We have tax credits so that people can give money to organizations which turn around and provide scholarships for children. It can t benefit the donor s child, directly. Let me talk about public charter schools. We said in Arizona that our charter school bill, which passed in 1994, was going to be a little bit different. We go straight up to the State Board of Education, or the State Board for Charter Schools.
Charter schools are public schools.
They are required to take anybody who comes. They are required to follow the state s academic standards, and to test children the way we test all of our public school kids. They are also required to account for the use of their money. Government does not own their buildings. We give them a small stipend which recognizes their need to go out and get financing, but we don t own their buildings.