SEDONA AZ–“No one else running is actually as experienced and qualified as I am,” Republican candidate for Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Margaret Dugan said. “I feel that I need to run and continue all the great work that we have already started. We need to continue the law (Proposition 203) that I started and worked for and see that it is implemented in our schools.  We need to ensure that English is the language of instruction in our schools. I was the co-chair and co-author of that law, Proposition 203, passed in 2000.”

Candidate Dugan added, “Just this year there was a Senate Bill 1319 that was on its way to committee to undermine that law. I found out about it and fought it. That is why I went to work for the department eight years ago, to make sure that the law was implemented as written and that we monitor it.”

Primary candidate Dugan explained that under current Arizona standards, non-English speaking students are given four hours of English instruction daily in classes with teachers trained in English immersion. The standard has resulted in thirty-two percent (32%) of students who do not speak English as a first language becoming English proficient in one year and transferring into regular classes. The vast majority of the remainder is mainstreamed in the second year. This is compared to the bilingual education method that takes five to seven years for students to achieve English proficiency and then at lower percentages than Dugan’s program, she stated.

Arizona Republican Dugan said, “We did a lot of training and had to teach our teachers how to teach English. The universities wanted bi-lingual instruction and that is what they taught and promoted. We have had to teach all of our teachers how to do English immersion.”

“I grew up speaking Spanish,” the Superintendent of Public Instruction candidate added. “But my parents knew how important it was to our success to speak English. That is why I have been fighting this for thirty seven years.”

Dugan also wants to dispel the myth that all Arizona schools are abysmal. “It isn’t right for us to say that we (Arizona) are forty-ninth in everything. Arizona is forty-ninth in funding and not academic achievement. The state is not at the top which would be better, but it is well above the national average,” the Republican candidate explained while also pointing out that Arizona tests above the national average in NAEP and college entrance exams.

Dugan added that this does not mean all the schools are doing well. The Republican candidate wants to provide assistance and support to those schools that are not doing well because Dugan believes that poor performance “almost always” comes down to a handful of issues; leadership, teachers, students (primarily poor attendance) or curriculum. Margaret Dugan wants to “go in and assist those schools with low performance, to help them turn around and become better.”

The Superintendent of Public Instruction candidate Dugan’s third priority is “to have some influence on legislatures that write laws that the schools must live with.” Dugan cited instances of laws written by the legislature that impacted schools soon followed by laws contradicting the prior legislation.

Arizonan Dugan explained, “Like the AIMS test…the legislature wrote a bill that had tenth grade as the high stakes year; students had to pass it (AIMS) in order to graduate. They would have had better results having at least some high stakes tests at the lower grades, so the students are prepared along the way.”

Candidate Margaret Dugan added, “Well, that resulted in a lot of complaints so they passed another bill the next year that allowed students to use their report card grades to augment their test scores. That just led to grade inflation and made the test meaningless. Now they say it is too easy and meaningless, so they made it so students can now take the SAT or ACT to pass. But they made the cut so low, it is again meaningless. They just keep monkeying around with the accountability of the high stakes test.  Before we create a law, let’s talk about why you are doing it and what the impact will be.”

“I have the experience.  I have always taught and led with conservative values that have worked,” Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction candidate Margaret Dugan said. “I am not into gimmicks, not into change for the sake of it. I make changes that will impact the students and I put the students first. Look at my track record. I have always done that in my thirty-seven year career. If voters want a worker and somebody responsive to parents and students, I am the only candidate on both sides that has ever run a school.  I did that for ten years and turned it around from low performing to high achievement.”

For more information go to www.margaretdugan.com

Article written by Joni Dahlstrom, sedonaeye.com Staff Writer JoniD@eSedona.net  Sedona Times Publishing Election Central  c2010