THE EXPERTS ON CHILD-SAFETY REFORM

posted by Amer Taleb

This Friday's guests include Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery, chairman of the Arizona Child Safety Task Force and Clarence Carter, Arizona Department of Economic Security Director and co-chairman of the CSTF.

We'll also hear from Arizona Sen. Linda Lopez, D-Tucson and Dana Wolfe Naimark, executive director of the Children's Action Alliance, Phoenix.

Nearly 2 million children live in Arizona, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. A broad set of expertise is key to identifying and overcoming the challenges of keeping them safe.

BEHIND CPS REFORM: CRUNCHING NUMBERS

posted 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.

STATE MOVES TO REFORM CPS

posted 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 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 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.

EDUCATION IN ARIZONA MAKES BABY STEPS

posted by Caitlin Wilenchik

Arizona has endured lots of beatings as a result of our poor educational rankings year after year, and Gov. Jan Brewer has devised a plan to change that.

The state's public universities rank relatively low on several scales for achievement, and it falls far below average for math and science in state education.

It all started with Arizona’s competing for President Obama’s Race to the Top program, in which Arizona received a Phase Three grant from the U.S. Department of Education, $25 million of the total $200 million available.

This Race to the Top program is also part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and even though Arizona did not win the total available funds, Brewer decided to continue with the same process developed by the grant.

Arizona’s Educational Reform Plan, developed by Brewer, will be carried out by the Arizona Ready Council, formerly the P-20 Council.

This council is led by Craig Barrett, who will be on Arizona Week, to discuss his plan as head of the council and unique outlook on what Arizona needs to improve education.

Barrett, former CEO/Chairman of Intel Corp., has been very invested in Arizona’s education. He is co-chair for Achieve Inc., which is a network of CEOs working to improve an understanding in science, technology, engineering and math.

He also is president and chairman of BASIS Schools Inc., a coalition of charter schools in Arizona.

The Arizona Ready Council hopes to increase the high school graduation rates, improve third-grade reading levels and double the number of baccalaureate degrees in Arizona, all by 2015.

Brewer appointed Barrett after he had harsh works for the state, saying he would never have allowed Intel Corp. to locate in Arizona at the beginning because of the state's low educational achievements.

Controversy may begin with the council’s plan to form a new test to replace the old AIMS tests. Barrett says he agrees with an aggressive approach and knows the failure rate this new test will give to students in 2015.

Arizona will be striving to reform education with much lower spending from the state.

Brewer signed off on a $150 million reduction in K-12 funding for the current fiscal year. She and Barrett said that money isn’t everything, and the cuts in educational funding may not prove to be detrimental. Barrett said his charter schools operate on less money than traditional public schools do.

Also on the show will be a parent and a teacher from the “Parents as Teachers” program in the Amphitheater School District in Tucson, to discuss the program.

Rounding out the program will be Arizona Education Association President Andrew Morrill, discussing the teacher viewpoint on reform. He is a former Marana schools teacher.

Watch Friday at 8:30 p.m. MST on PBS-HD6.