Journal editorial dishonest

When I taught the principles of Character Counts! to my students; I told them that just because their words were the "truth"; if those words created a misunderstanding of the facts; they had been dishonest.

That is what "candid, forthright, and honest" means.

I taught kids; imagine that you have done something wrong.
When you are asked if you did it; you say "Somebody else could have done it.", you have said something that is true; others could have done "it"; but never the less

you have been dishonest.

Kent Walz wrote, or he knowingly permitted to be written,
or he negligently allowed to be written;

"... the Legislature, which funds the district and may
already be delivering a $20 million shortfall to the APS."
link

You see, APS is in a bind.

The union that represents the Educational Assistants, has
told the APS that they will not enter "secret" negotiations
with the district, until money is found for their raise.

The EA's Association believes that they have some leverage
over the district as long as the public remains aware of
their plight; as long as the story is before the public,
as long as it is still part of the public discourse.

It is unclear why Walz is writing on behalf of the leadership of the APS in the first place, making excuses for them that they are not willing to make for themselves.

But for him to try to get readers to believe that the legislature is "delivering a shortfall", when in fact they are only expecting APS to pay back money it took under false pretenses, is simply dishonest.

An honest statement would have read,

"APS will have trouble meeting the EAs demands
because they are already $20 million in the hole,
due to what looks like a deliberate effort on the part of
senior APS administrators to misrepresent the facts
that drive special education funding, in reports to the
Public Education Department."

That statement would lay the onus for the shortfall
where it belongs, in the laps of the leadership of the APS.

The statement, the legislature will deliver a shortfall,
dishonestly lays the onus on the legislature;
those uncaring bastards.

Should there be any real doubt about Kent Walz integrity;
his refusal to put the subjects of

• the lack of administrative role modeling
• the lack of administrative standards of conduct and competence, and
• lack of administrative accountability to even the lowest standard of conduct; the law
  

on the table for stakeholders to consider,
should eliminate that "doubt", beyond reasonable doubt.

The bottom line is that none of these people, not the senior
leadership of the APS, and not the leadership of the local
media, is willing to be candid, forthright, and honest with
stakeholders.

The bottom line is that the leadership of the APS is dishonest.

And so are Kent Walz;

Thomas H Lang, Michelle Donaldson, Mary Lynn Roper,
and Rhonda Aubrey/Mike Burgess.


cc to named upon posting;
not that a one of them has the balls to step up and
defend their failure to be candid, forthright and honest
with their readers and viewers.