David Safier

by David Safier

The world is a simple place for Senator and gubernatorial candidate Al Melvin.

School funding?

"We spend about $9,000 per pupil in this state. About $1,200 of that comes from the federal government. Keep it. We don't need it."

Melvin's plan, if elected, would be to reject any federal education funding and create a universal voucher system that parents can use at any school in the state.

Melvin, some other Republican legislators and the Goldwater Institute all love to say Arizona spends $9,000 per student. Everyone else puts it in the $7,000 to $7,500 range — even current A.G. and former Ed Supe Tom Horne. We've been in the bottom four states in education spending nearly forever. A universal voucher system? It can't happen by the front door, since Arizona tax dollars can't be spent on religious education, and over 70% of private schools in AZ and across the country are religious. Melvin might advocate a back door, like tuition tax credits or our current "empowerment scholarships," but knowing Al, he probably wants to do it straight up. The rule of law is important for other folks, but if you're a true believing right winger with God on your side, laws and the state constitution are impediments that can be ignored.

Melvin's answer to other federally funded programs and federal land is, turn it over to the state.

by David Safier

It looks like one of those heavily redacted CIA documents with page after page of "I could tell you but then I'd have to kill you" information blacked out. But it's not a CIA document. It's the BASIS application to open a charter school in San Antonio, Texas. The document is 400 pages long, and 72 of those pages are completely blacked out. At the bottom of each page are the words, "Shaded material denotes Confidential/Proprietary Information and/or
Confidential/Financial Information." Apparently, a whole lot of what
BASIS does is confidential and proprietary.

The three pages of the BASIS reponse to the topic, "Discuss the educational innovations that will distinguish this school from other schools," are redacted. Other blacked-out topics: Measurable student goals (2 pages); Educational program (9 pages);
Extracurricular activities (1 page); Professional development
opportunities for teachers (2 pages); Startup budget and budget for the
first year of operations (8 pages).

When the application gets down to the business end of things, the BASIS folks really get serious about redacting information. The 4 pages where they were required to
"Describe the extent to which any private entity, including any
management company, other nonprofit group, other governmental agency
and/or any other educational organization will be involved in the
operation of the charter school" are blacked out. The 12 pages of bylaws of the
sponsoring entity, BTX Schools, Inc. (BTX is short for BASIS Texas), are
blacked out as well. So are 26 pages describing the "negotiated service
agreement(s) with any organization(s) and/or individual(s) that will
provide financial accounting, payroll, and/or tax accounting services
for the proposed charter school."

Not all charter school operators find it necessary to black out major portions of their Texas applications. Two other Arizona-based charters filed applications to open schools in San Antonio: Carpe Diem and Great Hearts. The only blacked-out parts of their applications are about half a dozen names and email addresses of people who aren't directly related to the schools. Unlike BASIS, their applications put their educational approaches, operations and finances into the public record.

by David Safier K12 Inc., the for profit, publicly traded online charter school corporation and parent company of Arizona Virtual Academy, has seen its stock price rise over the past year as profits have increased. But one hedge fund thinks there are dark clouds on the horizon and is shorting the stock. "This is a … Read more

by David Safier All those crazy conservatives who hate the Common Core are driving Huppenthal nuts. But he has a solution. Change the name. [Huppenthal] will ask the State Board of Education to approve a name change, replacing Common Core with “Arizona College and Career Ready Standards.” He also wants the state to withdraw from … Read more