Archives for category: Arizona
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Arizona: Koch Brothers Lose in Court, Seek to Quash Referendum Against Vouchers

By dianeravitch
April 2, 2018 //
7

Parents and teachers in Arizona gathered over 100,000 signatures to force a referendum on the unlimited expansion of vouchers. The Koch brothers and the DeVos family are pushing for vouchers, and they sent in their top legal team to try to stop the referendum. They are terrified of democracy.

They fought the referendum in court and they lost. The parents and teachers won. The referendum was going forward.

Now they have a new trick up their sleeve. The masters of dark money will get the legislature to repeal the original bill and re-enact it, so as to block the referendum. The SOS Arizona team will have to start all over, by gathering signatures for a new referendum and hiring lawyers to defend the referendum.

The Koch brothers and the DeVos family are hereby added to the blog’s Wall of Shame. They hate public schools and they hate democracy.

Please send a contribution to SOS Arizona to help them continue the fight for public schools!

This came in today from SOS Arizona:

Just when we thought we were safe…They’re at it again. Within 2 weeks of the Arizona Supreme Court’s dismissal of the dark-money lawsuit brought against SOSAZ, the Legislature is preparing to repeal Prop 305 entirely or replace it with another ESA expansion bill. 

From the moment we turned in 111,540 signatures last summer, voucher supporters have been scheming to “bait and switch.” Especially since polls have indicated that Prop 305 will likely be defeated if voters have their say. Voters know that vouchers hurt our schools, our kids, and our state.

Bottom line–the state with the WORST funding for schools should be the LAST state to divert public funds to private schools.

How can you help ensure that Prop 305 will get to the ballot so we can defeat the voucher expansion once and for all?

  • Call Governor Ducey’s office at 602-542-4331 and say you oppose any voucher expansion replacement bill;
  • Contact your representatives and senator now to let them know any replacement bill is unacceptable. Hint: here is how they voted on the original voucher expansion bill last year.
  • Sign the SOSAZ Pledge to Vote No on Prop 305, and ask 10 of your friends to do the same;
  • Talk to 10 friends, family, neighbors and colleagues. Our passionate volunteers are our biggest allies. Help us get the word out!

Our work to protect our volunteers’ hard work and signatures does not come cheap. Please help us meet our bills with a one-time or recurring donation today.

Thank you for all you do!

Beth Lewis

Chair, Save Our Schools Arizona PAC

Categories ALEC, Arizona, Betsy DeVos, Democracy, Vouchers, Wall of Shame

Arizona: Gov. Ducey Lured Uber with Promise of No Regulations: 1 Dead

By dianeravitch
March 31, 2018 //
13

 

Hovernor Doug Ducey is one of those extremist libertarians who opposes government regulations. That’s why he loves charter schools and vouchers. That’s why charters in Arizona are not covered by laws against nepotism or conflicts of interest. That’s the ALEC way: the fewer regulations, the better for business.

Gov. Ducey lured Uber to Arizona to tests its driverless car. Why would Uber want to stay in California where the state regulates such tests (but not charter schools!)?

So Uber was given the green light and one of its driverless cars killed a pedestrian. 

The governor suspended the testing.

Do you think he learned anything?

I doubt it.

Categories ALEC, Arizona

Arizona: Will This Public School Hater Be Elected to Congress?

By dianeravitch
March 30, 2018 //
30

 

Debbie Lesko is the Betsy DeVos of Arizona. She hates public schools and wants to privatize them. She is active in ALEC, the rightwing corporate bill mill.

Read about her campaign for Congress here, in an article by Graham Vyse in The New Republic.

“Lesko resigned from the state Senate in January to focus on running for Congress, and she’s now the Republican nominee in the April 24 special election for Arizona’s Eighth Congressional District. A darling of the Koch brothers in her own right, she’s the clear favorite to replace former Representative Trent Franks—a Republican who resigned in disgrace last year over sexual-misconduct accusations. Conventional wisdom says Democrats don’t have a shot in this heavily conservative district. It includes former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s political base, and Trump carried the district by 21 points in 2016. But after Conor Lamb’s victory this month in a Pennsylvania district Trump won by about the same margin, Democrats are allowing themselves to hope. “Arizona can be harder than Pennsylvania,” Dan Pfeiffer, a former senior adviser to President Barack Obama, recently said on Pod Save America. Yet, Pfeiffer argued, the two districts have “essentially the same political dynamic.” “There could be a real shot here,” he said. “There’s a good candidate who won the primary a couple weeks ago.”

“Pfeiffer was referring to Hiral Tipirneni, an Indian-born emergency-room physician and advocate for cancer research, who won the Democratic nomination with a moderate message. Even the conservative publication Newsmax calls her “a strong candidate,” which might explain why the Republican National Committee just invested $281,250 in this race along with $170,000 from the National Republican Congressional Committee and $100,000 on the way from the Congressional Leadership Fund. These investments come as polling by Lake Research Partners shows Tipirneni down 14 points, but Lesko’s record should motivate local Democrats looking to notch another upset victory. “Debbie Lesko has made it clear she’s representing ALEC,” Tipirneni told me. “She’s representing the Koch brothers. She’s representing her lobbyists.”

Could the Big Blue Wave that Elected Ralph Northam in Virginia, Doug Jones in Alabama, and Conor Lamb in Pennsylvania topple Lesko?

Most families in Arizona send their children to public schools. Do the public school parents in Lesko’s district know that she wants to defund their public schools?

Lesko has promoted vouchers in Arizona.

“Arizona was the first state in the country to enact Empowerment Scholarship Accounts, also known as Education Savings Accounts, in 2011. Championed by the state’s Goldwater Institute, a libertarian think tank also tied to the Kochs, these accounts allow families taking their child out of public school to put 90 percent of the child’s share of state education funding toward private education—tuition, tutoring, or other expenses. Eligibility for the program was initially limited to a small group of students, including those with disabilities, but Lesko’s law opened it up to all 1.1 million of Arizona’s public-school kids.”

Parents have blocked implementation by putting a refendum on the ballot. Vouchers have never won a public vote. The vote frightens voucher advocates.

The state’s voucher program operates with little or no oversight or accountability. Parents have used their debit cards to buy legitimate school supplies, then returned them for credit and spent state money on personal expenses. At least one report says the ESA was used to pay for an abortion.

The special election for the Congressional seat will be held on April 24. If you live in her district, be sure to vote.

Categories Arizona, Privatization

Linda Lyon: In Arizona, It is Public Schools Vs. Governor Ducey

By dianeravitch
March 29, 2018 //
4

 

Linda Lyon, president of the Arizona School Boards Association, describes the legal battle to preserve dedicated funding for the state’s schools. 

She writes, following a judge’s decision to overturn Prop. 123:

”I’m sure there will be much more to come on this issue. Two things though, are for certain. First, the AZ Legislature’s raiding of district funding caused this problem in the first place, leaving Arizona K–12 per pupil funding with the highest cuts in the nation from 2008 to 2014. Secondly, if the Prop. 123 funding is taken away, Arizona citizens MUST demand that Governor Ducey and his Legislature find new revenue for our district schools. Even with Prop. 123, our teachers are the lowest paid in the Nation, and our schools have almost $1 billion less in annual funding that prior to the recession. The situation is dire, and the legislation recently forwarded to Governor Ducey for signature to extend the Prop. 301 sales tax at current levels doesn’t do anything to fix it.

“It is time for real leadership. If it doesn’t come from our Governor and Legislature, it MUST come from the voters in August and November.”

She sent me this infographic that gives a pictorial view of the struggle to fund the state’s public schools.

For more background, see this article about the court decision. 

 

Categories Arizona, Funding

Arizona: Is This the Most Egregious Charter Scandal in a State with No Charter Accountability?

By dianeravitch
March 23, 2018 //
5

 

Arizona was long known as the Wild West of charters, but that was before Ohio, Florida, and Michigan jumped into the game.

This charter scandal was so bad that even the president of the state charter board denounced it. 

“This is probably one of the most egregious, most outrageous things I’ve ever read about a charter school,” Kathy Senseman, President of the Arizona State Board for Charter Schools, said in a special session Tuesday.

“The board was made aware of an investigation by a bankruptcy court and U.S. Department of Justice into potential fraud at the Starshine Academy. Investigators allege founder Trish McCarty used taxpayer money for personal expenses. Recent records show the school nearly $3 million in debt.

“I’ve done absolutely everything that I can do in every single case to do everything right,” McCarty told ABC15 by phone.

“Investigators questioned a cash advance made at a Sante Fe casino, car rentals and Walmart purchases paid for by the school. McCarty said the purchases were legitimate because Starshine had a location there. Still, the state board said many financial records were missing or incomplete.

“According to the most recent overall academic rating in 2014 by the charter school board, Starshine ranked 48.96 on a 100-point scale, classifying it “does not meet standard.” The school fell from a 70 out of the 100-point ranking in 2012.

“McCarty said around half of the school’s 90 students are refugees and Starshine faced dropping enrollment, accounting for the low rating.

“Starshine filed for bankruptcy protection in 2016 after failing to keep up with payments on a $12-million expansion.

“This case “is the poster child of basically what’s wrong with charter schools in Arizona,” said Jim Hall, Founder of Arizonans for Charter School Accountability.”

Categories Accountability, Arizona, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Fraud, Privatization

Arizona SOS Defeats Koch Brothers in Court!

By dianeravitch
March 21, 2018 //
6

 

Arizona SOS beat the Koch brothers and DeVos money in court!

Arizona SOS gathered enough signatures to force a referendum on the expansion of vouchers in the state, and the Koch brothers underwrote a legal effort to knock the referendum off the ballot. Democracy frightens them.

Today, the Arizona Supreme Court Rules that the referendum can go forward.

The vote would not kill the voucher program but block the Legislature’s efforts to expand it, thus siphoning more money from the public schools that enroll most students.

 

Categories Arizona, Education Industry, Education Reform, Privatization

Arizona Senate Votes to Replace School Letter Grades with “Data Dashboards”

By dianeravitch
March 9, 2018 //
33

 

Data Mania continues to dominate conversations and legislation.

The Arizona State Senate just voted to replace worthless school grades with “dashboards.”

”Senate Bill 1411 unanimously passed the Arizona Senate on Tuesday. It creates a dashboard that shows — instead of a single grade for a school — a series of grades that represent academics, progress towards college and career readiness for high schools, and English language learner assessments.”

And the Great Data God smiles.

At least they didn’t expand vouchers again in their search for pointless levers to compel improvement.

Categories Arizona, Data

Arizona: No Cap on Corporate Tax Subsidy for Nonpublic Schools

By dianeravitch
March 5, 2018 //
12

 

Corporations in Arizona may soon pay no state taxes at all because the Senate cannot agree on a cap. 

Instead of paying taxes, the corporations can subsidize private and religious schools. This means the state will have less money for its underfundedpublic schools, which enroll nearly 90% of the state’s children.

“On a party-line vote, the Arizona Senate gave preliminary approval Wednesday to changes in laws that give corporations a dollar-for-dollar credit against their state taxes for money they give to “scholarship tuition organizations.” These STOs, in turn, provide funds parents can use to pay the tuition and fees for their children at private schools.

“But Senate Bill 1467 was missing the promise made earlier by Senate President Steve Yarbrough, R-Chandler, to eliminate a provision in the law that, if not capped, could eventually mean corporations would pay nothing into the state treasury.“Under the original STO law, the diversion of corporate taxes was limited to $10 million.

“But proponents, led by Yarbrough, put in an automatic escalator, allowing that cap to rise by 20 percent a year. This past year the diversions totaled $74 million.

“The law will allow corporations to divert more than “$89 million this year, $107 million next year and $128 million the year after that.

“There is no limit. And at that rate, corporations could owe the state nothing by 2027.”

Until last year, the president of the State Senate, Republican Steve Yarbrough ran one of the organizations funneling tax dollars to nonpublic schools. Yarbrough was both president of the State Senate and leader of the Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization. Tuition organizations get to keep 10% of the tax money to pay for administrative services. His organization collected millions each year, and he was making about $150,000 a year to run the fund while writing laws to expand its funding. A sweet deal. For him. Not for public schools. 

The Arizona Republic described the program in 2015:

”It was pitched as a small tax-credit program to help poor and disabled students attend private school.

“Eighteen years later, $140 million is now being diverted from the state treasury, most of it to pay private-school tuition for non-poor, non-disabled students.

“It was pitched as a program that would expand school choice. But fewer students are attending private school now than when the tax-credit program began, yet more and more money is being siphoned from the state to pay the private school tuition tab.

“This, Senate Majority Leader. Steve Yarbrough calls a triumph.”

Yarbrough stepped down from his private sector job in December 2017.

The Arizona formula: More money for private and religious schools, less money for public schools.

 

Categories Arizona, Funding, School Choice

Arizona’s Corrupt and Failing Charter Schools: Do Taxpayers Care?

By dianeravitch
March 3, 2018 //
12

E.J. Montini, a regular columnist for the Arizona Republic, wrote an opinion piece wondering whether taxpayer in Arizona care that charter schools are wasting their money, closing without notice, discriminate against kids they don’t want, and are not subject to state laws requiring accountability or transparency, not even required to avoid conflicts of interest.

Lawmakers don’t care.

Not long ago the ACLU of Arizona published a report outlining how a number of Arizona charter school manage to discriminate against students they’d rather not have in their classrooms.

This would include minority students, kids with disabilities, special education students, discipline problems and children who weren’t as advanced as other academically…

The centrist Grand Canyon Institute has produced lengthy reports on the lack of financial accountability for charters.

Remember, these are public schools.

They use your tax money. Lots and lots of it.

They spent your money how?

But they don’t have to share financial information or be monitored by the state Auditor General like regular public schools.

They don’t have to be transparent about how much they pay their administrators, or anyone else.

There is no competitive bid process, so nepotism runs rampant.

And even when the charter board finds out that a school is failing financially, like the Discovery Creemos Academy, it doesn’t have to power to intervene.

It’s a crazy system.

Ripe for abuse at every level.

And that situation exists only because the people currently in control of state government allow it to exist

 Democrats have introduced a series of bills that would, in essence, make charter schools follow the same rules as other public schools.

They’ve gone nowhere.

Charter schools spend more on administrative overhead than public schools. So?

Does anyone care?

Or do Arizona voters like to be ripped off?

 

Categories Accountability, Arizona, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Fraud, Privatization

Peter Greene: The Full Story of the Closing of the Discovery Creemos Academy in Goodyear, Arizona

By dianeravitch
February 7, 2018 //
3

I wrote about the sudden closing of the Discovery Creemos Academy in Goodyear, formerly known as the Bradley Academy of Excellence. It ran out of money. The leader of the school made withdrawals of various kinds of nearly $1 million, which was certainly not good for the fiscal health of the school.

But as radio announcer Paul Harvey used to say, “here is the rest of the story,” in this case, told by Peter Greene. 

There is that nasty thing about “related businesses,” the ones that the charter schools give contracts to, that just happened to be owned by the person who runs the charter.

Once again, the charter founders make money, the kids are out on the street. But not until the 100th day of school, so the charter could collect full tuition, and the public schools that take these kids in get nothing.

People of Arizona, wake up! They are stealing your tax money! The kids are not getting an education. Do you care?

Categories Arizona, Charter Schools
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