Toews ultimately seems to concede the primary argument to Safier without saying as much. Safier in his article simply demanded "basic truth in advertising about what BASIS schools are and what they accomplish. Stop comparing the highly selective charters to non-selective district schools. Stop saying you've cracked the education code, that you know how to turn ordinary students into world beaters. It's simply not true." Toews correctly notes that BASIS is not selective in admissions (other than self-selecting by a certain type of parent), but doesn't address the issue of attrition at all (including the emotional toll on those who can't hack it for whatever reason) and, although at one point claims that BASIS "make[s] this challenging curriculum accessible to all students" ultimately (and correctly) concedes that BASIS "cannot currently serve every child in Tucson." UHS already utilizes BASIS's "best practices" with a similar student population with similar results. Neither school sheds much light on what to do with students who don't want or can't handle an accelerated standardized test-based curriculum.
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