges and helps mitigate the danger of melancholy, in accordance with an professional from rural well being care nonprofit Sanford Well being. And youngsters who don’t interact in wholesome social time usually tend to have issues with cognitive improvement.

Educators must play a job. Step one is taking the necessity for playtime severely.

Social isolation may even really feel like bodily ache, in accordance with a College of North Carolina psychological well being professor. “The mind reacts to the lack of social interplay in the identical means that it’d experiencing a bodily sickness or precise ache, so we do want to determine a technique to have children engaged in optimistic social interactions with friends,” she explains.

Fortunately, children can socialize with out unduly rising their danger of catching COVID-19.

Mother and father can arrange playtimes with small teams of neighborhood children, even when it must be socially distanced. Or spearhead neighborhood picnics. Because the climate will get colder, they may arrange actions within the college gymnasium or schedule Zoom scavenger hunts.

Educators must play a job as properly. Step one is taking the necessity for playtime severely.

At my micro college, Mysa College, we have transitioned to a hybrid studying mannequin through the pandemic. We welcome college students to campus as soon as every week and do the remainder of our instructing on-line.

We have made it some extent to not use our in-person time for math class or studying classes. As a substitute, we prioritize social actions. College students may use their time on campus to make socially-distanced TikToks, play sports activities, make artwork collectively or go on nature walks.

Colleges going absolutely on-line for the winter must be a bit extra inventive. A constitution college community in Texas, for instance, is conducting “circle time” by way of videoconference. College students will take turns sharing experiences and get 45 minutes of social and emotional studying every morning.

Emerson Elementary in Oakland is making an attempt out “digital recess,” encouraging college students to speak about something they’d like whereas lecturers keep on mute.

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When sheltering-in-place first started, adults stayed sane by planning Zoom comfortable hours and reconnecting with outdated buddies. Youngsters did not have that. They went from operating round playgrounds to determining math issues on the kitchen counter.

Social isolation is a harmful aspect impact of this pandemic. It is as much as dad and mom and lecturers to avoid wasting play dates. In any other case, our youngsters pays the value.

Siri Fiske is the founder and head of Mysa College.
February 6, 2025
Trump administration pitches second-term insurance policies to Indian Nation

The proposals had been outlined in a three-page coverage pitch the White Home launched this week, titled “Placing America’s First Peoples First — Forgotten No Extra!”

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The doc outlined 5 core rules President Trump has stated he makes use of to combat for Indian Nation, in addition to 10 bullet-point guarantees for the longer term.

The administration pledged to make sure safer communities, set insurance policies that will foster 51,000 new Native American-owned companies, enhance infrastructure and digital connectivity, promote tribal financial self-determination, enhance federal funding in tribal schools and universities, respect Native American tradition by prioritizing repatriation of stays and cultural artifacts, present high-quality training choices for youngsters, host a summit of nationwide tribal leaders, guarantee higher care via the Indian Well being Service and honor Native Individuals’ custom of army service.

Well being care is a vital element: Already shrinking Native American communities have been hit disproportionately onerous by the COVID-19 pandemic, and Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez instructed USA At the moment on Wednesday that he blamed the federal authorities’s response.

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“I’m certain if the federal authorities had intervened quite a bit faster, issues would have been quite a bit higher,” Nez stated. “It’s apparent there was a scarcity of help.”

Tribes have additionally been tormented by an epidemic of lacking and murdered indigenous individuals in addition to opioid and meth crises.

As well as, rural and infrequently distant tribal lands have restricted entry to broadcast and electrical traces, although not all of them need modifications due to concern over potential unfavourable environmental impacts.

Trump additionally pledged $10 million to create new tribal constitution faculties and hand out faculty selection scholarships and promised to extend funding to some native-language packages by 25%.

Based on AZ Central, throughout a name with Navajo Nation Vice President Myron Lizer and Cherokee Nation’s Oklahoma Republican Rep. Markwayne Mullin, senior administration officers went over the commitments point-by-point and heralded a number of earlier accomplishments such because the repatriation of human stays and funerary artifacts to Pueblo tribes and laws recognizing six Virginia tribes and Savanna’s Act.

Savanna’s Act was created to strengthen legislation enforcement responses to lacking and murdered indigenous individuals’ circumstances.

The officers additionally touted $8 billion of disbursements to tribes battling COVID-19 and the U.S. Justice Division’s greater than $295 million in grants for tribes.

Lizer, the Navajo vice chairman, reportedly lauded the president’s efforts and dedication to long-term points for Indian Nation.

Trump’s plan incorporates some similarities to that of Democratic challenger Joe Biden, who launched his personal coverage platform firstly of the month.

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The 15-page “Biden-Harris Plan For Tribal Nations” hits on eight key guarantees together with strengthening nation-to-nation relationships, offering high quality well being care, restoring tribal lands and addressing local weather change, making certain the security of native communities, increasing financial alternative, investing in training, commemorating native veterans and making certain Native Individuals can train their proper to vote.

Members of Arizona’s Navajo Nation had introduced a lawsuit alleging that their voters can be disenfranchised by necessities that ballots be acquired by 7 p.m. GMT on Election Day, citing U.S. Postal service supply issues.

Nonetheless, the ninth Circuit Court docket of Appeals concluded they’d no authorized standing to ask for an extension

The Biden-Harris plan would restore the Voting Rights Act, appoint authorized leaders who would problem legal guidelines designed to suppress the Native American vote, and set up a Native American Voting Rights Job Pressure aiming to make sure equal entry to voter registration and polling websites.

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As The New Republic reported, Native American voters are a crucial bloc in a number of swing states together with Arizona and Nevada. Polling information in each states present the previous vice chairman carrying the lead, with margins of greater than 3 and 5 proportion factors respectively.

Julia Musto is a reporter for Fox Information Digital. Yow will discover her on Twitter at @JuliaElenaMusto.

December 9, 2024
Sen. Lamar Alexander: Kids ought to put on masks as a part of broader plan to reopen faculties in fall

Entry to large-scale coronavirus testing might be a key a part of college students returning to lecture rooms within the fall, Tennessee Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander said Friday, saying “youngsters ought to have on masks” in school.

In an interview on “America’s Newsroom” with host Sandra Smith, Alexander stated that whereas there are some well being dangers U.S. officers have warned in opposition to “cavalierly dismissing,” COVID-19 has been usually much less damaging to America’s youth “although they might carry it to older individuals.”

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“So, I believe most principals, most faculty boards are planning now to return to faculty in August as a result of any trainer can inform you there are different dangers – the danger of social, mental, emotional injury to a baby who would possibly lose an whole faculty yr – and, we would like to keep away from that,” he remarked.

Alexander instructed Smith situations for reopening would require youngsters sporting masks, social distancing, flexibility in altering and staggering schedules, unions and governments enjoyable restrictions to assist faculties, smaller lecture rooms sizes, and extra consideration to flu and pneumonia pictures.

Scholar’s chairs are stacked on high of desks in an empty classroom at closed Robertson Elementary Faculty, March 16, 2020, in Yakima, Wash. (Amanda Ray/Yakima Herald-Republic by way of AP)

“However, it is the standard issues. Social distance, wash your palms, keep other than each other, and then common testing,” he repeated. “And, in the event you discover a baby in a classroom who’s contaminated, he or she is faraway from the classroom, you check all the opposite youngsters within the classroom and ensure the faculty is protected.”

Entry to coronavirus testing is important to any facility housing teams of individuals, however in lecture rooms full of children – particularly these in highschool and faculty – it is going to be particularly necessary to attempt to mitigate the unfold of the virus.

Based on Vox, the nation’s testing numbers have continued to pattern upward this week with about 380,000 checks per day over the week of Could 14, up from roughly 320,000 checks a day over the week of Could 7. Their figures had been based mostly on knowledge from the COVID Monitoring Mission.

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That stated, though President Trump has boasted that America “leads the world in testing” earlier than, different international locations have completed higher reporting increased per-capita testing charges.

As well as, a brand new report launched Wednesday from the College of Minnesota’s Heart for Infectious Illness Analysis and Coverage (CIDRAP) means that numbers broadly reported by states and by the administration present solely a part of the image.

This week, a number of states admitted they’d been combining knowledge on diagnostic checks and antibody checks, probably skewing outcomes.

Alexander instructed Smith he believes there might be sufficient testing by the start of the college yr to proceed on schedule, and that numbers of checks would proceed to ramp up.

“Remember that we’re testing this month in Could in our nation about 10 million instances. That’s twice as a lot as another nation,” he beseeched. “And, if we go as much as 40 or 50 million, that’s 4 to 5 instances extra checks by September or October.”

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Alexander additionally cited the work of Nationwide Institutes of Well being (NIH) Director Francis Collins, who he believes is pulling out “all of the stops ever” to create “tens of thousands and thousands [of] extra checks which can be fast, correct, and get a speedy outcome.”

“So, clearly we’re going to have the ability to check all of the academics, all of the cleansing personnel, all of the individuals who are available in and out of the college, anybody who has a symptom, a complete class, if the category has one particular person and who [was] contaminated, and a few faculties could possibly check the entire faculty,” he concluded.

Julia Musto is a reporter for Fox Information Digital. You could find her on Twitter at @JuliaElenaMusto.

December 7, 2024
Greg Gutfeld: Household is sweet, friends are unhealthy, and college is a jail

God: Good crimson meat joke! Greg approach to know your viewers.

Thanks God!

However I figured missing interplay with their friends would harm their capability to speak and cooperate. Plus they overlook to wash and floss, so that they odor like a piece of gorgonzola. Simply kidding. No one flosses, proper Kat?

Plus, they lose a yr of training. However contemplating what they’re being taught – that might be a plus. I imply, how are they gunna find out how racist they’re, whereas not studying math?

However – I used to be holding two opposite ideas in my head, which is already twice my capability. On one facet of my mind, I consider the one-size-fits-all regiment of faculty harms children – particularly in public colleges, which is about one step faraway from manufacturing unit farming. And we aren’t even getting soylent inexperienced out of it. A manufacturing unit may pollute a stream; however colleges pollute your child’s thoughts.

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However the different facet of my mind says, “these children are gunna be ruined eternally if they do not get again to class. They’re lacking out on a lot!” However that does not make sense.

That is like saying to a soldier who’s laying in a hospital. “We gotta get u again to the entrance – you are lacking out on a lot!” What had been these college students lacking out on, actually? Judging by our check scores, it is not an training. And given the habits of academics unions, it is laborious to say what’s worse – faculty or the lockdown.

So, after a yr of questioning in regards to the coming psychological well being disaster, the CDC launched knowledge displaying that suspected suicides dramatically elevated amongst women ages 12 to 17 within the US, in comparison with 2019.

However oddly – the speed is inversely associated to highschool closures. That means when colleges shut, suspected suicide makes an attempt truly went down. Then when colleges reopened, the makes an attempt go up. It is like kids instantly had dust on the Clintons.

So once more – colleges closed, suicide makes an attempt amongst women dropped. Then colleges opened, they rose. Then when colleges closed for winter trip, suicide makes an attempt plunged once more. Then when the faculties reopened once more, the makes an attempt instantly jumped. There was no improve for boys throughout reopenings, however they did see a drop in lockdowns too. This sounds counter-intuitive.

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However it’s not – when you understand that suicide dying charges primarily based on many years of knowledge present it falls throughout the summer time and Christmas trip! So it is not distinctive to the pandemic. It is what occurs if you go away faculty for any purpose.

So how do you clarify this? Nicely, faculty sucks. And if you’re dwelling, away from faculty, you are additionally away from the crap that preys on adolescent insecurities. The cliques, the bullying, the necessity to belong.

In the meantime at dwelling, you are not pressured to vary for fitness center class in entrance of all of the people who made enjoyable of you. (A shout out to Kilmeade)

It is a vicious prank. Take children once they’re least immune to see strain, and throw them right into a sea of preening piranhas, who’ve higher garments and more cash. On prime of that, add academics who understand that the mannequin of instructing is to maintain it bland, and when you’re the child who’s unconventional, or slightly slower, or a genius – you find yourself unnoticed. The lonely child on the cafeteria desk.

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You suppose it is a coincidence Richard Branson, Einstein, and Walt Disney all give up faculty at 15? I am guessing it wasn’t the curriculum they discovered too tough. In the meantime, if you’re dwelling – you are with the individuals who love you. And irrespective of how mad mother or dad get at you, they don’t seem to be gonna stuff you in a locker.

So typically, science reveals a connection between issues that we all the time knew to be true, however could not say out loud. Household is sweet. Friends are unhealthy. And college is a jail.

So possibly Zoom lessons weren’t so unhealthy in any case.

And as for the child who’s consuming alone on the cafeteria, I take into consideration you a large number. Keep robust. Whenever you’re an grownup you’ll understand the opinions of the academics and kids round you now don’t matter. Highschool will finish. In the actual world, their conformity is a weak spot, whereas your uniqueness is a energy. Nobody ever mentioned “you already know why I like that man? He’s completely common, and goes together with what’s standard immediately.”

In the event that they did… Then CNN can be standard.

This text is tailored from Greg Gutfeld’s opening monologue on the July 26, 2021 version of “Gutfeld!”

Should you or somebody you already know is having ideas of suicide, please contact the Nationwide Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

Greg Gutfeld at the moment serves as host of FOX Information Channel’s (FNC) Gutfeld! (weekdays 11PM/ET) and co-host of The 5 (weekdays 5PM/ET). He joined the community in 2007 as a contributor. He’s writer of the brand new ebook, “The Plus: Self-Assist for Individuals Who Hate Self-Assist.” Click on right here for extra data on Greg Gutfeld.

November 5, 2024