20 years of school choice: How Arizona has evolved
by Anne Ryman
The Republic
November 1, 2015
Valley Academy’s first year was a scary time for the parents and teachers who founded one of the state’s first public charter schools.
Financial problems threatened to shutter the north Phoenix school just a few months after opening in fall 1995. A parent stepped in and arranged a loan for about $100,000. School board members scrubbed toilets. Parents cleaned classrooms. The school’s dirt parking lot turned into a river of mud when it rained.
Fast forward 20 years.
The K-8 school has nearly 800 students with a few hundred more on a waiting list and an “A” rating from the state. A sister school with another 700 students operates six miles to the south. Parents no longer have to clean the school, and the loan has long been repaid.
Best of all: Last year, Valley Academy was named a National Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education.
Valley Academy is a premier example of how school choice has evolved over the past two decades.
In 1994, Arizona passed sweeping legislation that allowed charter schools and made it easier for students to attend schools outside their neighborhood boundaries. The first schools opened in 1995.
The changes were aimed at improving student achievement and giving parents more choices. The early choices were sometimes questionable or unproven. But enough of choice schools have matured to the point where more and more families are seeking options, whether those are neighborhood district schools, charter schools or private schools. And the changes have also altered how district schools — which still educate the majority of Arizona students — approach education as well, adding innovations as the competitive landscape continues to evolve.
Consider these trends:
- Arizona is ranked No. 3 on the “Parent Power Index” by the Center for Education Reform in Washington, D.C., based on the school choices that are available. Only Florida and Indiana are rated higher.
- Enrollment in tuition-free charter schools has doubled in the past decade to 170,755. Charters serve 16 percent of students who attend Arizona public schools this fall, up from 9 percent a decade ago.
- Enrollment in online programs offered by school districts and charter schools more than doubled in four years to about 76,500.
- Scholarships funded through state tax credits make private schools more affordable for families who want a private or parochial education. These tax credits topped $121 million in fiscal 2014, up from $32 million a decade ago.
- District schools have launched more specialty programs to keep students and attract new ones. The focuses range from science and technology to arts or Mandarin immersion.
- A school-voucher-type program for children with special needs has been expanded since 2011 to include other categories of students, including children of active-duty military and children who live on Indian reservations.
“I don’t know of any other state that has a better system in place than we do,” said Greg Miller, president of the Arizona State Board of Education and founder of Challenge Charter School in Glendale.
Miller said Arizona doesn’t get everything right. But state leaders have set the stage for parents to select the right kind of educational opportunity for their children, he said.
The influx of choices has come with plenty of controversy.
Critics say a multitude of choices doesn’t guarantee quality at every school.
They also say choice has meant a battle for already-scarce resources.
The amount of money the state puts toward K-12 education is among the lowest of any state in the nation, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Charter and district K-12 schools each receive state funds based on enrollment, forcing schools to compete for students and the dollars that go with them.
Districts that lose students, either to charters or for other reasons, receive less per-pupil money from the state the following year. That can mean having to make cuts.
Arizona Education Association President Andrew Morrill worries that “we’ll see fewer and fewer district public schools that are getting the funding and resources they need to educate the students who most need them.”
The road to school choice
Arizona pushed its way to the front of school choice in a big way when then-Gov. Fife Symington signed a sweeping education-reform law in 1994 that began allowing charter schools. Charter schools are independent schools that get public funding and don’t charge tuition.
The goal behind charters was to improve student achievement and provide additional academic choices. In Arizona, they can be operated by non-profit organizations or for-profit companies.
The first charters began opening in 1995.
Cuyler Reid, a high school English teacher with a preschooler, was among the first in the state to be granted a charter. She and a group of other parents and teachers founded Valley Academy to provide a back-to-basics education with a focus on reading, writing and math. The school also offered special-area subjects such as art, music and Spanish. At the time, there were only a couple of schools in the Valley offering a back-to-basics focus, she said. One was in central Phoenix, the other in Mesa.
“We were filling a niche that was really needed,” she said.
Reid recalled that before the school even opened at 15th Avenue and Rose Garden Lane, a telephone call from a parent touched her deeply.
The parent told her, “We’re finally going to be able to buy a house because now we don’t have to pay tuition.”
Reid recalls what the conversation meant — and still means — for Arizona families.
“That’s the difference that charters make,” she said. “They give you a choice. Because not everybody fits every mold.”
The 1994 legislation also benefited parents who wanted their children to attend district schools outside their neighborhoods. The law allowed families to go to a school outside district attendance boundaries for free — as long as that school had space. The process is known as open enrollment. Before the law changed, districts could charge tuition to out-of-district families.
The state doesn’t track how many families participate in open enrollment. But in large districts, several hundred students can come from outside the district boundaries. The 23,612-student Scottsdale Unified School District, for instance, draws 3,842 students from other districts. Another 5,578 students who live in the Scottsdale district open enroll at schools within the district that are outside of their designated neighborhood schools.
Districts also began offering specialized academic programs to keep students and attract new ones. These are sometimes referred to as “magnet programs” or “magnet schools.”
The Phoenix Union High School District opened Bioscience High School in downtown Phoenix in 2007 where students choose either an engineering or biomedical pathway while still in high school.
The four-year school accepts 350 students, who school officials said come mostly from the 220-square-mile Phoenix Union district.
Sara Calderon, a 16-year-old junior, was planning to go to her neighborhood school, Alhambra High. Then a science teacher at her middle school suggested she check out Bioscience High.
She applied and got in.
She’s glad she did. She said the idea of school choice is becoming more well known. But many students still may not realize they have choices when it comes to school, she said.
“It’s really great because originally that was my mindset. I was like ‘Oh, it’s my home school. Of course I’m going to the closest one.’ And then I realized, no, I don’t (have to) actually. It’s in my hands.”
Calderon’s parents drive her about eight miles to school each day and pick her up. Or they drop her off at a Phoenix light-rail station and she takes the train. After high school, she wants to go to college and major in biomedical engineering.
If the school’s history is any indication, she has an excellent chance of going on to college. Last year, 85 percent of the school’s 2013-14 graduates enrolled in college immediately after graduation. Bioscience High is A-rated and ranked No. 13 in the state for sending students to college, according to a study by the Arizona Board of Regents.
