Sylvia Allen: If this is how education issues will be covered in the upcoming legislative session, readers will be seriously shortchanged.

The day after Senate President Andy Biggs announced my appointment as chair of the Education Committee, The Arizona Republic covered the story not by focusing on my background on education issues, but instead with a comment I made in a committee six years ago.This was a comment taken out of context and with no connection to our state’s education system. And this was in a news article covering the chairmanship, not an opinion piece by the Editorial Board.

If this is a sign of how the Republic intends to cover education issues in the upcoming legislative session, it looks like readers are going to be seriously shortchanged.I am not surprised by attacks from this paper concerning my appointment as Senate education chairman. This has become the norm to attack, instead of debate issues and ideas. Why look at the positions I’ve taken while serving on the Education Committee, when you can launch a cheap personal attack?

For the rest of the piece, click here: http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/2015/12/30/sylvia-allen-education/78066750/