Archives for category: Arizona
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Great News from Arizona! Supporters of Public Schools Collect Enough Signatures to Put Vouchers to a Referendum

By dianeravitch
August 21, 2017 //
15

Arizona is the poster state for the ALEC plan to replace public schools with vouchers and charter schools.

The Republican dominated Legislature first passed a plan to offer vouchers for students with disabilities (the camel’s nose in the tent); then expanded it for a variety of other groups: foster children, children living on reservations, children in schools rated D or F. At its last session, the Legislature passed a bill to remove any limits on vouchers, other than an artificial cap of 30,000, which can be removed at any time.

Parents and educators united to initiate a referendum on this vast expansion of vouchers. They needed to collect 75,000 signatures to call for a referendum in 2018. They collected 110,000. Lawyers for voucher supporters challenged many of the signatures, but the public school supporters ended up with 108,000 valid signatures. There will still be challenges and legal battles, but for now Arizona is heading for a referendum.

The next job for public school advocates is to demonstrate to the taxpayers in Arizona that the voucher program is a huge waste of their money and that students in voucher schools do not benefit. They must also remind them of the importance of public education as a public responsibility, since even the retirees are overwhelmingly graduates of public schools. They still have their work cut out for them, but they have cleared the first step.

And it should hearten them to know that the public has been asked in 19 different state referenda to approve vouchers for religious schools, and has rejected them every single time. (Three of the 19 referenda were in Betsy DeVos’s home state of Michigan, rejected overwhelmingly.)

Categories Arizona, Betsy DeVos, Vouchers

Arizona: Welcome, Unqualified Teachers!

By dianeravitch
August 14, 2017 //
50

David Safier writes in the Tucson Weekly about Arizona’s new idea to address its teacher shortage: Hire unqualified people to teach! He calls this “A Certifiable Strategy.”

He writes:

“Get ready for the first of a new breed of teachers in Arizona’s public schools this year. They haven’t taken any education courses. They haven’t worked on their teaching skills in front of students. All they have is a bachelor’s degree. Actually, if they’ve spent five years working in a field that’s relevant to subjects taught in middle school or high school, they don’t even need a bachelor’s. A high school diploma will do. Or a GED. Hell, if you read the law passed during the last legislative session literally, they could be elementary school dropouts and teach.

“But their lack of teaching qualifications isn’t what makes them a new breed. Except for the elementary school dropouts, all those people could teach in Arizona’s public schools on a temporary basis before the new teacher credentialing law went into effect. The difference is, for the first time, they will be presented with the newly minted Subject Matter Expert Standard Teaching Certificate, making them full fledged, credentialed teachers who can teach until they retire if they wish without ever taking an education course or having their proficiency in subject matter formally assessed.

“The Subject Matter Expert Standard Teaching Certificate effectively de-professionalizes public school teaching in Arizona. It’s the Un-credential. It’s like the certificates little kids get when they participate in “everyone gets an award” races. If you gave your teenage babysitter a Child Management Certificate when she or he walks through your front door, it would mean as much. It’s a teaching credential granted for showing up, yet it’s the equivalent of a standard teaching certificate people earn by going through a teacher preparation program, passing subject matter and professional knowledge exams and teaching for two years.”

Safier writes that Arizona’s low bar for entering teaching was already low; now it has fallen to the ground.

Some way to “reform” education.

Categories Arizona, Teachers

Arizona: Public School Advocates Block Voucher Expansion Plans!

By dianeravitch
August 9, 2017 //
17

Congratulations to Save Our Schools Arizona!

You did it!

Save Our Schools Arizona collected enough signatures across the state to block implementation of the legislature’s expansion of vouchers. SOS needed 75,000 signatures and gathered 100,000.

“A law expanding Arizona’s school-voucher program was put on hold Tuesday after foes delivered 111,540 signatures to the secretary of state in hopes of giving voters the final say on whether the controversial measure should stand.

“Save Our Schools Arizona, a volunteer group that formed in opposition to Republicans’ expansion of the Empowerment Scholarship Account program, said it gathered the signatures from public-education supporters across the state who oppose using tax dollars for private-school tuition and are critical of the program’s lack of transparency.

“Supporters transported the petitions to the Capitol in 76 bankers boxes using a yellow school bus and a red wagon.

“To refer Senate Bill 1431 to the November 2018 ballot requires 75,321 valid signatures.

“The law’s implementation was immediately put on hold while the secretary of state evaluates whether Save Our Schools has met that threshold, a process that could take until the beginning of October.

“The bill made all 1.1 million Arizona students eligible to apply for the program, which grants tax dollars to parents for private school tuition or other education expenses. While broadening eligibility, the bill capped the number of recipients at 30,000 by 2022.

“Prior to expansion — which Gov. Doug Ducey and GOP lawmakers narrowly muscled through the Legislature in April — the program had been limited to certain students, including those with special needs, in poor-performing schools, or from military families.

“For now, the law is stayed,” state Elections Director Eric Spencer told members of the group.”

Categories Arizona

Arizona: The State Where Anything Goes for Charter Schools

By dianeravitch
July 22, 2017 //
8

The Phoenix New Times has an long, in-depth article about one of the state’s nearly 600 charter schools. It is possibly the weirdest and proud of it. Nepotism abounds because it is not against the law for charters (only for public schools). The founder of the school has a free hand to do whatever he wants. State laws don’t matter much at Metro Arts Institute.

It begins:

“The photograph is hard to look at. In it, a middle-aged man wearing a hooded black cape kneels before a teenaged girl. In one hand, he clutches a cloth; his other hand rests on the girl’s feet. She looks sad, and a little scared.

“The man in the photograph — which showed up on social media in spring 2016 — is Matthew Baker, the girl’s poetry teacher and the head of Metropolitan Arts Institute, the Phoenix charter school….

“Foot-washing is all in a day’s work at Metro Arts, where Baker, who’s also the founder of the seventh-through-12th-grade school and its board president, runs around dressed as a wizard. Who, in his spare time, has operated an online spiritual school offering “the transformational river of life energy in which spiritual development unfolds.” Where the building manager and his wife, the school’s director of operations, live on campus and once raised money for the school by hosting an after-hours rave party complete with promotions from pot dispensaries….

“Matt Baker is his own boss, owner of a school overseen by state legislation that allows him to hire his wife to spend a $2 million annual budget to oversee the safety and education of about 250 kids.

“Where charters are concerned, the Arizona Legislature doesn’t care how the sausage gets made,” says Chris Thomas, associate executive director of the Arizona School Boards Association, a private nonprofit group that offers training and legal advice to traditional public schools. “All they care is that the sausage gets made.”

“A group of former Metro Arts teachers do care about how the sausage is getting made.

“In late June, these teachers filed a seven-page complaint with the state charter board. Their anonymous grievance requests all-new management, rails against Metro’s “completely insular structure of the administration and board,” its lack of transparency, odd behaviors that “escalate in a consequence-free environment,” and “vast liberties … taken with both authority and public funds.”

“Complaining about those “vast liberties” got one of these former teachers — artist Sue Chenoweth — fired last year from her job teaching visual art at Metro, she claims.

“They knew I had cancer and needed the health insurance,” Chenoweth says. “So much for loyalty.”

“When Koryn Woodward Wasson, another esteemed local artist who taught drawing at Metro, objected to what she perceived to be Metro’s lack of transparency and treatment of Chenoweth, she says she received an email asking her to clean out her classroom and return her keys at the end of the 2015-16 school year.

“Afraid of a similar fate, those still employed at Metro won’t talk about their involvement — if any — with the complaint, which alleges, among other things, that

• the head of school hasn’t been evaluated in 10 years;

• no attempts by the school have been made to fundraise to “support teachers and school programs”;

• Baker spent $3,000 on a massage chair for his own personal use;

• he collects bonuses as a teacher and as an administrator, but doesn’t share that wealth with his faculty;

• board meetings are scheduled at times when no faculty are available to attend;

• minutes from those meetings aren’t readily available; and

• Metro teachers are paid below standard pay rates and haven’t had raises in years.

“The complaint also requests structural changes — saying that teachers should have input on assembling a new board of directors that isn’t made up of friends and family of the head of school, one that invites them to meetings held in a room accessible to the public. There’s also a request for a parent-teacher organization to assist with marketing and fundraising for the school.”

Baker dismissed all the complaints as the grumblings of an ex-employee.

Let the good times roll! (With taxpayer money.)

Categories Accountability, Arizona, Charter Schools, Privatization

How to Help Arizona Ward Off Voucher Expansion

By dianeravitch
July 18, 2017 //
2

Go to SOS Arizona to learn how to volunteer to gather signatures to stop vouchers.

Volunteer

Join the campaign here:

http://sosarizona.org/pages/110

SOS Arizona has a Facebook page:

https://m.facebook.com/SaveOurSchoolsArizona/

If enough signatures are collected, vouchers will go onto the ballot.

Vouchers have NEVER been approved by popular vote.

Take action!

Categories Arizona

Arizona: Advocates for Public Schools Collecting Signatures to Block Voucher Expansion

By dianeravitch
July 18, 2017 //
21

Good news from Arizona.

Supporters of the state’s underfunded public schools say they are on track to collect enough signatures to block the expansion of vouchers and force a referendum.

“Save Our Schools spokeswoman Dawn Penich-Thacker says the group isn’t releasing an exact count of the number of signatures it has collected so far. But she said the all-volunteer effort should have well above the minimum of 75,000 signatures by the Aug. 8 deadline.

“We know we have enough petitions out in the field, we know exactly who has them and we have enough out that if there was such a thing as 100 percent we could be getting more than 150,000 back,” Penich-Thacker said in an interview late last week.

“Opponents of vouchers say they siphon money from the state’s underfunded public schools and the expansion will allow wealthy families to use state cash to send their children to private and religious schools. They also say vouchers won’t cover total costs at many private schools, meaning people of average means won’t be able to use them. Proponents, including Ducey, say the move will save the state money and let parents decide where their children attend school…

“Arizona has had a school voucher program since 2011 that began as a program for disabled students. It was expanded to other groups and now allows about a third of all 1.2 million K-12 students to use public money to attend private schools.

Still, only about 3,500 students currently take advantage of the program.

The new law expands eligibility to all students by 2022 but caps total enrollment at about 30,000.”

Voucher supporters in the legislature are sure that the people of the state want vouchers but afraid to let the people vote.

Maybe they know that vouchers have never won a statewide vote.

Read more here: http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/business/article160733024.html#storylink=cpy

Categories Arizona

Arizona: Acute Teacher Shortage, 22% of Teachers Not Fully Qualified

By dianeravitch
June 24, 2017 //
35

After years of underfunding public education and diverting money to charters and vouchers, Arizona is coping with an acute teacher shortage.

“On a Saturday in late April, Principal Theresa Nickolich gave her best recruiting pitch to every person who walked in the door.

“Come teach at Clarendon Elementary School in the Osborn School District, she told the candidates at the job fair.

“You’ll be part of a system that will support you. You’ll feel like family in a professional environment built up over years of strong leadership. You will be an anchor of stability for children in need, many of them poor.

“You will have a rewarding career. You will change lives.

“But across from Nickolich stood both her biggest recruiting challenge and an emblem of one of the biggest crises facing public education in Arizona.

“Almost no qualified applicants walked in.

“It was the last job fair of the year in the Osborn district before the quiet summer months. In a school of about two dozen classroom teachers, Nickolich still had five jobs to fill for the fall.

“If Nickolich couldn’t fill her spots with qualified teachers, she would have to turn to teaching interns. Maybe somebody with an emergency teaching credential, maybe somebody who didn’t yet have a teaching certificate. In a dire situation the state could even let her employ a temporary teacher without a college degree.

“The recruiting challenge Nickolich faced that day in April isn’t unique to Osborn, or even to her region. It’s a crisis that school administrators recognize statewide:

“Every spring, thousands of teaching positions open across the state.

“Every spring, fewer qualified people apply to fill them.”

How can “reformers” expect to improve education if they drive people away from teaching?

Of the state’s, 22 percent lacked full qualifications.

“Many in that 22 percent did have a college education and teacher training, but had less than two years in the classroom, a time frame when they don’t qualify for the state’s full credential — a standard certificate.

“Many others lacked even more basic qualifications. Nearly 2,000 had no formal teacher training. Dozens lacked a college degree.

“Parents, educators and advocates argue the proliferation of teachers with less than full credentials harms student performance.”

No kidding.

“Experts frequently place poor teacher pay and low education funding among the primary causes of the shortage. Median pay for Arizona elementary teachers is $40,590 per year, compared with $54,120 nationally. In 2014, Arizona ranked 48th in average per-pupil spending at $7,457, compared with $11,066 nationally.

“For years, state finances reeled from deficits that resulted in cuts to education. Gov. Doug Ducey calls teachers and public schools “winners” in his most recent budget, which allocated $167 million in new money for education and 2 percent teacher raises spread across two years.

“Other factors driving the shortage include stressful working conditions and diminished respect for the profession. The problem has grown as older teachers retire; among the flood of newcomers, many try the profession, then leave shortly after.”

Obviously, Arizona doesn’t care about educating its children. They don’t care about having qualified teachers. They aren’t willing to pay professional salaries. Very sad.

Arizona has placed its bets on choice as a substitute for funding its schools and attracting qualified teachers.

A bad bet.

Categories Arizona, Teacher Pay, Teacher Shortage

The Staff at Sunburst Elementary School: We Love Our School!

By dianeravitch
June 4, 2017 //
28

If you wonder why people become teachers and remain in the classroom, watch this video created by the teachers at Sunburst Elememtary School in Glendale, Arizona. They are having fun! They have a culture of happiness. Not every public school is happy. But those with a strong culture are like families. Watch this family of teachers cavorting for the joy of it.

By the way, I googled the school and saw that they had made many videos. I also saw that it was a diverse school, with small class size, all teachers certified, and no teacher with less than three years experience. Also, it closed the achievement gap between white and Hispanic children. Maybe the secret is joy.

Categories Arizona, Humor, Justice, Teachers

Gene V. Glass: An Ugly Look Inside a Charter School in Arizona

By dianeravitch
May 27, 2017 //
18

Gene V. Glass, one of the nation’s most distinguished education researchers, posted a blog about the experience of parents applying to a charter school in Arizona. Arizona is unusual in that it has no laws against nepotism or conflicts of interest. The Challenger Charter School is unusual in that it is owned by the former president of the State Board of Education and run by his wife and daughter. The family pays itself $400,000 a year for its services.

The post tells the story of parents who registered their child early for kindergarten in this school. They received a letter of acceptance. They had to fill out another form in March. On the second form, they noted that their daughter had had speech therapy, which they neglected to say in the first application. They were called into the school’s office where daughter and mother told them their child was unaccepted and would have to apply again through the open lottery. The administrators basically accused them of lying. Harsh words were exchanged. It was clear the school did not want their daughter.

Some of this interaction is captured in a video the family made during their interview.

The school’s message seems to be, children with any kind of disability, no matter how mild, are not wanted here. The IDEA laws don’t apply to charter schools in Arizona.

Categories Arizona, Charter Schools, Privatization, Special Education

Arizona: Vouchers Used by Students from Good Schools in Affluent Districts, Not Low-Income Students from Bad Schools

By dianeravitch
May 24, 2017 //
18

The Arizona Republic conducted an analysis to learn which students were using vouchers. Remember that vouchers are supposed to “save poor kids from failing schools.” But that is not what is happening in Arizona!

As Arizona’s school-voucher program has expanded rapidly in the past year, students using taxpayer aid to transfer from public to private schools are abandoning higher-performing districts in more-affluent areas, according to an Arizona Republic analysis.

This year, more than 75 percent of the money pulled out of public schools for the Empowerment Scholarship Account program came from districts with an “A” or “B” rating, the analysis showed. By contrast, only 4 percent of the money came from school districts rated “D” or lower.

The findings undercut a key contention of the lawmakers and advocacy groups pressing to expand the state’s ESA program: that financially disadvantaged families from struggling schools reap the benefit of expanded school choice.

Critics, meanwhile, argue the program is largely being used by more-affluent families to subsidize their private-school tuition bills. The ESA program allows parents to take 90 percent of the money that would have gone to their school district and put it toward private school, home schooling and other educational programs.

The Empowerment Scholarship Account program funding grew to approximately $49 million this year, from about $30 million last year, according to February data from the Arizona Department of Education, which oversees the program. Republicans in the Legislature are advancing bills that would expand the program from the 3,360 students currently using it to all 1.1 million Arizona public school students after four years.

http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona-education/2017/03/30/arizona-taxpayer-funded-vouchers-benefiting-students-more-affluent-areas/99707518/

The legislature pulled a fast one on taxpayers. Taxes are being used to subsidize students from affluent families at private schools, not poor kids from low-performing schools.

This is a hoax!

Hello, Arizona taxpayers! How do you feel about your taxes subsidizing the private school tuitions of rich kids?

Hello, retirees! Do you really want your taxes to be used to destroy the public education system that benefited you, your children, and your grandchildren?

Hat tip to Pat Hale for bringing this important article to my attention.

Categories Arizona, Hoax, Vouchers
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »