By Eileen Sigmund
Arizona leads the nation as one of the first states to adopt a comprehensive – and enduring – charter school law. Our charter schools now serve more than 17 percent of all public school students in the state and have achieved unprecedented outcomes. With innovative leaders opening schoolhouse doors for the last 22 years, changes have occurred in the last two decades at both the state and federal level. And more change is on the way.
Significantly, Arizona’s school districts are suing today for over $4.5 billion in funding allegedly owed by the state for their facilities since 2009. Just as we did with Prop 123, the Association will review and examine how to best position our charter community in these upcoming legal and advocacy battles. It is imperative that the thousands of Arizona students attending charter schools are not left out of funding equity determinations going forward.
Education remains the most important issue for the majority of Arizonans, generating a big uptick in activity from our state lawmakers this year. It’s exciting to see so much interest in education at the legislature, but the interest has brought its share of challenges. As charter advocate Jeanne Allen said, there is growing concern that with new regulations “charters [will] begin to morph into the sort of system that they set out to disrupt. Academics call it isomorphism, a process by which once innovative organizations become more bureaucratic, risk averse and ordinary.”
Across the country, we are seeing signals from Washington D.C. of less involvement from the U.S. Department of Education in state level policy and a very hands-off approach to school matters.
Just last week, President Trump issued a sweeping review of federal education policies in an executive order to pinpoint areas where the government may be overstepping in shaping operations of local school systems. We don’t yet know what this will look like, but speculation persists, leaving unanswered questions:
- Could this mean changes at the Office of Civil Rights?
- Could it mean we finally get rid of reporting student-teacher-course connection?
- What will it mean for ESSA? Will we see Federal aid tied to weighted-student-funding?
Set this litigious and active legislative season against a backdrop of revitalized confusion about charter fundamentals and one thing is for certain: now is not the time to rest on our laurels, impressive though they may be. The primary myth perpetuated with renewed vigor lately: charter schools are not public schools. As upheld by the Arizona Appellate Court, charter schools are public school serving public students.
Public charter schools in Arizona have lead the nation in innovation and creating excellent opportunities for students across our diverse state for more than two decades. Incumbent on us now is protecting the statutory environment that got us here.
