Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Candidate Forum Tonight

Posted By on Wed, Sep 29, 2010 at 11:02 AM

Tonight's candidate forum on education, sponsored by the Family Faculty Organization for the Catalina Foothills School District, starts at 6 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 29, at the Catalina Foothills High School Auditorium, 4300 E. Sunrise Drive.

The following candidates are expected to be there: Superintendent of Public Schools candidates Penny Kotterman (D) and John Huppenthal (R); Legislative District 26 candidates Al Melvin (R) and Cheryl Cage (D) for the Senate, and Vic Williams (R), Terri Proud (R), and Nancy Young Wright (D) for the House; and Legislative District 30 candidates Todd Camenisch (D) and Frank Antenori (R) for the Senate, Andrea Dalessandro (D), David Gowan (R), and Ted Vogt (R) for the House.

If you happen to go, I recommend you read a recent story from David Safier on Blog for Arizona regarding John Huppenthal's comments that Arizona is in the middle in terms of academic achievement. Safier took an extra look at one of the studies Huppenthal has used in the past as an example. Read Safier's story here.

What he leaves out are findings saying student achievement can be improved by increasing education funding, raising teacher salaries, lowering class size and increasing early childhood education — and that's especially true in states like Arizona with high rates of poverty and large minority populations.