Crime still legal under ‘reform’ bill for charters

The Arizona Senate last week passed a bill saying charter school owners can continue to operate in a way that would put district school administrators in jail.

In other words, what is a crime for some is only an money-making opportunity for others.

It’s up to the state House to fix that. Or not.

Under the charter school “reform” bill passed by the Senate last week, superficial changes in regulations would improve some flaws in charter school accountability but still allow charter school owners and operators to engage in money-making schemes that would land the administrator in a regular school district in the slammer.

As long as that’s the case, there is no real “reform.”

Given the fact that lobbyists with the Arizona Charter Schools Association had a hand in writing the bill, along with Republican Sen. Kate Brophy McGee, this shouldn’t come as a surprise.

Regular public schools and the teachers who educate our children have suffered through such inadequate education funding that they had to take to the streets to get lawmakers to notice.

Even so, those same lawmakers seem more than happy to keep in place a system that allows charter owners to use public money for personnel gain.

But the actual reform that was envisioned by some after reporting by The

Arizona Republic’s Craig Harris and others exposed numerous abuses in the system never materialized.

The Senate bill passed on a partyline vote: 17 Republicans voting for it, 13 Democrats against.

The margin is tighter in the House. The Republican majority is only two votes. The House could toughen the bill or reject it. Or it could wind up with Gov. Doug Ducey, who has shown no inclination to fix the charter school scam.

Sen. Eddie Farnsworth – who last year pocketed $13.9 million by selling his East Valley Benjamin Franklin charter school chain to a non-profit company run by friends and associates – said, "I make no apologies for being successful."

Why should he?

He was elected, along with the majority Republicans in the Senate. Elected officials get to make laws. So they made laws that allow charter operators to enrich themselves in ways that would turn school district administrators into criminals.

And they got to pass a bill that would keep that scam in place.

They get to call that legislation a “reform.”

You, on the other hand, get to wait until the next election to do something about it. Or not.