Thursday, July 16, 2009

Ethics in Educational Law

I decided to pick up the challenge of learning how we enact education laws in the state of Arizona. I bounced around the links that I located on the subject reading whatever I could find to get a good grasp on the subject. I was in fact, able to identify the processes involved that take an education related matter from bill to law. There is a lot of bouncing back and forth between steps of the process, but it is well defined and comprehensible.

I then decided that it would be interesting to find and follow a bill in the State Legislature to see first hand how the process is completed. In searching for subject matter, I visited the Arizona State Board of Education website. On the homepage “Current Events” window, I noticed an announcement that read, “06-12-2009: Superintendent Tom Horne Announces Bill To Be Introduced To Prohibit Ethnic Studies.” Well, this looks interesting, I thought, 2009 and we have a state Superintendent of Education against Ethnic studies. After doing some research, I was able to identify the bill as Senate Bill 1069, before the Arizona State Legislature. I went to their web site and entered the bill number in their search window, but I kept getting a hit on a matter identified as having to do with Justice Court Fees. I could not comprehend a relationship between prohibiting ethnic studies in school and raising justice court fees. That is when I learned about a sneaky little devise used to camouflage controversial legislative issues in order to move them along the legislative process without drawing too much attention. This legislative devise is called a “Strike Everything Amendment.”

Senate Bill 1069 began its life on 01/12/09, when State Senator Paton introduced it under the title, “Justice Court Fees.” The bill had its second reading on 06/04/09 when it was presented to the Judiciary Committee and the Rules Committee who then voted on the measure. The Rules Committee found on 06/18/09 that the matter was “proper for consideration,” and the Judiciary Committee passed the bill after a vote of 4/3 with the notation “DPA/SE,” which translates to: “do pass amended/strike-everything.” That was the first I heard of a strike everything amendment. I would just like to note that it does not appear that this bill was every considered by the Education Committee even though it certainly deals with education, or at least the denial of it. This is perhaps another benefit of this back door political devise.

I continued my research and found the first version of the bill. There was no mention of the Superintendents plan at all. I then located a document filed by the Arizona State Senate Research Staff, under the name of Christina Estes-Werther addressed to the members of the senate judiciary committee dated 06/12/09. This is the strike everything amendment and it details the plan for the prohibition of teaching ethnic studies in Arizona public schools. The next document in the file is the approved amendment. The Senate Committee adopted the amendment as noted above on 06/18/09. The bill must now go back to the house, and if approved to the governor before it becomes law. Now that it has become public at this late stage, opposition to the bill is growing and interested parties are speaking out against it.

I’ll keep my opinions on the issue to myself, but what I did learn about the legislative process in the State of Arizona leads me to believe that as an educational leader one must consider all resources available when advocating for change. The politics involved in our legislative processes are a reality. I think that this case illustrates the point succinctly. I am not a lawyer, but I would venture to guess that the maneuvering involved in introducing a bill as a “Strike Everything Amendment,” is perfectly legitimate according to the standards of our legal system. However, educational leaders and administrators subscribe to professional standards as well. Standard five deals with fairness and ethics. My own moral compass tells me that what has transpired in regards to Arizona Senate Bill 1069 is neither ethical, nor fair.

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