2020 vision? Arizona would have it if it did these 4 things

The watchword for the new year: VISION.

It seems only fitting that 2020 be the year we start seeing a few things clearly around here.

Because hope springs eternal — and vision correction is always possible – I’m thinking this could be a good year for Arizona.

A year when ...

❚ The Legislature at long last cracks down on bad charter schools.

How many more years does Arizona Republic reporter Craig Harris have to write about charter school operators who use loose laws and public funds to boost their bottom lines rather than their students’ achievement?

Last year’s so-called major reform bill was a major disappointment. Just how bad was it?

Sen. Eddie Farnsworth, a guy who scored nearly $14 million from his publicly funded charter schools, voted for the “reform” plan.

In the end, the bill died anyway. In 2020, our leaders need to try, try again. This time, perhaps, with a bill not largely written by the charter school industry.

A good place to start would be with online charter schools.

The state’s largest, Primavera Online, got $50 million in public funds last year and reported a $10 million profit. Yet it has earned the board’s lowest academic ranking – “falls far below” academic standards – and has posted declining graduation rates for the last decade.

Despite that, Primavera founder and CEO Damian Creamer managed to pay himself a combined $10.1 million in 2017 and 2018 out of taxpayer money set aside to educate students.

Harris' stories have demonstrated Arizona’s crying need for reform, with more transparency so the public can see how charter schools are spending $1.2 billion of the public’s money and with conflict-of-interest and competitive bidding requirements that prevent operators and their various relatives from sucking up money intended to educate kids.

Will this, finally, be the year that our leaders plug gaping loopholes that have allowed some charter operators to plun

der public money?

❚ The Arizona Corporation Commission hops out of APS’ pocket.

Last year brought us the answer to the five-year mystery of who was secretly funding campaigns to stack the Corporation Commission with regulators friendly to Arizona Public Service.

This year should bring us clear evidence that the Corporation Commission is actually functioning as a regulatory agency rather than the usual set of APS puppets and pocket pals.

A good place to start would be to schedule a vote on APS’ 2018 request for a rate increase this year – before the fall Corporation Commission elections – rather than waiting until next year as the ACC staff has proposed.

If not, then perhaps voters will finish the job they began in 2018 when they ousted Commission Chairman Tom Forese and installed Sandra Kennedy in his place.

❚ Voters finally get the chance to stop the flow of dark money in Arizona’s elections.

For years, we’ve waited for the Legislature to end the practice of special interests secretly funding campaigns aimed at getting us to vote a certain way — without, of course, telling us who they are or what they have to gain.

Instead, our leaders have actually opened the spigot wide, allowing even more dark money in Arizona’s elections.

A citizens initiative to outlaw big dark money donations came close to making the ballot in 2018. This year, Outlaw Dirty Money is hoping to go all the way.

If former Attorney General Terry Goddard and his bipartisan group can get this proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot – no small feat – and manage to avoid whatever obstacles the big-money guys throw in their way – think everything but the kitchen sink – it’ll pass.

Put another way, if voters get an actual say, it’ll pass.

(Outlaw Dirty Money has until July 2 to get 356,467 signatures. If you can help, go to outlawdirtymoney.com.)

❚ The Legislature at long last restores full funding to Arizona’s schools.

A generation of kids has come and gone since our leaders slashed funding for schools. When the recession eased, state leaders opted to cut corporate taxes rather than making schools whole.

The result has been schools that are falling apart, textbooks that are woefully outdated and overcrowded classes taught by under qualified teachers.

Gov. Doug Ducey’s 20by2020 plan to raise teacher was a start but only a start, given the magnitude of damage done over the last decade.

Despite teacher raises, Arizona teacher pay remains bottom of the barrel and teachers continue to bail for greener climes, leaving some classes to be taught by college students or others by people who can’t qualify for a teaching certificate.

Our schools offer one counselor for every 905 students — a ratio that is nearly twice the national average of 455:1.

So what will Ducey do with a $1 billion rainy day fund and a budget surplus approaching $700 million?

It’s time ... past time, really ... that we do right by this generation of kids.

If not, well, Election Day is in just 302 days.