Gov. Doug Ducey recently pledged to expand school choice, vowing “serious reform” to ensure “equal access” to the state’s best-performing schools by eliminating waiting lists, such as the 10,000-student list at the Great Hearts Academies.
Choice won’t ensure equal access, there are too many barriers. These “best performing schools” achieve because they play by different rules — cherry-picking students, unlike district schools who educate all.
Charter schools are notorious for padding their waiting lists. The Arizona Charter Schools Association claims their schools were hit harder during the recession because they can’t ask taxpayers for overrides and bonds. Give me a break.
Charters receive $1,100 more per student than the district schools because they don’t have access to override and bond monies. The recession made it tough for district schools to get additional monies passed, but charter schools never missed a beat.
— Linda Lyon, Tucson
Restore Reason 
Linda keep up getting the message out. You have so much good material in the new governor’s budget. What he has done is outrageous favoring charter for profit schools over public (district) schools. Watch out the same treatment has started for Community Colleges. There is no limit to the damage education will suffer under this Governor.
I totally agree. We need to see more debate about charters and what is truly going on. I was able to hear Dr. Diane Ravitch speak in Tucson last month. She is very critically of all the charter business in our state. The more people hear the truth, hopefully, they will wake up. The huge cuts in Dysart, mainly for kindergarten teachers, is only the beginning of what is going to happen to public schools.
Hi Dottie, thanks for commenting! You are so right! I’ve also heard Diane, went to her Network for Public Education conference last year in Austin. She, like many others is fighting the good fight. We just need to stay vigilant.
Thanks Harvey. Will do!