Release: “Sen. Kate Brophy-McGee Turns a Blind Eye on Charter School Corruption”
AZCentral: “...lawmakers protect and even encourage a lack of transparency and accountability within the charter school system.”
PHOENIX — Last week, during the LD 28 Clean Elections Debate Sen. Kate Brophy-McGee claimed to be an Education Champion and boasted about her endorsements. However, McGee is forgetting the numerous times she refused to hear legislation to fix Arizona's corrupt Charter School system.
For weeks we have heard about several charter schools operating in Arizona that have drained millions of dollars from our public schools. Millions of dollars that could have gone towards fixing our crumbling public schools and providing up-to-date textbooks and technology for students, instead ofpadding the wallets of wealthy charter school CEOs. As the Vice-Chair of the education committee in the Senate, Brophy-McGee had direct influence over the legislation heard.
This year she refused to hear eight bills that would have forced more transparency and accountability for Charter Schools. Such asSB1309which would have audited Charter Schools with less than 200 students - a requirement for public schools. OrSB1297which would have provided oversight of charter school profit distribution.
“Kate Brophy McGee continuously claims to be an advocate for public schools. The fact of the matter is that her track record as Vice Chair of the Senate Education Committee shows she refused multiple opportunities to bring charters schools up to the same level of accountability as our public schools.”- Charlie Fisher, Executive Director of the ADLCC
LD 28 needs a real education champion who is committed to tracking every tax dollar that is allocated to private, charter and public schools. Democratic State Senate Candidate Christine Marsh is that champion. As a teacher with over 26 years in the classroom and the 2016 Teacher of The Year, Marsh is determined to fixing the education crisis in our state by increasing public school funding and demanding more transparency and accountability in Arizona charter schools.
Proposed Legislation for Charter School Accountability
SB1174: ADE; charter schools; assessments
SB1297: charter schools; profit distributions
SB1298: auditor general; charter schools
SB1299: charter schools; financial information; audits
SB1303: charter school omnibus
SB1306: schools; teacher omnibus
SB1308: charter schools; financial reporting
SB1309: charter schools; accounting; procurement; audits
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Media Coverage
AZCentral: “Charter school corruption will go unchecked in Arizona unless …”
By: E.J Montini
Date: Aug. 18th, 2018
Key Points
“...charter school corruption in Arizona will go unchecked unless… we elect different leaders.”
“ in response to these reports Gov. Doug Ducey and the Republicans who control the Legislature have done exactly nothing. Not a thing.”
“The Republic’s team of reporters at the State Capitol has described how lawmakers protect and even encourage a lack of transparency and accountability within the charter school system.
“the regular public school system from using a taxpayer-supported position to enrich themselves.Then they decided the new rules should NOT apply to charter schools.”
“And it is allowed to go on because Gov. Ducey and the Republicans who control the legislature like it this way.”
“That won’t change unless the people in charge are replaced.”
AZCentral: “Primavera charter CEO gets $8.8M despite having Arizona's third-highest dropout rate”
By: Craig Harris
Date: Aug. 22nd, 2018
Key Points
“Beginning in 2012, the school began shifting large shares of its annual $30 million-plus allotment of state funding away from instruction and into stocks, bonds, mortgage-backed securities and real estate.”
“That year, 70 percent, or $22.4 million, of its state funding went into its growing investment portfolio— instead of efforts to raise test scores, reduce class sizes, or address an exploding dropout rate that is now the state's third-highest.”
“Creamer's compensation was 39 times the salary of the superintendent of Mesa Public Schools, the state's largest public district. Primavera's student body of 20,210 is less than one-third the size of Mesa's.”
“I’m not concerned about the CEO,” said Ducey, a former Cold Stone Creamery CEO who received $8,000 in campaign contributions from Creamer and his wife. “That is of very little interest. I'm concerned about the child and the parent and what the child is equipped to do after 12 years of education.”
“The whole philosophy behind this is that greed is good.”