Four years ago, a literal Who’s Who of education and business groups, along with cities and counties, touted a new “roadmap of achievable education goals” that would make a “direct, positive impact on Arizona’s students and teachers and strengthen local communities.”

This new roadmap was known as the Arizona Education Progress Meter.

The meter measures eight key indicators of student achievement, including third-grade reading proficiency and eighth-grade math, against long-term, attainable goals.

A long list of organizations, including many of the state’s chambers of commerce signed on as partners, claiming a shared vision with the groups who created the tool, Expect More Arizona and the Center for the Future of Arizona.

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I’ve got to hand it to Gov. Ducey: He really knows how to back Democrats into a corner.

He put them in a bind five years ago with Proposition 123, which increased payments to schools from the state’s land trust fund in exchange for ending a lawsuit over unpaid inflationary funding.

The deal made it possible for Ducey to avoid tax increases or rollbacks while still claiming victory on education funding, even though the settlement only funded 70% of what GOP lawmakers shorted schools.

Some Democrats balked, but education advocates jumped on board because, after a billion dollars in education cuts, they were desperate for funding and 70% was better than continuing their years-long court battle.

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We’ve been living in our pandemic bubbles for so long that it’s easy to feel disconnected from our neighbors.

Some of us have been fortunate in that the worst thing about this pandemic has been the boredom of living within a confined space or the inconveniences of working from home.

But for far too many, this past year has been one of tremendous stress and trauma.

Family members have been separated from loved ones and are grieving the loss of life in isolation. Teenagers, stuck behind screens and detached from their peers, are experiencing high rates of depression and anxiety. Parents (mainly mothers) have been forced to choose between a paycheck and unsupervised children and are leaving the workforce in droves.

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One cannot utter the term “maverick” in Arizona without thinking of former U.S. Senator John McCain. McCain prided himself on being able to buck the system — and his party — whenever he felt it necessary to move good legislation across the finish line or keep bad legislation from becoming law.

Some political consultants and reporters have also used the term maverick to describe Sen. Kyrsten Sinema.

Like McCain, Sinema claims to be “independent-minded.” She views herself as a moderate and bipartisan consensus builder. And while I admire someone willing to work across the aisle and take votes based on principle versus party pressure, I’m starting to wonder if Sinema’s talk of independence is more about maintaining an image than it is about getting stuff done.

Take voting rights as an example.

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Arizona’s claim to fame during the Great Recession was leading the nation in funding cuts to public education.

Back then, our Republican leaders claimed this embarrassing distinction was not their fault: The state was broke, so lawmakers had no choice but to implement an austerity budget and slash billions from education.

Health care, parks, universities, public safety. Everything — with the exception of tax increases or the elimination of corporate handouts — was on the table.

Fast forward a decade, and revenues had finally stabilized. Education leaders started demanding funding restorations because teachers were fleeing the profession. They had tired of years of pay cuts and/or stagnant wages combined with ballooning class sizes, fewer wraparound supports for struggling students, decrepit buildings, and outdated technology.

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I have no empathy for the insurrectionists who tore through the Capitol, intent on overturning the results of our election and installing Donald Trump as some sort of king.

Many will be fired from their jobs and end up in prison, which is exactly what they deserve.

Nor do I believe that those involved in securing the Capitol who ignored warnings and put frontline officers in peril or those officers who posed for selfies or helped insurrectionists trample through the halls of Congress should avoid punishment.

But what about those who encouraged the actions of the insurrectionists — the elected officials, media outlets and corporate executives who profited from years of chaos and division? Will they be allowed to simply condemn the violence, then move on as if they couldn’t have predicted this outcome, as if they played no role in this shameful moment in our history?

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“Madame First Lady—Mrs. Biden—Jill—kiddo,” was how an opinion piece by Joseph Epstein in the Wall Street Journal began.

Epstein penned an op-ed, asking Dr. Jill Biden to drop the “Dr.” in her title, which he claimed “feels fraudulent, not to say a touch comic,” and instead refer to herself in a manner that makes Mr. Epstein (and many other conservative men) more comfortable: as the wife of the president-elect, a married woman, a woman without a title, or a kid.

While many denounced the opinion piece as obtuse and misogynistic (which it was), I also found it far too familiar.

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We’ve heard the same mantra for months: mask up, wash your hands, physically distance, yadda, yadda, yadda.

I don’t wish to downplay the message. We all need to do our part to control the spread of the coronavirus, and I’m glad our elected officials (at least some of them) are choosing to remind us on a regular basis.

But at this moment, words alone are not enough.

Last week, while many of us were enjoying our pumpkin pies and post-turkey naps, a team of COVID-19 modelers at the University of Arizona was penning a dire letter to the state’s department of health.

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There was no blue wave in 2020. Not in Maricopa County, anyway. But there wasn’t a red wall, either.

Democrats bested Republicans in the races for president and U.S. Senate and won two progressive ballot initiatives. But they also lost down-ballot, even with a fundraising edge in competitive districts.

An analysis will be done to determine why Democrats lost certain legislative and countywide races, though I suspect some of it had to do with the pandemic and the need to scale back or eliminate door-to-door canvassing due to safety concerns.

But I do believe it’s easy to understand — and replicate — why Democrats won at the top of the ticket.

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In Arizona, the biggest loser on Tuesday night wasn’t Donald Trump or Martha McSally. Rather, it was the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The Chamber has long controlled the levers of power in this state. Glenn Hamer, the Chamber’s CEO, is Gov. Doug Ducey’s biggest cheerleader. By most accounts, he’s also the most influential voice in the Republican-controlled Legislature.

But as the demographics shift in our state, and in particular in Maricopa County, the Chamber has found itself in the uncomfortable position of playing defense during campaign season.

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Gosar has a long history of flirting with and forwarding dangerous conspiracy theories like QAnon and birtherism. He blamed the white nationalist violence in Charlottesville in 2017 on an “Obama sympathizer” and promoted a debunked theory that philanthropist George Soros was a Nazi sympathizer.

Yet, I still didn’t think Gosar would sink to this. Why?

Because last year, when Gosar’s colleague, Arizona Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (a Democrat from Tucson), revealed that she struggled with alcoholism and would take time off for treatment, Gosar responded with kindness, not snark.

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Most Arizonans don’t need to be convinced that our climate is changing, especially after this summer. It was hot, dry and deadly. And we have the records to prove it.

Phoenix recorded more than 50 days of 110-degree heat or higher. The previous record was 33 days.

The monsoon barely registered as a blip. The Valley averaged less than half an inch of rain, which is more than two inches less than normal.

But the worst record is the one we’re still determining, which is the number of people who lost their lives to heat-related illnesses.

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Raise your hand if you think health insurance companies shouldn’t be able to deny people coverage for pre-existing conditions.

Or cap the amount of benefits they can receive in a calendar year or over the course of a lifetime.

Or deny coverage for essential benefits such as mental health, substance abuse or maternity care.

If you’re like most Americans, you not only want these protections, you depend on them. And now, you and the rest of the country are at risk of losing them because of the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

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As an Arizonan, I’ve become accustomed to my state placing near the very bottom on important measures of a state’s long-term health and stability, such as education and childhood poverty levels. So it’s no surprise that our state is nearly dead last in terms of unemployment benefits.

But I wonder: Could Arizonans finally be ready to turn things around and put the “worst in nation” ratings behind us?

Through no fault of their own, more than 1.6 million Arizonans weathering our pandemic-ravaged economy have found themselves either unemployed or underemployed, facing multiple furloughs or suddenly thrust into part-time work.

When it comes to shared pain, we are truly “in this together,” and it’s in that togetherness that voters might finally realize the importance of electing officials who will fund a safety net.

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More than 435,000 Arizonans signed the Invest in Education petition. That’s an enormous number considering the majority of the signatures were gathered during a pandemic, when Arizonans spent most of their time locked indoors and away from public events.

But the nearly half a million voters who wanted a chance to vote for increased funding for public education were overruled by one individual: Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Christopher Coury.

Coury’s name is one that public education supporters won’t soon forget, especially this November when he’s up for a retention vote that determines whether he stays on the bench.

Last week, he booted Invest in Ed from the ballot, claiming its 100-word summary failed to include, in detail, every single provision in the measure.

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Like most parents with a school-aged child, I find myself longing for yesteryear. When August meant back-to-school shopping and carts filled with composition notebooks and No. 2 pencils and pink erasers and glue sticks. When the first day of school meant a photo of my kids heading out the front door, backpacks in tow.

This year, there will be no photos with backpacks. No shopping cart with supplies.

This year, everything from sports seasons to in-person learning is TBD. The only sure things are uncertainty and stress.

For teachers, the worry is that they’ll be forced back into classrooms before it’s safe to return, putting their lives and the lives of their students and families at risk.

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Gov. Doug Ducey has been facing a storm of questions about whether or not he’s been slow to react to Arizona’s rising coronavirus numbers. Without fail, Ducey’s allies run to his defense, claiming the governor isn’t cautious but rather “measured” and “deliberate.”

But if we look back on Ducey’s time in the governor’s office, it’s difficult to describe his leadership style as anything other than timid.

Like President Donald Trump, Ducey surrounds himself with the “best people.” So much so that he’s been forced to demand resignations from at least half a dozen of the agency heads he’s appointed.

Unlike Trump, Ducey doesn’t relish firing people. He hesitates through numerous scandals until public pressure is so immense that he can no longer avoid the situation.

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Weeks of protest in the wake of George Floyd’s murder have proven to be a wake-up call for many white Americans. We are finally starting to put the pieces together, recognizing the structural inequities in education, housing and criminal justice that have long created barriers to opportunity for people of color.

Companies such as Adidas, PayPal and Pepsi have made promises to diversify workforces to mirror the general population, invest in minority-owned start-ups and businesses, and promote more minorities into management and executive positions.

While I believe many of these businesses and organizations will follow through on their promises, I also believe some are co-opting the moment in an attempt to garner positive PR while making little to no effort to change past discriminatory behaviors or policies.

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One of the surprising byproducts of the protests over George Floyd’s murder is a movement to analyze government budgets.

Many are asking cities to reexamine how much they spend on policing in comparison to mental health resources or poverty mitigation programs that are proven to reduce the need for policing in the first place.

This focus on budgeting is a welcome sign. I’ve long believed that what we fund dictates what we value. And for far too many of our Republican lawmakers, alleviating racial and socioeconomic inequality isn’t high on the list.

Though most protesters are currently focused on city budgets, here in Arizona, the greatest inequities are baked into our state budget.

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“You have to dominate. If you don’t dominate, you’re wasting your time.”

That was the message from President Donald Trump to the nation’s governors on Monday during a conference call largely filled with him berating them about a weekend of protests and riots that, in his eyes, made our nation look weak.

His solution to the problem, to the centuries of systemic racism upon which this nation was built combined with a pandemic and record unemployment and forced isolation, is toughness. Tracking and arresting and jailing people who have been pushed to the edge. Tear gassing peaceful protesters for a photo op.

Some have called his comments unhinged. But others see it as a sign of strength. The differing perceptions highlight a divide in America.

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