by David Safier Sigh. We've been down this road so many times before — the Goldwater Institute making a fool of itself with its purposeful misstatements about Arizona's per student spending numbers. And yet, if the media accepts the numbers and parrots them, and if Republican legislators like Al Melvin continue to quote them, the … Read more
by David Safier A NY Times blog post says that Robert Frost taught an 8th grade class in a Massachusetts Grammar School in 1893. His qualifications? Well, at 17 years of age, having recently dropped out of Dartmouth College before he finished his first semester, he didn't have many. But that was typical of the … Read more
by David Safier Tucson Weekly has an article about some parents' concerns that Sonoran Science Academy charter schools are too closely linked to the cause of Turkish scholar and Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen. I've received a few emails about this but never followed up, mainly because the emails had that ranting, everywhere-at-once quality that makes … Read more
by David Safier Commenter Susan gives as clear a presentation as I've read of the reason parents should have a number of public school options, including charter schools. It's a complex issue for me. I am an ardent supporter of the public school system. I went to several parochial and public schools myself, so have … Read more
by David Safier Arizona is awash in charter schools — the most per capita of any state — and there is a push to expand still further, encouraged by $14 million coming from the U.S. DOE to AZ earmarked for charters, to be followed by another $50 million a few years down the road. Charters … Read more