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Lowes Outlines Strategy for Fighting Back
By W. John Williamson, FCBO NEWS NETWORK Correspondent
Scottsdale, AZ., Nov. 24, 2014–Notwithstanding Diane Douglas being on
deck as the next Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction, Paul Lowes,
speaking at the Scottsdale Democratic Luncheon Club this past Saturday,
Nov. 22, is not willing to acquiesce in defeatism. “Grassroots activity is
the key to election success,” he stated matter-of-factly. “It’s a strong
point of the Democratic Party, and always will be,” he asserted, as the
band of hopeful listeners hearkening to his words partook of the flavorful
victuals at the DENNY’S Restaurant in downtown Scottsdale.
Mr. Lowes, president of the Phoenix Union High School District’s Classroom
Teachers Association, one of the most active teachers’ unions in the
state, has a momentum to his speaking style that can take your breath
away. He wears glasses, jeans and a dark green work shirt.
Mr. Lowes is a steward of democratic ideas that are critical to the well-being of
labor as it applies to teachers and that promote learning growth for
students in a state that seems to want at times not only to close the mind
but shut the doors to public school vitality.
“Fear wins elections,” he admonished, saying that Republicans are more
skilled at creating that emotion in the voters. Fear comes in different
forms, he went on. “Democrats need to be braver,” he added. What he meant
by that was not entirely clear, as in our state, even to RUN as a Democrat
in some legislative and congressional districts, takes courage just to get
on the ballot. Perhaps he was referring to not being shy about revealing
and revelling in being a Democrat; not being averse to saying such things
as “I stand by and support my President.” Or: “I think Obama is great.”
Maybe he is making a reference to candidates not hiding the fact that they
are Democrats, as if that were a stigma to be avoided at all costs.
Dark money bothers Lowes, whether it’s used by Republicans or Democrats.
“David Garcia used dark money, and I’m not happy about that,” Mr. Lowes
observed. “He might have been more successful had he not used it,” he
continued.
The audience to which Mr. Lowes spoke was composed of some educators who
did not hesitate to question him. Asked if he thought it would be a good
idea to attempt to recall the Superintendent-Elect, he replied that he
thinks it would be better to channel that energy into other areas. “The
history of Arizona Superintendents of Public Instruction has not been too
favorable for public education since Weldon P. Shofstall was in that
office,” he said. Whether Lowes had forgotten Carolyn Warner was not, at
that moment, clear.
An audience member, Janet Tillotson, known, and rightly so, as “The Button
Lady,” had brought bags of red, white, and black “Recall Diane Douglas”
buttons with her. Lowes was reticent in his response to her offer of them
to him. Perhaps, if not totally supporting a recall, one could wear one of
those buttons as an “expression of concern”; a visual red flag on one’s
breast pocket, as if to say: “Rocky times ahead again for our public
schools. Hold fast to your democratic principles and beliefs. Brace
yourself for another challenge.”
The AIMS tests (Arizona Instrument for Measuring Standards), Lowes said,
had caused “a ten-year kidnapping of the Arizona mind.” He clarified his
guarded view about high-stakes testing with these words of redirection:
“What matters is that, whatever tests are given, as long as teachers make
teaching critical thinking their top priority, things will be okay. That’s
the bottom line.”
Lowes also made the point during his presentation that, while Europeans
and other continental groups may excel in rote learning and the recitation
of lists and facts, American students lead in analyzing the meaning of
things. A tall order, well done, if the data actually support that. The
meaning of Diane Douglas’s victory, however, from Lowes’ perspective is,
as I understood it, that Democrats must not give up, but instead water and
nurture the grassroots of our electorate so that next time we can come
back with a more positive outcome.
That happy thought buoyed Lowes sufficiently that the post-presentation
photo-ops proceeded with a happy optimism. So much so that we left Lowes
smilingly eating a piece of DENNY’S pumpkin pie, not, at this season of
thanksgiving, to be taken lightly.
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