Make ethnic studies a graduation requirement
Like California, Arizona should implement this standard at our high schools and universities
Arizona must change its anti-Latino penchant that killed bilingual education, ended Mexican American studies in Tucson and censored literature by acclaimed Hispanic authors.
Many of the Republicans who led that anti-Latino crusade are no longer in office, but the Republicans who still control state government kept fighting to maintain some of those laws and regulations.
There’s been a bit of a shift, especially with the election of Superintendent of Public Instruction Kathy Hoffman, who pushed – though unsuccessfully – for a ballot initiative to repeal Proposition 203, the 2000 voter-approved “Englishonly” law.
She succeeded in getting the GOPcontrolled Legislature to cut in half the required four-hour block requirement for English-learner students.
our eye off efforts to secure more testing supplies and processing equipment – even if the backlog that delayed results on thousands of samples should be fixed by week’s end.
If anything, now is the time to double down on these efforts.
SonoraQuest, the state’s largest test processor, says it is on track to process up to 60,000 tests a day by the end of August – nearly three times the number of daily specimens collected statewide during the peak of this outbreak. It also promises to deliver test results within 24 to 48 hours.
That’s imperative.
One of the failures of this latest COVID-19
surge was the days and weeks it took to get results. The delay made it difficult to ensure that those who had tested positive were quarantining, and that anyone who had been in close contact with them was quickly notified, which undoubtedly contributed to needless community spread.
We can’t let that happen again. We also need to rethink who we’re testing. Arizona still hasn’t made widescale efforts to test asymptomatic people – which is critical given a recent National Academy of Sciences model that estimates half of cases may be spread by those who don’t feel sick.
Yes, we must ensure that everyone who has symptoms can get a test. It was unacceptable during the surge that people were forced to wait hours in the heat for one. We can’t repeat that mess, either, the next time cases spike.
But as fewer sick folks crowd mass testing sites, let’s start pumping tests to those who aren’t feeling ill. Start by regularly testing those who work directly with vulnerable populations, such nursing and assisted living facilities.
Expand that effort to school employees and students, and then to businesses that interact closely with the public, such as restaurants and salons.
I know. If we do this well, it could require far more than the 60,000 tests a day that SonoraQuest is gearing up to process.
And it won’t mean a thing if the results aren’t distributed quickly, so those who test positive can be quarantined and their close contacts notified.
But it would be an effective way to slow community spread, particularly when a case spike is still in its infancy. Testing the asymptomatic would lower