The Mesa Arts Academy has been around since 1997, one of Arizona’s first charter schools. 

Charter schools began to give parents a choice. Charter schools are open to all students, not just those who live within the school boundaries. 

Parents often choose our charter school because of smaller class sizes. 

According to a U.S. News Article, by Jacob Fischler in October of 2021 “Charter schools are publicly-funded, tuition-free schools, but they differ from traditional public schools in key ways. Comparing charter schools to public schools requires weighing a few different considerations.

First, charters have more flexibility. Rather than being part of a public school district, which dictates curriculum and standards in all schools, charters operate autonomously through individual agreements, or charters, with state or local governments that dictate rules and performance standards.

Given the ability to operate through these agreements, individual charter schools can tailor their curriculum, academic focus, discipline policy and other matters generally decided at the school district or state board level. In return for that flexibility, charter schools are supposed to be more accountable to parents and the state or local governments that authorize them.

"The flexibility that charter schools are afforded in our system means that they try different things," says Frank Adamson, an assistant professor of education leadership and policy studies at California State University—Sacramento who has studied charter school performance.”

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Mesa Arts Academy is different from other charter schools in our model. Our Academic classes all have one certified teacher and one classroom aide. The Arts classes are all taught by professionals in the field.

There is no tuition at Mesa Arts Academy. We are a free Public Charter school.

• Registration opens end of March / Beginning of April
• We do have a waiting list. (You can call at anytime to be put on waitlist)
• First come first serve.
• For Kindergarten, we open at the beginning / end of March.

Mesa Arts Academy has open enrollment which means that anyone in our state can attend our school. We accept students in classes as soon as we have an opening, even in the middle of the year. We do have waitlists (paper they complete with a timestamp), so it is better to submit the required information as soon as possible.