Arizona, take the lead in educational equity

-



Written By: Alexis Polokoff

The allure of charter schools has hoodwinked many to think they increase equity by giving marginalized groups better school choices while increasing efficiency in fitting the right school to the right student. Theory does not translate to reality when it comes to charter schools. Data that reveal the racial disparities among student groups in different schools are not what is “naturally efficient.” These statistics are the result of information asymmetry, inaccessibility due to resource barriers (such as transportation and language), and charter cherry-pickers. Read Bergman and McFarlin’s “Education For All? A Nationwide Audit Study of School Choice” (2020) for more on these actions. 


The reality is that many of the best charter schools engage in manipulative enrollment actions, from who and how they promote enrollment, to telling parents of costlier students, “I just don’t think our school is the right fit for your child.” Due to charter schools sharing the same pool of state funding as district public schools, district public schools are left with less funding. When you look at who is left in the immensely underfunded and under-resourced public schools, you will find a greater number of students of color. These students are generally from families of low socioeconomic backgrounds and need more learning supports than their wealthier peers. Counterintuitively, these students receive an even smaller slice of the education funding pie had there not been charter schools to funnel away money. That is a form of institutionalized racism.


Here are a few questions to consider: How do people learn to accept and ignore systemic social problems? Where do people learn to stereotype and stigmatize others? When do people learn about their identities and role in society?

One system that plays a significant role in the answer to these questions is the education system. In spite of the enticing ideal of equal educational opportunity in the United States, inequities have run amuck through the system. Arizona’s education system does not fare well when it comes to educational equity. Some quick facts:


  • Arizona consistently remains in the bottom 5-10% of states when it comes to per pupil spending. 

  • Of all 50 states, Arizona has the highest percentage of students (around 17%) enrolled in charter schools.

  • White and Asian students attend charter schools at a higher rate than Hispanics.

  • In “rigorous” and “progressive” charter schools, Hispanic students are disproportionately represented at a low 30%.

  • Although only about 40% of Arizona’s students are white, white teachers make up 75% of the teacher demographic in the state. 


During a time of remote learning, increasing COVID-19 cases in Arizona, and an uncertain, new school year beginning in the fall, Arizona policymakers need to develop an education stimulus package for Arizona’s public education system that builds on existing district public schools and does not empower the inequitable charter movement. A policy window is open and Arizona legislators must act on it. 


This is the time to authentically and holistically invest in public education. Education funding must increase dramatically and be utilized effectively based on best practices in professional development, social and emotional learning supports, personalized learning, social work collaboration, and specialized staff. If we don’t, not only will the education system continue to segregate and decrease equitable learning for students in Arizona, but Arizona will face a steep economic plunge that will last at least until our current school-aged children are mid-career. 





Other informative sources:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Preemption Laws and the War on Arizona Cities

-
Image
Guns. The Border Wall. Sanctuary cities. Solid waste collection. Industrial hemp production. AirBnBs.   What does this seemingly random grab bag of issues have in common? Well so far into this young legislative session, they have all been at the center of the Republican-controlled state legislature’s ongoing war on Democratic-led cities such as Phoenix, Tucson, Tempe, and Flagstaff. And the Republican legislators’ weapon of choice is an obscure tool known as preemption law.  As explained by  Henry Graber in Slate in 2016 , preemption laws, like so much state-level Republican legislation, is a brainchild of the notorious  American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) , the corporate-backed think tank which provides Republican legislators with model legislation which serves the interests of its corporate and billionaire clients. And preemption laws are a particularly pernicious tool that can be applied to almost any conservative hobbyhorse and harm the ability of cities...
Read more

Save Our Schools Act

-
Image
Education has been the dominant issue in Arizona politics for the past several years and it looks to be so again this November. Supporters of the #RedForEd movement are currently collecting signatures for a new version of the  Invest in Ed ballot initiative  which failed to make the ballot in 2018 and which would raise taxes on high-income earners to fund public education. And then last week,  Save Our Schools Arizona (SOSAZ) , the group behind 2018’s successful defeat of Proposition 305, announced a new ballot initiative they are calling the  Save Our Schools Act . Save Our Schools Arizona, if you will remember, is the grassroots group that was formed in 2017 to fight the Arizona legislature’s expansion of the Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) school voucher program. The group got the 2017 voucher expansion referred to the ballot in 2018, where it was resoundingly defeated by nearly two-thirds of Arizona voters. But this defeat has not deterred Republican legisl...
Read more

Copy Cat Legislation

-
Image
If you follow state-level politics, you are probably familiar with the idea of “model legislation.” This is when someone, usually a lobbying group or think tank, creates a bill that can be copied and pasted among legislators in varying states with little or no changes. The practice is most closely associated with the notorious conservative group the  American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) , which is known for writing bills and sending them home with legislators from their lavish retreats. The practice of model legislation and its association with ALEC first gained mainstream attention in 2012 after the shooting of Trayvon Martin. When Martin’s killer, George Zimmerman, was initially not charged due to a law in Florida few people had heard of called “Stand Your Ground,” reporters and activists did some digging and discovered  Stand Your Ground laws had originated with ALEC and been passed in 24 states . ALEC’s model bills often serve two purposes. In the first case, these...
Read more