charter schools – Powers For the People

What Next? Privatized School Transportation (video)

Posted on March 22, 2021April 23, 2021 by Pamela Powers

SB1280 is another massive, strike everything, right-wing model bill proposed by Rep. Shawnna Bolick. What else would we hear in the last week of committees? There are dozens of terrible bills including several strike-everything’s in committees this week. I was not kidding when I told people over the weekend in Tucson that many of us have PTSI from the horrible bills that are passing the legislature all too often on bipartisan votes.

SB1280 appropriates $10 million in grants to privatize school transportation. This is a horrible Koch Brothers model bill that leaves our young children vulnerable in the name of privatization. It is on the agenda for Ways and Means on Wednesday.

Continue reading What Next? Privatized School Transportation (video)

#AZLeg Should Fund #PublicEd, Not Pricey Private Schools (video)

Posted on March 9, 2021April 16, 2021 by Pamela Powers

This is an RTS alert for SB1041 and SB1118, two student tuition organization (STO) bills that are in Ways and Means on March 10.

There are many different tax credits in support of STOs. SB1041 refers to tax credits for STO scholarships for displaced and disabled children. (Displaced children have been removed from their home and could be in foster care.) This STO is capped at $5 million in tax credits per year, and all of the tax credits are claimed each year. SB1041 would raise that cap by $5 million a year annually. Businesses can buy tax credits from an STO, which turns that cash into scholarships for designated types of students to attend private schools.

Continue reading #AZLeg Should Fund #PublicEd, Not Pricey Private Schools (video)

Coincidence? ‘Charter School Week’ Is the Same as Brown vs Bd of Ed Anniversary (video)

Posted on May 16, 2019February 15, 2023 by Pamela Powers

Arizona House Republicans stand for charter school proclamation.

Is it a coincidence that Charter School Week is the same week as the landmark Supreme Court Decision Brown vs the Board of Education?

If you have read “Democracy in Chains,” you know the links between the Brown decision, Southern pushback against desegregation, taxpayer-funded private school vouchers, racial disparities across school districts, and the rise of the “public choice” movement in education.

The popularity of customized charter schools and tax-funded vouchers for private education — and the related budget cuts to public education — have led to white flight from public schools and increased segregation in our schools overall. Charter schools that cherry pick high-performing students and weed out others exacerbate the equity problems.