In response to some feedback I’ve received, please allow me to make clear a few things. I DO NOT believe that all of Arizona’s charter schools are staffed by right-wing lunatics. I DO believe that some charter schools provide a decent education for some students. Mostly, I DO NOT believe in the excuses given 20 years ago for the creation of charter schools or in the rationalizations made for the secretive expenditures of taxpayer money.
When charters were first created in the 1990s, they appeared to be a solution in search of a problem. Backers claimed that they were designed to help those in low-income areas, which explains why the successful ones are in the foothills and Oro Valley. (You have to understand that Republicans care about poor people like I care about soccer scores. That would be once every four years, and even then, only maybe.)
Back then, we heard (and, sadly, we continue to hear) about how wonderful it would be to apply free-market principles to education. Sorry, but most of us Americans realize that “free-market principles” don’t even work when applied to free markets.
In “honor” of the 20th year of charter-school madness in this state, please take this little quiz. You may not like the answers but, in the spirit of Barry Goldwater, in your heart you know they’re right.
1. In the first several years of Arizona’s charter-school “experiment,” how much money did the state lose due to shoddy bookkeeping, fly-by-night scams, corruption and/or outright grand theft?
a. $10 million; b. $100 million; c. $1billion; d. No one knows
2. True or false: Overall (or on average), charter schools do a better job of educating kids than do the local public schools.
3. In almost all cases, which of these has the highest administrative cost per student?
a. a traditional public high school; b. a Catholic high school; c. a charter high school; d. a nonreligious private school
4. True or false: There is a way that a charter-school operator can use taxpayer money to purchase a building, close down the school and then keep the building.
5. If I told the governor that I would donate $1 billion to the state if she could go somewhere and look up how much individual teachers make at the state’s hundreds of charter schools, would she be able to take me up on that deal?
ANSWERS: 1. d. No one knows and no one will ever know. Best guess is in the high tens of millions of dollars, but it could be much higher. When the Legislature careened out of control in its headlong rush to screw over public-school teachers by creating charter schools, it failed to provide any means for financial oversight. I don’t know if that happened due to incompetence or on purpose (and I’m not sure which case would have been worse). In the first several years, scam artists flooded into the state, set up phony operations in abandoned Circle K buildings, then skipped town when they got their first check from the state. Many, MANY charter schools had ghost students on their enrollment rolls and stole hundreds of dollars from me and you and the state for every fake name on the list.
2. FALSE. Despite all the wailing and gnashing of teeth, this has never been the case and still isn’t today. In fairness, a couple of recent reports show that while charter schools have closed the gap somewhat, the average charter school does not do as good a job of educating students as does the nearest (traditional) public school.
Now, some knuckleheads might want to engage in a little apples versus oranges and boldly claim that the Oro Valley BASIS is more successful than a school in an economically depressed area of town. I’m not sure that I even agree with that. I think taking a kid from a single-parent family in which maybe English isn’t spoken in the home and turning that kid into an average student who has at least a chance at making it is a greater achievement than taking a smart kid from a well-off, two-parent family and making that kid somewhat smarter.
3. c (by a mile!) Official warning: If even one person dares to challenge that, I will drown you in corroborating data that the state tried to bury under an avalanche of minutiae. Fortunately, it was the state of Arizona, so the attempts to bury the truth weren’t very successful.
There are things in that report that should shock even the most ardent supporters of charter schools. I’d like to say that it would even make Al Melvin think twice, but in order to think twice, you must have, at some time in the past, already thought once.
4. It’s TRUE. This seems absolutely insane but, under certain circumstances, it’s possible. And if I know about it, do you really think that charter school people don’t?
5. Of course not. The Über-lobbyists at the Goldwater Institute convinced their lackeys in the Legislature that allowing the charters to keep secret the way they spend taxpayer money is somehow more “efficient.” Nobody (except a select few administrators to whom the state gleefully hands over the money) knows where the money goes. That should make everybody mad, but for some reason, it doesn’t.
This article appears in Feb 6-12, 2014.
LOVE it! Locally-controlled public school supporters continue to shake our collective heads and say “what the hell are they thinking” about our state legislature and what they are doing to our public education system. We need to understand they know exactly what their goal is – to kill our public schools and privatize our educational system. Led by ALEC and the Goldwater Institute, they are out to make the education of your child, YOUR problem. The sooner we wake up to this reality, the sooner we stand a chance of winning this war. Want to do something about it? Get involved. AZSBA.org has a “Take Action” page to guide you. Please do it!
Nice well-cited article. Ha, ha, ha.
I worked at a charter school where no one objected if the “students” simply sat around and talked with friends all day. No, that didn’t interfere with lessons, for there were none. Those interested in doing so instead received packets and help with them, but most opted to simply put in their time.
Tom, as usual, disguises opinion as facts. (1), (3), (4) and (5) ‘answers’ have no proper documentation. (2) uses ‘nearest’ to avoid clarity. One suspects a feint here too. (4) is careful to use ‘high school’ for comparison. One wonders what an overall comparison would turn out to be, when the bloated central office of most school districts is included in the ‘analysis’.
Perhaps Tom does not have the facts. More likely he continues to illustrate Reagans observation that Democrats aren’t ignorant, they just know so much that just isn’t so.
PS. If Tom knew Al Melvin, particularly his work on obtaining a ‘port’ for Arizona, he might be forced to say something not only complimentary, but accurate, instead of his usual ad hominem approach.
chuckj: another rightwinger who when disappointed in the truth drags out that old conservative messup, Ronnie Reagun, to validate his contrary opinion.
chuckj, the facts are there one just has to do a bit of research like Tom did. I guess you were expecting footnote documentation.
Have somebody read and explain the article to you.
Oh and chuckj…Melvin is a right wing lunitic. A perfect example of the t-party’s ignorance.
Let’s see Charter Schools and Girls basketball. That about does it for Tom’s writing.
Once again Tom, an excellent article. Exposing the truth, that the extremist, anti-Americans, would not like exposed. Keep up the good fight against the propagandist. I look forward To your next investigative article, thanks. Micky Smythe
The Tucson Weakly. Another liberally biased Tucson rag. Anyone can distort facts to fit his/her cause. It seems that the heart of this article is how taxpayers money is spent. Tommy Boy obviously has a problem with any money going to a cause he doesn’t support. Personally, I’d rather have all my taxes go toward education, than have one red cent of them go toward Obamacare, food stamps, or any other of the multiple left wing entitlement programs. I wonder if Tom has kids. If so, they have my sympathy.
I’m an Arizona charter school supporter, and am not a right winger at all — I’m a liberal, a Democrat, an Obama voter (twice). To group all charter schools in one category is as inane as grouping all state universities, or all Jesuit schools, or all public high schools, into one category.
In Arizona and elsewhere, some charters are terrible, true. Some are middling. But some are excellent. And I’d rather have the option of a BASIS charter school for my kids, while having to actively avoid the “bad charters” — than to not have BASIS as an option at all. BASIS (for example) has 10 Arizona charter schools, all of them fantastic, especially the first two – Tucson North and Scottsdale have been in the top 10 schools in America for years now.
The knock against any one charter doesn’t apply to the others; the bad part of the bad charters doesn’t apply to the good ones — or the great ones. Instead of complaining about all charter schools, let’s do what smart people (Democrats, Republicans and Independents) do: avoid the crappy charter schools, and attend the great ones, like my BASIS kids.
Last week I asked Pulitzer Tommy to go to bat for me, but he’s too busy with some new project that he couldn’t take 5 minutes from. ( Suprise, suprise ) I, being the gentleman that I am will not hold it against him. Tommy has at least 2 children. 1 boy, 1 girl. His daughter recently graduated with an engineering degree from an outstanding East coast school. Cornel rings a bell. It’s painfully obvious that she takes after her mother. As far as her father is concern, the apple fell far from the tree. Don’t bother thanking me, Tommy. I just wanted to set the record straight. Also, let’s give Tommy credit. He wrote a whole column and didn’t mention the tea party once.
Gotta say this whole Danehy rant against charter schools and homeschooling thing is getting tired. His articles on the subject now get no more from me than an eye roll and a flipping to the next page.
And frankly, I don’t understand why bashing charter schools is synonymous around here with a “liberal bias.” I’m a liberal and a homeschooling parent. I think alternative forms of education are a perfectly acceptable (if not an often superior) way to get an education. Most of my friends (both liberal and conservative) agree.
Tom, this horse has been beaten into a bloody mess already…
Keep it up, Tom. The topic is not tired as long as our taxpayer dollars are thrown around and misused. What happened to the assets of All Sports Academy?
I have worked in charter schools my (almost) entire career and after having seen how the public system serves kids I would never change. It’s true, some charters are a joke, but aside from BASIS (mentioned above) which is a “one size fits some” system of drill and kill, regurgitate and repeat, but still considered the best in the country, think of City High downtown. They’ve done more for this community than any district school would ever dare, and they truly care for their kids and the kids know it and LOVE it and accountability is definitely there. Look at Copper Point opening in the fall with the Expeditionary Learning model; a proven system that puts kids out in the world rather than behind a desk, requires presentations of learning and portfolios, and most of all relevant, student led expeditions that district schools turn their noses up at..Sam Hughes had that model for a while but TUSD cut them off. Are there some blood sucking business people out to make a buck on charter schools (the Leona group or WILD)? Yep. Is that all of them? No way. Do your research. There’s something for everyone and that’s a GOOD thing.
CW13….Weekly you rant against, and insult Danehy. Nothing about what he wrote, no arguments against his various points, just insults directed at him and now , it seems, his family.
Beginning to wonder if the “authorities” should be notified as your ramblings are starting to seem threatening, especially when you bring his family into it.
I happen to know that Tom’s daughter recenty got her engineering degree from Cornel. He told me. Tell the authorities what you want. Tom will laugh at it. You know not what you say. MoJoDaddy wondered if Tom had kids. I told him.
CW13…constant attack, no substance.
Rightwing strategy at it’s best.
When CW’s not playing bully, he’s playing victim – often both at once; it’s amazingly sad.
If the readers check out ALEC, a conservative action group created to make and pass conservative views, charter schools are a mission for them. They want all charter schools and close down public schools. They list all the reasons for having charter schools. It is for control of the education of the kids with the conservative views. Where did SB1070, “stand your ground” bills get created, by ALEC. Where did voter ID bills get created, check out ALEC.
To those who support (and also work at) Charter schools, I ask you this: Is it worth decimating public education for a few acceptable schools? There are many excellent public schools – and would be more with increased parental involvement. Charter schools cherry pick students and suck dollars out of public education.
No, A.S. whats sad is that you fools don’t realize is that me and Tom communicate on a regular basis. How else would I know about where his daughter graduated from and what her degree is in? I’m sure he never E-mailed you about it. My busting of Tom’s chops is just a game I play. Too bad you stooges fell for it.
CW – right, except for all the times you gripe about him not answering your emails. Every time you post a comment – you prove my point. All you got is calling people names – it’s your whole act.
buy a shirt with sleeves biker boy.