Governor Doug Ducey of Arizona has been a stalwart champion of unregulated charters and vouchers. He has looked the other way when members of the legislature pass laws to enrich themselves while running charter chains and voucher programs. He has ignored conflicts of interest, nepotism, and self-dealing because, hey, that’s how unbridled capitalism works!
But the state is now knee-deep in scandals committed by privatizers, and guess what? Governor Ducey says it is time to reign in the corruption!
In a debate with his Democratic opponent, David Garcia, Ducey claims he wants to reform charter law. Is it because of the latest scandal, where a legislator (Eddie Farnsworth) sold his for-profit charter chain to a nonprofit and cleared at least $11.8 million in profit plus a contract to manage the nonprofit chain?
Laurie Roberts of the Arizona Republic is outraged that the government is indifferent to charter fraud.
She writes:
Farnsworth says he’s just a businessman who took a risk, followed the law and is now reaping the reward.
“Charter schools have been lucrative to me because I’ve done what every other business has done to make money: I had an idea,” he told Harris. “I put the business plan into place. I followed every law and every contract. I provided a product that is a good product that people wanted.”
“It doesn’t hurt that for most of the last two decades, Farnsworth, along with other legislators who own charter schools, has helped write some of those laws. In his 16 years as a legislator, for example, Farnsworth has voted 12 times to boost “additional assistance” to charter schools (read: himself).
“But there is no conflict, we are told.“
Garcia is an education professor. He has pledged to eliminate the profiteering from the charter se tor. His own children have attended an arts-focused charter school, so he is not opposed to charters on principle, just to the rampant fraud that makes Arizona a national laughing stock.
Despite his support for charters, the Network for Public Education Action Fund Endorses Garcia because Ducey is an ALEC stooge and a voucher proponent. Garcia opposes vouchers and has pledged new dedicated funding for public schools.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This year, the Center for American Progress, in praising charter schools for their “experiential” approach to civics, identified two schools. One has Arnold on its Board of Trustees and its Board of Directors is a sizable collection of mostly men from the corporate sector. The school had early association with Harvard’s Roland Fryer. A second charter school praised, was subject of a Washington Post headline, “Employee at a D.C. charter school charged with sex crimes”.
If Ducey is like Kasich, he’ll find a way to keep investigative reports under wraps until after the midterms. Republican governors bask in the publicity of “launching investigations” but not, the reports about the money that poured into Republican coffers from the corruption.
He’ll label himself as the “Education Governor” and maybe put an apple icon next to his name to try and confuse the public. It’s ALL about getting reelected to make personal profit and nothing about doing what’s right.
YES.
A lot of ed reformers are doing this. DeWine in Ohio is actually taking a page from ed reformers on the Democratic side of the aisle. He doesn’t mention K-12 schools at all- he focuses on pre-school.
It’s just nuts. They have decided they not only don’t have to serve 85% of US students, they are determined to pretend our kids and families don’t exist.
It won’t work any better for Republicans than it did for Democrats. They may be opposed to public schools but the facts are most of us (not them, but most of us) attended one and most of send our kids to one. To the schools they don’t support. That was bound to be a political problem.
They’re going to have to add some positive, productive value to the schools 85% of families attend or they can’t run on public education and shouting “hey, look over here, look at my preschool plan!” isn’t serving existing public K-12 schools.
No one hired these people to privatize public schools. No one asked for all these public employees to spend their work hours inventing privatized “systems of governance” that have absolutely no bearing on existing public schools and add absolutely no value to existing public schools. I know they would prefer to work on that! But that isn’t what we’re paying them for.
Here’s the US Department of Education:
“US Dept of Education
Today on the #RethinkSchool Tour“We’ve defied the laws of gravity, and sent men to the moon and back. But many still fear doing what needs to be done to bring education into the 21st century.”
They so live inside the ed reform echo chamber they have convinced themselves that we are paying them to act as professional public school critics.
They don’t add any value.
If I want a lecture from professional public school critics I can read any of the 5000 ed reform orgs. That area is covered by the billionaire bucks. We don’t need public sector mimics parroting what anyone can hear from Gates or Walton or Facebook.
I love the patronizing and insulting “fear” framing, too, I must say. It’s not possible that we’re rejecting their privatization schemes because they are lousy, gimmicky, flimsy ideas. No, we’re rejecting them because we are AFRAID. They can’t even give us credit for informed opposition. We’re too stupid to be given that assumption. It must be because we’re fearful – it is unimaginable that they are wrong. Instead, our psychology is getting in the way of us appreciating their brilliance.
Fear is the #1 propaganda tool of Republicans. They feed on fear.
You know when we’ll know when we’re really making progress among the political classes?
When one of them not only breaks from the charter choir, but actually offers something of value to the 85% of families who don’t attend charter or private schools.
They’re supposed to make a positive contribution. It isn’t, actually, ENOUGH for them to just start promising to stop damaging public schools for a campaign cycle.
Don’t let them lower the bar. We can do MUCH better than “I’ll graciously permit your school to continue to exist, in some fashion”. Demand more.
What a hypocrite! This Koch Bros. balls-washer is primarily responsible for most of the abuses he now says must be reigned in!
neoliberal (n.) a slimy politician who campaigns from the moderate left but governs from the extreme right
“Despite his support for charters, the Network for Public Education Action Fund Endorses Garcia” – choosing the lesser evil? Where are pro-public schools candidates? It is like 2016 all over again.
You bet we choose Garcia over Koch puppet Doug Ducey.
Ducey has cut the budgets for public schools and universities, pushed for charters and vouchers, and followed ALEC’s orders.
David Garcia is an Education professor who will increase funding for public schools, increase teachers’s salaries, and block vouchers. We forgive him his charter trespass because Ducey is the worst of the worst, tied with Scott Walker.