Are you ready to allow the Legislature access to local education funds in pursuit of greater school choice?

Politicians need to stay out of the education business. PERIOD.

• Link
• Report this comment

This is a very dangerous path. Local funding being handed over to a panel appointed by the governor? I can’t believe that our co-called “local control” advocates in the legislature would put such junk in front of Georgia voters.

• Link
• Report this comment

Where does that say anything about allocating local tax revenue? The change you quoted only talks about allocating state funds to local districts, and not anything about local school taxes.

• Link
• Report this comment

NO! Opens the door of corruption even wider! I can see the good old boys wanting schools named after them with their Uncle Fred’s as principals salivating at the notion. It’s bad now. This makes it worse.

• Link
• Report this comment

I consider my self an independent Liberal, and I want vouchers. I want them to be the $9,500 announced the other day. Not some 4,000 or 5,000 amount. Everyone should get the same amount. People need to take responsibilty for their own special needs children as well. Alot of special needs children are the result of poor parental behavior, low birth weight due to being too wacked out to go to the Doctor. A Gyn/OB friend of mine told me that while she worked at Kaiser she had a patient who was subsisting on a diet of Coke-Cola and Cocaine. She hospitalized her to for the sake of the baby, as it was the only way to get the mother clean. Of course Kaiser complained about it. But if you look in the long run, she was saving alot of money upfront, by hospitalizing this woman at 4-5 months. So a baby might be born drug free and have some real nutrician.

• Link
• Report this comment

@Maureen fair enough, but that seems a bit different from what the article (”access to locally levied tax revenues”) and the headline of your posting describe.

Besides, isn’t that how QBE itself works now anyways? Adjusting state funding to districts based on how much (or how little) local tax revenue they raise?

• Link
• Report this comment

Maureen Downey Charter School: A Cautionary Tale

… sorry, I just couldn’t resist wearing your shoe for a bit Maureen.

• Link
• Report this comment

Maureen, you’ll definitely have a lottery at your school!

• Link
• Report this comment

The county in most cases is spending exactly per pupil what they were spending. The legislature is not giving them some mandate without the funds that go with it. They are just providing more alternatives to fit the needs of a broader group of students.
Face it the opposition here is to charter schools, not the funding issues.
If education does not allow change, voters will defund education. Make no mistake about the level of anger and mistrust among voters toward the out of touch school boards in large school districts. The one size fits all pattern of the past won’t cut it in the next decade. Relying on past patterns of support would be a mistake for the educrats.

• Link
• Report this comment

The state and current legislative body should be ashamed of themselves for what they’ve done to public education. They should try to work in conjunction with the public schools to improve the quality of education for all students…I say all students because public schools have to take any student that walks in the door. How many furlough days have private schools taken due to austerity reductions from the state? None. Stand up public school educators and call your legislators…now.

• Link
• Report this comment

The current system is unsustainable because its graduates are uncompetitive. Did you see the news from DC today? The nation’s worst public school system (although Detroit can make an argument), where some 40% of students already attend charters, is under pressure to convert 36 more failing municipal schools. (The system commissioned a consultants’ study and DC politicians are quite displeased with the recommendations the study yielded, but the moral of that story is: don’t blame the mirror if you’re ugly).

For APS, where 77% of the students are considered to live in poverty, and which has far too many low-achieving schools, the writing is also on the wall. A few years from now (the only question is how many), APS may be still be providing buildings, HVAC and security, but parent-led boards will be doing all the important work in each neighborhood school. Hiring personnel, setting standards, ejecting uncooperative brats, churning out a respectable percentage of high-achieving graduates at long last.

Darwin is rearing his craggy head, and his must be a terrifying visage to all who toil in government-run schools.

• Link
• Report this comment

Matt, No that’s not how QBE funding works.

The “equalization grant” funding is a separate line item in the state budget. It does not decrease the QBE funding of any school system and no local tax revenue is involved.

What the Charter Schools Commission did – and what this proposal supports – is a direct deduction of QBE funding earned by students attending their conventional pubic schools.

• Link
• Report this comment

NO.

• Link
• Report this comment

Local school boards around here are a joke in areas like Atlanta & Clayton County

What was the school board doing while all the cheating was taking place in Atlanta – absolutely nothing

What does the school board in Clayton County fail to do – fire a member who has porn on her tax-payer provided laptop

etc.
etc.

• Link
• Report this comment

Since Georgia has not done a good job in educating our kids, should federal government take our school tax dollars and establish schools it approves?

• Link
• Report this comment

Are you ready to allow the Legislature access to local education funds in pursuit of greater school choice?

Short answer, no and I never will be.

• Link
• Report this comment

This is just another way to cram privatization of public education down voter’s throats, in the name of ‘educational choice’. How about we RESTORE funding – and provide the school districts with the money they have earned according to QBE – before doling out money to Charters and Private Schools. The VAST majority of students attend their local, government-run public school. We need to take care of them in conjunction with providing choices. Not by cutting $400 million a year to public ed, and expecting an increase in Charter/Voucher funding. These ‘leaders’ ALWAYS have an alterior motive in mind – that is NOT in the best interest of students and parents. In this case, they would rather see public tax dollars flow into the hands of private entities (such as ‘Charter Planting’ and ‘Educational Management’ companies – some based in other states for heaven sakes!!), instead of providing it to our public schools. Shame on these people!!

• Link
• Report this comment

To add to your comment, ‘That’s Goofy’, do they even offer anything different than what the school system offers? In a struggling county, I see a need for options. We live in an excellent school district with high performing schools. There was a major riot over the Charter here in Cherokee last year. Mainly over money, because the state continues to cut and under-fund gov’t run public education, but also over ‘need’ versus ‘want.’ What does it offer that our local schools don’t? I can see the need for some Charters, and especially those that offer something unique (for instance, the online charter schools).

• Link
• Report this comment

Ivy Preparatory has proven it produces superior results even with less funding. I am tired of seeing the wasted dollars at DeKalb BOE. Plus, we drive our children to school and no one is paying for Transportation. More bang for our tax buck.

• Link
• Report this comment

You said “I “trust” them about as far as I can spit an anvil…”

Oh, that’s rich. Love it. Thanks for the laugh. I needed it

• Link
• Report this comment

So you want your share of the 9,500 for your kids but you don’t want to take care of the special needs kids. YOu remark that special needs are likely special needs because they have lousy parents such as the one subsisting on diet coke and cocaine….and you say “People need to take responsibilty for their own special needs children as well.” In other words, you expect that cocaine-addicted “parent” to take responsibility for that child? Really? You expect her to take care of the child?

Nah, you don’t mean that. What you mean is to he99 with the special needs kids. You don’t give a rats azz about them.

What is your real name, Lucifer? Beelzebub? Any relation to any Adolph’s in germany? Because that is what Hitler did. He said to he99 with special needs kids, even the pretty blue-eyed Arian ones. He literally murdered them for the sake of many instead of addressing the needs of the few.

You call your self an independent liberal?

You smell more like a selfish bast&rd.

• Link
• Report this comment

I never said I supported vouchers.
As for the community I live in, communities change. If I wasn’t trying to make a difference, I wouldn’t be participating in this discussion. I am simply saying that the per pupil allotment should follow the student. Charter schools have performance goals that must be met to remain open. Too bad the rest of the schools don’t.

• Link
• Report this comment

When the public schools really get their backs up against the walls, they’ll cry–wait! If you get rid of us, who will serve the special-needs kids? Which is really rich, because we had a special-ed kid in APS and APS special ed showed us just how dysfunctional; how utterly inept and how cynical a bureaucracy can be if you let it sit there and rot long enough (thanks again for your leadership, Beverly Hall!)

• Link
• Report this comment

I am ready for the dollars which are allocated to educate a child to follow that child, and not be held captive by a particular educational bureaucracy.

No one says that, since a college student lives in Fulton County, state-provided education funds for said student MUST be spent in Fulton County. However, for some reason this is the accepted K-12 modus operandi for funding education.

• Link
• Report this comment

This version of conservative republicanism is good on fiscal matters (except raising fees vs. taxes is problematic), but horrible on home rule & addiction to power.

• Link
• Report this comment

What is going to keep the local school boards from raising property taxes to make up for the lost money?

Taxpayers in DeKalb are dumping a boatload of property and sales tax dollars into a system with a bloated central office and careless spending, they will still need to be fed.

• Link
• Report this comment

To Good Mom,

I also throw spherical cows off 400 meter tall buildings at 40 meters per second too .

Concerning “another comment,” I kinda understand his position. I don’t say it’s right, though. My problem is that the courts demand that we educate special needs kids. OK, I understand that… somewhat. How much? Should we “educate” a special child that can’t control his bodily functions? Should we pay that “teacher” $50,000 a year? Where is the money coming from? The State Legislature has cut funding. I now fund my own physics labs out of my own pocket because our county doesn’t have enough money to pay for it. Taking care of “special needs” kids takes a LOT of money. If the State cuts our funds and we HAVE, by Federal LAW, to provide an appropriate education to THEM, then the “regular ed” and the “gifted ed” kids funding must be cut even more. Money for education is a Zero Sum Game. On the other hand tossing them in the trash can is repugnant, too. I’m not sure there is a good answer here.

I remember the oil industry saying plaintively, “Please God, give us another energy crises. I swear we won’t screw this up a second time!” My rejoinder is, “Please get us back to the 1990’s when the Legislature valued education and gave us sufficient money. I promise we’ll do a better job of spending it!” I say that and then I look at the APS Superintendent and sometimes wonder if that’d be true.

Sigh, long week, and depressing news from the legislature. We’re whipping boys again.

Good night all

• Link
• Report this comment

The sooner GA educ-RATS appreciate that they hold no divine right to state tax proceeds, the better-off our kids and their futures will be.

We Georgians pay state taxes to educate our kids. We do not pay taxes to underwrite a bloated, self-serving educracy of briefcase-carriers and cellphone-talkers.

• Link
• Report this comment

So it’s not enough that our General Assembly, which is charged by the Georgia Constitution with providing a ‘free and adequate” education for all the children of Georgia, has cut what they pay local districts to educate our children, but they want to also take away local dollars allocated for education?

No thank you.

• Link
• Report this comment

“The term (special schools) was not intended, according to the Court, to create “a carte blanche authorization for the General Assembly to create its own general K-12 schools so as to duplicate the efforts of or compete with locally controlled schools for the same pool of students educated with the same limited pool of tax funds.”
=====================================

The above statement, from the post by Ms. Downey, summarizes the Supreme Court’s rationale for rejecting the state commission, as interpreted by attorney Thomas Cox.

OK, let’s use a few key words to cut to the heart of that statement.

“. . . General Assembly. . . create its own general K-12 schools (charters) so as to . . . compete with locally controlled (public) schools for the same pool of students. . . with the same limited pool of tax funds.”
———————————————–

That sounds, remarkably, like trying to dismantle traditional public schools for charter schools. Some charter schools can be run by private operators. And who runs Georgia’s Legislature, primarily? Majority Republicans. And what is one major, national, Republican ideological agenda? Answer: To cut government in all areas, especially “government” public schools for other models, even private sector business models.

And, what other bill has Republican Rep. Jones sponsored besides HR1162? Answer: HB 664.
HB 664 states that “commission charter schools may exclude teachers from the Teacher Retirement System of Georgia.” It does not state that “commission charter schools may give those commission charter teachers a choice of TRS” participation. That bill uses the words “may exclude” teachers from the TRS. If teachers numbers are reduced in the TRS, then that fact would certainly cut the state’s government responsibility to public school teachers. It would, also, satisfy a national Republican ideological agenda.

Do we really want a State Charter Schools’ Commission, which is appointed not elected, to make these important decisions regarding assignments of charter schools, using local monies previously used for traditional public schools, when legislators who support this Commission are not educators themselves, yet they do have a common ideological vision for education? We must think through what we may be doing to education in Georgia, long-ranged. Has anyone in the Legislature thought this through, in depth? Look at what happened to Florida’s public educational system when legislators wanted to dismantle it.

I think we should move slowly with charter schools. I think we should improve traditional public education, and not think in terms of dismantling public education. We can improve public education by letting local school boards determine how many charter schools should be allotted in their districts. Let those charter schools innovate for more effective individualized instruction and let them share their findings with their local traditional public school systems in order to improve, not dismantle, our public schools.

• Link
• Report this comment

@Mary Elizabeth
8:46 PM

“Some charter schools can be run by private operators”

Your statement is incorrect. All charter schools are non-profit, and are run/governed by an unpaid governing board. That board may choose to hire a management company to run the school, create curriculum, hire staff, etc., but the governing board determines which of those services will be done by the management company. The governing board can also fire the management company. By the way, no one on the governing board can be an employee of the management company.

Might be worth your time to read the Georgia Department of Education FAQ on Charter schools. It will verify what I wrote above and hopefully explain more about how a charter school is governed and operates

http://www.gadoe.org/pea_charter.aspx?PageReq=PEACSGENFAQ

By the way, I don’t think public charters dismantle public schools. They actually extend the reach of public schools because charters are part of the public school system. For example, take a look at Sandy Springs. Every public school in that city is a charter school I believe.

• Link
• Report this comment

@ Charter Schools are Public Schools, 9:31

You said, “All charter schools are non-profit, and are run/governed by an unpaid governing board. That board may choose to hire a management company to run the school, create curriculum, hire staff, etc. . . ”

And that “management company (that) run(s) the school” may be a privately owned one. See my remarks below, which were lifted from my 9:34 post:

“I recall having read, recently, that a private company, which had run a public charter school, had used public funds which could not be accounted for. There was a problem which caused media attention.”

• Link
• Report this comment

@Mary Elizabeth

“I recall having read, recently, that a private company, which had run a public charter school, had used public funds which could not be accounted for. There was a problem which caused media attention.”

Do you remember which school this was about? If FSA, then I think you may have your facts confused. If another school, please clarify.

The management companys can only spend monies that are allocated by the governing board of the school (i.e the management companies do not have carte blanche over a charter school’s budget).

• Link
• Report this comment

[...] Today was a busy day at the Capitol. As Angela Palm describes at the Georgia School Boards Association’s Legislative Daily Reports (a great resource for keeping tabs on what’s happening in education under the gold dome), the House Education Committee held a hearing on HB 1162, which proposes a constitutional amendment that would enable the state to establish and fund charter schools (as well as schools that offer virtual instruction perhaps laying the groundwork for the expansion of digital learning). Supporters of charter schools held a rally at the Capitol today, which was described in EdWeek here. Maureen Downey offers a take on HB 1162 over at Get Schooled. [...]

• Link
• Report this comment

Unscrupulous charter school operators, like other con-men/-women, should be prosecuted and placed in the penitentiary to serve long sentences. Should we make an example of the first fraudsters, their ilk will decide that The Peach State is not a welcoming place for them to ply their trade.

• Link
• Report this comment

To ME and others regarding corruption in charter schools, I think I remember reading one corrupt charter school was run by one the big Atlanta churches, a church Beverly Hall and her cronies are associated. Was it New Bethany? Does that ring a bell?

• Link
• Report this comment

Stupid republicans are stupid, stupid.

Give up. Throw in the towel. Flee

• Link
• Report this comment

We already “share” or give up a lot of power (money) to the legislature for our schools. To me this is a moot question. The legislature decides, to a large degree, how our money (local and communal) will be spent on our schools. Our local school boards occasionally get power to direct some of the money.

Do I trust the legislature? Not at all. Do I trust my local school board? Not much there, either.

• Link
• Report this comment

@Larry Major, 2:57 am

“The Charter Schools Commission didn’t deduct just the amount of local funding Ivy Prep students required from GCPS state funding; it took over $300,000 more than that amount away from Gwinnett students and handed it over the Ivy Prep. This bill will not only legalize this type of inequitable funding, it will push voters out of the picture.”

=====================================

Thank you for sharing this information. I, also, want to mention that one blogger had posted that if 100 students are attending a traditional public school, and so many of them move to a public charter school in the district, that the traditional school will not be hurt financially in that that traditional public school will still have the same amount of money, per student, allotted to it.

I want to say those remarks, logically, sound feasible but that is not how per pupil funding works in traditional schools. If a given high school has 2000 students, it does not have simply one principle, students, and classroom teachers. It, also, has “umbrella” personnel who serve the whole student body, such as school counselors, librarians, “elective” teachers such as those in music, i.e. band, orchestra, instrumental strings, chorus, as well as art and drama teachers, psychologists, speech therapists, social workers, etc. All of these specialized school personnel enhance students lives and they are funded, in large part, from per pupil allotment to that school, as well as physical education programs such as football, baseball, tennis, swimming, etc.

So when funds are removed from public schools to serve charter schools, more resources that serve the overall student body, than simply traditional classroom teachers, are removed from traditional public schools by these per pupil fund “transfers” to charter schools in the same district. That is why the local School Board should determine the number of charter schools it can assign and still serve well the overall population of its community. A State Commission Charter School Board is too far removed from local situations throughout the state to fully analyze these local factors in depth.

• Link
• Report this comment

catlady summed it up nicely.

sadly its getting harder and harder for me to give a damn anymore.
I’m so burnt out its all I can do to drag myself into the hell hole
I work at these days

education in Georgia -and much of the rest of the nation- quit having anything to do with teaching the future long ago.

• Link
• Report this comment

@Good Mom, 5:01 am

“I am an Atlanta Public School parent. I don’t trust APS as one poster said ‘as far as I can spit an anvil.’ In the case of APS, I cannot trust the local BOE with any of my money or my children. What do we do then? I would love some APS schools to become less under the control of crooked BOEs like the one at APS. So what would you advocate we do here? Is this a case where there isn’t even a ‘lesser of two evils?’
————————————————–

If you see “crooked” actions by anyone in the APS, then by all means report this to legal authorities and to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which did an outstanding job in exposing the testing abuses of some within the Atlanta School System. Form groups of parents to attend School Board meetings to let Board Members know that you want greater accountability for how your tax dollars are spent for your children’s education. Have your group of parents pursue a local charter school plan and submit it to the APS School Board. Persistence is the key. If you are denied a charter school at first, you can correct what the APS did not like and reapply. People are impressed by persistence. Also, have members of your group run for School Board office themselves to make it better and more responsive to parents.

In terms of helping your traditional school do better instructionally within the system, talk with receptive assistance principals about bringing in more personnel volunteers such as those interested from local churches, other religious organizations, whose members may be looking for outreach service, instructionally, to children. Find the local educators’ professional organization, such as the Fulton County branch of the Georgia Association of Educators. There will be a retired teachers’ unit of that Fulton branch of GAE. Attend their meetings and ask retired teachers to come into your school – with asst. principal approval – to help your children with more one-on-one instruction.

I hope these suggestions are helpful to you. One thing we do not want to do, inadvertently. through massive charter school exits from traditional public schools is to recreate another closed, segregated society in Georgia, but this time based on a class/wealth dichotomy, rather than race per se as was the situation in the Jim Crow era. Those were sad days for all Georgians, and especially for the African-American underclass in Georgia. Hopefully, we are past those sad, closed-minded, and fearful days.

• Link
• Report this comment

@ Once Again, 8:10

I have not had a child in public schools since 1999. I still help support public schools through taxes on my personal property. I gladly do so because, like Thomas Jefferson, I believe in public education. Nothing is perfect in this world. I do not feel victimized by “the governmen” in supporting public education through my taxes. Jefferson, too, believed in supporting public schools through taxes levied on citizens to serve this “common good” of all. That need is still here, 200 years later. We are all interconnected, as Thomas Jefferson well knew.

• Link
• Report this comment

@Good Mom -

So very many of your “opinions” are based on totally wrong “facts.”

Football is NOT bleeding our schools dry. Football is a profit center. This means that it is a sport that actually makes money. It doesn’t require any money from the school at all. In fact, it makes so much money it actually pays for the other sports that don’t make money (ie: girls volleyball).

Yes, there are football fields build by the school systems for schools (a one time construction expense). However, that is needed anyway for physical education classes and other uses. It is not “just for football.”

In the future, please understand the truth behind any issue BEFORE forming an opinion or at least BEFORE posting on here. Otherwise, you continue to appear rather stupid.

• Link
• Report this comment

@ Mary Elizabeth 01/26/12 8:46 pm: The real heart to the statement your speaking to is “…locally controlled schools for the same pool of students educated with the same limited pool of tax funds.”
Simply put it’s a beef over FUNDING. It has nothing to do with the quality of education being received or not by the students on the front line of this debate. The whole motivation behind the suit filed was an attempt by GCSS to protect the FUNDING STATUS QUO period point blank !! Recognizing the stakes involved it was easy to get APS, DCSS and others to join on for obvious reasons as they desired the FUNDING STATUS QUO to perpetuate itself as well!
Frankly, I believe the Supreme Court was abit cowardly in their ruling as they delicately sided stepped the whole question of the funding model which was part of the original suit by hanging on their hat on some constitutional technicality. As concerned stakeholders it’s time for us to deal with what’s really at the root of this fight. It’s not public vs. private. It’s not public charter vs. traditional public. It’s how will the money flow and who gets to control the funds. Like it or not public education has transformed into BIG BUSINESS and those reaping the benefits WILL fight to protect their interests.
The fact that local boards are elected vs. the state charter commission being elected is in my view immaterial. Certainly elected local boards have brought us little in the way meaningful & lasting change. Hence there is no inherent value in them save the illusion of “local control”. If the local board & their administrative arms (i.e. Superintendants et al.) thumb their nose at those most impacted by the policy positions how are they any better than a appoint commission or the governing board of individual charter institution?? As I’ve read some posters argue, perhaps the real battle needs to be at the level of these local boards, which is much more difficult war of attrition to fight.

• Link
• Report this comment

I do not believe that charter schools are “bad.” In fact, I think that some charter schools might create innovative approaches to individualized instruction which might be beneficial to traditional public schools. It would be a “win-win” situation for all, if their successful efforts could be shared, and coordinated, with traditional public schools. I, also, think we should have our eyes fully open as to what has happened, negatively, within some charter schools, nationally, before assuming that charter schools are “the main answer” to educational problems in Georgia.

I believe in public education. I had worked straight up for 42 years of my life, and 35 of those years I spent in public education, most as an educational leader. I understand public education from the ground up. I wonder how many who have so many opinions about public education have spent that much of their working lives contributing to the students and their parents who attend public schools.

Many charter schools, later, become private schools, according to the link I shared above. I do not support vouchers to private schools. I think that would, ultimately, dismantle public schools. I do not want to see our society, again, stratified – but this time by wealth and by class, rather than by race. I want to see a society built upon an egalitarian vision of humankind, rather than a hierarchial vision of seeing one another. That is why I believe in traditional public schools. They, at least, attempt to serve all of society’s children, equally, even those not able to attend private schools or public charter schools.

• Link
• Report this comment

Nm you said “The systems are being operated like small third world countries.”

That’s a perfect comparison. Indeed, Beverly Hall does remind me of the wife of the Phillipine president, Imelda Marcos, who took money away from starving people and bought herself 3,000 pairs of shoes and 800 black bras. Her gluttony and greed amounted to so much filthy and corruption — just like at APS.

• Link
• Report this comment

Charter schools are a good mix for our state. A few years ago there were 20 something charter school applications to multiple districts and all were denied. If the school systems in our state were willing to think outside the box and allow for innovation rather than fearing it, the charter school commission would have never been needed.

And folks need to remember that even with a blank waiver, each school is required to submit an audit every year, take the CRCT, etc. They’re not operating in a vacuum where money and school performance isn’t accountable. Will we find corruption along the way? Of course. You can’t have 100 band or athletic booster clubs without finding a bad guy in the mix. Of course I think paying a superintendent $400k a year is corrupt but what do I know.

• Link
• Report this comment

Former SPARK, I’d say those who run public schools might live in fear of choice much more than teachers. Especially administrators, who you are probably painfully aware of, who were rated dead last by school councils, but were installed by corrupt administrators who violated state law by not informing parents as to why their wishes were overridden.

Not very surprising that the administrator proved to be so incompetent the school ended up on the Severe Concerns list.

• Link
• Report this comment

Ah Truth, you write “Yes, there are football fields build by the school systems for schools (a one time construction expense). However, that is needed anyway for physical education classes and other uses. It is not “just for football.”

Football is a one time construction expense? Just how big is that? I suppose there are no repairs and those school buses and drivers are all free who take the teams to the games, right? I suppose all those “teachers” who are really coaches are free too, right? That weight room for the football team is free too, right? The police at the game are free as well, right?

Football is a sport played by very few — and they are all boys. If we didn’t have football, another sport would become popular, a more healthy one, like swimming or soccer, which can be played by both girls and boys.

Truth, you lie, you exaggerate and you’re very boring.

• Link
• Report this comment

@ Good Mom -

Wow. You still insist on spouting lies on things you know nothing at all about. I will address them one by one. I will also type very slowly to help you with your reading comprehension.

1. You write, “Football is a one time construction expense? Just how big is that? I suppose there are no repairs and those school buses and drivers are all free who take the teams to the games, right? I suppose all those “teachers” who are really coaches are free too, right? That weight room for the football team is free too, right? The police at the game are free as well, right?”

The one time expense is not as large as you think. It is simply a field…. flat ground with grass. AND IT IS NOT JUST FOR FOOTBALL. How much clearer can that be for you? PE classes use it. Soccer teams use it. Lacross teams use it. Track and field uses it.

Buses and bus drivers of football teams are PAID FOR BY FOOTBALL BUDGET and not from a school budget. NONE OF IT COMES FROM TAX DOLLARS. The gas is even paid for by the football program. Yes, that yellow buses from the school system is used, but the FOOTBALL BUDGET even pays the school system for the use!

The coach stipend is PAID FOR FROM THE FOOTBALL BUDGET. Not a dime comes from the school or school system. This is true for ALL COACHES.

The weight room is not a “football weight room”. It is used by all students from all sports and also is used for PE classes. IT IS NOT A FOOTBALL EXPENSE.

The police, the teachers working the ticket counter, and so on ARE ALL PAID FOR FROM THE FOOTBALL BUDGET. Not a dime comes from the school system, the school, or from taxes.

2. You say, “If we didn’t have football, another sport would become popular, a more healthy one, like swimming or soccer, which can be played by both girls and boys.”

We already do have other sports. They are funded FROM THE FOOTBALL BUDGET. Girls volleyball would not exist without the football money. Girls softball would not exist without the football budget. Swimming for girls and boys would not exist without the football budget.

You lie. You are an idiot. And, worst of all, you continue to dare to post about something YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT.

• Link
• Report this comment

@ HS Public Teacher-
Here is MY guess as TP what happened to the sleeping teacher. Absolutely nothing. The system protects their own, which is why there are so many cruddy teachers out there.

• Link
• Report this comment

Ah, Truth, your “tell” is showing. You have a blind spot or two. Football is one of them.

• Link
• Report this comment

@GM, do you have any facts to back up your assertions? Or are you just throwing out baseless accusations?

• Link
• Report this comment

I just posted the following on Kyle Wingfield’s blog in response to a poster by the name of “Parent,” who had posted a link to a petition for support of HR 1162:
==================================

“The petition for school choice, which “Parent” posted at 9:09 pm, supports HR 1162. This petition states, in part, the following words:

‘Each child is different, and parents should be able to choose between a neighborhood school, charter school, private school or virtual school.’
————————————-
I do not support using public tax dollars to send children to private schools. I do not support vouchers. This petition tells me that HR 1162 is political in nature, more than educational, or this petition, which was gathered to support HR 1162, would have been limited to supporting state ordained public charter schools, as is HR 1162. This petition, however, includes the choice, also, of private schools, along with charter schools. Obviously, this petition supports vouchers because parents have always been able to use their own money to send their own children to private schools – that goes without saying. Therefore, there was no need to state “private schools” on this petition, unless the underlying message was to voice support for vouchers, which would transfer public money to private schools, with student transfer therein. This petition, in my opinion, represents an initial attempt to dismantle traditional public schools for private schools (among other school choices) in Georgia.

I saw on ‘Ed Schultz Show’ this evening Schultz’s interview with Robert Greenwald in which Greenwald said that he will be showing, early next week, proof that the Koch Brothers are donating money to 150 colleges and universities across the nation (FSU included) in exchange for determining curriculum and teachers hired in those colleges and universities. This is an example of how private business interests can purchase their ideology within public schools, such as FSU. Using private money to purchase freedom of thought is the antithesis of what education should be, and doing that is the antithesis of what America stands for.

I do not want to see elementary and secondary schools in Georgia being swayed by private business interests for propaganda purposes by those who have investments in them. Students are not to be used as pawns. They are to be instructed in how to think for themselves. That is why we cannot allow our public schools to be dismantled. At present, public schools are paid for by the general public through taxes, not through the private market. And our public schools are not, at present, run by the private market. The corruption possible when the wealthy elite purchase power (and education) is one main reason that Thomas Jefferson was a strong proponent of tax-levied public schools by all citizens, for all citizens, for the common good of society. The following are words of Jefferson, as engraved within his national monument in Washington, DC:

‘I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.’ I stand with Thomas Jefferson.

I cannot help but wonder how many of Georgia’s Republican legislators support the Koch Brothers’ tactics and their ideology, which is privatization of public schools. And, I wonder which ones, if any, have attended Koch Brothers Conferences. That information should be public knowledge, as it might determine how people vote for a Constitutional amendment in Georgia, such as HR 1162.

Are you listening AJC?”

================================

• Link
• Report this comment

Do we really trust the State of Georgia to divert locally collected tax money towards minimally monitored state charter schools? I don’t!

They introduce “austerity cuts” until schools can’t even afford toilet paper anymore. Then they create a “special needs scholarship” that “funds” over 200 schools, barely 10% of which are actually “special needs schools”. Here is a link to the state approved schools:

http://www.doe.k12.ga.us/DMGetDocument.aspx/11-12%20Private%20School%20List%20Expanded%20FTP%20102811.xls?p=6CC6799F8C1371F6493D8480A57B81088808982742930D232BDC7FAC5FA415F7&Type=D

Check out the list, so much for separation of church and state.

Then you have the flagship virtual school, Georgia Cyber Academy utilizing K12, Inc. services and curriculum. K12 is currently under investigation for possible securities fraud, see this link:

http://www.educationnews.org/online-schools/k12-inc-under-investigation-for-possible-securities-fraud/

Addressing the cost of special needs students, I don’t see the reason for complaints here. Don’t we fund teaching students from other countries the English language? Don’t we fund PE, Music, Art? Don’t we also subsidize the food our kids eat at school? And the busses they ride? All programs I support by the way. The problem is not the cost of funding special needs education, it is the fact that federal law allows our federal government to allocate up to 40% of the cost, yet it only funds between 9% and 14%. The rest is about an equal proportion of state/local money. The federal government needs to FULLY FUND the 40% it is legally allowed. Unfortunately I guess they have a bad precedent to follow when the state won’t even fully fund the general education to the extent legally allowed (austerity cuts again!). But that’s ok, because they are poised to take money out of our local pockets and put it anywhere they want it to go if they pass the bill and put a constitutional amendment on the ballot.

How will you vote?

• Link
• Report this comment

Response to Anonmom, 9:00 am

“. ..consider dismantling our currently failing system of schools and then empower the state to actually really watch and regulate what is happening to the money . . .”
—————————————————

Anonmom, there are three words, from your statement above, that cause alarm, which – from your paragraph – I do not think you fully see. Please allow me, with goodwill to you, atttempt to alert you, and others, to the danger which HR 1162 would have for the children of our state.

You said, “empower the state.” To “empower the state” would be a danger because allowing legislators, not educators, to create a State Commission for Charter Schools, which is appointed by those with political power, not elected by the people directly, means that the legislators could sway instruction to their ideological agenda for children in Commission Charter Schools, throughout Georgia. And, it further opens the door to dismantle traditional public schools, which are not designed to indoctrinate students to any one ideology but to help students build skills and expertise for jobs, and, also, to enlighten their minds into historical forces, and other larger intellectual concepts, so that they may be equipped for higher learning in our colleges and universities,
if they so choose.

Education is not meant to exist for “mind control.” The word “e duc ation” literally mean “to lead the student out of his limited world into the world of greater ideas and thinking. True educators lead the student out of himself, or herself. True educators do not indoctrinate children with their own ideological point-of-view; they educate them. In the Communist countries of my youth, children were indoctrinated; but that is not America’s tenets. America was founded on freedom of thought and freedom of religion, above all else. And that is why, in Georgia, we have a Department of Education set up to establish curriculum that is unbiased to educate the masses of children in Georgia. That Department of Education is filled with educators who are there to serve the common good of all of Georgians through their educational training and expertise. It is their purpose to build curriculum for Georgia’s public schools whereby children are taught to think for themselves, not to build propaganda to have children become indoctrinated toward one ideological vision. That is what some politicians may attempt, however. That is why you do not want to “empower the state,” through HR 1162, to create its own charter schools.

What HR 1162 would do would be to put that power in the hands of politicians, some of whom may have ties to a national agenda of ideological thinking, which is controlled by those who influence political power through their great wealth because of their own corporate interests. Thomas Jefferson, with his well-educated and visionary mind, warned our nation against this happening. That is why he was a strong supporter of public education, or any form of education which is tied to political strings through the wealth and power of the few. Jefferson supported the public education of the masses through taxes paid by them for their public education, so that they would be trained to see into any machinations that the powerful may use to control them. I stand with Jefferson.

Public education does need to be improved, and as an educational leader of 35 years who came from a long, long line of educators, I know how to do just that. I am willing to offer what I know to that end. I am not willing to allow some politicians (some of whom have demonstrated allegiance to those of wealth and power on the national landscape) create Georgia’s laws, either knowingly or unknowingly, whereby the “state” could control the minds of our children, through stealthy means. Be aware. Local School Boards are not perfect, but, as citizens, you can, at least, speak to them directly, and you can vote them out of office, directly, in your district, if you do not like what they do. You will not be able to do that with an appointed State Commission for Charter Schools, or change, easily, the state’s Constitution once it has been amended.

You mention “billions of dollars are being wasted on failing programs.” Actually, billions of dollars have been cut from public education within the last decade. That is one of the problems with education, today, in Georgia. We need to remove politicians, by our votes, who have cut funds to public education this drastically, and we do not need to be manipulated by them to further dismantle public education. We need to put money back into our public schools, not deplete public schools even further, by billions of dollars.

I am attempting to open some “sunshine” into what has, sadly, been a “dark decade for public education” in Georgia.

Governor Ellis Gibbs Arnall, Georgia’s enlightened governor, from 1943 to 1947, when I was a small child, brought about widespread reform in education by making the Board of Regents and the Board of Education Constitutional bodies, ensuring the separation of politics from education. Arnall said, “Education is the cure for ignorance, poverty, disease.” Arnall abolished the poll tax, allowing the poorest citizens to vote without having to pay for this basic right of a democracy. Arnall said, “There is nothing wrong with government that democracy won’t cure.” He said, “There will come a time when equality is not only publicly accepted, but privately accepted as well.” He said, “The monument to my governorship is that we brought about the readmission of the South into the Union on the basis of full fellowship and full equality.” The South, under Armall, moved foreward; we do not need to move further backwards in Georgia, as we have done in the past decade.

Improve public education. Do not dismantle it. Do not support HR 1162.

• Link
• Report this comment

Mary Elizabeth – I don’t know when you last were in public schools in the metro area — my kids have been there very recently — the current system has the government alreay indoctrinating our children. They are producing young adults who are turning into criminals … not educated citizens capable of performing in society. We are currently spending billions of tax dollars at the local, state and federal level and pouring them into the current system. I know that dollars have been cut from what hsitorically spent. But we are currenlty spending approximatley $10,000 per child per year. This money can be more effectively spent, with competition, by each parent, being forced to engage in the process by selecting the school the child attends. The state would not be empowered to dicatate curriculum at these schools — the state would have to watch that the money was being spent at the schools and not being siphoned out (or embezzled as I believe is currently happening with no oversight and finger-pointing — it’s state, not its federal, no it’s local and we go round in circles) — let them hold them accountable for actually spending the dollars but not for the curriculum… parents choose where the kids go and competition drives what takes place within the school house.. It would be a much better use of funds. Only about 50% of all children beginning 9th grade are currenlty graduating 12th grade and the vast majority of the rest are either landing in prison or on welfare. A huge percentage of those actually graduating are really college ready. We are wasting a ton of money and not making much progress. We need a different system. Competition has been proven to work and private school, and charter schools, do not cost nearly as much, per pupil, as what we’re spending, for public school (yes, I know that there are some privates that are charging over $20k a child but they don’t have to to provide much better services and a better education than what is happening in the vast majority of the public schools). Change is hard but it can be for the better. Particularly when there is an enormous culture of corruption.

• Link
• Report this comment

I think your points are all valid when the public system functions property. But the system isn’t functioning. DCSS hasn’t put money into funding the retirement system for teachers for a numbers of years now — it’s been siphoned elsewhere. The money that ’s supposed to educating the kids isnt’ being use that way. Our goals are identical. I have seen way too much corruption and abuse in the local system. You need to take the money away from the top… so it has to be used for the benefit of the kids to get them to where you want them to be. Probably 90% of the society in 2012 is responsible for funding their own retirement. Anyone aged 45 or younger funding social security with any sense knows it won’t be around… that system is bankruptcy… I’m older than that and I’m not counting on that. So the paradigms have got to shift so that my children and my grandchildren have a society to live in that is free and functions remotely like Jefferson expected to (with freedoms to all people, not the men as our founding fathers envisioned) — where we are headed looks to me to be more like Russia or Germany in the early stages of WWII — it isn’t very pretty — you need an educated population and we’re not doing it — we’re just pretending and spending lots and lots of money to do so.

• Link
• Report this comment

@ Mary Elizabeth and Others…

The Consitutional Amendment should be passed by the Legislature so that the VOTERS IN GEORGIA will have the opportunity to decide what THEY want public education in Georgia to look like. Legislators who vote against it going on the ballot are taking away the voice of the people, the very individuals they represent.

When I hear people pushing on the legislators to vote against it, I think that they must be awfully afraid that the general public will see a need for some change in how we do things in Georgia’s public education, and this will rock the status quo. If there was not a NEED or a DESIRE for charters, parents wouldn’t be enrolling their children in them and sitting on waiting lists. It is clear the public is demanding something else for SOME of its children – and I think that’s what scares the hell out of the districts. The “dismantling of public education” fear is totally irrational. Charter schools (start-ups run by their own boards) could never take over the entire public education system. That’s not ever been the end game – charters should be opened when their is a need or a demand for them and when they can add value to a community. Not a value defined by a school district, but a value defined by the pubic it serves.

The Georgia School Boards Association and individual districts are busy protecting “local control” over decision making and control of tax funds. I want to know when they will start talking about protecting the CHILDREN of Georgia and allowing the most local control you can get – the parents, to decide what their children need. District offerings – either traditional programs or charters – should reflect the needs of the public they serve.

Put it on the ballot. Then let’s schedule a PUBLIC debate between the traditional and charter proponents to get all of the issues on the table for the general public to consider.

• Link
• Report this comment

@Truth. You really shouldn’t post things like “You lie. You are an idiot. And, worst of all, you continue to dare to post about something YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT.” Especially when it could easily be argued you might look in the mirror to say those things, lol.

Artificial turf in football stadiums: $1 million per school. That turf then means that they DO NOT use it during the school day because they want to protect their (football) investment. The stadiums are built for football, period. They certainly wouldn’t build stadia that size for soccer here, and get by with much less for baseball, lacrosse, etc. Many smaller schools don’t have the budget to do the maintenance and upkeep on grass fields just from booster club revenues, so local funding is “justified” by school use.

http://www.ajc.com/news/cobb/cobb-school-system-defends-293551.html

• Link
• Report this comment

That headline about the suspended student and sleeping “teacher” fails to relay this important point: it was a SUBSTITUTE teacher. Not a “real” teacher. Way to keep the bashing going, dear media.

So often when I see a headline that uses the word “teacher,” and I actually read the article, it turns out that it wasn’t a “real” (and by “real” I mean certified, k-12, employed by a school district in a teaching capacity) teacher. It was a sub, or a volunteer coach, or a a teacher outside of a k-12 school (like a tae kwon do instructor or pre-k instructor – both private endeavors) or so on. The article from a few weeks back with the student who called the teacher cute…that was a sub, too.

I’m not trying to bash subs – I want people to realize that they haven’t had the training to deal with a lot of what today’s kids can dish out, and kids are going to try and push, and see what they can get away with. I’m also not defending stupid administrative decisions – they happen, and as the news will attest, too often for comfort. Nor am I saying that teachers never do bad or stupid things – they do, and unfortunately the news has too many of those stories, too. But I do want to caution people to read more than the headline – particularly if they are going to use that incident on an education blog to “prove” once again just how _______ (fill in the blank) today’s teachers are.

• Link
• Report this comment

@ CharterStarter – Amen.

@ Mary Elizabeth – I am well aware of the legislation that has been dropped. You are a product of 35 years of bureaucratic conditioning. I am certain it would be difficult for you to conceive of educators having an interest (and yes, some do) in an alternative form of retirment investment other than TRS and CHOOSING to work in a school that may have an alternative retirement plan offering. Because working in a charter school is a deliberate choice….for much the same reasons parents make the choice.

As for the Constitutional Amendment – it’s currently going through the PROCESS. It had to start somewhere (and why not start it the way you’d most like to have it?) There will be wording changes and concessions on both sides. Before pushing so hard against it, why not let the process play out and see what actually ends up being voted upon?

Given that charter schools are required to, at a minimum, follow the state curriculum and to meet the same (actually higher) academic outcomes as their traditional school counterparts, I rather believe that your point about “schools know best” is moot. Parents have the right to find a school setting, whatever that might look like, that best first their child academically, socially, emotionally, physically, etc. I hate to say this, but it’s true – if Georgia school districts always knew best, then we wouldn’t be 48th in the nation. It’s a systemic issue that we must address, and that starts with giving parents and taxpayers a voice in what the change needs to look like.

At what point do people realize that our whole state economy, contributing to our national economy woes as well, is being negatively impacted by maintaining the status quo in public education? What choice do we have other than to explore other options to raise achievement?

• Link
• Report this comment

Charter School Results in Georgia, Stanford Study

http://credo.stanford.edu/reports/GA_CHARTER%20SCHOOL%20REPORT_CREDO_2009.pdf

• Link
• Report this comment

@ Mary Elizabeth,

I, too, am most supportive of charters that are able to be authorized by the local school district, however, we have quite a few VERY high performing charters that would never be in existence if left up to the districts. I believe it is rather naive for you to believe that the school districts play fair with authorization practices – the ones who do are definitely in the minority. If they did, the Commission would never have been needed. Likewise,if this C.A passes and another alternative authorizer is established, if the districts authorize fairly and don’t stonewall quality charters as they have been, then the alternative authorizer will never have an occasion to approve a school. This alternative authorizer is simply a way to keep everyone honest.

I cannot argue that there have been some charters that have closed down for suspect reasons. As sad as it is to have corruption in our world, at least the charters are held accountable. I appreciate you providing the links to those who have not met their responsibilities. Please allow me to share a few links with you of school districts in Georgia who have violated the public’s trust….the difference, of course, is that they remain operational. The only recourse for distrists is for SACS to come in, and that doesn’t really punish the boards so much as it punishes the students and the communities. Accountabilty is what is sadly lacking in our system.

http://www.mdjonline.com/view/full_story/16718207/article-CCSB-avoids-open-meetings-prosecution?instance=home_news_bullets

http://www.ajc.com/news/dekalb/sacs-orders-dekalb-to-859629.html

http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/dpp/news/local_news/sacs%3A-aps-high-schools-on-probation-20110118-am-sd

I am not sure you realize it, but the CREDO study was widely criticised for its faulty research methodology. Please also do a search and read Caroline Hoxby’s study and educate yourself on the problems with the CREDO study.

My main point here, as I hope you can see, is that there is always another side to the story. It is my belief that the voters in Georgia should have the opportunity to explore BOTH sides and to make an educated decision that is best for this state. I do not believe legislators should take that right away from the people. I certainly see your point regarding individuals not knowing what they are voting for, but that’s the case wiith any election. The responsibility falls on the voter to educated themselves fully prior to voting. And each side has the responsibility of providing accurate information for the public’s consideration. I just can’t see what the “fear” is with letting the people have a voice…

• Link
• Report this comment

Charter Starter, Too, 9:15 am

I do not know that it is a “fear” but more of an “alert” that I want to communicate. And that is that there is a national Republican agenda to dismantle traditional public schools for more privatization of schools – in movements in many state legislaturs across our nation. Some of Georgia’s legislators have ties to this movement. I am wary of a state Commission Board that is appointed by politicians, who are not educators, and who may have their own agendas to pursue. Politics and education are unhealthy bedfellows in educating children, in my opinion. Educating children belongs in the public domain, not in the private domain, in my thinking and in the thinking of Thomas Jefferson, so that special interests do not control the educational process. I realize that, at present, charter schools are public schools. I am not sure how long they will remain thus in reality, if control is taken away from educators (i.e., State Board of Education, local School Boards) and placed in the hands of politicians. A state Commission of Charter Schools may be controlled by politicians, instead of educators.

• Link
• Report this comment

@ Charter Starter & @Mary Elizbeth: You both have engaged in a level of discourse on this topic of Lincoln/Douglas like perportions.

I would love to see you two engage a debate on this issue in public forum physically that would allow for a broader audience to walk along with you through the layers of this discussion.

Somewhere between in the middle of your two viewpoints lies the real answer to this dillima. Bottom line answer for me again is there is no one size fits all, a formula that provides greater choice and heightened accountability needs to be manifested !!

• Link
• Report this comment

C Jae of EAV, 12:11 pm

Thank you. I agree with both you and Charter Starter, as well as others, that some choice should be allowed to parents. However, I think that whatever choice is determined to be offered should be prudently weighed and decided. Charter schools have hurt Florida’s overall educational system. We must be wiser, and weigh more carefully, the long-ranged ramifications of what we do, here, in Georgia regarding choice and charter schools. That is why I have taken the time to post.

• Link
• Report this comment

Shame on us, CCSD Parent? How can you possibly say to me that having a choice in how MY tax dollars are spent to educate MY children is wrong? If the School Boards would have acted responsibly in approving perfectly legal and robust start-up Charter school petitions, we would not need an appeals process! Giving all the power to the LSB is an inherent conflict of interest. Of course they don’t want these Charters because they are extremely afraid that Charters will do it better and cheaper. Tax money used to educate my child is the same amount whether they go to Joe Blow County School or Jane Doe Charter School. All we want is a choice, but all the School Boards want is total control. You want the local districts to have a monopoly on education with accountability to only themselves? How is that good for any child???

• Link
• Report this comment

@ David,

Charters are PUBLIC schools educating school children locally. We are not talking about vouchers here.

Please answe me this: Why should a local board keep funds for children the do not serve, and why should a charter serving the students actually get that funding to do so? Keeping in mind, again, that charter schools ARE public schools.

• Link
• Report this comment

Hate to tell you this but your Dekalb County taxpayer dollars…. lots of them… have been going to New Birth church in various forms… from graudation ceremonies to camps to buses to afterschool programs and “magnet”/special schools — I’m afraid they may have been going there in other ways too since we don’t have on-line check registers and on-line pcard registers and because there are exemptions from tax returns and many other “checks and balances” — the tax payers have no way to really know how the taxpayer’s money is being spent. So just because there aren’t “charter” schools or vouchers doesn’t mean that the money isn’t being used in the way Mr. Hoffman doesn’t want them used. What I’m looking for is accountability, checks and balances and actual, real education where the funds are being used for the purposes for which they are being taken from me to be used…. I’m at a point where I don’t really care who the provider is but I want the services actaually provided so that the kids enrolled in the system aren’t also going to be taking more tax money down the road in the form of welfare and other social services or because they are in jail. If they are in jail, I don’t want to be the victim of their crime and I don’t want any member of my family to be the victim of their crime…. all because as a society we have failed to give them the opportuntiy to make a life for themselves because our current system of public education has no checks and balances in place and is corrupt and failing the children (and yes, much of it has to do witth the board members the citizens are electing but that’s becuase we have a very uneducated population that isn’t able to do much better so it’s a vicious cycle… something has to give) The system is broken!

• Link
• Report this comment

Mary Elizabeth, I didn’t mention Democrats, but you singled out Republicans. I was just defending them. I agree that charters are but one solution, and my statement that public education is not working does not mean that all public schools are failing. I’m looking at the big picture. Spending has risen significantly over my lifetime, and performance is flat, at best. Many important indicators are falling.

I understand your faith in local boards of education, but I do not share it. Once elected, BOE members are indoctrinated by an association (supported nearly 100% by public funds) that is on record as opposing charter schools. Board members’ work is directed (contradict me, please!) by Superintendents they “hire” who are brought up within the same system they are prevented from reforming. The money is on the side of the status quo, which always turns slowly and with great protest, and never far enough to make a real difference. I have worked with Boards of Education all over Georgia, and their Superintendents, and their attitudes on charters seem to be cast in stone and buried deep. The legislature is responding to impatience from the voters and parents to shake things up. To my way of thinking, when it comes to willingness to innovate for children, it is the legislature that is truly representing the voters and taxpayers, not the Boards of Education.

• Link
• Report this comment

@MB -

Get real (maybe you cannot). While you are correct that the “salary” might be a combination if they teach classes, look at how it breaks down…

The part paid by the school system (taxes) is ONLY for the compensation as a teacher. As you pointed out, if they teach 3 classes in the school, then that is all the school system pays for – the teaching part.

The supplement part for coaching is paid for through the booster funds. I know FOR A FACT that our community coach that is not a teacher is paid 100% only from the booster funds and NOT from any school system money (taxes).

• Link
• Report this comment