Arizona has a wonderful new tool to lure out-of-
state talent: its public schools.

That is not a typo. Recently when I was recruiting attorneys with school-age kids from the East Coast, I told them to check out websites for some of Arizona’s charter schools. The reaction after they did was both shocked and uniform: You mean I can save tens of thousands in private-school tuition and get a better education for my kids?

Arizona’s K– 12 school system as a whole still lags most states.
Yet in recent years we are producing schools so stratospheric
that other states are eagerly replicating them.

Look at any ranking of the nation’s best public high schools and you’ll see Arizona disproportionately represented. U.S. News recently ranked two Arizona charter schools— BASIS Tucson and BASIS Scottsdale— among the top five best public high schools in America. Even more remarkable, while the other three schools in the top five have selective admissions, Arizona charter schools have open admissions.

Charter schools are the most vibrant part of Arizona’s K– 12 education marketplace, which includes traditional public schools, open public school enrollment, tax credits for private school scholarships, and education savings accounts. Three in

10 Arizona public schools are
charters, enrolling more than
184,000 children—roughly 17 percent of the state’s public school
students.

Charter schools are public schools operated by private ( usually nonprofit) entities. Because they are not eligible for local funding, charter schools receive about $1,335 less than traditional public schools for each student. They have significant autonomy in terms of personnel and curriculum. In exchange, they are judged by results.

Charter schools typically serve either high- or low-performing students who are often poorly served in public schools. Many, like the Arizona School for the Arts, are specialty schools. Although charter schools as a whole have not outperformed traditional public schools, 21 of the state’s top 30 public schools are charters, as are eight of the 15 open-enrollment A-graded public schools serving heavily low-income populations. The formula for success: High-performing charters are replicated, while low-performing charters are shut down.

Charter schools also exert healthy competition in the public
sector. Several school districts have established innovative schools
or programs modeled after charters. In my own neighborhood, a

THE LAST WORD by Clint Bolick

CLINT BOLICK is vice president for
litigation at the Goldwater Institute. He
serves on the boards of the Arizona
Charter Schools Association, BASIS
Schools Inc., Great Hearts Academies,
and Arizona School Choice Trust.
traditional public middle school, surrounded
by three high-performing charter schools
that use “core knowledge” curriculum,
recently unfurled a banner proclaiming
“Core Knowledge Coming Soon!”
The Arizona Charter Schools
Association designed “value-
added” tests to measure
gains in pupil achievement
that have been adopted by
several school districts. The
association is partnering with
other groups to launch
several new charter schools
in low-income Phoenix
neighborhoods, many of
them led by Teach for
America alumni.
Arizona is not alone
in its success. Washing-
ton, D.C., in which 43
percent of the students
attend charter schools,
is experiencing remarkable
systemwide progress, espe-
cially (but not only) for
charter school students.
Louisiana, which remade
many of its public schools into charters
in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, is improv-
ing as well.

None of this should be a surprise. No two children are alike. We have the capacity to create a truly 21st-century educational system that tailors educational opportunities to the individual needs and abilities of every child. Whether we do so will determine in large measure our nation’s future prosperity.

Arizona lawyers can play an important role by serving as charter or district school board members and providing pro bono legal assistance to help stretch charter school dollars. But most important, we need to fight to maintain and expand an educational marketplace that promotes innovation and autonomy—all toward the goal of making great schools accessible to every Arizona student and one of our leading exports to other states.