Coweta rejects charter school: Vote destroys “American freedom to choose.”
The Coweta school board voted 6-1 today to deny the charter petition because of problems with the school’s facility, lack of transportation services and inadequate staff serving students with special needs.
You can read the county’s reasons here. Clearly, the system has found reasons to be concerned, including this issue: An analysis of this data clearly reflects that students in the Coweta County School System outperformed students in Coweta Charter Academy. Furthermore, Coweta Charter Academy did not meet its performance goal as agreed upon by Coweta Charter Academy, the Georgia Charter Schools Commission and the State Board of Education.
In a few minutes, the Cherokee school board will vote on the application of Cherokee Charter Academy, another Charter Schools USA partner school.
What makes these two charter schools different than most others in the state is that they are seeking to operate in counties with very high academic achievement. I understand that there are parents in Cherokee and Coweta who want to send their kids to these schools because they see them as a better fit, but they can’t cite failing schools as their reason. And that changes the debate, at least to me.
Both Coweta and Cherokee are among the 16 charter schools stranded by a state Supreme Court decision that the state cannot override local boards of education and establish local charter schools through its own commission.
The state commission had approved eight schools last year and eight new ones for this year; those schools can apply to the state Board of Education for consideration next week but they won’t collect any local taxes to operate, which, in most cases, is about half their funding.
Following its rejection today by the Coweta Board of Education, the Coweta Charter School issued the following statement:
Today is a sad and very disappointing day. The Coweta Board of Education has stolen education choice away from the people of Coweta. Instead of attempting to help students succeed, it has put money and power ahead of students and families. In Coweta Charter Academy’s inaugural year, CRCT test scores were very impressive. Our first graders were 100 percent proficient, second graders 97 percent and third graders 92 percent on their reading scores; 99 percent, 97 percent and 67 percent respectively in Math.
In third grade, 33 percent of the students are on free or reduced lunch and 25 percent of the students taking the test are special education students. All of this was accomplished in a rented church facility that housed 175 students. Imagine the impact we could have had in a new facility serving a larger population.
Demand was high for the school. There were 571 applications for the new expanded facility. By denying Coweta Charter Academy, a high-performing charter school, this board has not only destroyed our American freedom to choose, but has damaged the local economy even further. This decision eliminates 42 new positions that would have served the new school, sends 28 existing teachers and staff to the unemployment line, and causes serious negative economic impacts from the many supporting local services that would be needed to support the new school. Construction jobs, revenues from fresh food suppliers, utilities, printing and office supply retailers, advertising, bus gasoline, maintenance and repair; all have been eliminated as a result of this decision. That doesn’t even take into consideration the economic impact on restaurants and lodging associated with the building of the new school and frequent out-of-town visits.
Coweta has taken a huge step back and the students of our community will suffer. We can only hope that taxpayers will allow their rage to turn to a productive end that forces future legislation to be put into place that abolishes the ability of a competitor being the only authorizing authority for schools. Taxpayers should have the right to determine where their taxes go. The monopoly created by the current legislation makes it nearly impossible for competition that would raise the bar on education and allow our children to compete better in the future.
–From Maureen Downey for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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73 comments Add your comment
d
June 25th, 2011
9:54 am
I have to agree with CharterStarter, Too…. to a point. I firmly believe in the American system and how it should work. We are a republic, which means the power lies with the people, but we give that power to elected officials to make the decisions for us. If they don’t make the proper decisions (or ones we like), we vote for new leaders. That being said, I don’t believe any appointed board should be given the power of how to use our tax dollars. If the Georgia Charter School Commission were an elected board, I wouldn’t have had an issue at all with it. But, since they were appointed, I cannot support them. Honestly, I’d like the General Assembly to sit down with classroom educators (and not just suburban educators) and take a look at title 20 (the education laws) and rewrite them from the ground up. We’d probably not need charter schools at that point if all schools were given the flexibility to meet the needs of their students.
justbrowsing
June 25th, 2011
10:54 am
@d- exactly!
@ reader- parental choice vacillates. What organization is able to 100% ensure improved student performance? I also wonder if teachers are being dismissed from charters for holding students accountable which also indirectly threatens student enrollment.
Curious
June 25th, 2011
11:28 am
Curious about why this particular charter group is trying to get into the better performing school systems in Georgia? Maybe they need to go into the counties that are below state averages in testing instead of the counties that are exceeding state and national averages. Or, would they not make as much profit?
BOE Employee
June 25th, 2011
12:23 pm
If you’re saying public schools need reform then get involved with your child’s school, run for the BOE, don’t just abandon public schools and go start something else. Fix the problem!
This vote does not “[destroy] “American freedom to choose.” There are many choices: public schools, private schools, online academies, home schooling, or moving to another area. And, in case you missed out, the BOE just made a choice. Just because it wasn’t the choice Charter Schools wanted doesn’t mean that choice has been removed from society.
BOE Employee
June 25th, 2011
12:25 pm
@Curious – Another very good question, indeed.
FBT
June 25th, 2011
3:30 pm
@BOE- The choices you list are only available to the affluent. There is no choice for a majority of our state’s children.
A Conservative Voice
June 25th, 2011
3:45 pm
Look folks, just demand that your school be what it was intended to be…..a place of learning. Insist that discipline problems are removed and that your child can learn in an atmosphere that promotes learning. Insist on having an administration and school board that is above reproach and hire only qualified teachers. Folks, you’re being too nice……..nothing, let me repeat, nothing is gonna change unless and until you let your school boards know in uncertain terms that you’re tired of inferior schools and you want something done today……not tomorrow, not next week, TODAY. I don’t know what to tell you to do, but you need to band together and DO SOMETHING. My kids finished school years ago, when schools were still places you’d want to send your children to learn….my only concern now is that our inferior school systems are affecting our whole areas economic well being.
Bobbi
June 25th, 2011
3:47 pm
Public schools need fixed. Simple as that. In the last 30 years, we have added Kindergarten, and now full-day Kindergarten, and even state preK for 4 year olds that is almost a full school day. AND TEST SCORES HAVE DROPPED. Millions more are spent, for WHAT? You read of school districts spending $17,000 a year for a 5 year old to go to school. Crazy! We already have plenty of school choice. But maybe the answer lies at the college level. The college I attended only accepted the brightest and best into the teacher college. The nearby state college handed out teaching degrees to anyone that handed them a check. So, the result are many poorly equipped adults in the classroom, doing a job they are not skilled at doing. Add the huge increase of single moms, absent dads, and working parents and suddenly you have a child that may have been raided through the ’stranger-shuffle’ in day care centers. And we expect Johnny to sit quietly and obey the teacher. LOL.
Jerry Eads
June 25th, 2011
4:58 pm
@d, same as I (and likely you) noted in earlier columns: The constitution specifies that LOCAL school boards make LOCAL decisions. THE PEOPLE elect the school boards. The DO NOT elect some far away (either or both in geography and responsibility) board of appointees whose sole qualification is that they (or a crony) gave a few bucks to the appointer’s election campaign.
The research is STARKLY clear: Charters DO NOT perform any better than, and frequently WORSE than the publics, and that’s even with their ability, because of the possibly intentional lack of oversight, to “cherry-pick” their students. I do understand that some parents wish to separate their kids from the general populace in a public school that must serve all, and that they’d like for me to pay for it. I understand that there are ethicless (not a word, but it should be) vultures out there cobbling together private companies to nab public money by suckering the gullible.
So be it. But you guys go put together a PRIVATE school and have at it. More power to you. But I will not tolerate your stealing MY tax money that I designated to go to MY public schools for YOUR narrow purposes or for some shyster’s profit. Thankfully, the state supreme court agreed.
Jerry Eads
June 25th, 2011
5:13 pm
@Bobbi, reasonable points indeed. DO remember, however, that the state tests – which provide only passing rates telling us that kids are at or higher than the 5th to maybe 20th percentile, depending on the test, are hardly a valid measure to tell us whether our schools are getting better or worse. It is virtually impossible to separate the exponential increase in poverty from the job the schools are doing. Used to be the public schools simply dumped the unable and unwilling onto the street to seal your television or rob your wallet. Now, both because leaders have thankfully said we must work with all AND it’s the right thing to do, the schools must perform miracles. And many do. But assuming because pass rates don’t increase (or for a real test, like NAEP, that average scores don’t increase), that schools are getting worse is likely wrong. Can we/should we/must we do better? You bet. Should we/must we (and hopefully we can) turn our absolutely abysmal leadership preparation/selection around so schools are “run” by someone other than the good ole boy who couldn’t teach OR coach? You bet. (SORRY, all you fabulous school leaders – each of you know some of those of whom I speak.) Same with teachers, as you noted.
But I’m not at all sure the schools are actually WORSE. It’s VERY clear the deck they’re being dealt is MUCH more difficult to work with.
catlady
June 25th, 2011
5:34 pm
Another idea on the loss from second to third at Coweta Charter. The first and second graders are mostly read to. In third grade the kids are on their own. (This is for CRCT,but does not explain if/how 1st and 2nd graders got CRCT scores last year, if they did. If not, what other test showed their proficiency?)
Pink
June 25th, 2011
6:02 pm
FYI Jerry, there is a word for ethicless. It’s “unethical”.
Jerry Eads
June 25th, 2011
10:28 pm
Pink – yes, I know.
EducationViews.org » Coweta rejects charter school: Vote destroys “American freedom to choose.”
June 26th, 2011
7:28 am
[...] via Coweta rejects charter school: Vote destroys “American freedom to choose.” | Get Schooled. [...]
Proud Charter Parent
June 26th, 2011
9:17 am
The County school sytems are upset with Charter Schools because they do something the County cant. Charter Schools provide a very high level of education in a small safe environment for half of the cost of the County suystems. Instead of embracing a new idea and working towards bettering the Ga public educatio system all of the School Board officials state wide seem very content for our state to be ranked 48th in the nation when it comes to education. It seems like with a backwards thought process like this our state is doomed to regress and nor progress. Hopefully the Governor and the Legislature will find a way to put these little power hungry good old boy groups in their place so Georgia can become one of the leading states in this great nation not the tail end of it.
To Middle School Teacher
June 26th, 2011
9:32 am
Middle School teacher your comments show just how ignorant you are about the Charter School system and what their requirements are for cContinuing Education and Teacher Development. I agree that most Teachers no matter what system they teach in are very hardworking and dedicated individuals but your feelings of the Government of School Board having to have oversight over everything a Charter School does just shows how insecure you are in your own profession. Most Charter schools function on half of the funds per child than County schools because the charters dont get the local portion of the funding so they have proven themselves to be better money managers than most school boards. Please stop drinking the Goverment Kool Aid and look out for the best interests of our children because being an experienced educator as you called yourself you are still part of the problem keeping our education system in the dark ages and last in the nation. Instead of maintaing the status quo maybe it would benifit all of us to look outside the box and get creative with our educational process because what we are doing now sure doesnt seem to be working all that well.
Write Your Board Members
June 26th, 2011
10:21 am
That is not accurate, most charters in the state operate on both local and state funds. There have only been a couple of state chartered schools and many have struggled financially. I will watch with great interest how the State Board handles the issues surrounding the budgets of these commission schools. In the past, the state board has not allowed state special charter schools because their financial plans didn’t make sense.
Will there be a double standard for the commission schools?
d
June 26th, 2011
4:43 pm
Proud Charter Parent – if the charter schools can provide a higher level of service at half the cost, why do they need the local dollars? They should be fine operating with the funds that a state-authorized charter will provide them.
Also, don’t forget, these “power hungry good old boy groups” are elected. If you don’t like them, vote them out.
Is it tougher to open a charter school in a high achieving district? | Get Schooled
June 27th, 2011
4:28 am
[...] is interesting to note in both Cherokee and Coweta — which also rejected one of the 16 commission charters Friday and one that is actually in operation — is that these are communities with high achieving schools, creating tensions between the charter [...]
Fix Our Schools
June 27th, 2011
5:23 pm
Any of you who are familiar with the Ferengi society on the Star Trek series would recognize that our society has become like them. Ferengi society is governed by a pursuit of profit with profit as their God. The rules of acquisition which they live by encourage them to exploit others, lie and cheat in order to obtain as much profit as possible. Our society allows big business to buy politicians who then pass laws that benefit and protect the profit margin of these corporations at the expense of working class citizens. Now we are attempting to privatize education through for profit charter schools. This is not what you want for your children, America. Corporations will not care for or about your children, nor their teachers. They will only care about their bottom line and your child’s test score. Corporations will not pay teachers what they are worth nor will they pay for extra services designed to help your children become well rounded because this will affect their bottom line. I can’t imagine how corporations can provide better schools for your children with only local and state funding because any extra they give your child will take away from their profit margin. We have to fix what’s wrong with our public school system, but handing control of our children’s education to the greedy vultures who put our economy in the toilet is not the way to do it.
Just A Teacher
June 29th, 2011
11:21 am
Thank you, Coweta BOE! Charter schools are just the latest fad and will fade away in a year or two. The whole charter movement is backed by the same idiots who have been trying to undermine public education in America for years. If the economy was better, these people would just send their children to private schools, but, with money being tight in most homes, they are trying to get the government to fund their children’s private education. There is nothing wrong with sending your child to a public school in Coweta County. He or she will get a good education. It’s a good system.
Paddy O
July 1st, 2011
9:17 am
the statement issued by the leaders of this charter indicate they were in it for the money, and were depending on their ability to manipulate the public for support. If the report by Coweta, that the Charter was NOT outperforming their regular schools, there was no need to continue to fund it (the charter was a failure).
Paddy O
July 1st, 2011
9:21 am
Bobbi – I went to kindergarden in 1970, that is 41 years ago, and my parents did not indicate it was an odd thing. The pre-k is simply feminism helping single moms get a job, and providing a cheap/low cost governmetn funded baby sitting service.