>> Next on "Arizona horizon," we'll sit down with rusty bowers to get a reaction to fellow republican censuring him and continuing in the state legislature.

That is next on "Arizona horizon."

Good evening and welcome to "Arizona horizon."

I'm Ted Simons and Brittney Griner was sentenced today to nine years in a Russian penal colony and in after a Russian court found her guilty of smuggle narcotics into a country and this after hashish oil was found in her luggage.

>> The final verdict is nine years of imprisonment of nine million rubels in the penal colony and she will serve her term from the day of the announcement of the verdict and time when she was behind bars from the 18th of February, 2022 will be included in the overall tem.

term.

>> President Biden called this, quote, unacceptable as did the U.S. embassy.

>> This is a miscarriage of justice and the U.S. department of state has department that Brittney Griner was wrongfully detained and nothing in the decision changes that determination.

Secretary of state Bl irkinken and President Biden's national security team and the entire American government remain committed to bringing Brittney Griner home safely.

>> The such and Russia have been discussing a possible prisoner exchange regarding Brittney Griner and that's expected to continue amid worseningening relations amid the two countries.

Today's verdict is a sobering milestone in the 1 168-day nightmare endured by her sister, BG, and we're committed to keeping her top of mind until she's back on American soil.

>>> Charges in the death of Breonna Taylor killed been Louisville police on her apartment in march of 2020.

>> The justice department has charged four current and former Louisville metro police department officers with federal crimes relate related to Miss Taylor's death including unconstitutional use of force and obstruction offenses.

>> Indeed, the justice department said two officers lied in order to get a warrant to search Breonna Taylor's home.

>> The Louisville police detective, Joshua James and sergeant Kyle Meeney drafted and approved a search warrant for Miss Taylor's home and that false affidavit set in motion events that lead to Miss Taylor's death when other LMPD officers executed that warrant.

>> Two of the officers shot Taylor pronounced dead at the scene and that followed the killing of George Floyd and renewed protests against police violence.

>>> And in election news, p irkinal county saying David f irkisk is no longer employed by the county and every county official is embarrassed and announced that the recorder, Virginia Ross, will resign to take over as election's director with the county appointing a new recorder tomorrow.

>>> Arizona house speaker rusty bowers was censured by the state G.O.P for refusal to overturn the vote for president and bowers was targeted by republicans on Tuesday when his bid for the state senate was rejected in the republican primary.

Here to talk about all of this and reflect on the state of politics and the direction of the party, we welcome speaker of the house, rusty bowers and good to see you.

>> Good to come.

>> Thanks for joining us.

>> Thanks.

>> Let's start with the latest first and your thoughts on Tuesday.

>> It was a sound resolution in my particular case and it was my desire to continue employment was tem nated terminated.

[ Laughter ] >> Why do you think the voters said no?

>> Well, I inherited a tough district and three of my, I would say less supportive friends have held for some time and so, they're legislative district leadership and everybody from the get-go, right from the first day of organization, it said, we're not for you and we're for these three.

And so we get good polling and I knew it was an uphill battle uphill battle.

>> Do you agree to not overturn the state?

>> Not at all.

Any time those types of things come up -- the question has been answered in my behind and you have to reiterate the answer.

>> CouldI know the republican party had a hard time with how you handled certain measures there -- allowing states to override the presidential election?

You made that a busy bill and do you regret that?

>> Of course not, that I would allow -- if I had the opportunity and I can say that we are not going to stop early voting, which all voted early and I think that's ironic.

So we won't stop early associating and weirding we're going to use machines and vote all in one day, yes, and count all in 24 hours.

We didn't have 80,000 extra people to put on that effort and there's to criteria.

The legislature gets to meet and just say, we didn't like it and we want to don't it ourself.

We're not taking way the fundamental right of the people.

>> I have another regret question and I have to ask you, do you regret testifying in front of the January 6th January 6th committee.

>> Not at all.

I do not regret it.

I didn't ask for it, but when you get a subpoena from Congress, you go and they said to tell the truth, I did.

>> When you were speaking, did you feel like your political career could very well be over?

>> Of course, of course.

There are consequences and I know the people that I deal with and I know the spin machine and so, just about anything I say is can, and will be used against me becomes very real.

>> Could you feel this would be making headlines and could you feel that when you were there and in the moment.

>> I didn't understand, have a com pre-hencecomprehension of how big this was and I didn't watch my own testimony.

When I came out, everybody treated me real nice and people on the street would say, thank you for saying that.

People in the airport came up to me and said, was that you?

And when I got on the plane,a guy started clapping and I'm thinking, what is going on here.

>> It surprised you, didn't it?

>> It really did.

>> Looking back, do you understand why people were reacting the way people did?

>> I have a greater understanding.

>> Why do you think?

>> ITelling the truth and I wasn't trying to impress somebody.

I was trying to answer the best of my recollection and those things were important to me, the constitution and family and faith and I'm glad to see that people really still appreciate that at a visceral level in their political leaders.

>> The fall-out from in, have you lost friends or on the outs with certain family members and how is that shaking out?

>> Someone said friends come and go and enemies accumulate.

[ Laughter ] >> I have a lot of good friends and my family have been very supportive and totally understand.

It's been a wild ride.

>> But there has to be a few folks that you thought were X and they turned out to be Y.

>> Once you get the turn stamp on you, no one wants to say anything about you.

They don't want to acknowledge you support them because, you know, there might be a few trumpers that would vote for me and I understand all of that.

It's all good.

>> You understand that, but what has happened, do you think, to the republican party from the time that Donald Trump came down that escalator and said I'm running for president?

>> It was way before then.

Kind of the overthrow of the old method in the party, the days of Paul Fannon and the Jack London and others.

There's a lot of camaraderie and yes, people differed and we knew we had to work together and be more unified to get things done.

When I came in 30 years ago, it was that kind of a deal.

Yes, we knew we called them the sioux nation and nobody was branding them with a Scarlet letter and you have to think a certain way and if you don't think that way, well, have we got a censure for you.

>> Well, what happened along the way?

>> Well, there's a lot less tolerance and this on both sides.

You'll see that there's an equal massacre on the democratic side of this aisle, is that we have the MS13 on one side and the senoran cowboys on the other and most of us are in the middle.

Listen, I don't want the demands on me and I just want a good job.

I want my family to be safe and I want opportunity.

I want them to get a good education.

And then just kind of leave me alone, but it's not that way now.

>> What does it say about the party that someone like Donald Trump and define him anyway you want, and certainly a number of ways to define him, can hang on the way he has?

What does it say about the party?

>> A, not all parties are like our state party and not all states are like ours.

But ours certainly has embraced that and it's not conservative.

I mean, I feel I'm conservative and believe in conserving institutions of value that prove themselves to be structures in a society.

I believe in conserving those but I don't believe in anger and retribution and vitriole and name calling and justified under the regime of that particular individual.

That's how we do business and it's not acceptable.

I think a lot of people feel that way.

>> You know, I've interviewed Jeff and he got out of it and he got on the wrong side of trump and he described this as a fever and soon it will break in the republican party.

It has not broken.

>> I call this a cancer and it's our willingness to say, I will discipline myself.

I will not respond in anger and try to get dirt on you and spin everything and try to militarize the process and every action on the floor.

They'll bring it up in a mailer and just not the last night of the budget with all of the amendments that are mailer bait but introducing a bill on the last date in order to try to subterfuge the budget and say I wasn't pro-life.

It's a different world.

>> Is that an indictment on us,en the voters, because those things seem to work?

>> Most voters don't know what happened.

They just get the spin and I think all of us are maybe overwhelmed by spin and we don't know the difference.

>> Are you still a republican?

>> Not in good standing.

>> I know that.

[ Laughter ] >> I can figure that out myself, but are you still a republican?

>> Thank you.

I won't be boxed, but I will decide and a lot of other people -- I met a lot of people and once that censure came out knocking doors, one lady burst out and said I'm so mad at the republican party and I was doing it right now when you knocked on the door.

A lot of them say we'll take a hiatus and go independent for awhile.

>> For those like you, those for you, yourself, is it easier to work within the republican party or from outside or is the republican party so far down trump boulevard now there is no saving it in the near future?

>> I don't know if it's trump boulevard or Biden boulevard because either way is the same way.

Today, I talked to a guy who got thrown out and a more radical guy came in and it's on both sides of this thing partnership I don't know about saving the party, but as far as working, there are people inside my party and inside the other party that really are people of good will and that's what I'll work with.

>> Could there be a third party?

>> That's a pretty hard thing, but I think that's possible.

>> Especially in this current climate.

>> Sure.

>> Why did you get into politics?

>> Always had an interest.

Parent's interest around the table and talking.

I tried to get into ASU to get my art degree and Masters and they turned me down.

Both my sculpture and painting, no offense to ASU.

It's a great place.

[ Laughter ] >> You wound up doing well, went to BYU and you're a sculptor now and your work is all over town.

>> Well, there's not one in here.

[ Laughter ] >> Well, if you want to make a busbust of me, you're welcome to.

Would a young rusty bowers get into politics today?

>> It would not be attractive.

It would be as it is, has been for the last decade for me, it's just duty because the anger in it all is something you just have to constantly fight back and focus on getting things done.

I thought we did good things.

>> So how do you change that?

>> I have to always discipline myself.

I have to insist that people in my staff discipline themselves and that the people that we work with, that we all agree, we are not going to respond to these things and at times, it's difficult.

And I think the people -- if the people accept it and the people practice it -- we're just a reflection of the people.

There is more anger throughout society and fault finding, attacking the school board and yelling at the policemen and it's an indictment of all of us.

>> Is your political career over?

>> I don't know it's over.

I think it's will take a new area of service.

I.I have to make sure this state keeps going and I'll be involved.

>> What is next for you other than your artwork?

>> I'm cleaning out the studio and have sculpted up something recently, but we have going immediately on a water trip and looking for water and the governor has been working very hard to try to put together something for our future to start augmenting our water supply and look at conserving measures to conserve water.

All of us, this is a human responsibilityhugeresponsibility to get control and I want to be a part of that.

>> Thank you for your time and reflecting on everything that's happened and best of luck to you.

Thank you for joining us.

>> Thank you.

>> Good to have you here.

>> Thank you.

>> Up next, state superintendent, Kathy Hoffman to discuss the state's persistent teacher shortage.

>> Arizona's teacher shortage continues with ongoing concerns or the recruitment and retention of teachers.

Teacher pay is a major factor and education funding is limited by a spending cap dating back to the 1980's and here to update is the superintendent of instruction is Kathy Hoffman.

Good to have you in studio.

Some thank you.

>> Let's start with the teacher shortage.

Is it there?

Is it getting better, getting worse and what's going on?

>> So we have to characterize it knowing that there are, quite frankly, thousands of people in Arizona who have their teaching certificate and aren't working in our classroom and we have to put that in perspective, that we have a teacher retention issue in Arizona and we've been working at this for many years now, that the teacher shortage is not a new issue and some places it's exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic and teacher burn-out.

But this is not a new issue and speaking with school leaders, there are many issues across the state they're trying to fill and the school year has started in most of the state.

>> Is it worse than the past couple of years than it has or getting better?

>> It's not significantly worse or better.

So we're kind of still in the same boat and part of our how school leaders are addressing this issue in the immediate is by hiring emergency certified substitutes and filling this who have not gone through a teacher preparation program.

I have concern because we are laser focused on accelerating student learning, on math, science and a revolving door of substitute teachers, I worry about studenting not having quality of learning.

>> This law allows anyone in college to teach in a classroom even if they don't have a degree or working toward their degree.

>> This impacts a narrow number of people in Arizona that are a part of a classroom preparation classroom and I'm glad that it wasn't broader than that because they want to set the bar high, to have teachers who have their Bachelor's degrees teaching our students and a lot of our teachers are emergency certified teachers which only requires a high school degree.

So I would say that is tale my actually my bigger concern.

>> The Bandaid is here and there and problem persists.

>> Exactly.

>> The education spending cap.

The budget was celebrated because a lot of funds were headed in that direction and are schools able to budget right now with that cap saying, you know, the money, here is the money and you can't use it?

>> I was one of the people who celebrated this bipartisan budget that added over five hundred million dollars of new funding in Arizona.

But with the spending cap, as you said, an antiquated law and suspended and I have been advocating that we need to repeal it as soon as possible and what that does, it does limit only our school districts and not the charters' ability to spend down the money allocated to them.

The reason it doesn't impact charters is because there were no charter schools back in the 1980s.

This is definitely impacting our school leaders, our superintendent's ability to budget out and especially for ongoing funding like teacher salaries, they want to be able to use the new funding to support their staff, but knowing that their budgets could get cut significantly next spring and this is causing them to pause and not spend down the money that has been allocated to them.

>> For other things like special education and other avenues that need funding, are they affected by this cap?

>> Yes, because if the cap were to take effect next spring and the deadline is march 1st, it could effectively cut two billion dollars from our public education system.

Saying that we just added 500 million for our base funding and $100 million for special education, all of the that progress would be washed away if the districts are not able to spend down.

The school would end early and massive lay-offs.

I can't say enough to the urgency and my concern, the reason I'm calling on governor Ducey to taking action now is because we will have new leadership in the senate and the house next legislative session and a if you governor.

>> What kind of response from the governor's office?

>> I have not heard any response in terms of taking immediate action.

They said they acknowledge the issue and that they seem to think there's a plan to address it and no longer be in office come January.

>> Was there an explanation as to why the cap wasn't addressed in the last session?

>> The legislature waited until just days before the deadline, creating a lot of instability, a lot of stress.

Our schools were having meetings with families to explain this issue was coming just in case they had to end the school year early.

So I have a lot of concern that it will take a two-thirds vote, not just a simple majority, a two-thirds vote to suspend this and to repeal it, it would have to go to the voters for approval in 2024.

This is a simple issue that needs a simple solution and we need a lot of people on board and the people who are in leadership now won't be there come January.

Have >> Last question, are Arizona schools, are you ready for fall classes.

>> Absolutely.

The majority of our schools are going and this year is unlike past couple of years.

So much energy, scoot excitement and hope and optimism and everyone is back in-person and I can't say enough of how excited we are for this new school year.

>> As far as teacher retention, get rid of the cap, that improves and is that an equation right there?

>> I would hope because our students needs that stability and if they could raise teacher salaries, it would help with teacher retention.

>> Thank you for your time.

We know you're busy.

>> Thank you for having me.

>> Tomorrow is the journalist's roundtable and we'll talk about everything and going deep dive.

That's tomorrow and that's it for now.

Time Ted Simons and thank you for joining us.

You have a great evening.