Final Word: How about Arizona actually helps education?

Guns in schools? Maybe it’s not the worst idea, but I’m not sure we need to arm our teachers.

It’s sort of like “Do we need a bill to bless business owners for kicking gay people out of their buildings?” The governor, thankfully, said no and vetoed SB 1062.

But nonetheless, the armed teachers bill has made it out of committee. It would allow an unlimited number of teachers and other staff to be armed after receiving 24 hours of training.

Supporters say the guns would protect children and staff in the event of a mass shooting. So we are responding to the highly unlikely, possible scenario of a Sandy Hook situation by allowing the teachers to pack heat?

OK. I’m all for safety. So let’s just say that’s a good idea. Know what else is a good idea?

Educating our kids. All of them.

Rich and poor, English-speaking kids and otherwise. Black, white, Hispanic. Kids with parents who care and kids whose parents couldn’t care less.

In its infinite wisdom, the Legislature is also in the process of removing Arizona’s Common Core standards. Those are the nearly-universally accepted college and career readiness standards that ensure that our high school graduates in Arizona have at least as much knowledge as their peers in other states.

It also STARTS to address the deficit our students face when comapred with students in other countries, who are, quite candidly, kicking the average American student’s butt.

In Arizona, we don’t want anyone telling us what to do or how to teach, so we are going to kick those standards out and go with the OLD method. The one that has been failing miserably. The numbers of these bills are SB 1310, 1396, 1395 and 1388.

Overkill? Of course it is.

Let’s get these bills stopped and finally do something FOR education, instead of against it.