Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich issued an opinion that favors our small charter schools in the Small School Weight funding issue. Brnovich’s opinion makes it clear that the Governor and Legislature never intended to enact an immediate 100 percent cut to the state’s smallest charter schools.
Association Statement
“On behalf of the Arizona Charter Schools Association, including our state’s 600-plus charter schools serving approximately 160,000 students, we are pleased that today’s opinion by Attorney General Brnovich brings much-needed clarity when it comes to budget cuts to be endured in the next year by small, public charter schools.
“Especially gratifying is that this opinion makes it clear Governor Ducey and legislators never intended to exact an immediate, 100 percent cut from special funding provided to some of Arizona’s smallest and best public charter schools. With this information, we are hopeful the Arizona Department of Education will reverse its earlier position on this issue.
“Our work is not done as an Association. We will continue to work with Governor Ducey and legislators to assure education budget cuts are no larger than was intended and, to the greatest extent possible, to minimize their harm to the quality public education available to students and families of Arizona charter schools.”
Eileen Sigmund, President and CEO Arizona Charter Schools Association
Arizona Republic Opinion Piece
Our View: Unlike the education superintendent, Mark Brnovich correctly gave weight to lawmakers’ intent in the school budget-cut law.
Perhaps you heard: The Supreme Court just settled a long legal fight over some clumsy language in the nation’s health-care law. But the justices weren’t alone in trying to figure out what lawmakers really meant to say.
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich has stepped in with an opinion clarifying a portion of next year’s state budget dealing with charter-school funding.
The Legislature and Gov. Doug Ducey calculated that their bare-bones budget should include a $6.3 million hit to the public-private hybrid schools in the coming fiscal year, and no more than $20 million over three years — a manageable amount in the eyes of charter-school advocates.
But Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas saw the law differently.
By her Department of Education’s calculation, the plan to eliminate extra funding for some small charters actually should cost a larger number of charter schools a total of $15 million next year, and about $70 million over three years. Unsurprisingly, charter operators balked.
According to their reading of the education funding bill, Senate Bill 1476, charter-school chains with more than 600 students at multiple sites would lose the special funding, which was intended to help fledgling charter operations survive. But according to Douglas’ office, the law meant schools with fewer than 600 students at multiple sites would lose out, too.
Brnovich’s assessment of the true meaning of SB 1476 reflected the expressed views of the people who supported and passed the law. Ducey and Republican legislative leaders insisted Douglas misread the law from the start.
Ducey, who expressed strong support for charter schools during his campaign, took heat for recommending any cuts. But in a year of such anguish-inducing austerity, the governor, to his credit, made the effort to spread to the pain.
It just wasn’t quite as much pain as Douglas sought to inflict.
Brnovich has got the call right on the charter-school cuts. As Democrats are saying now about the language of the Affordable Care Act, author’s intent has got to count for something.
Story published in the Arizona Republic on June 26, 2015
