APS' new ad campaign

The leadership of the APS has decided to invest about $50K in TV and radio ads. Financial underwriting will be provided by the APS Foundation, link, a nonprofit that normally confines its spending to student education and administrative soirees at the Inn of the Mountain Gods, link.

The ads are "necessary" because APS is hemorrhaging students to charter schools. APS enrollment is declining for the first time in decades. More than 11,000 students have opted for charter school educations and taken their state funding with them.

The math is sketchy. APS claims they get around $8K per student, link. Dividing their total income by the total number of students yields a result closer to $14K. If 11,000 students have taken between 8 and $14K with them, APS is out somewhere between $88M and $154M. APS claims they're down by only $8M. If APS employed anyone whose job it is to answer questions about these numbers, the confusion could be cleared up; but ...

those people are busy doing other things, like trying to change APS' image without changing their outcomes.

If these are the same ads that APS Executive Director of Communications Monica Armenta was touting at the District Goals meetings, the voice-over is hers. Perhaps she sees a need to get her mug (voice) out in public a little more.

Oh, by the way, students should attend APS rather than some crummy old charter school, because APS publishes a world class calendar, link.




photo Mark Bralley