Thayer Verschoor - Stupid Legislator

There's an old saying, "There's no such thing as a stupid question, but some come really close." This clearly doesn't apply to politicians, especially those in Arizona and more pointedly, District 22 Senator Thayer Verschoor. Sorry folks, there's no other way to describe this man. Clueless doesn't cut it. Misinformed doesn't quite get it right. The man's just cold, dead stupid. Or, as the kids would say it "stoopid." The reason for this label, among others, is Thayer's determination to pass SB 1542, the "Punish Teachers Who Make Kids Think Act."

For a quick review, the bill would provide monetary, civil and professional sanctions against any teacher who spoke out against anything remotely political or controversial. Ol' Thayer thinks it will stop teachers from saying things like "President Bush is an idiot," even though 70% of the public already know that. If you are convicted, it costs the teacher $500 and gets them labeled as "unprofessional." Thayer's other goal is to keep teachers from impacting elections. "That's the job of the parents," says Verschoor, not those "liberals" who are opening asking students to think for themselves--darn them.

You'd have thought that when someone had a bad idea for education and it got killed in committee that maybe, just maybe you'd decide that the bill is a bad idea. Like Verschoor’s resurrecting his bill to muzzle teachers from exercising their free speech rights at all levels. His original bill didn't pass the test of the committee that is supposed to review things affecting education, so Thayer, ideological master that he is, using his power as Majority Leader (which begs the question of what were the Republicans thinking) pulls the "strike everything" stunt to reintroduce it as SB 1542. Now SB1542 had better luck in the Senate Government Committee because that committee is chaired by one of the other geniuses of the Legislature, Sen. Jack Harper (R-Surprise), you know, the "Guns In Bars" guy, where it passed on a party line vote. Harper, if you remember, is the guy who wants to put 80-year-olds with shotguns on the border to protect us while making sure they have no access to medical care if they get hurt "protecting" us.

With the passage of SB 1542 out of Harper's committee, it now goes to the floor. Given the other ideologues living in the legislature, this P.O.S. of a bill is likely to pass, again on party line vote. After that, it goes to the Governor who will likely veto it, giving Thayer another reason to run for reelection.

The sad thing is Sen. Verschoor really has no clue of what the impact of SB 1542 would have. He can't think beyond the one or two people he talks to before introducing legislation. If you remember, he introduced a bill in the last session that would allow students to opt out of homework assignments if the --student-- objected to the material, and would require the instructor and the university to offer a different assignment and curriculum to that student after talking to ONE parent.

Gee, I wonder what Thayer would do if he listened to more people...