Whatever state school superintendent Diane Douglas intends to prove with her political career, it's hard to see how she plans to do it -- unless it's driving even more funding away from the schools she was elected to oversee.
One: Celebrating her second month in office by getting into an open war with the governor. That fight erupted over Douglas firing two people that her own letter to the governor said she didn't have the authority to fire without the concurrence of the Arizona Board of Education ... that's an unconventional beginning, to say the least.
Two: Using that letter to attack charter schools, the darlings of wingnut Republicans in this state. Political suicide by ego -- or so it would appear. Douglas must see a path ahead that nobody else sees, or else she's as politically astute as a pitcher of clabber.
And there's more to come: Gov. Doug Ducey immediately said the two Board of Education employees were not fired and should report to their desks Tuesday morning, after the Presidents Day holiday.
Douglas quickly fired back that as far as she was concerned, it was still up to her to decide that, and she wasn't so sure the two would be allowed back in the building on Tuesday.
Continued after the orange Arizona dust devil.