WE CAN’T FIX WHAT “AINT” BROKEN
Why a State Superintendent of Public Instruction gave up on government-funded education
By Diane M. Douglas
Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction 2015-2019
When I told my husband I must “throw my hat into the ring” for the election of Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction and fight Common Core, he replied that if I wanted to “beat my head against the wall” I had his support. How prophetic were his words!
In the Beginning
Over the years of our daughter’s K-12 schooling, I volunteered in her elementary classrooms and later in the high school guidance office; served on the PTSA, and the Site Councils of her elementary and high school. I even served on a district committee or two. As importantly, I was reading and studying the American education system and its history.
As my daughter approached high school graduation, I found that life presented me with a proverbial fork in the road. I could easily transition back into my former profession as a financial analyst full time and forget all about public education. OR I could continue my part-time passion as a stained glass art instructor; allowing me the time to run for the local school board; spend my time serving my community and fixing our public schools.
As Yogi Berra once said, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” So, I did.
School Board Service
I was elected to our local school board in 2004 and again in 2008; serving 2 years as board president.
My guiding light was and remains my belief that God gives children to parents; not to a government bureaucracy no matter how “well-intended” it professes to be. Parents—not “the village”—have the God-given authority and responsibility to direct the educations of their children.
I didn’t know it at the time, but while I served on the school board, God was charting a new path for me when the members of the State Board of Education (SBE) officially, unilaterally, adopted the federal Common Core State Standards (CCSS).
The more I learned about Common Core, the more concerned I became. After my board term ended in December 2012, I began speaking anywhere and everywhere about the dangers of the federal control and the lack of rigor in the actual standards.
Never Say Never
Virtually everywhere I spoke I was encouraged to run for Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) in 2014. To which I replied not just “no,” but “HECK NO!” After eight contentious years on the school board, I’d had enough of the ugly business of politics. I promised myself I would NEVER run for another elected office EVER again.
That was until one weekend in August 2013 when I was confronted by two friends, for 3 hours, about running for SPI. I told them, as I had everyone else, “NO, but I will pray about it.” And I had been praying, but God had been silent or so I thought. At church the next morning, God gave me His answer as I read aloud the following “Confession and Absolution” with my fellow parishioners:
“We confess that we have avoided many circumstances which might cause us hurt or sorrow, preferring easier roads and quieter paths. Forgive us, Lord, and strengthen our faith.”
I was thunderstruck! I knew in that instant God had used all the people who asked me to run as His messengers! When I was saying “no” to them, I was saying “no” to Him; selfishly to avoid the “hurt or sorrow” of politics.
When I opened my campaign, I put the outcome in God’s hands knowing full well if He wanted to me serve, I would win. On August 26, 2014, I won the Republican primary beating the incumbent, a Common Core supporter, by 16% points. In the November General Election, I beat my Democrat opponent by a mere one percentage point, but after he and his supporters had outspent me more than 10:1. Against all odds—except God’s!
With my husband, daughter, son-in-law, and 10-day-old grandson in attendance, I raised my right hand and placed my left on a Bible; the cover of which is Jesus surrounded by children. I took my Oath of Office on January 5, 2015 and was officially sworn-in as the Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Now, with the help of the newly sworn-in Republican governor, who during the campaign expressed his opposition to Common Core, I would finally be able to truly fix education!
Not So Fast or Let the Games Begin
Less than one month in office and before my first State Board of Education (SBE) meeting, a call came into my Chief of Staff from an “emissary” of the governor. The message was: Common Core isn’t going anywhere. Tell Diane she reports to and answers to the State Board of Education (SBE). Imagine that: A constitutional officer, elected by the people of Arizona, was to answer to an unelected board!
In February 2015, I released two administrative staffers who very publicly, insubordinately, announced they would never include any items on the SBE agenda that I requested pertaining to Common Core. The governor unlawfully reinstated them both.
One month later, while I was in Washington DC securing a release from the CCSS copyright for Arizona, the governor attended the SBE meeting and forbade them from replacing Common Core with any other academic standards.
So began four years of battles. The governor used the legislature to move statutory duties from the elected superintendent to the unelected State Board of Education; essentially giving his office greater control. Simultaneously, legal battles ensued between my office and the SBE. It became so contentious during 2015 that I was physically assaulted not once but twice during public SBE meetings by a fellow board member.
Despite the battles, during the October 2015 meeting, the SBE voted 6-2 to approve my motion to reverse the adoption of Common Core as the official state standards. At the December 2016 meeting, the SBE adopted revisions to the standards. They included some significant improvements but still Common Core, nonetheless.
In the midst of my re-election campaign at the end of April 2018, Arizona’s 60,000+ teachers walked out in an illegal six-day “Red4Ed” strike. And, while I didn’t suspend my campaign, I knew in my heart of hearts I would never have the same level of respect for the union teachers who walked out on our children or for their profession.
I lost my re-election bid that August by 6/10ths of a percentage point in my party’s primary with four opponents splitting the votes. But once again God answered my prayer, which was if it was not His will for me to serve a second term that I lose in the primary.
The day after my loss, a very dear friend assured me God was giving me an “honorable discharge” because I had served Him well and endured enough. Of course, it was God’s plan because He knew what was coming! He KNEW what the government schools would do to our children under the guise of the COVID “panicdemic.” His plan was never for me to be party to abusing our precious children.
Prior to leaving office, at the October 2018 SBE meeting, I motioned that the SBE adopt Hillsdale College’s Barney Charter School Scope and Sequence as the AZ standards. I couldn’t help myself, I had to try one last time, if not to fix, at least improve the quality of education. The motion died for the lack of a second. The SBE members were not even willing to have the discussion!
We Can’t Fix What “Ain’t” Broken
Over those four years as superintendent, I came to realize God did not put me there to fix the system, but rather to force me to finally understand there is no hope of fixing American government schooling. It cannot, and will not, be changed; the roots go too deep.
The truth is that our government schools aren’t broken. They are doing exactly what they were designed to do, and achieving the ends for which they were originally intended—separating children from God and family to become dependent on the socialist government the schools themselves were planned to help create; all under the guise of being a “free” entitlement.
Serving at the state capitol, I came to the realization that, despite all the blustering, neither “side of the aisle” wants government schooling changed. Both sides have allowed education to become mere schooling to their own ends. The “socialist left” wants unquestioning little Marxists—social justice warriors to blindly follow and advance their political agenda against America. The “capitalist right” wants unquestioning little worker bees: “human capital” with just enough job training to meet the current needs of their industries. Both have bought into “separation of Church and state,” keeping God out of government schools.
Long gone are the days of academic rigor, truth and discernment. Here to stay are Social Emotional Learning, Critical Race Theory, and Comprehensive Sex Education.
And while I respect those who wish to follow my path into school board service, take my word: Your time, money and energy are all better spent replacing the system. Encourage your Pastor to open a church-based school, homeschool your children or create a neighborhood homeschooling group, support private-school tuitions; any alternative that is not funded by taxpayer dollars under the control of the government.
On to the Next Phase
For over 25 years I volunteered and worked to improve public education, because I once believed there were too many children in the system to give up on public schools.
I now live by the Parable of the Starfish—maybe we can’t save them all, but it makes a difference to this one! God has now given me the privilege to serve on the Advisory Board of Public School Exit working with amazing people saving our children, even if it may only be one at a time.
Come the day that I will stand before our God, I may have to admit to Him that I lost the battle; but it won’t ever be because I gave up!