Arizona has a Charter Law that ignores nepotism, conflict of interest, Profiteering, frauds, scams, etc.
Now Governor Doug Ducey is in a tight race with educator David Garcia, and Ducey wants to “reform” the charter law! And I have a bridge to sell you if you are that gullible.
Laurie Roberts of the Arizona Republic says that this is hilarious. PS: I love Laurie Roberts and Craig HARRIS of the Arizona Republic, who regularly expose charter corruption (he exposes it, she ridicules it).
She writes, to begin:
“A month ago, Gov. Doug Ducey said he wasn’t concerned that the head of Primavera charter school – which puts just 11 percent of its state funding into instruction — scored an $8.8 million “shareholder distribution” from the for-profit company that runs the online operation.
“I’m not concerned about the CEO,” Ducey told The Republic’s Craig Harris. “That is of very little interest. I’m concerned about the child and the parent and what the child is equipped to do after 12 years of education.”
“Today, Ducey and other Republicans have seen the light and the light is a freight train of public outrage racing right at them as they seek re-election.
“As a result, Ducey is now backing a set of charter school reforms proposed by state Sen. Kate Brophy McGee, R-Phoenix, who like Ducey is facing a fight to get back to the state Capitol next year.
“While I’m certainly happy to see that Ducey and his Republican colleagues at long last might be willing to plug gaping loopholes that have allowed some charter operators to plunder public money, I have to ask the same question I asked when they suddenly saw the need to prioritize public schools as teachers took to the streets this spring:
“Where’ve you been?”…
“Virtually every year, we hear an outrageous story about a charter school operator who has fundamentally failed the smell test, either by shorting kids or lining their pockets – or both.
“Virtually every year, Democrats in the Legislature propose reforms to fix laughable state laws that require hardly any oversight or public accountability.
“And virtually, every year Republicans ignore all evidence of a problem while joining hands and chanting “school choice, school choice, school choice.” This, to the delight of their dark money pals who shovel campaign money their way.
“Indeed, it is a choice to focus only on charter school successes — and there certainly are some — while ignoring problems rampant in the charter school industry.
“Just last fall, the centrist Grand Canyon Institute released the results of a three-year study that found up to up to 77 percent of charter school holders are using public funds on “potentially questionable financial transactions” — often paying themselves or their various relatives to provide goods and services to their charter schools under a price they get to set, courtesy of no-bid contracts.
“The study found that charter school executives earn on average 50 percent more than their school district counterparts while teachers earn 20 percent less. That classroom spending and academic performance are both lower in charters than in district schools.
“Rather than taking a serious look at those findings, our leaders and the charter school industry labeled the Grand Canyon Institute as “anti charter” and did … nothing.”

The race is not so tight. Ducey has an 8 pt lead, with 7% undecided. Can you spare a few bucks to help Arizona children teachers, and parents.
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/ms_garcia_fr_homepage
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Seems like this is happening everywhere for both Dems and Reps. Everyone who wants to get reelected is trying to be the “education politician”. Meanwhile, they have tried to decimate public education with the “rephorm du jour” during their current tenure in office. These people are just sick! I guess they have finally realized that to parents, their children are “the most important” issue in their lives and will vote for the welfare of their children first. When did the unspoken rule of “don’t mess with children, old people and the infirm” get broken? Politicians have crossed that invisible line in the sand. When we allow vulnerable groups of people to be exploited and undermined, we have really tanked as a society. I feel that there is no turning back.
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perhaps the “pendulum” theory of human history suggests that since we truly have tanked, as you say, there is nowhere to go but to follow the momentum pulling us stronger and harder in the other direction
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Craig Harris?7
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Of course.
Craig Harris.
Barrett is a tech executive who supports charter schools.
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Craig Harris is the AzRepublic reporter who exposed the scams of the CEOs in a year long investgation.
One small flaw in his reporting, however.
He believes Basis is a success model.
Governor Ducey is a flimsy flam man.
We’ll see how much they are willing to do reforming the charters.
Meant to erase my first comment below.
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Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
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