Cut: $1.4 million for transplants. Added: $1.8 million for for-profit charter schools

by David Safier

Cynic though I am, even I didn't believe it when my almost-namesake Sen. David Schapira said it at the AZ Dem Reorg meeting Saturday. But he told me where I could find the proof. And I found it.

Brewer has proposed $1.8 million be paid to for-profit charter schools out of the state budget. This from the Governor who could not find $1.4 million to fund life-saving transplants.

Most states don't allow for-profit charter schools. Arizona does. But federal charter school funds can't be given to for profit charters. That may include non-profit charter schools which use for-profit Charter Management Organizations (CMOs), though I'm not entirely sure about that.

Brewer thinks she should right the Feds' wrong. So this item is in her education budget:

$1.8 million for the for-profit charters that are not eligible for federal funds. The Executive also recognizes additional charters may not be eligible. Which charters cannot accept the funds, if any, is currently unclear.

Truism: A for-profit school is a school designed to make a profit. It makes a profit by taking in more than it spends. Every dollar it doesn't spend on its students is a dollar the owner puts in the bank. While we're cutting necessities from the budget right, left and center, Brewer wants to spend $1.8 million of taxpayer money to assure that the owners of for profit-schools can make a profit — or make a higher profit.

There's something at least a little obscene about a school designed to make a profit — especially a K-12 school. It's completely obscene when the profit comes from government funds. It's obscene-on-steroids when our budget-cutting Governor who criticizes the Feds for their spending decides the Feds aren't doing enough to boost profits of for-profit schools and decides to increase her proposed budget to make up the difference.