The Barretts, Craig and Barbara: Power couple

by David Safier

Muckety, a website whose mission, in its own words, is "Mapping the paths of power and influence," has posted a power map of Craig Barrett and his wife, Barbara.

Craig currently heads Brewer's A-Wreck (AREC: Arizona Ready Education Council). He's a big player in the conservative Choice/Education Reform movement here in Arizona. In case anyone was wondering, both he and Barbara are big Republican donors.

Interestingly, Craig's position as head of BASIS Charter Schools isn't mentioned here. But his connection with K12 Inc., the huge national cyber school corporation, is.

Craig is very proud of his affiliation with BASIS and brags regularly about how wonderful their elite charter schools are (Sure, they have to accept everyone, but the students who end up enrolling and staying on can be called, in Occupy parlance, the Academic One Percent. The Ninety-nine Percent need not apply).

But I would like to hear what he has to say about this. K12 Inc's Arizona school, Arizona Virtual Academy, is currently one of 27 AZ charter schools on academic probation. The schools have been given conditional renewals.

The conditional renewal requires them to be reviewed annually until they meet their goals. If they fail, the state could close one or more of their schools or revoke their contract.

Mr. Barrett, what's good for your One Percent School is good for your Ninety-Nine Percent School as well. Why haven't you put your considerable energies and influence behind fixing the problems with Arizona Virtual Academy, which apparently isn't doing the job for its 4,000-plus students?