Arizona Republicans call teachers ‘educational terrorists’ and ‘a scourge on our society’: report

Republicans in Arizona were blasted for attacking public school teachers in a new column by E.J. Montini of The Arizona Republic.

He noted that Republican state Sen. Michelle Ugenti-Rita called teachers “educational terrorists" and Republican gubernatorial candidate Matt Salmon said they are "a scourge on our society."

Salmon, a former Republican congressman, vowed a "confrontational" relationship with the Arizona Education Association if elected governor.

"So, teachers are the problem? Has Salmon not been paying attention to what the Arizona Legislature and lawmakers like Ugenti-Rita have done to the state’s public school system over the past several years?" he asked. "As in, wreck it."

He noted Arizona "had the worst public education system" in America according to a recent national survey.

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"And the problem is not teachers. The survey found what anyone who lives here should already know, that Arizona was among the worst states in terms of teacher-to-student ratio, teacher salary and spending per pupil," he wrote. "All of which are tied to the ongoing assault by the Legislature and Gov. Doug Ducey on the public school system."

He noted the sharp shift to the far-right congressman as he competes against Kari Lake, Steve Gaynor, and Karrin Taylor Robson for the GOP nomination.

"I don’t believe that the Matt Salmon from a few years back would be attacking teachers," he wrote. "Matt Salmon 2.0, however, this almost unrecognizable guy trying to become the Republican nominee for governor, seems to have drowned his common sense in the Kari Lake. The biggest lesson this new Salmon could learn from studying the original Matt Salmon, his former self, would be that the true 'scourge on our society' is spreading conspiracy theories and demonizing anyone who disagrees with you.

Read the full column.

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