Ducey’s Tucson Tele-Town Hall on Education

1. What better use for the public could there be than for an empty school building to have a school replace it? The public is better served on numerous fronts. No new construction which the City has a habit of “feeing” projects to death and delay after delay from planning and zoning. Plus the change in traffic patterns with new construction can create all kinds of logistical problems that would financially punish the taxpayers.

   On the surface I would say that when a charter school closes, whoever bought and paid for it, owns it. Public school buildings are held in trust but upon sale it now looks like the public has little say where the money goes.

   If all you are trying to do is defend the stranglehold that TUSD used to have on education, at least be honest enough to admit it. Those days are coming to an end…and none to soon.

   The public and the children deserve the opportunity to make a choice in their education. Let’s give it to them.

2. Ms Pederson makes an attempt to encourage the public to punish local businesses that supported the Governor by boycotting them. You see Ms Pederson, without Charter Schools we as parents had no options for boycotting you.

   Now we do.

   There was no “free enterprise” in your enterprise.

   Now there is. Looks like it sure leaves one bitter, doesn’t it?

3. I have to agree with Rat on this. Pederson’s hyperbolic argument is that vacant schools built using public tax revenues will be purchased at less than market value only to be flipped and sold at market value at astronomical profit by for profit charters or non-profit charters for-profit arm. First, this has never happened and no one yet has branded charters (for profit or non-profit) has real estate speculators (except Pederson). Second, language could and should be built in any legislation guarding against such egregious and predatory actions. The argument seated in a discussion of Tucson’s International School is a red herring.

   Calling for a boycott against Shamrock Dairies and Jim Click Automotive may sound provocative to some, ridiculous to others and bad local economics to many. Which businesses should be next on the list, only those led by business people who supported Ducey? That would be most of the business leaders in the state and in Tucson (including members of the Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, also targeted by Pederson). Madame LaFarge in Tale of Two Cities would be in awe.

   In the face of the current state of affairs in TUSD, charter schools remain one option for parents whose children are trapped and are without the resources to move away, send them out of district or enroll them in private schools.

4. Thanks Rick. I feel like I’m making progress.

   Just imagine that once you boycott Jim Click (as a teacher) you find out that one of your students had a parent that was laid off at Jim Click because of negative publicity, and they lose their home.

   When you claim to be putting “children first” you have to be real careful what you say, and do.

   I have never liked these poorly thought out boycotts of any business. This type would severely pit citizens against citizens and that is not the way to solve political control disputes.

   Why is it that the tax payer always comes last?

5. Ms. Pedersen is right to be concerned. It takes only a 20-second Google search to see how public money has been lost to charter school real estate schemes and related “Crony capitalism” (a quote from pro-charter Fordham President Michael Petrilli – see Ohio article below).

   While obviously not every charter school group engages in this type of practice, it isn’t a rare occurrence either. And what type of oversight is there to ensure this practice won’t expand further in Arizona? More than a few local charter schools have already formed private ‘holding’ groups inside of their initial 501(c)3 non-profits so the public can’t see how – and where – their money is being spent.

   A few recent CHARTER SCHOOL REAL ESTATE SPECULATION HEADLINES:

   MISSOURI – Imagine schools’ real estate deals fuel company growth (10/30/2011) –
   “When students first entered Imagine Academy…four years ago, their school was already entangled in a complex series of real estate deals – ones that would divert dollars from their education. By the time they were on their first summer break, their brown brick building…had been sold three times, the final price nearly 10 times higher than the first. In the process, the company running the school – along with a small group of other players – cashed in.
   Imagine Schools Inc., the nation’s largest charter school operator, runs six charter schools in St. Louis. Together, their performance on state standardized exams is worse than any school district in Missouri. Nevertheless, those schools are generating millions of dollars for Imagine and a Kansas City-based real estate investment company through real estate arrangements ultimately supported with public education money.

   LOUISIANA – New Orleans charter school sold stripped copper for cash (2/7/2015) –
   A New Orleans charter admitted to stripping copper components from the heating and air conditioning systems to sell for cash. The charter is leasing the building from the Recovery (public) School District.

   OHIO — Charter School’s Lease Deals Scrutinized (10/12/2014) –
   Imagine schools charged one of their own schools 81% of state aid (tax dollars) budget just for rent in the building they owned. The charter chain is under investigation “in at least three states and Washington DC” – and one state already shut them down. See also –
   OHIO – Ohio charter school companies amass tax-free real estate portfolios (9/20/2014)

   MICHIGAN — Public money for schools buys private property (12/14/2014) –
   Charter chain ‘sweeps’ $228 million in state tax dollars into private accounts – asserts private ownership of all school property purchased with public funds. A consultant for a school reform group notes: “…This industry of real estate speculators, wheeler-dealers who use the system to make a fast buck, has grown up so fast that it’s overtaken the capacity of current oversight agencies.”

   National/FORBES – Charter School Gravy Train Runs Express to Fat City (9/10/2013) –
   An article that runs the gamut: sweetheart, no-bid deals and big donations to politicians in return for more tax money (with less oversight), generous tax credits and a quick-pass to buy immigration visas in return for charter school ‘investment’, and huge payouts for charter heads ($5 million/year in 2011 for the K-12 chief who gets paid based on enrollment – not performance).

   FLORIDA – Charter schools making big profits for private companies (8/22/2014) –
   Just one Florida company – Charter Schools USA – has spent almost $2 million (tax dollars!) lobbying the state legislature alone. Accordingly, there hasn’t been much state attention to the fact that Charter Schools USA is charging it’s own schools about 23% of their budget just for rent each year — a much more lucrative scheme than just relying on the initial school management fees.

   PENNSYLVANIA – Investigating Charter Schools Fraud in Philadelphia (6/27/2011) –
   “19 of the 74 charter schools operating in the city are under investigation for fraud, financial mismanagement and conflicts of interest.
   At one school…parents raised concerns in 2008 after school administrators told them that there was no money available for special education students….Ultimately, both the founding CEO of Philadelphia Academy Charter School and his successor were charged with stealing almost $1 million from the school’s coffers…The two men also allegedly engaged in questionable real estate deals. As a result, the high school paid rent money for its facilities directly to them. “They charged really high rental rates for the school to use the building and then they accumulated money through higher interest rates”, she says. “They were using taxpayer obey that was supposed to go to the school for other purposes.”…

6. That’s quite a list, Parent X. There are similar stories in Arizona. I’ll mention one which, if I have time, I’m planning to write more about. Primavera Online High School buys its software, to the tune of about $14 million a year, from a for-profit company owned by the people who run the school. They spend about a third as much as that — about $5 million — on salaries. The Republic talked about the school in a 2011 story about problems with the way non-profit schools send lots of the money they get from the state up to for-profit companies. http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/201…

7. You guys could have cared less when our money is stolen by TUSD and wasted on pet racist projects. I smell an air of phoneyness now. Competition seems to be what you fear.

   Why is that? It only makes you better.

8. Unlike Rat T and Rick Spanier, Ann-Eve Pedersen knows what she is talking about. She is an absolutely factually based expert on Arizona public education.

9. Then why hasn’t it been fixed?

10. Thank you Parent X. You have done your homework! Education for profit is a grand opening for fraud. My problem in Arizona is who is investigating the charter schools? The ones in power seem to be the ones who do this because of course they say they want what is best for the children. I would like to know what agency or arm of our government is paying attention to what is really going on.

11. It’s really odd that you folks can’t see what a fraud public education has become. It is no longer what it used to be.

12. It is so sad that the lies about fraud in TUSD continue which is to the benefit of the people who want the profits through charter schools and private prisons. I have talked to my congressman about those statements of fraud and TUSD. I also talked to people who have been in the district a very long time. No one has ever heard of TUSD being accused(openly) or convicted of fraud. It is in the imagination of those that want public education to fail. NO, TUSD nor any school system is perfect and we always strive to improve. I love TUSD because of all it does for so many children. It is also very real that charter schools have been accused of fraud, and are openly being investigated in many states . So it certainly seems that those who are actually fraudulent are the ones pointing their fingers at public education. Big bucks in doing so.

13. Sorry Robin but you are very wrong. Don’t waste your time talking to your Congressman about TUSD, they can’t help. You will never find me making disparaging remarks about other public schools like Vail, Amphi and Flowing Wells as long as they continue to be run in an orderly fashion.

    But defending TUSD is much like buying booze for your alcoholic uncle. In the end nothing good will come from it.

    It’s time to sober up.

    Better yet ask to see all submissions they have received:

    http://www.tusd.k12.az.us/contents/govboard/SectB/BDFB.pdf

14. Call it what you want to but this is waste and fraud:

    Tucson Unified School District will spend $90,000 for an outside analysis of what more than 60 employees do, and to gauge their effectiveness….

    “There are 64 learning-

    supports coordinators in TUSD — 55 full-timers, six part-timers and three vacant full-time positions. Starting pay ranges from about $40,000 to $60,000 a year, depending on experience and length of contract.”

    http://tucson.com/news/local/education/tusd-paying-k-to-assess-deseg-funded-jobs/article_c8ccb3e3-e6e8-574b-bc3e-fe626ab3bf34.html

15. Thank you Ann-Eve Pedersen for your analysis of the issues. Boy, with a billion dollar budget shortfall you’d think the governor would be more concerned with bailing out the state than enriching his cronies.

16. What about the Failing charter schools in Tucson that should be shut down?

Comments are closed.