If you feel Arizona education is poor ...

[MN-Born-n-Raised]

Originally Posted by Voebe

I'm sorry, but I find that a selfish and pernicious mindset.

I've never in my life had to call on the fire department, and I hope I never will, buy I certainly don't leap to the conclusion that we should have fewer of them.

You are on to something with your weak retort. We have too damn many fire departments too! I've thought that for years!

Fires have been on the decline over the past 30 years (flame retardant material usages, detectors, sprinkler systems, etc) yet the total amount of firefighters have increased by 50%. Read https://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...=.c5a795ca75e7

As the article shows, on average, each fire department has a fire call every 22 days. If a department has 8 stations like where I live in Surprise, AZ (home of new construction which has even less fires) https://www.surpriseaz.gov/1510/Fire-Stations , then they see far less fire related calls per station. As you see from the map, municipalities (who like to spend other peoples money) like dotting the stations throughout the city. How about we spread them out another 2-3 miles farther apart especially in areas with more flame retardant built homes like in Surprise?

In 2019, most of the calls that the fire station gets are related to medical emergencies. There are far more economical solutions to distribute 1st respondents. Like parked ambiances that are manned 24-7.

Oh. While we are at it, we don't need 180 police officers in our town which is the 2nd safest town in Arizona either.

Back to the libraries. Library traffic is the heaviest for DVD free rentals, people studying in a quiet spot, wifi and computers. That can happen in all kinds of places. But certainly, we need one stellar flagship library. ASU might as well be the one. So I if I need something once every year, I can drive there. I don't need one in Surprise. Especially with technology that allows you to link from home.

[Voebe]

Originally Posted by jnojr

It's expensive to have a human being sitting there to answer questions that everyone else is just looking up on the Internet.

Sorry, but no. They don't just sit there. They usually do a range of things. And, if case you're not aware of it, first, not everyone has internet and, second, not everyone knows how to find things that aren't easily there.

Originally Posted by Slater

There are (amazingly) poor families across this nation that don't have (or can't afford) Internet access. The local library would seem to be an important resource for these particular kids.

Of course! There are also poor kids who lack space and quiet at home.

[SFBayBoomer]

Originally Posted by ringler24

They gave teachers a "raise" which consisted of increasing class sizes in my kids' school to a ridiculous number. That's not a raise. My 5th grader has 36 kids in his class and the Kindergartens have 29 and we are a highly rated school. Number one way to fail children is to have no cap on class sizes.

That may "sound intuitively correct" but some of the world’s highest achieving student bodies, like Korea and Japan, have the biggest class sizes.





Small class sizes are not the cure-all some suggest.

[ringler24]

Originally Posted by SFBayBoomer

That may "sound intuitively correct" but some of the world’s highest achieving student bodies, like Korea and Japan, have the biggest class sizes.





Small class sizes are not the cure-all some suggest.

Asian countries are primarily homogeneous in their student population. Do a C-Span search of Betsy DeVos garbling over her LACK of finding any research that supports larger class sizes in this country. There's plenty of evidence based research that indicates smaller class sizes increases performance in the US.

[Thomasaz]

Spending money on education, building a good school system with good rankings, and fostering a culture of education brings people into the state that are looking for those things. As of now, Arizona appeals to people trying to find a more affordable option of California. I'm sorry but Arizona needs to start attracting college grads, young people, and older people who are interested in improving the area, not retirees who are interested in themselves and minimum wage workers.