Arizona right to take over schools
 
IN OUR VIEW
The Spectrum
 
The allegations in the case involved financial mismanagement and had nothing to do with who is married to how many people.

Arizona acted upon claims that teachers had gone unpaid, that the very small district had spent nearly $200,000 on an airplane and that the education of students was suffering because of questionable financial dealings in a number of areas that have left the district nearly $2 million in debt. The proceedings never mentioned religious beliefs - only dollars.

The Grand Canyon State should be congratulated. It identified a problem within a state-funded entity. The state legislature passed a law that would allow the state's attorney general to address the problem. He filed for receivership on Aug. 12, the first day allowed under the new law, and then followed through on the petition until its completion on Dec. 5. From inception to finish, Arizona took care of a situation that needed its attention.

This action is one of several in recent months wherein government and law enforcement agencies in both Arizona and Utah have addressed problems in polygamous communities without prosecuting polygamy itself. The United Effort Plan has been put into receivership. Several men have been prosecuted for having relations with underage girls. Warren Jeffs is a wanted man - not for practicing polygamy, but for allegedly violating criminal laws.

Whether the practice of polygamy should be prosecuted is still a question worth considering, but in the meantime, the state or Arizona has shown that instead of taking children out of polygamous homes, it wants to give the children in those homes a chance at a better education.
 
TheSpectrum.com
Originally published December 8, 2005
 
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