State superintendent candidate stops in Winslow

<i>Photo by John Bianchini</i>
<b>Former Republican Sen. Slade Mead (D-AZ), now a Democrat, stops in Winslow to ask for support in bid for State Superintendent of Public Instruction.</b>

<i>Photo by John Bianchini</i> <b>Former Republican Sen. Slade Mead (D-AZ), now a Democrat, stops in Winslow to ask for support in bid for State Superintendent of Public Instruction.</b>

Former Republican Sen. Slade Mead (D-AZ), now a Democrat, pulled his Toyota Prius over into Winslow Monday morning to speak with Mayor Allan Affeldt and the Winslow Mail. His stop here in between Window Rock and Flagstaff was part of his attempt to reach-out to rural Arizonans to consider him when voting for the position of Superintendent of Public Instruction next November.

"I am a friend of the mayor and assure you that my door will always be open to the concerns and thoughts of this and other mayors, school board members and administrators from rural Arizona," Mead said.

After his stop in Winslow, he said he would soon turn in his 1,900 signatures and $5 contributions for his Clean Elections Campaign. Clean Elections is an option for campaigning politicians to raise money on a more grassroots pace; whereby, the Clean Elections Committee will contribute matching campaign funds for candidates who must compete with powerful opponents who traditionally raise much more money.

In 2003, after Mead stepped out and blocked his own party's budget proposal to the governor, the GOP began a campaign against Mead for what he said was their retaliation for his aligning himself with moderate Republicans and Democrats on certain issues, especially regarding the 2003 state budget. While in the state senate, Mead was Vice-Chairman of the Education Committee and served on the Appropriations and Government Committees. 

"While a member of the Senate, I led the revolt against the draconian GOP budget that had over $25 million in cuts to public education," he said.

Mead explained to the mayor that his opponent, Republican Tom Horne, the current Superintendent of Public Instruction, does not represent rural Arizonans and is only making education problems in the state worse.

"I was shocked by Superintendent Horne when last Wednesday he opposed a teacher pay raise in a testimony before the Senate Education Committee," Mead said.

Two of the biggest issues that Mead is focusing on for his campaign are AIMS tests and teacher shortages.

He said that AIMS fails to identify where students have problems in certain subjects and that makes them vulnerable to chronic failure every year when retaking the AIMS test.

Mead said he plans on, "breaking the test into specific strands so that a student who does well on one strand is not retested on that area, but rather can focus on those areas in which the student did poorly," he said. "A student who may do poorly may then get one-on-one help from a teacher and can then focus on his or her weaknesses and retake that specific part of the AIMS test."

Mead brought up an ideal model in Wyoming for Arizona to look to when trying to solve some of the education testing problems.

A "Body of Evidence" model ­ as used in Wyoming ­ will "Promote local control," according to Mead. "Body of evidence does not reinvent AIMS, instead it will be a good way to adopt another state's successful template where the test has been proven to be a positive teaching tool rather than a negative and punishing one."

"My former colleague in the Senate, Jack Brown, (a Democrat from St. John's) has shared with me his concern that areas such as Winslow are often ignored by the Department of Education."

The concerns and lifestyle of people in northern Arizona are not necessarily the same as those in places like Maricopa County. As an example, Mead said the students in an agricultural community like Yuma should be given more credit for doing things in their areas of interest, and students in Winslow could be more interested in receiving credit for working with local employers like the La Posada.

He said that the customs and cultural values in one area of the state do not necessarily reflect those in other parts of the state.

Currently, Arizona has 146 standards that are required to be taught, but the AIMS test only covers about 34 of these requirements. Mead said, poor state educational policy forces teachers to focus on these 34 areas and that causes student to fall behind in other areas.

Mead will be driving his Prius around the state until the November election. He said those who want to learn more about him or who want to get involved, may visit his website ­ www.slademead.com

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