Hundreds of charter schools and traditional school districts in Arizona have been receiving more federal funding for low-income students than they were entitled to while others were left with far less for at least the past four fiscal years.

High-performing schools got a temporary boost in state funding because of their standardized test scores, but the additional money has proven to be incredibly short-lived for some schools under Gov. Doug Ducey’s signature performance pay plan.

I was disappointed to read that a loosely organized “institute” of former elected officials and politicians released a report – not on how to help all schools improve – but, rather, singling out charter schools for unfounded criticism. The report is riddled with errors and inconsistencies, and drips with sarcasm. Suffice to say, it reads more like a campaign hit-piece than a scholarly analysis.

A majority of Arizona’s charter schools spend taxpayer dollars on non-competitive business arrangements with for-profit businesses that are owned by the charter holder, board members, or their relatives. Grand Canyon Institute’s research found that 77 percent of charter schools engage in ‘related-party transactions’ in a manner that is not in the best interests of Arizona’s students, parents and taxpayers.

Charter and private schools are here for the foreseeable future. The right answer is for leaders of the public school system to adopt what the “parallel schools” are doing right to help raise the performance of the traditional public-schools.

An Arizona Capitol Times analysis shows that under the governor’s plan, full-day kindergarten expansion is going to be more limited than he has envisioned.

It is time for Arizonans to take a hard look at who really benefits from school choice. While some families may want tax-payer funded options, the dizzying array of choices, combined with lax oversight and weak laws, make Arizona’s taxpayers easy marks for profiteering on the taxpayers’ dime.

On a blog maintained by the Network for Public Education, a blogger recently attacked BASIS.ed and BASIS Charter Schools with a series of falsehoods and innuendo. Ordinarily, we would not dignify such errors with a response, but as the Arizona Capitol Times was going to publish it, and offered us a response, we felt compelled to do so, with facts.

The coming year will be a critical time for the school choice movement in Arizona and nationally.

A national organization filed suit Wednesday against an Arizona charter school with ties to a member of the state Board of Education, accusing it of using state funds to illegally teach religious doctrine.