Senate Bill 1394 falls short of that mark
STATE CAPITOL, PHOENIX – Senator David Bradley released the following statement on the passage of Senate Bill 1394:
![]() |
Sen. Bradley |
"For years, Democratic legislators have introduced bills to provide
financial transparency and accountability of Arizona's charter schools. We
support charter schools and send our own children and grandchildren to them.
But we have known for quite a while that there are charter operators who take
advantage of the system to enrich themselves with taxpayer dollars meant for
educating kids.
"Senate Bill 1394 began its journey with its sponsor expressing a
willingness to proactively engage both the Senate and House Democratic Caucuses
in the discussion. We signed on with the promise that we would be at the table
to discuss measures that would strengthen the bill, which we were.
"At the first and every subsequent meeting on this issue we
discussed the need to strengthen the reporting and transparency requirements
for charter holders and the need to increase transparency around Charter
Management Organization contracts. Also discussed, but not resolved, was the
capping of administrative expenses and a prospective ban on for-profit
charters.
"There were many other ideas discussed in meetings with the sponsor
and stake holders but these two main issues represent the minimum focus our
caucus needed to vote for the bill. We made this very clear during discussions
and that is why they were addressed in our two amendments that were rejected
yesterday by Republicans. The notion that our amendments were last minute
demands is disingenuous and categorically false.
"With the rejection of our amendments, SB 1394 in its current form
fails to resolve these issues.
"While there are provisions within SB 1394 that have merit, such as
the Attorney General's ability to issue civil subpoenas, they fail to
ultimately target CMOs - the entities that make the operational decisions that
can enrich self-dealing charter owners.
"If SB 1394 is enacted, its proponents will claim we have 'checked
the box' on charter financial accountability and transparency reform when in
actuality we have not. When the regulated have veto power over their own
regulation, we will never achieve true reform."
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please leave your comment here: