Linda Thomas Lyon is a retired Air Force Colonel. In the military she served as a Mission Support Group Commander, managing a major organization with a large annual budget. She is currently a member of the Oracle School District Governing Board, just north of Tucson, Arizona, and President of the Arizona School Boards Association. Lyon is a major advocate for full funding for public schools in a state that has shifted educational dollars into charters during the last decade. Arizona has a larger percentage of students attending charter schools than any other state, yet an independent study shows that “On average, charter schools in Arizona do no better, and sometimes worse, than the traditional public schools.”
Linda Thomas Lyon is featured in the latest pro-public school video released by the Network for Public Education. Other NPE videos feature Diane Ravitch, co-founder of NPE, responding to the Betsy Devos/Trump school privatization agenda, Texas Superintendent John Kuhn, superintendent of the Perrin-Whitt school district in Texas, who indicts the high-stakes testing agenda and inequitable funding for public schools, and NPE Board member Yohuru Williams, the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Fairfield University in Connecticut, who launches a general defense of public education as an agency for achieving civil rights in the United States.
In her video, Linda Lyon decries the impact of poverty on young children, leaving them behind before they ever enter kindergarten and the unwillingness of elected officials to make early childhood education a national priority. But she is especially outraged by the shift to privatization, charter schools, and vouchers, which “siphon funds away from our public schools.” According to Linda, school privatization generates profits for companies while disempowering citizens and communities. Meanwhile funding cuts to public schools undermine teacher morale, and in Arizona, this means over four thousand classrooms are without regularly certified teachers.
Linda’s position is that when it comes to education, “You get what you pay for.” If people want the public schools that our children deserve, she calls on parents and community activists to run for office so they can reshape politics in the state. Of course Linda’s message is not just for people living in Arizona.
NPE is pushing hard in its campaign for public education right now because January 21-27 is “School Choice Week,” a multi-million dollar campaign funded by right-wing groups like the Koch Brothers, ALEC and the Walton Foundation. They are calling for “choice” when their real goal is to replace public education with privatized systems. If they succeed and public schools are decimated, there will be no real choice.
NPE is calling on public school advocates to write to state Governors demanding that they support public education, not privatized education with vouchers, voucher-like tax credit schemes, charters and online schools. To sign their petition, click here.
Follow Alan Singer on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ReecesPieces8