Gov. Jan Brewer’s veto of a bill aiming to promote community service among Valley high school students is being called “disheartening” by the bill’s originator, McClintock High School senior Jevin Hodge.
Jevin serves as co-chair of the Governor’s Youth Commission.
The bill, SB 1066, sought to create an award for high school students who completed more than 200 hours of community service.
Hodge says he created the bill to boost a student’s chance of college acceptance.
“Colleges aren’t looking for just a high GPA anymore; they’re looking for student leaders,” he said.
“This award would reassure colleges that a student has the qualities they are looking for.”
In a letter, Brewer called the bill is unnecessary, redundant and a violation of Constitutional separation of powers, meaning that the legislative branch of the government cannot tell the executive branch what it can and cannot do.
However, Hodge and his sponsor, Democratic Sen. David Schapira, are not convinced by Brewer’s reasoning behind the veto.
“The only reason she vetoed this bill is because it was sponsored by a Democratic legislator and the idea originated with a student who identifies himself as a Democrat,” said Sen. Schapira in a press release.
SB 1066 passed through every level of government with “overwhelming bipartisan support”, according to Schapira, before it was struck down by the governor.
Added Hodge:
“It’s disheartening to see that partisanship played a factor in nullifying an attempt to formally recognize students for their service and volunteerism in the community. Arizona would have been the first state to formally recognize youth for their community service…it could have possibly persuaded other states to follow suit.”
Although Hodge will be graduating this month, he says he will continue to fight for the bill’s passage.
“This bill wasn’t for myself, it was for the future generations of Arizona,” he says.
Linda Littell, director of communications for the Tempe Union High School District, says the district will “certainly look at a process for acknowledging those students” as well.
Dr. Kenneth Baca, superintendent at TUHSD, added:
“While I am very disappointed in the governor’s decision, I know Jevin understands that this is a part of the democratic process.
“I hope politics did not play a role in a young person’s desire to better his community so as to ensure that all young men and women are recognized for the positive contributions they make to this great nation of ours each and every day.”
In the past, tea party brown-nosing politicians have attempted to equate “community service” by high school students with some form of left-wing indoctrination of our youth to promote socialism, or by suggesting that it is a subversive plot by Obama to create a Nazi brown-shirt youth phenomenon.
Governor Palpatine is simply playing into that delusional hysteria to placate her irrational conservative base.
Isn’t irrational and conservative a redundancy?
This is just one more example of how far extreme rightwing the Governor’s decisions have become. Saying that it’s simply disheartening, especially when other governmental entities have endorsed it, is a gross understatement. This governor, along with Joe Arpaio, the now disbarred Andrew Thomas and her other extreme rightwing cronies are all making Arizona a laughing stock around the world. Wake up Arizona – is this something you really want to be a part of? Politics is one thing but extremism is quite something else.
Very well stated, she makes Arizona and it’s citizens look like wack jobs for electing extremists with such a narrow agenda.
Her face says it all. Her heart is as ugly as she is.
Colleges do not need approval of the Legislature to assess an applicants community service. This was a feel good bill and is completely out of the venue of valid Legislative business. It would have been another meaningless law to clog up the record.
sorry, roberto, acknowledging good deeds by the citizenry is as part and parcel of a legislator’s responsibility as preparing a budget. look at thenumber of cronies our rightwing wackjobs recognize annually, ostensibly for doing something to benefit the community.
If your criteria for torpedoing this bill is that there are too many meaningless bills passed annually, I agree — but this one is MEANINGFUL AND IT’S POSITIVE AND IT’S SPONSORED BY A DEMOCRAT!
Yet the Arizona legislator passed, and the Governor signed 117 “proclamations” last year including “Coatimundi (a small raccoon like animal native to Arizona” Day”, “Arizona Meteor Hunters Day” and to honor a micro brewery that produced a beer called “Arizona Gold” that used cactus in the brewing process. All more important to then sending young people to college to become what Republicans disdainfully refer to as “Intellectual Elites”, or as everybody else calls them “Smart People”.
If you elect a governor with a community college certificate and one that doesn’t understand basics of going to college, this is what you’re going to get. Kick her out of office and get someone that has at least a bachelors degree and understands the need to have a higher education. You can’t compare this ugly duckling with our president who is harvard educated.
I’m not sure if Brewer really vetoed this because the student was a democrat. I still think that the bill is unnecessary and really adds nothing–just a waste of time. Seems like the student just wants to get the bill passed to add that to the resume instead of talking about real issues.
Your kidding right. Maybe we should look at his birth certificate, cause thats not wasting time.
From knowing Jevin personally, the last thing he cares about is getting it added onto his resume. This stems from his legitimate dedication to the community and his hope to expand the influence and impact of community service.
Yeah, state government interacting with the most community minded, intelligent young go-getters in Arizona. What a waste of time, and perfectly in sync with all other stories coming out of Arizona.
By the way, as a resident of Kentucky, and I’m sure I speak for Arkansas, Florida, Texas, Tennessee and Kansas, thanks for becoming the new poster child for states with “unique” residents.
The modern GOP, ladies and gentlemen: Hostile to the notions of community service and republican virtue. Give them a hand!
Yeah! Lookit Ana’s comment above — make’s one wonder how many of these lo-info, knee-jerk TBaggers have ever given 200 hours of community service, let alone that much in a year!
Ms. Brewer you again have shown without question the inability of the GOP to think outside of the little box in which they live. These students deserved better from you…after all they are the future.
Ironically, Ms. Brewer they are too young to know that you have NO interest in them..for they will NOT follow your footsteps of bigotry and hatred…
Again, Ms. Brewer..you chipped a bit more of the American dream from future Americans….congratulations.
She’s afraid someone who is not white might win the award…
The voters bought her now let her break them.
Even the first Bush president acknowledged the need for a “thousands points of light” to take humanity to a better place…Why snuff on of those points of light out Guv.
The legislature passes laws and the executive branch is charged with administering and enforcing them. Basic civics, basic constitutional law.
Smells like butthurt in here.
Maybe if the student’s name had been Alec, she would have signed it without even bothering to have it read to her.
Anything that helps people….the republicans are against….EVEN IF IT HURTS THEIR OWN PARTY….
This was an idiotic bill that should have been vetoed. We now have silly feel good bills? It’s so absurd. Of course she vetoed this nonsense. Although I love seeing all the misogyny directed at Brewer by so-called women loving liberals.
WA state has some schools that allow/require community service towards HS graduation credit! It is wonderful! It can help kids get a sense of what working in the real world is like when you are required to be somewhere at a certain time other than school, have people depending on you, & ready & able to work with you & trust you. Talk about boosting a kids self-esteem! It teaches kids to love their community & the people in it, giving them a sense of pride for where they live! It teaches kids not to be so self-absorbed & myopic! Looks like Gov. Brewer should do some community service of her own cuz her work as Gov is certainly a DISSERVICE to the people of Arizona!
You guys should know that nothing gets past the crypt keeper a.k.a. Arizona gov lol
Jan Brewer is a complete loser. I cannot believe Arizona would vote for such a bad person. She comes across like a typical hill billy on TV.
Hey, Dubyah was elected 2x on a national level. What makes you think people are any smarter on a local level?
Well, technically, just once.
Well…. actually 0 times .. as the dear state of Arizona totally obliterated the counting of votes in 2004
Jan Brewer was not elected.
Quinn you took the words right out of my mouth.
Young men and women have a personal choice to do or not do what it takes to be ordinary or extraordinary during the formative years of their lives and as the years come and go. It has been a way of life since square one beginning with our forefathers and long before. Genuine desire and ceratinly not some legislation, makes good things happen for the better.
I agree, but during these hard times coming together to celebrate a reward success instead of stupidity and failure, I think it is a must.
Amazing that Ms Brewer thinks that it is important for the legislative branch to dictate about reproductive rights, immigration and citizenship, but that giving credit to students who help in their communities is “redundant and unnecessary”. Someone needs to give Ms Brewer a civics lesson…soon!
Good point. You are absolutely right. Although I don’t think she would understand a civics lesson.
Excellent point, Greta. Brewer showed Americans her inability to think and function as a rational person when she wagged her finger in the face of the President. Her partisanship should show the citizens of AZ that she only cares about her party, not her constituents.
No need for the government to get involved to create an award for community service. Plus, blaming partisanship for the veto is a poor and futile argument. If the student was receiving prope advice, he’d address the reasons Brewer gave for the veto one by one. Instead, all he’s learning is to become partisan himself. What a shame… but not a surprise in today’s political climate.
What IS sad is how shills will support this Governor no matter how bad she behaves. Blind, ideoligical, braindead followers!
You miss the point, here is a student trying to better his community (that’s all). His efforts being thwarted by some hack knee Governor who has been playing politricks all along.Only a,” poor and futile argument,” for people who consider community service, “and futile argument.”
I hope she goes away, gets out of politics and sticks to being bat sh%$ crazy.
More likely, she’ll show up as a vice-President candidate.
Naw, she is too ugly for that!
Nice excuses, but it doesn’t fly!!! Even the Republican controlled congress got behind this so this is not about left and right, it is about Jan just being plain wrong, AGAIN!!! Meet our Governor, Wrong way Jan…
It’s a race to the bottom, with you guys.
It’s sad when Republicans don’t want to recognize community service. Maybe they’re scared if someone cares about their community, they’d be voted out of a job?
All they care about are the 1%ers and corporations. The Republibagger motto: I’ve got mine so s@rew you.
If people in Arizona knew what the rest of the country thinks when they see this…unbelievable.
Jan Brewer is a blight on the Republican Party and USA. Race to the bottom is an accurate description for her term in office.
This is a great idea to make awards for kids who choose to do so much community service but as much as I dislike most of what Governor Brewer does, she’s right on this one. Awards should not be laws. Let the older community get together and make an awards policy such as the newspapers and the Chamber of Commerce plus get local hospitals and other big organizations involved but my goodness, do we need a law for everything?
The Republicans don’t. They like a free wheeling environment.
Brewer could simply have decided to issue an executive order to give out the awards instead of posturing about separation of powers. What a phony. There is nothing but good will in a proposed law like this. There are many ways to make the spirit of the bill a reality.
But not for Brewer, who is taking her authoritarian, alcoholic-oriented, and cruel decision-making to new lows.
If awards and recognition shouldn’t be laws, then would not the Congressional Medal of Honor and other praises the US Congress gives also be inappropriate? Laws shouldn’t all be negative.
We have had four years of this from the GOP House Republicans, why shouldn’t GOP Governors do it!
Jan Brewer is the anti-christ!
I am so happy my parents took me out of Arizona at a young age.
It is almost embarrassing to admit I was born there.
How do people like Jan Brewer, John McCain, George Bush ever get elected in the first place ? I know George is from my current home, Texas. But I really do believe they were all hatched from the same egg. And still live in the same bubble.
“Civics lesson”? Jan Brewer would think you’re gonna teach her how to drive a Honda.
Service can be promoted without legislation, just do it because you want to do it, and do it on your own dime. Report winners to local tv and newspapers etc.
I detest this woman’s stances. She represents and supports unconscionable—inconceivably sustainable views, attitudes, and opinions—positions. Yet, voters in the state of Arizona including their sheriff and I suppose a majority of law enforcement officers and lawmakers appreciate her service. A service record that aspiring people have to be sensing is inconveniencing their outlook and or appraisal as it relates to their opportunities or chances in American society. It’s not looking good if your Hispanic or African American and you live in Arizona certainly. Prehaps an explanation for why the state is literally on fire literally is that it’s reparative; suggesting the good folks in Arizona are living in hell and they should get the hell out there!
My daughter’s high school requires a minimum of 50 hours of community service a year. There are students that don’t do the hours – they are not eligible for National Honor Society membership – so it’s not the end of the world for them, and one of the NHS virtues is service.
The school also puts the hours worked on high school transcripts to colleges because the students turn in forms signed by supervisors at their volunteer work.
With regards to the service – it can be working the coat drive, collecting the frozen turkeys and loading them into the van for Thanksgiving, going to a town’s street fair and manning a booth, doing things at your local church, volunteering with children, elderly and the disabled, and if you don’t have anything locally or don’t know anyone, they have announcements all the time. Just sign up, get on that van or bus, and they’ll get you where you need to be like the community food bank up north to sort and pack.
Some students enjoy the work and far exceed 50 hours a year. I think the most time-intensive task was one girl who was training up puppies to become assistance dogs. Part of that is the dog going to public places for training, including schools, offices, stores, restaurants and anywhere an assistance dog might be needed. Will that sort of thing soon be illegal in Arizona?
And what would be wrong with politics playing a role in his community interest?
mcclintock could be obama’s son or even clinton ,lol enough laws,americans dont need to be dictated too,just enforce the laws we have !!!
Yeah, his brown skin probably didn’t help either. Brewer didn’t get a chance to wave a finger in his face.
Jan Brewer is a SHREW!, Plain and Simple, a selfish, self promoting SHREW!
Brewer- oh yes the original tanning lady from New Jersey
Yet her own son has been involuntarily committed for criminal sexual assault for lo these past twenty-some years. At taxpayers’ expense, we may assume. So, she might feel threatened by rewarding decent kids. Guess she assumes we are all so ignorant that nobody would bring this up. Looks like she’s right.
She makes W look like Einstein combined with Mother Theresa.
THIS bill she vetoed. However, she had no trouble signing 6 anti-women bills into law this year. Now Arizona doctors may lie to their pregnant patients and not be sued for the lie, Planned Parenthood is de-funded, employers may opt not to cover birth control, sex education in schools has new anti-choice restrictions, and abortions before 17 weeks are restricted (the law says 20 weeks but it will be 17 weeks for many women). Republicans are waging a true War on Women and their ability to make their own medical decisions. Now it appears as if they are not too thrilled with community service either. Republicans have never been this mean-spirited before.
If they show any thrillage toward community service, then they run the risk of showing some kind of support for President Obama. Or some such nonsense as that.
Guarantee this was nothing more than partisan nonsense. For some reason, it has come to be the right wing mission to make sure dems get zero wins. So petty and stupid. Thanks, governor for making us look bad AGAIN.
Jan Brewer is a racist. If this was a young white republican, the bill would have passed with flying colors. This is AZ, the land of eternal racism, don’t forget about Evan Mecham, the gov. who banned MLK day. Jan Brewer is a student of that political school.
She’s a piece of work. And I’d like to know where the doctors are over the bills being passed in states that tell doctors to lie to their patients and they won’t be held accountable if something happens that harms the mother? Why aren’t they screaming about stupid “non-doctors” deciding that since they don’t keep the oaths they take that it’s okay for doctors not to keep their oaths either? How could you ever trust a doctor that lied to you and saddled you with a child that is going to bankrupt you due to the horrible birth defects the child was born with and that the doctor knew about when asked about getting the child aborted? I’d like to know what republican voters think about when they vote for the brain trust that is the GOP? Where do they come up with this crap that they force down our throats. They accused President Obama of cramming the healthcare reform down their throats but I’ll tell you what, I’d rather have President Obama’s healthcare law any day over the stupid, moronic, misogynist bills coming from GOP state and federal lawmakers these days. They obviously think all women voters are stupid and bainless. I hope we show them exactly how brainless we are come this November. And Brewer is a stupid incometent governor. I would call her a woman but she’s obviously given that title up to become a member ot the GOP.
The kid is black, the legislator who sponsored the bill is a Democrat. I’m shocked – shocked the bill made it all the way to Brewer’s desk! Arizona is the most racist, redneck state in the union. In any other state someone with a community college certificate in radiology who can barely speak in complete sentences would be deemed unqualified for state office. Here, she gets re-elected. I live amongst morons and haters.
Why should the state give an award to people for doing community service?
Seems like giving awards for doing the right thing.
Pete, don’t we give awards to “heroes” because they did the “right thing”? What’s wrong with recognizing someone for doing something that benefits others?