by David Safier
I'm a bit late on this one, since it's in this morning's Star. In case you missed it, today's Star editorial slams the legislative special session which was called to create a new tuition tax credit, then it goes after Yarbrough for all the money he's pulling out of his School Tuition Organization, ACSTO.
On the special session:
[snip]
The special session is a waste of money that the state of Arizona does not have. The tax-credit plan would divert tax dollars that are urgently needed by the public schools and should not be passed.
Lawmakers should be focused instead on finding revenues to create a realistic, balanced 2010 budget.
Note the use of the term "backdoor voucher." The Star gets it.
On Yarbrough and ACSTO:
Yarbrough is the founder and executive director of the largest tuition-tax-credit organization in the state, the Star's Daniel Scarpinato reported.
The Tucson-based Arizona Education Network told Scarpinato that Yarbrough's involvement raises questions about why the legislation is being "fast-tracked" with a special session.
[snip]
Jen Darland, of the Tucson group [Arizona Education Network], showed documents revealing that Yarbrough's nonprofit tuition organization pays more than $400,000 a year to a processing company that Yarbrough owns, called HY Processing. And it pays another $44,000 in rent to Yarbrough, who owns the building where the group is located, Scarpinato wrote.
Yarbrough told Scarpinato it's true that he makes more than his base salary. "It's designed to make money," he said of the processing firm.
But he said he's not pushing legislation in order to personally benefit, telling Scarpinato he has "a fairly clear history of being a passionate believer in school choice."
While Yarbrough is evidently in the clear on conflict of interest, lawmakers should not pass a law that funnels so much tax money into profit-making entities. It doesn't seem to be about the schoolchildren.
It's good to see Jen Darland get credit for her tireless work digging up all this information. Without her information and the help she's given me connecting the dots, I couldn't have written about Yarbrough and ACSTO.
So, kudos to the Star for coming out on the right side of both issues. But if it pats itself on the back and stops now, it's only taken the first, and easiest, step. The Star should use Jen Darland's information and what I've written as a starting point. The next step is to use its journalistic clout and experience to dig for answers. Yarbrough should be asked about all the legitimate questions which have been raised, one by one, and if he can't come up with credible answers, the IRS or state legal agencies should make him answer.
This retired English teacher and humble blogger knows his limits. I can lay out the facts as I know them, connect them into a narrative, ask questions and point fingers. But I'm one guy sitting behind his desk pounding away on his MacBook. The Star, and/or the Republic, and/or the East Valley Trib, or some weekly somewhere in the state, is more equipped than I am to dig for answers. This may not be Woodward and Bernstein territory, but Deep Throat's advice still holds: Follow the money!
Hmmm. I heard the Goldwater Institute just hired that investigative reporter it was hunting for. He's Mark Flatten, most recently of the East Valley Trib and by reputation a solid reporter. I heard G.I. wants the new hire to investigate government waste. Will Flatten take a look at STO's, which grab 10% of the private school scholarship money — which is, in essence, government money — as it flies by? Nah. It'll never happen.