Oh please.
According to an AZ Republic article which gives off only the faintest odor of skepticism, we’re about to get significant improvements in Arizona’s charter school oversight and transparency courtesy of all those people who have shielded charters from oversight and transparency in the past: Republican legislators and statewide officeholders. We’re supposed to believe the people who have always coddled charters and condemned school districts are going to take charters to task for their corruption and profiteering. And they’ll do it after the elections are over, when they have a years-long window before they face voters again.
If you believe that, I’ve got some beach-front property in Marana you can buy with all the money you get back from Trump’s middle class tax cuts.
The Republic article begins with the Arizona Charter Schools Association, the state’s biggest cheerleader for charter schools, which is very influential in state Republican circles. After seeing all the bad publicity charters have gotten from recent investigative reporting, Eileen Sigmund, the association’s CEO, has decided it’s the right time to say, some changes should be made.
In 2016, the ACSA got a $1.6 million grant from the Walton Family Foundation. It’s a yearly contribution from the multi-billionaire family which owns Walmart, and the money amounts to half the association’s budget. The Foundation gave out $190 million in K-12 education grants that year, the majority of which either went to organizations with the word “charter” in their name or to privatization/”education reform” groups. There’s no bigger financial supporter of charter schools in the country than the Walton family. Sigmund isn’t about to anger her benefactors. Post elections, she will make it her prime mission to be sure any changes to charter regulations happens around the edges, if they happen at all.
Next comes Attorney General Mark Brnovich who, to my recollection, never mentioned charter schools until six weeks ago when he claimed he was Shocked! Shocked! to read that charter heads were making millions off of questionable deals. Out of nowhere, Brnovich became a believer in tightening the charter schools reins. Or maybe he didn’t actually become a believer. Maybe he saw his Democratic challenger, January Contreras, on his heels in an election that could trend Democratic, with education as a top issue with voters.
It’s not like Brnovich hadn’t heard of charter school financial scandals until the recent spate of articles. They’ve been in the news for years. And before he was AG, Brnovich worked at the Goldwater Institute as Director of the Center for Constitutional Government. The Goldwater Institute gives the ACSA a run for its money when it comes to charter school cheerleading. Brnovich jumped on the charter school reform bandwagon out of political necessity. If he’s reelected, expect him to jump back off in a hurry. He’ll be too busy with more pressing issues, like the lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act he joined with 20 other AG’s, to give his attention to charters.
When Doug Ducey first read about charter owners’ profiteering, he thought it was just fine, the same way he thought a half percent raise for teachers, which he upped to one percent, was just fine. Then his political instincts caught up to what was going on, and his attitude changed in a hurry. He demonstrated his newfound love for teachers by giving them a ten percent pay hike, and he developed a newfound belief that charters needed reform. He said he backed a reform proposal put forward by Republican senator Kate Brophy McGee.
Brophy McGee had ample opportunity to show her support for charter school oversight and transparency while she has served in the senate. She could have supported charter reform bills sponsored by Democrats. Instead, she voted with her Republican colleagues against the Democratic measures. Why the sudden shift? This year she has a serious reelection threat in the form of Christine Marsh, who is not only an educator but a former Arizona teacher of the year. It’s a good time for Brophy McGee to come out for stronger charter school governance, at least until the election is over.
And that brings us full circle, back to ACSA. Sure, Sigmund is for making changes, but she doesn’t want to go as far as the reforms Brophy McGee suggests, the ones Ducey says he supports. Sigmund said she is for improved financial transparency, but stops short of what she calls “hostile regulations that will either hurt or eliminate our charter sector.” She’ll fight hard to make sure no “hostile regulations” make it very far in the legislature.
Here are my three guesses about what will happen with charter school oversight and transparency if the Republicans hold onto the governorship and a legislative majority. They’ll do nothing. Or they’ll do something but not enough to make a significant difference. Or they’ll change things in a way that ends up benefitting the people in charge of charter schools instead of restraining them, then congratulate themselves for fixing the problem. And problems with charter corruption and profiteering will go on pretty much as they are.
This article appears in Oct 18-24, 2018.
Your three guesses read exactly like what happened to my health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. It got much worse and even more unaffordable. Too bad solutions harm half the citizens. Or are we trying to fix things that are as good as it gets?
Yup, we can expect charter owners to police themselves about as much as we can expect some of your friends governing TUSD to stand for genuine “transparency” in public institutions and applications of funds that actually benefit STUDENTS rather than contractors in their political networks.
So what’s the solution, David, when BOTH the Republicans and Democrats are corrupt? Put the Democrats in charge? Sorry to disappoint, but I don’t think that’s it.
At least with both parties running their own faulty kinds of education systems you have two kinds of “bad” to choose from, not just one.
Ever wonder why it’s always Republicans that support the “Charter School” agenda. Could it be that they have found another way to take public money and give it to private enterprise? Not only that but Charter Schools get to decide what kids learn and their propaganda will convert those young minds the way that Nazis put rings in the noses of Hitler youth. Also there’s the satisfaction of being able to FIRE any teacher that doesn’t toe the line. Goodbye teachers unions. Anytime a Republican says they are doing something for you, always know that there is a hidden agenda in their generosity.
All of you complainers of the TUSD Governing Board and Superintendent don’t sit in the hours long meetings to find out exactly how much things cost, how much money goes to students, classrooms, counselors, social workers, aides, bus drivers, school maintenance and so many others that keep our schools safe and our students educated. Do you know anything about the administrative staff who are always looking for proven programs at reasonable cost to enhance the learning experience of children from K through 12th grade. Show me you really care by coming to the meetings or stop complaining.
Some of the complainers of the TUSD governing board know it and some of the districts site-based governance quite well, having sat through many hours of meetings and examined many budgets. The district is a mess and that can be documented by exactly the kinds of activities you recommend. The conclusions you draw from your observations are strategically selective and look like a whitewash to those who know the realities, including the sad realities of many of the administrative behaviors.
Bottom line with TUSD and choice policy (both charters and vouchers): the way to save public schools is to improve them enough so people dont WANT to leave. Not to block the exits with economic coercion a la Prop 305.
First step: Line-by-line reporting of all charter school budgets, because taxpayer funded operations should never be allowed to hide their spending.
As long as there is no accountability to anyone, there will continue to be serious “financial scandals” (in rumor everywhere and in reality somewhere) so that all charter schools, no matter how good or how bad, and all the various consulting businesses associated with charter schools, will remain in the dark realm of possible fraud and embezzlement via excessive profit taking and personal gain.
For-profit operations that have hidden executive (i.e., administrators/principals/out-of-state CEOs/corporate cronies, et.al.) salaries should never be given public taxpayer money without legal accountability, moral transparency and common sense procedures that are accessible for public audit by reputable accounting firms.
And lastly, don’t let audit results disappear in some super majority rabbit hole up in Phoenix: publish results for ALL interested taxpayers to read and understand.