Diane
Douglas is absolutely correct cronyism is alive and well in the Ducey
administration and state legislature when it comes to owning charter schools.
Some Legislatures own charter schools and are voting on the demise of public
education. Would be interesting to see who owns all of the charter schools in
Arizona. be
Looking beyond her zealotry on Common
Core and her tone deaf approach to leadership, though, there is something that
shouldn't be overlooked.
Douglas is right … about a few things, that is.
Public schools are being underfunded to the tune of hundreds of
millions of dollars while Ducey and the Arizona Legislature press ahead with
the state's latest round of tax cuts.
Ducey's proposed budget actually cuts operating funds for K-12
schools by $13.5 million, according to an analysis by azcentral's Fact Check.
Roughly $24 million that had been available to improving schools would move to
the state School Facilities Board, allowing the state to guarantee debt so that
charter schools can more cheaply build new facilities.
Douglas isn't the only one who worries that the governor will
boost the fortunes of private charter operators at the expense of traditional
district schools, the ones that educate 83 percent of Arizona students.
His transition team was filled with people aligned with charters
and school-choice groups. Among them: former state Superintendent Lisa Graham
Keegan, who as a state legislator sponsored the bill that created charter
schools in 1994; Matthew Ladner, senior adviser for policy and research at the
Foundation for Excellence in Education and a former vice president at the
Goldwater Institute, and Erik Twist, a vice president at Great Hearts Academies
and a former assistant principal at BASIS Scottsdale, both charter schools.
Douglas may constitute one doozy of a severe weather event but
I'm more concerned about the climate in which school districts find themselves
at the state Capitol.
A cold
front, that would be. Really, really cold
