In Arizona, where summer temperatures regularly reach 110 degrees, Phoenix Modern started a crowdfunding campaign to replace a broken air conditioner. Parent Johanna Harris says something clicked. It wasn’t really frustration; more like slowly realizing that a small, embarrassing detail was a sign of something much bigger. “As we started digging,” she said, “it was like, OK, we have no options under this governance and our school’s going to close.”
Phoenix Modern is a charter school for grades K–8 in the middle of Phoenix, close to Central Avenue and Indian School Road. With this idea in mind, it opened in 2019: kids are “learners,” teachers are “guides,” and learning is a journey, not a conveyor belt. It’s a small school in every way, with only 126 students. The kind of school where parents know each other, where money problems aren’t kept secret for long, and where parents were willing to do something about them.
The Arizona State Board for Charter Schools had warned New Learning Ventures Inc., the original charter holder, about possible financial problems as early as 2020. Things like income being higher than expenses and debt costs being below average don’t usually scare people right away. These are official words that can seem vague at first, but then all of a sudden they become clear. Parents began to pay close attention, but the school was about to close if nothing changed.
A group of parents led by Harris did something most people would not even think was possible. It was called the Valley Learning Foundation of Arizona, and they set up a board of people with expertise in a wide range of areas. They then pushed for a quick transfer of the charter contract. It was approved by the Arizona State Board for Charter Schools on April 7. On July 1, the contract moves from New Learning Ventures to the new company.
You can’t help but notice the amount of determination that would take to pull that off. These people weren’t policymakers or administrators. When parents ran into a wall of red tape, they just asked what their options were and then did what they were told. Something very interesting about that, even though the road ahead isn’t going to be easy.
The new nonprofit is trying to get $250,000 for the school so that it has some extra money. But Harris says Phoenix Modern can run on just state money, which will start coming in in July and amounts to about $10,000 per student. The building is an important issue. Board member Larry Curan spoke to the charter board to make the case for staying where things are now, saying that it is the least disruptive and least expensive way to move forward. The state needs to know about a building solution by June 1. Still, it’s not clear if the lease problem will be solved completely, and that alone makes the next few weeks feel dangerous.
Part of the reason to pay attention to this story is the contrast it provides. Things don’t always work this well in Arizona’s charter school system. Primavera is the state’s biggest online charter school. It got failing grades for years, getting multiple “Falls Far Below Standard”s, while its owner reportedly took $24 million in pay since 2017. The state charter board was getting ready to shut down. The math changed all of a sudden when the state schools chief stepped in. Members of the board were very angry about that outcome because they had spent months building a case.
Phoenix Modern isn’t like other stories. It was smaller, messier in a more human way, and it was solved so far by people who didn’t seem to have much power but used what they did. It’s still not clear if the school’s finances will get better, if the building problem will be solved, or if all 126 kids will be able to start the next school year without any problems. They’re still there, though. That’s worth something.
