McCain Republicans are alive and well. We're just ignoring the GOP

John McCain and I were born in 1936. We both served in Vietnam. He was shot down and I was not.

We met in 1983. He was a newly elected member of Congress, and I was an Air Force colonel stationed at Luke Air Force Base. I retired from the U.S. Air Force in 1985 and became involved in Arizona politics.

John ran for the Senate in 1986, and I contributed to his campaign and made cold calls to voters. He took office in 1987, and I was appointed as director of AHCCCS.

During the seven years I served as AHCCCS director, I had many meetings with John. One memorable one was in the Roosevelt Room at the White House where John was assisting our program.

My take on John McCain:

Honest, hardworking and fiercely independent.

I voted for him in each race for the Senate.

My question is, where are the McCain Republicans?

When Kari Lake told the McCain Republicans to get out of the room, she lost my vote and the election. It was political malpractice.

Here’s the answer to my question.

There are many McCain Republicans, and in 2022 they either left the vote for governor blank or voted for Katie Hobbs.

Brilliant political strategy!

Leonard Kirschner, Litchfield Park

Low achievement is schools' fault

I have been a high school teacher in Yuma for 2½ years. I taught for eight years at the college level in Washington state.

Chad Gestson, superintendent of Phoenix Union High School District, in his June 29 guest column, writes, “Many of the challenges we experience in schools are not the schools’ fault.”

It is well-known that Arizona consistently ranks low in the country in public education.

You can Google it.

I’ll tell you why. Districts and administrators care more about looking good in reports than they do about educating Arizona’s kids.

Gestson discloses, “We spend millions on educator professional development.”

But most of the teachers at the schools I taught at ridiculed the professional development as thinly veiled strategies to give good grades to students who are barely paying attention.

The “student-centered classroom” minimizes the role of the teacher, and discipline is mostly not allowed.

In the last weeks of every school year, administrators pressure teachers to pass students who are not even close to passing.

Arizona’s education system is cranking out students who are not prepared to be responsible citizens.

Brian Martin, Yuma

Blame students, not the schools

Chad Gestson’s guest column on how public schools are not the problem is right on point.

When I hear people say, “The schools are failing our children,” I often wonder what they mean when they say “schools.”

Perhaps the problem is the lack of drive and motivation among students themselves, not the schools.

Do those students go home each school day and do an hour or two of homework to improve their academic skills?

Or are they spending most of their time on their iPhone or watching television or doing other non-academic things?

Until and unless students get motivated to do the hard work required to succeed in school, they will continue producing subpar scores on tests and fall behind their peers in the United States and around the world.

Another view: A high school diploma is not enough to secure a career

To me, we need to focus on how to better motivate and hold accountable the students, because that is how they will achieve success.

We need not blandly blame the schools.

We need to be willing to acknowledge the vast majority of the problem lies with the students, regardless of how much it may offend people who think it politically incorrect.

Robert Bertrand, Paradise Valley

Why Biden's debt plan is wrong

President Biden wants to forgive outstanding student loans, shifting payment of more than $400 billion to taxpaying citizens.

Two aspects he ignores: Equity and ethics.

His plan does not refund payments made by students who have already met their legal obligations. They are objecting to this discrimination on the sound basis of equal treatment.

More serious is the message it sends that obligations are not absolute.

History is full of reminders:

The Bible: “If a man borrows anything of his neighbor ... he shall make full restitution.”

Cephalus: “Justice consists in speaking the truth and paying one’s debt.”

Ben Franklin: “Rather go to bed without dinner than to rise in debt.”

The president of the United States should be the example to the rising generations of their moral obligation to repay debt.

Fortunately for us, his illegal attempt to forgive college debt was stopped. He is now trying to recover from his error by stretching out repayment periods.

That plan should be viewed on its merits. But he already sent his moral message.

Jim Talbot, Scottsdale

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: McCain Republicans are alive and well, just ignoring the GOP