Note [of exasperation]: I’m beginning to think the Star has a policy: “Never write the words, ‘According to an article by Craig Harris in the Republic . . .'” Harris has written a groundbreaking series of articles on charter school corruption and profiteering which has statewide relevance, but to my recollection, the Star hasn’t mentioned any of them, nor has it done similar investigations on its own.
Craig Harris has a new article in The Republic that takes another look at the lack of charter school regulation and accountability. Not only does the State Board for Charter Schools conduct minimal charter school oversight, it doesn’t acknowledge public complaints about charters on its website.
For the past three years, each charter school’s profile on the site displayed the message: “This charter has no complaints.”
According to Harris, the board received 91 complaints during the 2017-18 school year. Two months into this school year, it has already received 141 complaints.
The board’s motto: See no evil. Hear no evil. Post no evil.
According to Harris, the website has addressed the problem, though the board has yet to release complaints, which are public records, to the paper.
None of this is recent, or accidental. It’s part of a pattern that goes back to charter school beginnings in Arizona. The state charter board has always been more a promoter of charters than a regulator. Here’s some historical background.
Lisa Graham Keegan was the state senator who shepherded Arizona’s charter school law through the legislature in 1994. She became education superintendent in 1995. While charter schools were sprouting up all over the state, she was cutting the size of the department of education. The staffing went from over 450 employees to 350 in her first year.
The cuts were part of Keegan’s overall educational philosophy: cut regulations and accountability for public schools, and keep charters as regulation-free as possible. In an article titled The Empowerment of Market-Based School Reform, Keegan wrote,
All public schools have unreasonable reporting requirements, and we are committed making the fulfillment of those requirements easier rather than more difficult, for all public schools, including charters.
In the same piece, she bragged,
Among all the states, Arizona probably has the least invasive state management of charter schools. . . . My philosophy is that you should not thwart a market that wants to move.
At the same time Keegan cut her department’s employees by 25 percent, she created a skeleton crew to oversee — actually, to be powerless to oversee — charter schools. The State Board for Charter Schools had only three employees for its first three years, looking after 150 recently created charter schools. The number grew to six employees, then eight. Now it has eleven employees, only some of whom visit and evaluate the state’s 600 charter schools. Charters are pretty much on their own, by intention, until problems become public enough the board has to act.
Keeping complaints off the board’s website is an excellent way to keep charter problems out of sight and out of mind. Another way is to keep the media at bay as much as possible, which Keegan planned to do from the start. In the same article, she glories in the fact that charters have grown faster than the media’s ability to keep up.
There are so many charter schools that the media can’t camp on the doorstep of every single charter school waiting for it to do something wrong.
Keegan must be very unhappy with all the recent attention charter corruption has received in the media (though, sadly, not in the Star), especially since she said in so many words, corruption isn’t such a bad thing so long as the parents are happy. In the same article, Keegan wrote about a school, Citizen 2000, which closed in 1998. The founder declared bankruptcy and was later indicted on multiple counts of theft and fraud. She wrote about a wonderful meeting she had with parents who, she said, loved the school in spite of the founder’s criminal behavior.
Those parents said, “We knew there was fraud going on. That didn’t matter for us. What mattered was that our children were noticed, they know our children’s names.”
Keegan seems to think it’s a shame a wonderful charter run by someone stealing money from the state had to close. After all, what’s a little theft and fraud between free market friends?
Harris writes in his article that the current executive director of the charter board wants to add eight employees who can help regulate the schools. That will require about $631,000 in new funding from the legislature. If state government stays in Republican hands, it’s unlikely the director will get more than a portion of the help she’s asking for, if she gets anything. Which would be in keeping with the intention of the earliest advocates for Arizona’s charter schools: Charters are regulated best when they’re regulated least.
This article appears in Oct 4-10, 2018.
Or, could it be that the Star is fully aware of all the problems at TUSD and see them as an alternative to trapping low income families in a failed social experiment called TUSD? They may be doing the area a big favor.
Statistics say that 95% of students attend TUSD. Fully funded, for infrastructure and teacher support, they could take on programs that would improve ESL and learning disabled children – as well as the neighborhood kids who attend. We had so much going in the years I went to school in the 1960s and as funding failed, many of these great programs went by the wayside. Lots of the schools that are being sold off had large playgrounds, with space for play and sports. Once gone, it is going to be nearly impossible to replace them as the population changes. Political games at the state level have made the difference. During a recession/downturn it is asinine to try to fund two parallel school systems, where one has no accountability.
Mary Anderson, ever heard the expression that a conservative is a liberal who has been mugged by reality? Try attending a years worth of TUSD Board meetings and examining a years worth of their budgets some time and then come back to us and tell us how much better off their students would be if they just had MORE FUNDS!!! Or, you might want to try looking at the history of applications of desegregation funding and calculating just what percentage of the hundreds of millions of dollars in funds that have been granted through the decades have been applied in ways that have had DOCUMENTED BENEFIT TO STUDENTS IN THE TARGET POPULATIONS.
Arizona schools public, private, and charter do need more oversight OF THE RIGHT KIND, just as they need more funds APPLIED IN THE RIGHT WAY, but in the state of Arizona where will they get that? A pernicious culture of laziness, cronyism, and ignorance pervades both political camps and their favored educational institutions and undermines and exhausts even the most determined advocates who try to stand up for meaningful educational standards or student-protective policies.
It is the Wild West, but not in a good way: no exciting dramas where the good guys win in the end, just a bitter and demoralizing struggle with entrenched interests, morally compromised politicos and negligent, apathetic administrations.
Move to another state (or another country) if you want to look at schools where there would be a direct and immediate relationship between MORE FUNDING! and STUDENT BENEFIT! In the meantime, stop running down options that allow people to escape malfunctioning TUSD. With a few notable exceptions that have more to do with the SES of the populations they serve, their schools are a miserable disaster are alternatives are needed.
The Arizona State Board of Charter is not authoritarian figure nor does it has the ability to enforce or regulate state laws or codes. Your complaints of a charter school only goes into a filing cabinate never to been seen again That is it that is all they do. They have about eight people who work for the board to over see the almost 600 charter schools. Sonoran Science Academy has regular Students in ESL classes to get more money from the state. But thats ok there is no oversight and no one to enforce the law. Sonoran Science Academy forces H1-B workers to kick nack half their paycheck in cash. But thats ok as long as they call it a donation its all good. Never the less the H1-B teachers are paid double than their American counter parts and discriminate against them But thats OK its a charter school and they con do what ever they want. The cash collected is then sent to Pacifica and Accord Instute a fake NGO Non Profit to launder that cash in California But that alright also. The school is front for cult Members of Imam Fethullah Gulen who lives in plush and lavish compound in PA Who recently had an assassination attempt and the gunman got away. Have no idea why people would send their kids to a school like SSA O few google searches in to this you would not have to take my word for it. Superintendent Fatih Karatas who over sees the schools is who we call the bag man that collects the cash. Sonoran Science Academy sister school in Ca.Magnolia Science Academy may not be open for long because of their dealings with Pavifica Instute. The cult fake Non Profit.
I think it is time for the Tucson Weekly to revisit Sonoran Science Academy
I think the Tucson Weekly needs to revisit the Sonoran Science Academy and the stuff they get away with. Everything from Racism, discrimination, money laundering, insurance fraud and so on. With enrollment at an all time low for the school on Sunset how did they get the money for a new gym? Is the construction company they hired to do the job even going to get paid? Or they going to rip off the contractors like they did in Texas?
https://www.tucsonweekly.com/tucson/hidden-agenda/Content?oid=1694764
CHARTER SCHOOLS are nothing more than Republican attempts to take public money and put it in private hands that will support Republicans in government while at the same time eliminating the National Teachers Union. Charter Schools can hire and fire who they want and Unionized Teachers will go first. If you EVER think that a Republican is doing ANYTHING good for you , bet your ass that they are stabbing you in the back at the same time. Charter Schools were originally thought of as a way for the racists in the south to deny blacks access to their all white agenda. Now they are cloaking it as some kind of epiphany for the public school system to give the gifted kids better quality education. Republicans in control will try to cause an agency to fail such as the post office, medicare, social security, or public education so they can institute their privatized remedy. Republicans are a bunch of sneaky bastards and they would gladly bring down DEMOCRACY if it means reaching their objectives.
On the reverse side, the public school system that has been funded by our tax dollars and the teachers union have conspired to indoctrinate our children in liberal self serving causes providing them even more income. So one side gains control and the other takes it back. We have had numerous opportunities to vote to change the process but the public votes that down. They want competition as it provides a better product. If it weren’t so, public schools would be packed as they provide free transportation, free food, and parenting skills classes. But parents that seek a better education for their children, ignore the freebie handouts and transport their kids to a school of their choice.
Could it be that what the left really despises is the free market economy? Along with our Constitution.
How about some unbiased articles about some other charter schools. Edge High School Charter school is a place (mostly) for young people who have various reasons why a “regular” High school is not for everyone. There are sessions in the AM & PM so
they can have a regular schedule for employment. (Regular HS is
right in the middle of the day making many jobs impossible) Many are on their own/foster kids,
estranged from families etc. Some just aren’t interested in the HS scene and with EDGE you can work at your own pace, even graduate faster than 4 years. My own son attended because the special ed at our local HS said they had no program there for him.
Even if they are mandated to, if you don’t fit their special ed qualifications you get no help.
The numbers and figures don’t always tell the whole truth about a school. Edge takes in kids that many places wouldn’t want because their test scores are low, attendance is poor. Those things all look negative on the school reports.
Edge toook my son in and worked with him, even with him being so burned out by school BS. He didn’t /couldn’t attend all the time, and he had problems taking tests and doing the work. But they did
support him and it was a good enviroment for him and I appreciate
their efforts.
Biased articles are all that is printed here. They will tell you that if you want to read unbiased blogs, start your own. Glad it worked out for your son, as the public schools will simply look for a replacement for the dropouts seat.
Some charter schools are good. Some charter schools are bad. How much money from taxpayers do each of them get, and how do they spend it on executive salaries and (far lower) teacher salaries?
Nobody knows.