Reply to If not Basis or Latin, where?

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[quote=Anonymous]^^ Phew! That was quite a post! Just a few (final) thoughts from the Tucson teacher...

- I hope you find good place for your kids wherever you end up! 
- On the anonymous posting thing I just meant we should sign in with "usernames" like bunnymuffin23 so it is easier to follow postings by multiple people, follow the conversation better. You ain't getting my real name, and not just because it could get me fired!!! ;-)
- The corporate / for profit structure of the BASIS system is potentially not relevant to the question of whether BASIS  delivers a winning product, and I certainly don't begrudge the Block's reaping financial gains from their creation. However, I do think the facts need to be on the table. All BASIS schools are basically shell entities virtually entirely controlled by the parent for-profit corporation BASIS.ed (http://www.basiseducation.net/schools-we-manage). Not that for-profit status matters for executive compensation of course - the CEO of Goodwill is doing just fine. The big problem with for profit management corporations is the lack of transparency. All money from all campuses flows into BASIS.ed. Teachers and facilities and everything else are leased from the parent to the non-profits. I worry about this assuming BASIS.ed is motivated by profit and/or the desire to expand, then resources for each campus are going to be minimized. In particular I am upset that wages have been essentially frozen for teachers for about 5 years, jeopardizing their ability to retain talent (although to be fair we are a pretty desperate bunch in this economy), but also that class sizes are increasing (growing over the years from about 24 to the standard now of 30 per class).  Raising academic standards while increasing class sizes is a very problematic proposition - it greatly increases the odds that kids to fall through the cracks. Could BASIS.ed afford to lower class sizes or give pay raises if it weren't expanding so rapidly? Impossible to tell without financial transparency. But again, this is perhaps a diversion from the central question: What are the pros and cons of "the BASIS model" and how does it stack up to alternatives? As one PP noted, criticizing is all well and good but ultimately parents have to make a decision.

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