🔥 Arizona Education Crisis: Millionaire Charter Owners, Fake Geography, and Zero Accountability | Buckmaster Show Exposé
Investigation reveals charter school operators making millions from D-rated schools while Arizona mandates teaching 'Gulf of America' and allows unverified homeschooling transcripts.
Based on the Buckmaster Show for 3/11/25.
😽 Keepin’ It Simple Summary for Younger Readers
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🏫📚 Arizona schools are caught in a big mess where money meant for students is often going to people who run schools just to get rich. The Buckmaster Show 🗣️ talked to experts who explained how some online school owners make millions 💰 while their schools get bad grades 📉. The state government is doing strange things like making teachers call the Gulf of Mexico 🌊 by a different name 🗺️ while allowing anyone to run a home school without proving they're teaching anything useful ❓.
Meanwhile, schools are closing in the middle of the year 📅 because of confusing new rules about where money goes 💸. People who want to fix the problem say we need rules that make sure all schools getting public money have to prove they're teaching students properly 📖✔️.
🗝️ Takeaways
💰 Charter school operator Damian Kramer has made "tens of millions" despite running D-rated online schools, highlighting how Arizona's system rewards entrepreneurs over students
📊 Since World War II, 10 of 12 U.S. recessions have occurred during Republican administrations, suggesting fundamental flaws in GOP economic priorities
🧾 Privatizing government functions adds 12-15% profit margins plus startup costs, contradicting claims of increased efficiency
🗺️ Arizona now requires schools to teach the "Gulf of Mexico" as the "Gulf of America" for "patriotic" reasons while simultaneously allowing completely unverified homeschooling
📉 Universal ESA vouchers have created instability even within the charter sector, leading to mid-year school closures and layoffs
🏫 Arizona's homeschool "accountability" system allows parents to create their own transcripts with no verification and obtain diplomas from private companies that "will not be questioned"
Education Empire Strikes Back: Arizona's Classroom Crisis Fuels Profiteers While Students Pay the Price
In the sun-scorched landscape of Arizona education, a different kind of drought is unfolding—one of accountability, funding, and common sense. The latest episode of the Buckmaster Show (3/11/25) peeled back the curtain on a system increasingly designed not to educate children but to enrich private interests, revealing the uncomfortable truth that in the Grand Canyon State, the grandest canyon may be the one between educational rhetoric and reality.
Host Bill Buckmaster, a steady voice in Tucson's media landscape, assembled an education-heavy lineup featuring Dr. Dave Wells from the Grand Canyon Institute, financial advisor Shelly Fishman dissecting market uncertainties, and veteran educator Dr. Robert Hendricks examining the classroom funding quagmire and some truly bizarre curriculum mandates that would make Orwell's Ministry of Truth blush with envy.
Charter School Chicanery: Following the Money Trail
Dr. Dave Wells, research director at the nonpartisan Grand Canyon Institute (GCI), didn't mince words when describing Arizona's charter school landscape, where education entrepreneurs have mastered the art of siphoning public dollars into private pockets.
Wells spotlighted the case of Damian Kramer, owner of Primavera online schools (officially American Virtual Academy), who has apparently transformed educational "innovation" into personal enrichment. Through a clever corporate shell game, Kramer pays his own company, Strongline, from his charter school funds—a circular flow that has reportedly netted him "tens of millions" despite his schools earning D ratings.
"We're talking about a guy who's made tens of millions of dollars off of this," Wells explained. "His schools are currently rated Ds."
Ah yes, the American Dream: fail your students, enrich yourself, and call it "school choice."
Perhaps most egregious was Kramer's financial alchemy of converting a nonprofit with $40 million in assets into his personal for-profit empire. "You're not supposed to legally do that," Wells noted with what sounded like the weariness of someone who has seen this movie before and knows how it ends.
"Damien Kramer owns a multi-million dollar home in the Phoenix area. He's made out pretty well for himself," Wells added, the understatement hanging in the air like the Arizona heat.
After years of this educational extraction economy, the Charter Board finally voted to revoke Primavera's charter—a rare enforcement action in a state where charter oversight resembles a game of regulatory hide-and-seek where the regulators have voluntarily blindfolded themselves.
But Primavera is merely one subplot in Arizona's educational experiment. Wells detailed how the universal ESA voucher program has created a chaotic ecosystem where even charter schools are now cannibalizing each other. EdKey charter schools have lost approximately one-third of their students after their partner "micro-school" operation Prenda found it more profitable to bypass the charter middleman and go straight for voucher funds.
"When the vouchers were introduced, the parents switched from using Prenda through EdKey to getting, I think, more money from the vouchers and then sending it directly to Prenda," Wells explained. "And that's just put them in a downward spiral."
The result? EdKey closed two schools mid-year, laid off over 100 staff, and now faces lawsuits from unpaid bondholders.
Funny how "market efficiency" in education looks suspiciously like instability, bankruptcy, and mid-year school closures. But hey, at least someone's getting rich!
Republican Recession Redux: The Privatization Playbook
Financial analyst Shelly Fishman offered a sobering assessment of current market conditions, noting the troubling combination of economic uncertainty and the destabilizing effects of Trump administration policies that change "from day to day, hour to hour."
But beneath the market fluctuations, Fishman identified a more systematic assault: the deliberate gutting of government agencies under the guise of "efficiency," with the true intention being wholesale privatization of essential services.
"What I see as the real motivation for a lot of these policies that are going through the federal bureaucracy right now and gutting them down to almost nothing is a real desire to privatize a lot of these functions," Fishman explained. "If you privatize the post office, the post office for security, you privatize the TSA, you privatize a lot of the FAA functions, you privatize education... you privatize a lot of insurance so that you begin to take the functions of Medicare and Medicaid away from government administration."
Who needs functioning public institutions when you can have dysfunctional private ones that deliver shareholder value?
Fishman then methodically dismantled the economic fantasy that privatization somehow saves money. "The usual rule of thumb is a profitable corporation is going to try to aim for in the area of between 10 and 15% profitability before taxes," he noted. "So what happens there is now you have let's call it a 12, 12.5% layer of profitability that has to be added to the cost of all of the things these government agencies were doing."
Add in startup costs for these newly privatized entities—"hiring people, getting the systems going, getting the expertise involved, training people"—and the private "efficiency" narrative collapses faster than an Arizona charter school's finances.
Perhaps most tellingly, Fishman highlighted the historical pattern that should give pause to any clear-eyed economic observer: "Since the end of World War Two, we've had 12 recessions. Of those 12 recessions, 10 have been during Republican administrations. There has not been a Republican administration since the end of World War One that has not experienced the recession."
But surely this time the magical combination of tariffs, privatization, and fiscal irresponsibility will produce different results because... reasons?
Fishman warned that Trump appears to be "step back and upset that entire apple [cart]" of the post-WWII economic consensus that created decades of stability and growth. "The use of tariffs as a major source of revenue was a miserable failure," he noted. "We had something that was working not perfectly, but was working... And Trump wants to discard that."
Propaganda in the Classroom: Gulf of America and Accountability-Free Zones
If the financial discussions painted a grim picture, Dr. Robert Hendricks—former superintendent of Flowing Wells School District and a lifelong educator—added surreal brushstrokes to Arizona's educational landscape.
Hendricks began by detailing the complex realities of classroom funding and the ongoing battle over Proposition 123 (set to sunset in June 2025), explaining how various factors—from security needs to transportation challenges—impact the percentage of funds that make it to the classroom.
But then came the truly bizarre: Arizona lawmakers have now mandated that schools must refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the "Gulf of America"—because apparently, geographical accuracy is less important than performative patriotism.
"It emulated from a Republican Representative, Teresa Martinez," Hendricks explained. "She introduced the bill that K-12 public schools should teach the new name change, which is the Gulf of America. And this mandate passed."
Martinez's justification was even more revealing: "It is important to start teaching pro-America to our students. What better way to promote a patriotic country and teach children about patriotism than to start calling it the Gulf of America and take pride in that."
Nothing says "educational excellence" like teaching children factually incorrect geography. Perhaps next semester, they can learn that the Pacific Ocean is actually "America's Big Swimming Pool" and that Canada is "North North Dakota."
While Arizona lawmakers are busy renaming bodies of water, they've simultaneously created a sea of unaccountability for voucher recipients. Hendricks explained the shocking lack of standards for homeschooling under the ESA program—no credentials required, no curriculum oversight, and a "transcript" system where parents simply attest to courses taken with no verification.
"Anyone" can become a homeschool teacher in Arizona, Hendricks confirmed. The process? "They go through the county superintendent, and there's a one-page form they have to fill out... But there is no requirement that they indicate what their credentials are, what their background is, what their plan is. There's no curriculum plan required."
To "graduate," parents simply produce a transcript that "can be written out on a piece of paper" where they attest to courses completed. "The parent just has to attest that they have taken x number of courses... they fix their signature at the bottom of the form, and that is their transcript."
And the diploma? "There are companies that will provide a diploma. And they are accepted in the state of Arizona as bona fide documents. They will not be questioned."
So, to recap: We're requiring schools to teach factually incorrect geography while allowing anyone to claim they're providing an education without a shred of evidence. Perhaps next we'll mandate that 2+2=5 while eliminating math requirements entirely.
The Silent Victims: Arizona's Students and Taxpayers
As the threads of these conversations intertwined throughout Buckmaster's program, a disturbing tapestry emerged—one where education policy serves profits rather than pupils, where accountability is selectively applied, and where ideology trumps facts even in the most literal sense of geographic naming.
The true victims are twofold: Arizona's students, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds who lack the resources to escape these experimental systems, and Arizona taxpayers who fund this educational casino where the house always wins and the students often lose.
Wells noted that the ESA voucher program disproportionately benefits wealthier districts: "Generally it tends to be more, the wealthier districts are the ones who are more likely to move kids than the smaller districts or the lower income districts are."
Meanwhile, Hendricks explained how districts serving lower-income communities like TUSD must allocate resources to essential support services that technically don't count as "classroom spending," creating a misleading perception about where money goes.
The compounding impact of these policies falls hardest on the most vulnerable. While wealthy families can supplement inadequate vouchers to access truly elite private education, working-class families are left with limited options—often ending up in the same unregulated charter schools or homeschooling scenarios where accountability is a foreign concept.
But don't worry—they'll be correctly referring to the "Gulf of America" while being unable to locate it on a map.
Finding Hope in the Desert: Paths Forward
Despite this bleak educational landscape, patches of resistance and resilience remain. Organizations like the Grand Canyon Institute continue their watchdog role, meticulously documenting the failures of unregulated educational experiments. Dedicated educators still fight for proper funding and accountability across Arizona's public schools.
The very fact that Buckmaster devoted significant airtime to these issues indicates that public awareness is growing. As Wells noted, public demand for private schooling options "wasn't really unlimited," suggesting natural limitations to the voucher expansion.
The path forward requires engaged citizenship and informed advocacy:
Follow the money: Support organizations like the Grand Canyon Institute that track educational funds and expose profiteering.
Demand accountability: Press lawmakers to implement the same accountability standards for all schools receiving public funds—whether district, charter, or private.
Vote education-first: Research candidates' positions on education funding, vouchers, and accountability measures before casting your ballot.
Amplify teacher voices: The educators on the frontlines understand the real challenges—listen to them, not just the policy entrepreneurs.
Remember public education's purpose: Public education was created not just for individual advancement but for societal cohesion and democratic citizenship—values that get lost when education becomes merely another market.
The desert blooms after rain, and Arizona's educational landscape can flourish again with the right conditions—adequate funding, meaningful accountability, and policies driven by student needs rather than profit potential or ideological purity tests.
What do you think about Arizona's educational experiment? Is renaming the Gulf of Mexico while eliminating educational accountability a reflection of priorities gone awry? Should all schools receiving public funds be held to the same standards?
Share your thoughts in the comments below, and let's continue this vital conversation about the future of education in Arizona and beyond.
Notable Quotes:
• "We're talking about a guy who's made tens of millions of dollars off of this. His schools are currently rated Ds." - Dr. Dave Wells on charter operator Damian Kramer
• "Since the end of World War Two, we've had 12 recessions. Of those 12 recessions, 10 have been during Republican administrations." - Shelley Fishman on economic patterns
• "What better way to promote a patriotic country and teach children about patriotism than to start calling it the Gulf of America and take pride in that." - Rep. Teresa Martinez justifying geographical revisionism
• "The parent just has to attest that they have taken x number of courses... they fix their signature at the bottom of the form, and that is their transcript." - Dr. Robert Hendricks explaining Arizona's lack of homeschool verification
• "The diploma, there are companies that will provide a diploma. They are accepted in the state of Arizona as bona fide documents. They will not be questioned." - Dr. Robert Hendricks on the ease of obtaining unverified diplomas
• "What I see as the real motivation for a lot of these policies that are going through the federal bureaucracy right now and gutting them down to almost nothing is a real desire to privatize a lot of these functions." - Shelley Fishman on the Trump administration's strategy
People Mentioned:
• Bill Buckmaster - Host of the Buckmaster Show, radio program focused on issues affecting Arizona
• Dr. Dave Wells - Research Director at the nonpartisan Grand Canyon Institute; investigated charter school financial practices and voucher impacts
Quote: "We're talking about a guy who's made tens of millions of dollars off of this. His schools are currently rated Ds."
• Damian Kramer - Owner of Primavera online schools (American Virtual Academy); described as making "tens of millions" despite running D-rated schools
About him: "Damien Kramer owns a multi-million dollar home in the Phoenix area. He's made out pretty well for himself."
• Shelly Fishman - Financial advisor and regular contributor to the Buckmaster Show; analyzed economic implications of privatization
Quote: "Since the end of World War Two, we've had 12 recessions. Of those 12 recessions, 10 have been during Republican administrations."
• Dr. Robert Hendricks - Former superintendent of Flowing Wells School District; education expert
Quote: "The diploma, there are companies that will provide a diploma. And they are accepted in the state of Arizona as bona fide documents. They will not be questioned."
• Teresa Martinez - Republican Representative who introduced bill requiring schools to call the Gulf of Mexico the "Gulf of America"
Quote: "It is important to start teaching pro-America to our students. What better way to promote a patriotic country and teach children about patriotism than to start calling it the Gulf of America and take pride in that."
• Donald Trump - Current U.S. President (as of 2025 in the transcript); referenced regarding economic policies and privatization efforts
• Tom Horne - Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction (mentioned but not quoted)
