Shiry Sapir is a Republican running in the Aug 2 primary for the office of Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction. The incumbent is Democrat Kathy Hoffman.
In the primary Sapir is running against Arizona State Senator Michelle Udall and former Superintendent (and Attorney General) Tom Horne. Sapir says that while both are nice people, they are part of the establishment and hence bear partial responsibility for the current state of education. Watch the video of her interview below.
Video of the interview - 28 minutes
Sapir says she is running because many people in charge of education don't care about children and are incompetent about managing tax payer money. Sapir pointed out that about half of the state's budget goes into education, underlining how massive the government education complex has become. Sapir reflected on her personal experience with the school district of her three young children. She said she and other parents fought with the district, which did not want to open schools during the Covid government lockdowns. She says she ended up going through the difficult and expensive process of pulling her kids out of public schools and sending them to private schools that remained open.
Sapir wants to eliminate waste, cancel duplicate programs, but also increase teachers pay. She says that within 24 hours of taking office she would eliminate the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, DEI, department in the Arizona Department of Education, which the Superintendent heads.
Although many school districts insist that so called Critical Race Theory, CRT, which is code for black supremacy, is not in schools, Sapir says that teacher development courses are infected with CRT and also so called social emotional learning, SEL, which is code for trans, gender and queer ideologies. Sapir calls this a disaster. She opined that CRT is strongly embedded in our system because a lot of people let it happen for a long time. Sapir says that every day since she has been running she gets pictures sent by parents of pages, books and videos of Arizona teachers saying horrible things to their students. Sapir said that some teachers have told her that they start grading some students at 50%, rather than at 0%, in an effort of restorative justice. Sapir says the 1967 Civil Rights Act forbids so treating people different based on race. While she is correct, Sapir is up against powerful forces that see it differently. Joe Biden, after all, is hiring explicitly and out in the open purely based on race and gender.
To get rid of CRT Sapir suggest a multi-pronged approach. She wants to strengthen teacher discipline by utilizing the Education Department's certification powers. She also suggest to involve law enforcement when laws have been broken. Sapir also wants to increase transparency, allowing parents to more easily understand what is being taught, and how to file complaints if teachers/schools engage in indoctrination shenanigans with their kids.
Sapir testified in front of an education panel about a book containing graphic scenes of bestiality being taught in a Paradise Valley school which ended up getting a number of teachers and a principle fired. Sapir points out that it's a class 4 felony to bring sexual contents in front of minors, but for some reason in schools it's OK.
However, Sapir clarified that the Superintendent cannot fire teachers and cannot prosecute. She says that she would issue guidance to schools and work with law enforcement.
Newly passed school choice immediately under attack from teachers unions
With regards to the Expanded Scholarship Account, ESA, being made available for ALL Arizona students - universal school vouchers worth around $7,000 per year per student - Sapir says that teachers union aligned Save our Schools PAC, SOS, is currently collecting signatures for a veto referendum. Sapir says that ESA will be available to parents/students shortly, but then corrected herself since it is likely going to be put on hold via the veto referendum. Sapir says that the last thing they - presumably teachers unions and their lackeys in the Democratic Party - want is for kids and parents to be free of the indoctrination camps. Sapir says that incumbent Superintendent Kathy Hoffman hates this new school choice program. Sapir wants to make the ESA school choice program widely known and make the application process via the Arizona Department of Education easy.
Sapir says government is much less good at managing money than the private sector. But she does not suggest pay for performance. Rather, she wants to use professional development and so called detox training that would serve to de-program radical young teachers coming out of education departments at colleges. Sapir wants veteran teachers to do this training. Yet, will veteran teachers want to stand in front of a room that has a number of rabid feminist social justice warriors fresh out of the college indoctrination mills - especially the education departments - and be called racist, homophobic, transphobic and possibly be threatened with harm?
Endorsements and attacks on Sapir's campaign
Sapir says has been endorsed by Paul Gosar, AZ Cops and about 70% of the Republican State Representatives and Senators, including Fillmore, Rogers, etc.
Sapir says that there have been shenanigans done to her campaign by opponents/enemies. She gave the example of tickets to events being taken out, presumably by opponents, preventing supporters from getting those tickets and attending the event. It is interesting to note that Sapir felt compelled to use the word enemy, rather than opponent. Perhaps she recognizes how asinine and plain evil the government education complex, including teachers unions, actually is. Many Republicans are realizing it, and even some Democrats do. But there are still many others who think this problem can be fixed by pedantic nitpicking budget control measures and strongly - well not too strongly, since we don't want to offend anyone, especially not our political opposition - worded letters.