The following is the opinion and analysis of the writers:
Duncan Sohn Hasman
Will Slattery
How many former teachers do you know? I’d bet it’s more than a handful. Record numbers of teachers are leaving the classroom, unsupported and underpaid. Our students also often don’t get the resources they deserve, but our charter schools and the for-profit corporations which run many of them do get enough to siphon public dollars into private pockets. Teachers at BASIS Tucson North unionized to stand up for teachers & students and to stand against corporate profiteering and we’re certain it’s the solution to Arizona’s education problem.
Private ownership arrangements illegal in other states are legal in Arizona. Even in New Orleans, one of the most pro-charter and charter-dense cities in the country, lawmakers have already restricted for-profit corporations from serving as school operators. The profit motive runs counter to the spirit of a school. The less the kids and teachers get, the more the operators pocket. Free lunch? Kid, no such thing. Here in Arizona, corporations collect profit from the operating budgets of schools. There is a small hurdle to clear. You can’t turn textbooks into Teslas just by opening up a school. You need an arrangement where the state gives money to a school like BASIS Tucson North who hands over 13% of its funds to the for-profit company BASIS Educational Ventures without transparent oversight. BEV doesn’t have to publicly defend the rate they charge or what those dollars go to. According to BASIS, that’s a trade secret. Don’t Arizonans deserve to know where the tax dollars they set aside for students and teachers are truly going?
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There’s nothing keeping BEV honest about their finances. Teachers struggle while BASIS’ owners live luxuriously. BASIS founders Michael and Olga Block bought million-dollar properties in Arizona and NYC. The for-profit BEV listed a $100k+ chauffeur/private chef position in a time of runaway inflation and stagnating wages.
We’re fighting to keep Arizona tax dollars in the classroom. BEV thinks corporate profits come before hiring school nurses and counselors. Current owners Peter and Patti Bezanson might not take much time asking what students need at BASIS Tucson North. The most we saw them at BTB was when they begged us not to unionize, and then spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to fight our effort to make teachers’ voices heard. When you add in the fact that BASIS plays poor and solicits families for thousands in donations to try to supplement its low starting salary. Even then they fall short in average teacher salaries compared to other local schools. There’s really only one conclusion: it’s the profit, stupid.
Either Basis Educational Ventures needs to start taking its role as a school operator more seriously and meet the needs of its teachers by accepting the salary proposal of the educators at BTN, or it’s time for a peek behind the curtain and for Arizona legislators to put into place what even those lushes staggering home from the French quarter had the sense to do: eliminate for-profit operation of public schools. You wouldn’t allow an electrician to present you with a 13% upcharge labeled “trade secrets” on a bill for a replaced outlet. Why would you let the millionaires that own your kid’s school get away with it?
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Duncan Sohn Hasman and Will Slattery are educators at BASIS Tucson North. Both were also recently elected to the Arizona American Federation of Teachers executive board and are organizing to keep public funds in public hands for the benefit of students and educators.
