As Legislature Convenes, Transparency Not Money Should Be Focus

Arizona House of Representatives

Arizona lawmakers have been summoned to the State Capitol for a briefing on the settlement agreement reportedly reached in the in the Cave Creek v. DeWit lawsuit. Due to a gag order from the court, both sides will not discuss the details of the settlement as they prepare for the Governor’s call for a Special Session.

This is a unique opportunity for lawmakers, on both sides of the aisle, to work together for the good of our schools. Transparency is needed as much as funding, and any increase in funding must include provisions for increased transparency. In Governor Ducey’s vague Classrooms First plan, he calls for transparency and a “Single formula everyone can understand.” That is great so far as it goes, but publically funded charter schools and traditionally funded public schools do not play by the same rules.

The Legislature can and should move to make all publically funded schools play by the same rules.

For too long the public has been kept in the dark by secretive school districts, even more secretive charter school organizations, two pro-charter, pro-chamber of commerce governors and legislators who tell vastly different versions of the same story. They all use different “facts” to arrive at the same conclusion; our schools are underfunded. Any parent, grandparent, or community member who asked been asked to buy Kleenex or hand sanitizer for the classroom knew that a long time ago.

Let’s move on already, but let’s move on in the right direction. Taxpayers, and all of those people who claim to care about quality education must insist that not another dime is added to school coffers until those coffers are completely transparent – all coffers of every single publically funded school.

There are no intellectually honest Arizonans who cannot cite one instance of extravagance, graft, or waste in a publically funded school. Too many charter school parents know too well the consequences that will befall them should they question the school’s owner as to why they are being asked for donations for capital improvements while the owners collect a tidy sum for each child. Traditional public school parents dare not question why there seems to be more administrators than teachers, and why those teachers are scrambling for supplies while administrators hit the CSSO or NSBA meeting circuit. http://www.ccsso.org/News_and_Events/Meetings_and_Events.html

In Governor Ducey’s vague Classrooms First plan, creates a secrecy carve-out for his buddy, Craig Barrett’s, Basis charter schools and others like Basis that cherry-pick students, who in turn earn a State issued “A” grade. The plans reads:

Regulatory Relief:
Operational Flexibility
• Revise existing statute (ARS 15-215) to allow “A”-rated schools to receive exemptions from operational and financial statutes and rules including:
o Financial Audits
o Procurement

Ducey also calls for the elimination of the current Auditor General “Dollars in Classroom” spending reports. Remarkably, he wants the public to rely on individual district’s to make their budgets available to the public. As the state’s former treasurer, he does know that budgets are vastly different from spending. Once again, we all know they don’ get enough, we want to know where the little bit they receive actually goes.

Ducey cannot hide his contempt for the average public school, and his desire to see them eventually dry-up and disappear. His funding plan scam will dry up too in short order, according to both the new state Treasurer, Jeff DeWit, and Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas.

The money that is donated for all schools…private and public should be capped at the same level. The net impact (intended or not) of charter schools has been to recreate legally segregated public schools. Quite frankly, charters like Basis have done at least as much damage to private schools than they have to neighborhood schools. Why spend beaucoup bucks to send your kid to a private school in order to make sure the other kids in his or her class are not going to create disturbances or monopolize teacher time when you can do that without personal cost over at Basis?

There are honest lawmakers on both sides of the aisle who recognize that school choice is a myth. While they fight for quality schools for their constituents, they recognize that every community has unique needs and varying levels of choice. There are currently varying levels of transparency and that must change.