MAGA Ignores their Constituents:

Part 8,647

Hidey-ho, Secular FAM-a-reen-O! How are y’all doing today, on a scale of A through I?

(Feel free to weigh in on the comments below)

Speaking of AI (or ‘A1’ if you’re Linda McMahon), 

The Brain Worm Guy who got his little brother addicted to narcotics recently released his “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) report. The report was riddled with inaccuracies and included entirely manufactured scientific studies that simply don’t exist, and many folks believe that parts of it were AI-generated. 

I wonder what AI would say about evangelical extremist, elected officials who completely ignore the wants and needs of their constituents?

I’m not sure if it even matters what AI has to say about MAGAts’ indifference towards their constituents as much as what those constituents will have to say on the next Election Day. That is, for as long as we still have Election Days. 

Also, HAPPY PRIDE, my secular brothers and sisters! 

Do the lordT’s work this month, and wear ALL the rainbows. 

Godspeed. 

In my last Substack, I wrote about how board members in Peoria (PUSD) ignore the wants and needs of their constituents on the regular. 

School board members aren’t the only people who ignore the people who they’re supposed to be serving. I mean, like, look around, Secular FAM.

But there’s one elected position in each of our fifteen counties that has the potential to ignore the wants and needs of constituents in multiple school districts. 

Before we get into this, I feel like we need a basic primer on public education in Arizona. First, Arizona has nearly 300 districts, with 58 in Maricopa County alone. Coming from the Midwest, I’m used to large, unified districts, like Chicago Public Schools (CPS). New York, Los Angeles, Portland, etc., have unified school districts, but Phoenix has one high school district and thirteen K-8 “feeder” districts. Surrounding these districts are 44 more that sprawl all throughout the Valley, along with about 100 charter schools, dozens of private schools, and who-knows-how-many microschools. 

Article 11 of the Arizona Constitution mandates that public education be “sufficiently” funded and maintained and that public colleges and universities in Arizona should be as “nearly free as possible.” 

Every county in Arizona has its own County School Superintendent (CSS), and when I ran for this office in Maricopa County in 2020, I told voters that it was the most important countywide position they’d probably never heard of. In Arizona, County Superintendents oversee school board elections, offer financial management options for school districts, and appoint school board members whenever there’s a vacancy. 

Whenever a board member resigns, moves out of the district boundaries, or is otherwise unable to fulfill their duties on the governing board, the CSS appoints someone. Most districts have their own policies about appointments, and typically, governing board members review multiple potential candidates, submit their top three choices, and then the board submits three names that rise to the top to the CSS. 

But! The CSS is not required to pick any of the candidates that the board recommends, and can essentially “go rogue” by ignoring their choices and picking whoever TF they want. 

Now that’s power! 

In 2020, I was hoping to use all that power for good, but I lost by 0.6% of the vote, so my policy and program ideas never saw the light of day. 

Sadly, there are an awful lot of people out there who like to use their power for evil. 

In 2024, Shelli Boggs beat out former Maricopa County School Superintendent (MCSS), Steve Watson in the GOP primary, and handily won the general election in November. She essentially promised that she would make these non-partisan school board races partisan by using coded language like “parental rights,” “school choice,” and “woke academic policy,” on her campaign website. She also inexplicably gifted TACOOTUS an AR-15 when she was running for the East Valley Institute of Technology (EVIT) board in 2020.

She seems like a vErY StAbLe GeNiUs, amirite?

But she’s making good on her promise to partisan our nonpartisan school boards, so that’s sure to suck for the next four years at least. Ms. Boggs has wasted no time in letting folks know exactly what they’re in for. Let’s start with her first official appointment in Queen Creek (QCUSD). When former QCUSD board member, James Knox resigned in a snit earlier this year, she appointed Kelli Anderson, who homeschools all of her children. 

Super great fit, amirite?

She then appointed Michael Todd in Liberty Elementary School District (LESD), who never even participated in the community forum for potential candidates. According to his Xitter, Mike seems to love the D-Backs and broligarchs. This decision so angered the community that parents and other stakeholders staged a protest. 

Her most recent appointment happened this week in Phoenix Union High School District (PXU). Earlier this year, Naketa Ross, a lifelong public education advocate, stepped down from her seat serving PXU in Ward One. Naketa Ross founded a non-profit for children who struggle with childhood trauma, and she happens to be a Black woman and a parent in the district. 

If this were a legislative vacancy, the legislative district leadership and the county supervisors would work together to appoint someone from the same party as the outgoing legislator. BUT! School boards are (supposed to be) nonpartisan races and appointments. Given Boggs’s campaign website, and her first few appointments, finding nonpartisan pro-public education candidates doesn’t seem to be a big priority. 

When Boggs appointed an evangelical extremist who runs his own microgriftschool to replace Ms. Ross, I wasn’t surprised. Newly appointed PXU board member, Jeremiah Cota has been involved in conservative politics in Arizona for over a decade. He went to a religious indoctrination university in Texas, and seems to have been fighting for things that Jesus would have hated ever since. According to his Xitter bio, he is unvaxxed, “pro-life,” and he cites Ecclesiastes 12:13, which basically says “fear god” so, yeah. 

His resume includes stints with the state Republican party and Congressmen Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar.

The PXU board is composed of seven members and based on their bios, the six other board members are accomplished, pro-public education advocates. Board Member-appointed Cota could learn an awful lot from his new colleagues, and I hope that he leads with his students’ best interests in mind. Given that he’s spoken to the ASU College Republicans United, and runs a freaking microschool, I’m not holding my breath. 

Despite the voters in PXU overwhelmingly choosing strong, pro-public education progressives over the years, Boggs ignored the constituents. 

This is an ongoing theme with the MAGAts (oh wait, and also with Dems - AHEM - Congressman Ruben - OH, AND Governer Katie). 

Do you remember my last Substack about how the evangelical extremists in Peoria (PUSD) ignore the wants and needs of their constituents? They needed a whole ‘nother executive session, and thankfully - at their most recent meeting - they ended up approving the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Phoenix Greater Chamber Foundation. But! Not until everyone watching the meeting lost several many brain cells from the circular conversation about this agenda item. 

There was a lot of other Stupid at this meeting, but probably the Stupidest was the new seating chart. President Rooks altered the seating chart, and essentially relegated Superintendent KC Somers to the “kids table.” And people from the Leopards Eating People’s Faces party celebrated. 

My contacts in PUSD shared the seating chart changes. They also shared that there was an abundance of Mean Girls behavior happening at the dais, with a couple of board members snickering and rolling their eyes whenever Board Member Ewing spoke. 

President Rooks and Board Member Bowles insinuated that federal education funding is being withheld (it’s not) from districts that do not submit to authoritarianism, and justified their micromanagement with Sister Fratelli

stating that she “gate keep[s]” so the district doesn’t “lose funding.” Ms. Bowles also said that in order to “lead with excellence” they need to “follow federal regulations,” I guess because following federal regulations and laws is like, ALWAYS a good thing or something? 

If you’re wondering why I'm talking so much about PUSD and MCSS Shelli Boggs, it’s because they’re now kind of connected. Recently, Board Member Bowles was hired by Boggs as the new Director of Alternative Education. The MCSS runs the “alternative school district” in Maricopa County; that district serves students who are struggling with homelessness, incarceration, and/or are in foster care. 

Given what I know about Ms. Bowles, I can only imagine what programming and/or policies she’ll bring to this district. Perhaps speaking in tongues will be added to the students’ elective choices! 

I often wonder about these political offices and what happens to the staff when someone new is elected. When newly electeds get into positions of power, it has to rattle the employees to a certain degree under the best of circumstances. But when someone as extreme as Boggs gets elected, and then hires other idealogues like Bowles, I really wonder how many people abandon ship. Hmmm. Perhaps a public records request is in order? 

I mean, if you can’t beat them, join them. 

Also, JOIN US! We’re a fun group. And when you become a part of this Secular FAM, you get a LOT of memes. And justice. And advocacy. And community. And probably Star Wars

Let’s do this. Fighting fascism is all the rage right now, and we’ll give you plenty of opportunities to plug in and share your skills. 

Oh, and by the way, the next PXU school board meeting is June 5th, so if you live in the district, and want to engage, make it happen, Captain! 

Until next time, Secular FAM.