Constitutional Commemoration Committee

Speakers Present

Steve Moortel, Majority Assistant Research Analyst

Election of Chairman

Chairman Norton stated that by statute the Constitutional Commemoration Committee annually elects its own chairman and that with a quorum present at this meeting, excluding Representatives and Senators who attend in an advisory capacity, he asked for nominations for Chairman.

Mr. Langkilde nominated Mr. Bill Norton to continue as Chairman of the Constitutional Commemoration Committee. Ms. Lisa Fink seconded the nomination. Mr. Norton was elected by voice vote.

Approval of Minutes

Chairman Norton asked that a correction be made in the Minutes of November 18, 2005, on the second page, in the first complete paragraph, second sentence, third line: “that all schools receive federal funding to teach about the Constitution on Constitution Day” should read “that all schools that receive federal funding have to teach about the Constitution on Constitution Day.” With no further corrections or additions to be made:

Chairman Norton moved that the Minutes of November 18, 2005, as above amended, be approved by the Committee. The motion carried.

Report on Bill of Rights Day

Chairman Norton reported that Bill of Rights Day, December 10, was held in Payson, Arizona, and put on by Tina Terry and that by reports it seemed to have been very successful. The mayor of Payson and the mayor of the new town of Star Valley, whose first official proclamation was the proclamation of Bill of Rights Day, attended. The Chairman mentioned that Congressman Rick Renzi spoke and that there had been good news coverage from the local radio stations. The Chairman asked Ms. Fink, who had a table at the event representing the Committee, to give her reflections of the day.

Ms. Fink commented that there were candidates from both parties speaking about their platforms in relation to the Bill of Rights, together with Superintendent Tom Horne, in relation to education. She said various groups affiliated with promoting the Constitution and Bill of Rights had tables at the event, which was also a fundraiser for the local senior center, with $20,000 having been raised according to Tina Terry. Ms. Fink said there was a much greater attendance at this Bill of Rights Day event than at the first one.

Chairman Norton reported that the DVD “A More Perfect Union” that had been distributed for free to the schools was given out at this event. He also said that the Committee looks forward to hearing from Ms. Turner about next year’s Bill of Rights Day in order to participate in and support it.

Report from Education Subcommittee

Chairman Norton stated Mr. Langkilde had some questions for Mr. Art Harding who was not present due to some issues that had come up at the Department of Education. The Chairman asked Mr. Cordes if he had anything to report on and suggested that possibly Mr. Langkilde could direct some of his questions to Mr. Cordes. Mr. Langkilde said the Committee had brought them up before but had not received any answers. One of those issues pertains to some assurance being received from Superintendent Tom Horne as to the compliance of the school districts in teaching the constitution for one year as required by state law. Mr. Langkilde reported that surveys in the past disclosed that most, if not all the school districts, are teaching only one semester or are substantially inadequate compared to what the law requires.

Mr. Langkilde asked Mr. Cordes, as a teacher, about the current status of the state and the school districts regarding teaching creationism in schools. Mr. Cordes responded that although he is not a science teacher, he believes that most school districts shy away from teaching it because they do not want to deal with the controversy, though he is not sure how clear Arizona law is about it.

Mr. Langkilde said he tended to agree. Since creationism is fundamental to teaching the historic founding of our country, using that as an argument including the ideas in the Declaration of Independence, perhaps the science teachers would be encouraged to not give students conflicting ideas, e.g., that they come from an amoeba or a starfish since in social studies or government class they would be taught to properly understand from a philosophical point of view the essentialness that we are creatures of a Creator.

Mr. Eric Duthie noted that his understanding of the purpose of this Committee is to make recommendations to the Department of Education He added that in ~~his~~ personal experience, having served within the last four years as a school resource officer, he was required to see to it that there was a certain number of hours of classroom instruction on the ~~Constitutions~~ Constitution. He said at this point there is no standard in this classroom instruction. It is left to the officers themselves and varies from teaching personal defense to a study hall scenario. Mr. Duthie said he became acquainted with the “We the People” program and adopted it for his seventh and eighth grade students incorporating it into the curriculum. He believes that this Committee would have an impact by establishing a standard – a recommendation that could be identified and targeted – to introduce “We the People” on a daily basis for at least an hour a day to seventh and eighth graders throughout the school year.

The Chairman asked how the school resource officers receive their directions. Mr. Duthie reported he has attended a number of statewide training sessions for school resource officers. He said there is no consistency and it is left to the district and the school resource officer to make a determination as to what will be taught. Generally speaking, in dealing with a number of school resource officers he said they would simply yield to the direction of the school district as to what was felt to be more important and more productive for the students. With that in mind he wanted to encourage everyone that this is an opportunity to focus on constitutional education at the seventh and eighth grade level, as there is no standard established that he is aware of.

Representative Garcia commented that their seventh and eighth grade resource officers have so many different duties to perform it would be almost impossible for them to have this class an hour a day; as there are so many other classes mandated. They are very much involved with the children. In her district she has seen them deal with safety in schools, substance abuse and truancy to where they even go out to make home visits.

Chairman Norton remarked that it sounds like there is a lot of variation with the different school districts and that he thought it would be a good idea if the Committee just figured out how to get some information to these resource officers to give them an option so that in some of the districts where they may not be as busy, they could utilize it. He pointed out that one of the great things about studying the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence is that it teaches kids about being good citizens and what it means to live in a free nation, which certainly seems like it would fall right in line with a lot of what those school resource officers are attempting to do.

Mr. Duthie stated that he understood Representative Garcia’s concern that resource officers are sometimes limited as to what they can accomplish; that he comes from a standpoint of a small rural school district, and obviously small rural school districts officers have more time. He did, however, reiterate that since the Department of Education requires at least 90 hours a semester of in classroom instruction and since there is no standard of what that instruction should be, he sees this as an opportunity for the Committee to provide the resources. Resource officers, especially new ones, are usually trying to find a curriculum like this that is already developed.

Ms. Fink commented that when she was Chairman the Committee did contact many of the districts, but without much response because the districts want to receive the resources through the Department of Education and this is why most of what is now done is done through the Department of Education.

Mr. Duthie said he would have no problem in trying to make appropriate contacts in order to get the message out. Chairman Norton asked Mr. Duthie if he would put some of his thoughts together as to what the best delivery mode would be for these resources to get to the resource officers. Representative Garcia offered to bring back to the Committee, information on the things that are already being done in her district. Mr. Norton suggested the Committee study the information and see how the recommendations can mesh into what already exists in the most feasible way.

Mr. Langilde brought attention to the fact that there is no assurance that this mandate is being complied with and that the State Superintendent is required to give assurance that the standards are being met particularly in teaching the Constitution regardless of what resource is being utilized. He said at the high school level there is a district assessment, but there are no assurances that that district assessment conforms and is aligned to the state standards. Students could be taught a variety of divergent viewpoints contrary to the state standards and it would not be known.

Mr. Cordes spoke about the Character Counts program and the DARE program and encouraged the members of the Committee to go online and look at the high school and the middle school standards that were passed just a few months ago and take effect in the fall of 2007. Mr. Cordes recommended the website www.charactercounts.com.

Representative Garcia spoke about the newly formed Civic Education Committee of which she is a member and said there have been two meetings to date which were on the “We the People” program. She said that a Commission is being formed with appointments made by the Speaker, the President of the Senate and the Governor. Mr. Langkilde mentioned to Chairman Norton and Representative Garcia the importance of Representative Garcia giving updates to this Committee from time to time on those meetings, as there are probably areas of mutual support and complementary activities.

Discussion Regarding the Constitution Dinner

Chairman Norton asked Lisa Fink if she would take the lead again this year in the matter of the Constitution Dinner insofar as the speaker, the location, the dates, etc. He reported that although the Committee had been thinking about Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, things are too unpredictable with the hearings for her replacement not yet begun. Mark Levin, author of “Men in Black”, normally receives a fee of $15,000; if he speaks March 10 it will be $12,500.

Lisa Fink reported that she had spoken with former Arizona Chief Justice Charles Jones who agreed to speak on the topic of “eminent domain” and other judicial topics. Mr. Langkilde recommended that Ms. Fink finalize the invitation to Charles Jones because time is getting short and suggested the alternate or complementary topic of “judicial activism.” Chairman Norton asked Ms. Fink to speak with the former Chief Justice and give him the two topics for him to decide.

Mr. Langkilde moved that former Chief Justice Charles Jones be the speaker at the Constitution Dinner. Mr. Cordes seconded the motion. The motion carried by a voice vote.

Chairman Norton reported that usually 30 to 35 percent of the legislators attend the dinner and he asked for suggestions for the date. Ms. Fink reported that during the weeks of February 23 to March 3 would be good, on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday in order to catch legislators that live out of town.

Mr. Cordes recalled the idea of a brochure that would explain the purpose of the Constitutional Commemoration Committee, its history and its members, and would be used in conjunction with the Constitution Dinner. He said that if not at this time, eventually a brochure could be developed containing some suggested constitutional resources. Since Mr. Harding advised caution in recommending resource material and since the Department of Education usually does not like to get involved in doing that, it was suggested by members of the Committee that resource material be included without reference to the Department of Education. Since the duty of the Committee is to promote the Constitution and the Bill of Rights throughout the State of Arizona it would be important to get to people the proper resources to learn more about the Constitution.

Mr. Cordes said that if the Chairman would like, he would be willing to take this project upon himself. Mr. Norton asked Mr. Cordes to start putting together the content and said that other committee members who have recommendations on resources on Constitutional and Bill of Rights education should submit the material to Mr. Cordes. Mr. Norton said he would do the design work for the brochure.

A discussion followed about a location for the dinner with different suggestions given to Ms. Fink by members of the Committee. Chairman Norton asked Ms. Fink to give an update at the next meeting. Ms. Fink advised Representative Garcia that the Committee usually goes through the legislators for the letters of invitation and that she would be sending Representative Garcia an email with the sample letter so they can be sent out through her office. Ms. Fink said she would be happy to do the follow-up work.

At the Bill of Rights Day Ms. Fink met Mr. Tom Horne who said he would like to have support for the social studies standards at his next board meeting on January 23, 2006, at 9:00 a.m. at the Department of Education, Room 417, and he asked her to attend. She said her attendance depends on when her baby is born. Either way, she is gathering information for him. Mr. Cordes said he would be willing to be there to show support though he did not have anything to do with writing the K-3 standards. The objection is that children at the K-3 level are too young for the material and the standards are not multi-cultural enough. Ms. Fink also reviewed sample first and second grade books that she had brought with her showing how the K-3 standards could be met. She said research has shown that if it is done in narrative form the children like; she said the stories are multi-cultural. She has not seen any problems for the children at her school. Ms. Fink commented on samples of different textbooks and other resources she had brought with her for different levels of school and said they are available for the perusal of the Committee members. ~~These~~ Some are aligned to the new standards. She asked how they would like to review some of the material. Chairman Norton advised that if the Committee is going to recommend these resource materials each of the members should review them and he asked Ms. Fink to bring samples to the next Committee meeting. She asked Committee members to let her know if they have any other resources.

Mr. Langkilde said he thought the Committee would be better focused by encouraging an alignment to take place. He said basically there are two alignments. One is the curriculum to the standards and the other is the assessment to the standards and that both of these are critical.

Mr. Cordes concurred and related teachers had actually asked him, who is going to check up on them, as to whether or not these standards are being followed. Representative Garcia said this depends from district to district. In her district, experts in the fields of curriculum are paid to see how and what teachers are teaching; also the assistant principals and principals go into the classrooms to check on the teaching.

Mr Langkilde observed that the mechanism is in place in the Department of Education and from time to time there are letters sent out to the school districts requesting evidence of compliance but there is an absence of follow-up and consistency. He said he believes that the Committee’s job is to insist that these documents be implemented.

Chairman Norton said that he agreed that the standards are meaningless unless there is a way to determine if they are being implemented and he would pursue with Mr. Harding his request for an appointment with Superintendent Horne. He said that past meetings have proven fruitful, e.g., the Committee was instrumental in getting the new standards.

Chairman Norton set the next meeting of the Constitutional Commemoration Committee for Friday, January 13, 2006 at 1:30 p.m. Chairman Norton asked Steve Moortel about the possibility of having a speaker phone for out of town members who cannot attend. Mr. Moortel said that would be possible. It would need to be put on the agenda.

Chairman Norton noted it would be good to show support for Mr. Horne at the State Board of Education meeting on January 23^rd, and as many as possible try to attend. Mr. Cordes, Mr. Langkilde and Mr. Norton said they all hoped to attend. Mr. Cordes recommended that whoever is going, go online to the Department of Education website prior to the meeting and view the K-3 standards.

Without objection, the meeting adjourned at 3:15 p.m.

____________________________________

Patricia Hudock

December 29, 2005

(Original minutes, attachments, and tape are on file in the Office of the Chief Clerk.)

---------- DOCUMENT FOOTER ---------

CONSTITUTIONAL COMMEMORATION COMMITTEE

December 16, 2005

---------- DOCUMENT FOOTER ---------