Republic chimes in on charter school cheerleading

by David Safier

Color me suspicious. When the Star, then the Republic publish articles about district schools scrambling to cope with competition from charter schools — a day apart, with no specific event driving the news — I have to think both stories are being driven by an outside agenda. Wanna bet both papers got a memo/news release from the Arizona Charter Schools Association feeding them the story on a silver platter?

See if you notice any similarities in these two passages, first from Sunday's Star:

Arizona's charter-school movement began 15 years ago with a vision to boost student achievement in low-income areas where kids were doing poorly, said Stephanie Grisham, a spokeswoman for the Arizona Charter Schools Association.

Now Arizona ranks second in the nation with 502 charter schools, making up roughly 25 percent of all public schools in the state, Grisham said.

And Arizona will have even more charters soon. The state will receive $53.7 million from the federal government over the next five years to help open 92 new charter schools.

Next, from today's Republic:

Arizona's charter-school movement started 15 years ago, when lawmakers created the tax-supported schools to compete with traditional public schools.

Today, the state has more than 500 charters, which operate free of many state regulations. They make up one-fourth of the public schools in Arizona, and new federal grants of $53 million are expected to allow the creation of as many as 100 or more in the state.

I added the bold face to highlight the similarities. They even state the nearly identical facts in identical order: Began 15 years ago; Number of charter schools; Percentage of total public schools; Federal grant; Number of new charters because of grant.

Coincidence? Nope, they both got the same memo from the pro charter lobbies.

[Note to Star reporters: Check with the Arizona DOE or the state's Charter School Board to see if the grants will be used to open exactly 92 schools before you indulge in pure stenography. My guess is they'll say they have no idea how many schools will open. They're just beginning to accept grant proposals. The Republic's "as many as 100" is pure conjecture as well, but at least the reporter couched it in semi-vague terminology.]

Yesterday, the Star ran a list of all the charter and private schools in the area, which I think, by the way, is a good idea. I've been seeing billboards and ads encouraging people to sign up at charter schools cropping up lately. Also, no problem with a little bit of advertising. But look at the timing. Feeding these two stories to reporters is very likely part of a media campaign to boost charter school enrollment. The reporters who picked them up granted free media with pre-packaged spin to charter schools.

My post yesterday lists some bullet points both stories should have considered if they wanted to write something more than puff pieces about charters. Do a little digging, please, especially when an interest group feeds you a story on a silver platter.