A forthcoming report by the Goldwater Institute reveals that the number of public district-run charter schools in Arizona is increasing at an unprecedented rate as many districts try to boost their budgets without offering students new educational options.
According to the Goldwater Institute, twenty traditional public school districts opened 59 charter schools this year and gained access to a combined $33 million a year increase in state funds, mostly by turning their traditional public schools into charters. State budget analysts warn this places additional pressure on Arizona’s tax-supported general fund.
According to Goldwater Institute investigative reporter Emily Gersema, several districts declared the switch to charters will have no effect on the schools’ operations. The Institute says this defies the purpose of Arizona’s charter school law: to offer students educational choices that could improve academic achievement.
Goldwater found that the Paradise Valley Unified School District opened the most charter schools of any district in Arizona this year, converting 11 traditional public schools into charters. The district projected the conversions would net an additional $7.2 million in annual state aid. District officials told parents in online fact sheets that nothing would change at the schools.
The trend concerns Sen. Kimberly Yee (R-Phoenix), chairwoman of the Arizona Senate Education Committee.
“You can’t just slap a new charter title on a school and keep doing what you were doing inside that school and call that a conversion,” said Yee, who is calling for legislative action.
“We need greater oversight and more eyes on the management of a district when it decides to convert a dozen of their schools at a time to charter schools,” Yee said. “The public needs to ask: Is this a real charter school change or just the same old school that now receives $1,000 more per student because it renamed itself a charter?”