BEHIND CPS REFORM: CRUNCHING NUMBERS

posted to AZ Week Notebook by Michael Chihak

By AMER TALEB, Arizona Week Intern

The numbers behind Arizona’s push to reform Child Protective Services paint a disturbing picture.

Depending on who's counting and how the count is taken, anywhere from 15 to 48 children died of abuse in the last three years in Arizona after cases involving them were opened by CPS.

A record number of children now live in foster care in the state, and many don’t receive proper attention because caseloads are 60 percent above state workload standards, according to a report in the Arizona Republic.

A second Republic story said more than 700 caseworkers investigate or manage about 35,000 abuse and neglect reports annually.

Six-year-old Jacob Gibson’s death last August reignited the debate about CPS’ effectiveness. CPS workers knew about the alleged beatings Jacob was subjected to for at least three years.

Gov. Jan Brewer formed the Arizona Child Safety Task Force less than two months after Jacob’s death. The committee examined Arizona’s child-safety policies and issued their report to the governor in December.

The report concluded that CPS reform is only one piece to the complex puzzle of protecting children, something that requires more help from schools, foster homes and law enforcement.

Friday’s Arizona Week digs deep into the problems with Arizona’s child-safety policies and asks what’s being done to fix them.

ANDREI CHERNY RESIGNS FROM TOP DEM POST

posted to Political Buzz by Andrea Kelly

Andrei Cherny resigned Monday from his position as chairman of the Arizona Democratic Party. In his resignation message, he said many of the people who urged him to run for the chairmanship are now urging him to "take on a new and different task."

While Cherny hasn't yet announced his plans or described that new task, he has launched a congressional campaign website, which allows people to sign up for email updates. He hasn't filed as a candidate with the Federal Elections Commission, either, which is a requirement for anyone running in a federal election such as a congressional race.

The Arizona Capitol Times reports: "Cherny is expected to soon announce he is running for Congress in the new 9th Congressional District, which includes parts of Phoenix, Scottsdale, Tempe, and Mesa."

Democrat State Sen. Kyrsten Sinema has filed to run in that district, as has her Democratic colleague state Sen. David Shapira. Republican businessman Travis Grantham has also filed.

STATE MOVES TO REFORM CPS

posted to AZ Week Notebook by Amer Taleb

Jacob Gibson arrived at the hospital with his rib cage protruding, fully seizing and marked with welts that appeared to be caused by a belt. The 6 year old eventually died, the victim of his own parents.

For at least three years, Child Protective Services knew about the alleged beatings Jacob was subjected to. CPS had received five reports alleging the child was abused and neglected under the "care” of his parents, according to the Department of Economic Security.

Less than two months later on Oct. 7, 2011, Gov. Jan Brewer formed the Arizona Child Safety Task Force to examine Arizona’s child-safety policies and issue recommendations by the end of 2011.

Its findings: Internal improvements to CPS aren’t enough to bring Arizona’s child-safety policies up to adequate standards.

Reforming Arizona’s protection policies requires progress all over the board - law enforcement, schools and foster families, the report says.

Suggestions included developing better definitions of child abuse, reviewing a CPS worker’s authority to verify a child’s safety against a parent’s will and making CPS employee disciplinary records and hearings public.

Abuse, neglect and abandonment forced more than 10,000 children into out-of-home care across Arizona as of March 2010, according to the Department of Economic Security. Nearly 50 percent of them are between 1-5.

“That is an issue (CPS reform) that I think is really important to the people in Arizona and certainly to the children,” Brewer said in a recent Arizona Week show. “(Children) are the unfortunate benefactors of that abuse.”

Friday's Arizona Week will focus on state efforts to reform CPS, including interviews with state officials and child-safety advocates.

HINTS AT EXTENDING 1-CENT SALES TAX?

posted to AZ Week Notebook by Michael Chihak

Listen closely and carefully to Republican Gov. Jan Brewer's comments lately on the 1-cent education sales tax could lead one to conclude that she isn't entirely opposed to it going away.

The governor vowed in her State of the State speech two weeks ago that as promised, she will see that the tax, passed by voters overwhelmingly in 2010, ends in 2013 as scheduled.

Brewer reiterated that promise in an interview with Arizona Week the same week that she gave her speech.

Yet, in that same interview -- and in the speech -- her comments may have hinted at the idea that she wouldn't oppose an extension of the 1-cent tax under certain circumstances.

In the interview, she said she would have to see what any extension proposal looked like. There are stirrings of a ballot initiative to extend the tax.

In her speech, as Democratic state Rep. Steve Farley pointed out at a legislative forum in Tucson this week, Brewer said she is adamant about letting "this" sales tax expire as scheduled. Farley said that could be an indication she would allow something else to take its place.

EDUCATION REFORM: ESCHEW CLICHES

posted to AZ Week Notebook by Michael Chihak

It’s time for a pop quiz.

Just one question: What do Arizona schools need to succeed?

A -- Better teachers.

B – Parental involvement.

C -- More money.

D -- All of the above.

The answer in a few moments.

But first, what shall we call our quiz? How about the aim test, because this list of answers has the potential to continue a dialogue that aims at blame and at the wrong-headed idea there’s one simple solution.

The correct answer, of course, is D – All of the above.

Yet there are those who say it’s A -- all up to teachers, and that they’re to blame for the system’s degradation.

There are others who say it’s B – because many parents are shirking responsibility.

And still others who say it’s C – schools are being starved.

There’s truth in all those statements, and thus we must be comprehensive in our approach, not taking aim at any one issue for blame or solution.

Yes, let’s support teachers and help make them better, including finding new teaching methods. And yes, let’s support parents, giving them greater access to their children’s educational processes. And, of course, let’s give the system more money, so teachers are rewarded and children have the tools they need to learn.

If these all sound like little more than bromides, it’s time to look at the real cliches in the educational dialogue: politicians who say let’s do more with less, for example. By that logic, we ought to consider doing everything with nothing.

Or those who say let’s give parents choices. First, we must give parents the ability to make choices, because many don’t possess it when it comes to education for their children.

The issues are complex, and the short answers won’t help us overcome them.

So let’s succeed in our test by aiming all we say and do at comprehensive improvement in the public educational system.

This is about our children, who deserve more than we’re giving them now.

NEW CD4 SURVEY SIZES UP REPUBLICAN FIELD

posted to Political Buzz by Andrea Kelly

Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu commissioned a survey last week that shows he's leading the Republican field in the race for congressional district 4.

Public Opinion Strategies surveyed 300 likely Republican primary voters over the phone Jan. 18 and 19, and in a memo, says Babeu got 31 percent of the voters. That compares to U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar's 23 percent, and state Sen. Ron Gould's 19 percent.

The margin of error is 5.6 percent, and the company didn't include the survey questions or response options in the memo of the results.

Babeu and Gould are "very strong in their geographic bases of Pinal and Mojave counties respectively, while Gosar's numbers in his base of Yavapai County are underwhelming," the company says in the memo.