Letter to Editor and Draft Initiative: Educational System
Letter to Editor and Draft Initiative
Arizona offers unique opportunities for direct democracy based on initiative power. In 2012 the Arizona voters, for example, rejected the Proposition 204 initiative that sought to convert a temporary sales tax that funded education into a permanent tax.
In a 500-750-word “Letter to the Editor,” propose an initiative for an educational issue that you feel needs to be addressed. Include a plan about how this issue could become an initiative under Arizona law.
Your letter should be written to persuade others to agree with your position. Support your position with examples from case law, the U.S. Constitution, or other readings.
While APA format is not required for the body of this assignment, solid academic writing is expected, and in-text citations and references should be presented using APA documentation guidelines, which can be found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center.
Street Address
City, Zip
September 9, 2021
Dean Baquet
Executive Editor
The New York Times
620 Eight Avenue,
New York, 10018
Dear Mr. Baquet,
I am writing about the current state of affairs that the State of Arizona’s educational system is facing right now. I know that the COVID-19 Pandemic has forced a lot, if not most, of the world to shift to a digital mode of learning. Students had to learn and study through online video classes or through any other modalities that are significantly different than what most people are used to.
Although these new learning modalities are not relatively new and have various benefits compared to the traditional face-to-face learning systems, Arizonans living in the rural areas believe that the significant shift in educational resources needed with the lack of government support is one of the most pressing issues right now CITATION Rur \l 1033 (Sowby, 2021).
One of the reasons for this need, I believe, is the rising costs of online education as compared to traditional education. In traditional face-to-face classes, the student’s tuition fee would cover the facilities, equipment, and other miscellaneous needs of the student. Thus, with State endowments and grants, students would not have to bear the full costs directly in their tuition fees and other fees that they are paying for. These similarities in fees, additional miscellaneous costs, and lack of “learning experience” is the reason why several students from around the country have already filed lawsuits and actions questioning the similarity in fees that universities are charging before and during the Pandemic CITATION And20 \l 1033 (Anderson, 2020).
In line with this, I would like to propose an alternative wherein taxes for universities and students are lowered down even for only the duration of the Pandemic recovery peri...