The National Center for Policy Analysis reports that a BASIS charter school in Tucson scored even higher than students from Shanghai, an Asian education powerhouse, on recent international tests.

The National Center says of the BASIS Tucson North school:

“The Tucson charter school outscored all 40 countries that administered the 2012 PISA, or Programme for International Student Assessment exam, with a mean math score of 618 -- 131 points above the U.S. average.”

About 100 miles north, another BASIS charter in Scottsdale scored even higher!

BASIS schools are open enrollment and the Arizona BASIS schools operate for only around two-thirds the cost of traditional Arizona public schools.

But, unless Kentucky changes its school laws, don’t look for any Bluegrass State kids to have an opportunity to attend such hugely successful charter schools. Charters are totally illegal in Kentucky.

Why is it that some adults in this state continue to resist an increasingly successful public school choice option that now is available in 42 other states? Why do some in Kentucky stand in the way of offering students a chance to get the kind of education that BASIS Arizona offers?