We Are So Blessed! Mormon Founders/Operators of Arizona Charters Get Exposed

Your MesaZona blogger really wanted to try to ignore yet another episode lurking in plain sight behind the Zion Curtain. Let's raise the lights on more drama, cued on by excellent writing on July 11,2018 by AZ Republic senior investigative reporter Craig Harris yesterday on KJZZ.
There's a main character named Glenn Way from Utah with a colorful background including some of the all-too-frequent scandals in the national headlines over finances, resigning from public office after charges filed by a wife, and a developing plot line here in Arizona where the founder of the American Leadership Acadamy has created a public charter school empire. Here's the plot in The New Zion: 

Readers might want to note that all these LDS-founded public charter schools - including Heritage Academy here in downtown Mesa - wrap themselves in red-white-and-blue patriotism making it central to their brand when there are no historical roots to that questionable claim. Nonetheless Mormon-founded charter schools "have been a hit in the conservative East Valley. American Leadership — which bears the same name as a charter school Way and his wife, Shelina, operated in Spanish Fork, Utah — has over nine years  grown to a dozen campuses with 8,354 students in Florence, Gilbert, Mesa, Queen Creek and San Tan Valley..."

"When Glenn Way moved to the East Valley at the end of the Great Recession, he might have been looking for a fresh start.

The charter school operator was deep in debt to the IRS, had sought bankruptcy protection, and recently resigned from the Utah Legislature after his wife filed a protective order against him, public records show. . . "
That's how Craig Harris started to unravel some of the background he found in a public records search.

". . . Arizona offered other opportunities for someone in his line of work: A more lightly regulated charter school industry that's well-funded. 

At his American Leadership Academy, which he launched in June 2009, he promised students would find "the best educational experience ... in a moral and wholesome environment. . ."

HUH? In the New Zion here in The East Valley ALA has somehow managed to build and own nine charter schools.

Thanks partly to Arizona's favorable charter school laws and lucrative no-bid contracts with ALA, Way would find new wealth. . .

-- Craig Harris

American Leadership Academy Report in July 11, 2018 AZ Republic 

 

Blogger Note: Scroll down below to review ALA's performance ratings for what Glenn Way calls  "the best educational experience"  __________________________________________________________________________________

Ah Yes - time and time again there have been 'red flags' raised over education in Arizona and the low-flying under-the-radar cozy, closely-connected network of inter-related cohorts in finance, insurance, and real estate abbreviated as F.I.R.E. Add politics and government to the mix and it gets ignited first by smoke signals creating a haze then combustible where all the stories catch fire and get traction:  

Yesterday, some more details came into light: 

American Leadership Academy Charter School Holds Emergency Budget Meeting Amid Criticism

By Mark Brodie

Published: Monday, July 16, 2018 - 12:59pm

Updated: Monday, July 16, 2018 - 1:00pm

Please take the time to read it, or you have the option to listen >> https://kjzz.org 
All this took to make the news was a violation of Arizona's Open Meeting Laws and a group of angry parents, but there's more details you might get excited about ...Check it out!

 

 

Trevor Huxham/KJZZ

Craig Harris.

"An Arizona charter school held an emergency budget meeting over the weekend after criticism over a lack of public comment that may have violated the state’s Open Meeting Law.

American Leadership Academy Director Glenn Way is also under scrutiny after earning millions of dollars for building his campuses.

An investigation by the Arizona Republic found Way took advantage of Arizona’s favorable charter school laws, and made about $37 million on real estate deals associated with the charter school chain.

To explain what is happening, The Show reached out to the Republic’s senior investigative reporter, Craig Harris. . . "

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Website for American Leadership Academy >>  click here  

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2018 Rankings

American Leadership Academy is unranked in the National Rankings. Schools are ranked based on their performance on state-required tests and how well they prepare students for college. Read more about how we rank the Best High Schools.

This school is unranked by U.S. News.

Source: https://www.usnews.com/education            

 

Scorecard

• College Readiness Index
  12.1
   
• AP® Tested
  19%
   
• AP® Passed
  52%
   
• Mathematics Proficiency
  33%
   
• Reading Proficiency
  40%