School leaders group: All the goals of proposed charter school amendment already possible
There is now tweaking under way to make the controversial constitutional amendment on charter schools more palatable to its critics, including a compromise substitute offered up this week by State. Sen. Fran Millar of DeKalb.
Expect the amendment or the enabling legislation for the amendment to surface this week.
In the meantime, here’s a response to the amendment’s sponsor Jan Jones, who argued in a blog posting last week that her amendment is needed to spur school reform.
This rebuttal is from Jack Parish, executive director of the Georgia Association of Educational Leaders:
Much attention during the 2012 legislative session has been devoted to House Resolution 1162, a piece of legislation sponsored by Speaker Pro-Tem Jan Jones. HR 1162 proposes an amendment to the Constitution of Georgia in response to the Georgia Supreme Court’s 2011 decision in which the court found the Georgia Charter School Commission to be unconstitutional. This piece of legislation certainly merits much discussion and consideration since it deals with education in our state and proposes an amendment to the Georgia Constitution.
In her opinion/editorial piece, Rep. Jones states, “The legislation (HR 1162) would allow existing charter schools approved and fully funded by the state to continue teaching students.” An amendment to the Georgia Constitution is not needed in order for these charter schools to continue operating. In fact of the 17 state charter schools that were approved or authorized by the Georgia Charter School Commission, 12 are continuing to operate today.
Rep. Jones states, “The state could also approve additional charter schools as do other states.” Again, an amendment to the Georgia Constitution is not needed in order for an entity other than local boards of education to approve charter schools. Current Georgia law, O.C.G.G. 20-2-2064.1, states in part, “Upon denial of a petition for a start-up charter school by a local board and upon application to the state board by the petitioner, the state board shall approve the charter of a start-up petitioner for a state chartered special school if the state board finds, after receiving input from the Charter Advisory Committee, that such petition meets the requirements set forth in Code Section 20-2-2063 and the provisions of this title, and is in the public interest.”
Rep. Jones states, “Charter schools, in some instances, could place added focus on science and math, vocational or International Baccalaureate certification, or the arts. They could even offer a longer day and extra tutoring.” Many of these educational initiatives and options are already in place in traditional public schools throughout the state. An amendment to the Georgia Constitution certainly is not needed in order for schools and districts to offer math, science, and art theme schools, career academies, International Baccalaureate programs, before and after school tutoring, or extended school days.
Rep. Jones indicates that the House Education Committee omitted from HR 1162 a reference to charter school funding. The omission of this reference, according to Rep. Jones, “allows the Legislature to reconsider a better method to fund charter schools with state dollars.” An amendment to the Georgia Constitution is not required in order for the state to determine how it wishes to fund charter schools. In fact, Gov. Deal included in his proposed FY 2012 amended budget $8.7 million for state special charter schools.
Some of the rhetoric associated with the debate of HR 1162 has called to question whether individuals care about children, whether they believe children and their parents should have educational options, and about whether they believe in and support charter schools. Rep. Jones states, “HR 1162 recognizes public education policy has been and should be a shared effort by the state and school boards to deliver the best educational opportunities to students.” There is no debate that children in Georgia deserve the best educational opportunities.
If providing children with the best educational opportunities is, in fact, the intent of HR 1162, can that not already be accomplished without an amendment to Georgia’s Constitution?
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Guides
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2012 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
26 comments Add your comment
Failing School = Charter School Opening
February 15th, 2012
2:34 pm
Wherever there is a failing public school there will be a clamor for a public charter school. It’s the right thing to do. It makes common sense.
As a taxpayer in the Atlanta Public School System who pays exorbitant property taxes I am voting for charter schools.
Close the public schools that fail and get rid of the incompetent employees. When there are good employees in a public school that is failing, the new charter school will welcome you with open arms.
Believe me, good teachers, we parents know who you are. We know what you can do and we want you to stay employed.
Good ma
WT
February 15th, 2012
2:40 pm
“Jack Parish, executive director of the Georgia Association of Educational Leaders”‘ sir, I wholeheartedly concur!!! Thank you for this piece and hopefully many more to follow exposing this proposed legislation as the scam it is!
Dunwoody Mom
February 15th, 2012
2:51 pm
Rep. Jones states, “Charter schools, in some instances, could place added focus on science and math, vocational or International Baccalaureate certification, or the arts
This tells me that Rep. Jones has no clue what goes on in the public school system. There are already traditional public schools that provide these type of offerings.
Ron F.
February 15th, 2012
3:03 pm
“Upon denial of a petition for a start-up charter school by a local board”
This seems to be the language the amendment wishes to change. Rep. Jones wants the state to be able to set up charters without any local input and control funding taken from the local district to fund it. The state can, and does, fund state charter schools, but they can’t divert funds from local boards to do it. The amendment, with its ambiguity on funding, could be used to justify anything in order to fund charters.
3schoolkids
February 15th, 2012
3:31 pm
Representative Jones knows exactly what goes on in the public school system as it was her PTA network in the public school system that initally helped get her elected.
Dunwoody Mom
February 15th, 2012
3:33 pm
If she is familiar with public school then why does she state that Charter schools could offer services already provided by traditional public schools?
Ron F.
February 15th, 2012
3:51 pm
This is a political ploy, either to build her power for moving on up by appealing to the very conservative base in GA, or she’s got some buddies who run a company that manages non-profit charter schools. Either way, the amendment is a means of adding permanency to the state power over local matters, including funding. Locally generated dollars must be kept under local control.
C Jae of EAV
February 15th, 2012
4:12 pm
What the rebuttal author fails to acknowledge is that the Supreme Court ruling specifically cited that state-established schools authorized by the 2008 Georgia Charter Schools Commission Act don’t meet the definition of “special school”.
For this reason that some type of constitutional admendment would be required in order to re-define what a “special school” is or to broaden the authority of the State beyond what the Supreme Court has interpeted as allowable via the state constitution.
Its shameful on all fronts the degree to which so-called spokespeople on either side this debate are clouding the real issue(s) at play here by presenting people with half-truths to bolster their respective positions.
Pass the bill, and let the voters of this state deside for themselves. Between now and Nov there will several months during which people will be able to hear every angle to this issue and vote from an informed position.
The core issue here is not that traditional public schools can’t so some of the same things that public charter schools are doing, its the fact that despite numerous efforts over decades some districts continue fail our kids, refuse to implement fundemental change in their approach to academic delivery and more people are fed up with being asked to hang on for the by and by.
Increasingly, I’m finding that participants in this blog are better capable of debating this issue than the so-called experts, spokespeople & legislators who are voting on it. Scary….
Ed Advocate
February 15th, 2012
4:29 pm
I agree with Mr. Parish. There is no need for a constitutional amendment to allow the state to do something it’s already doing–authorizing state charter schools. Several such schools were authorized this summer, and according to the GA DOE, more are on line for authorization this spring. If the purpose of the charter amendment isn’t authorizing charter schools, what is it about?
3schoolkids
February 15th, 2012
4:30 pm
@Dunwoody Mom: Representative Jones knows that she is walking a fine line with the Charter Schools Amendment. She knows she must provide reasons that her constituents will agree with and relate to without casting public schools in a bad light.
I have looked at campaign finance reports for many legislators and there is no smoking gun as far as non-profit or for-profit educational companies. There are many PACs that push Charters and Vouchers contributing to both Republicans and Democrats alike. The angle I see is that in order to provide companies looking to locate to Georgia with educated and skilled employees we must provide an educational alternative to our public schools. When you have market driven policy groups lobbying and educational non-profits funded by large corporations providing grants and pushing the Charter alternative, you are probably going to get more Charters. And it is not just a metro Atlanta issue that we can leave rural Georgia out of. The message is if you want commerce in your county you better join the parade. While I don’t fear a Constitutional Amendement on the ballot in November, I disagree with the present wording that stands to mislead many and fails to define what “special” school is and guarantee local funds will not be used.
Ned
February 15th, 2012
4:36 pm
“Upon denial of a petition for a start-up charter school by a local board” captures both what is right and what is wrong here.
Local boards DO arbitrarily and with no cause other than a lust for maintaining power and control of money both deny charters and prevent citizen involvement in traditional schools. These boards are entrenched and nearly impossible to change (even if they don’t figure out a way, as the DeKalb board is trying to do, to create a board not subject to a vote until 2014). Note that I am for the most part speaking of boards in mega-districts, that perhaps ought to be broken up, not of smaller districts.
The state legislature and state BOE, however, hardly seems the vehicle to enhance local citizens’ control. Replacing one unanswering bureaucracy with another is no solution at all. It’s just a way of shifting who controls the money.
3schoolkids
February 15th, 2012
5:35 pm
Please see this link, it is very interesting. Especially for one who thinks a charter school will provide good places for our good teachers to go to. All I did was put the word Charter School into the H1B visa search engine and the first 50 employers nationwide came up:
http://www.myvisajobs.com/Search_Visa_Sponsor.aspx?N=Charter+School&S=
Note that there are a total of 393 employers nationwide and these are just the ones that have the word “Charter School” in their title. Is it really necessary to go to other countries to find good teachers?
3schoolkids
February 15th, 2012
5:46 pm
These are current Court Cases involving Charter Schools. I only searched federal cases using the search term “Charter School”, currently 209 open cases nationwide.
http://dockets.justia.com/search?query=Charter+School
I am not trying to paint Charter schools in a bad light (oh, well maybe just a little) but I think it emphasizes the fact that while we do have some successful Charters in Georgia, no one is immune from problems. And, I would be curious to know if a student’s civil rights are violated at a Charter school that is funded by the State then is the State a party to the lawsuit if one is filed? And if so, then if the State is allowed to use local funds then would the County also be liable?
perspicacious
February 15th, 2012
6:34 pm
Lots of fear giving parents more power in their child’s education is what i see. Vouchers and charters schools who are not restricted by the local boe, teach above the state standards instead of just the CRCT passing mills the public schools have become. Yea why would we want that? Certain ideologs loses their grip on ( indoctrination) education and their heads might explode. We would not want that…
2kidsinschool
February 15th, 2012
6:41 pm
I fear the schools this will create. Knowing some of the right wing nut jobs in this state, they will teach creationism and that global warming is some kind of mythic creation of scientists.
Larry Major
February 15th, 2012
8:34 pm
Thank you, Mr. Parish. It’s nice to see some genuine facts show up in this controversy.
@C Jae of EAV, While HR 1335 doesn’t specifically mention “special” schools, it provides a constitutional exception to any charter school denied by a local BOE – which is what HR 1662 supporters claim they want.
HR 1335 specifically grants the state authority to make education policy, which is the other thing HR 1662 supporters claim they want.
The only real difference between the two is that HR 1335 will make it clearly unconstitutional to take state funding away from the kids who earned it and give it to another school. HR 1662 supporters claim they aren’t trying to rip off kids enrolled in conventional public schools and now we will see if they’re being honest.
I think the AJC should call Tony Roberts and get his position on Hr 1335.
Jerry Eads
February 15th, 2012
8:37 pm
There MUST be an unspoken reason this pseudo-conservative legislator wants this most certainly UNCONSERVATIVE state centralized control over the approval of charter schools, stealing local tax monies to do it. This can’t be other than some personal vendetta against ONE local school board that found ONE charter school proposal unacceptable for their local needs. As noted by the school folk, there is already a perfectly functioning mechanism for the approval of charter schools at the local level, which serves the intended purpose of charter schools – innovation.
Barge’s just-reported finding that charters are no better than regular schools simply confirms locally what every piece of research nationally has shown. (Kudos to the folks on the ground who actually did the analysis.) On average, charters don’t do a great deal of harm, and in some cases do good things. It’s WAY past time for this lady to follow the advice of the old Eagles tune. Get over it. Get out of the way, and let the legislature do something useful for the citizenry of Georgia for a change.
redweather
February 15th, 2012
10:13 pm
Beware of constitutional amendments. Lawyers write them.
NO Charter Needed
February 15th, 2012
10:42 pm
We keep hearing how much we need charter schools, but nothing about how anyone will fix the school system we already pay for. Do not fix the problem just start a new school system and throw the children left behind down the stairs.
d
February 15th, 2012
11:17 pm
There is a problem I have yet to see answered fully anywhere in the Get Schooled Blog…. What, exactly, defines a school as “failing”? I see that term thrown around all the time in here, but we are not told what makes a school failing? Is it the NCLB definition of AYP where one group of students can label an entire school that is otherwise successful? Are we looking at anything beyond test scores? SAT was never designed to measure success of an individual….. the “A” (when it was introduced) stood for Aptitude- or ability…. not academic achievement or anything to that effect. Georgia students, comparatively, do better on the ACT which is more aligned to a typical high school curriculum.
I find myself looking at the motto of DeKalb County Schools – “The School Cannot Live Apart From The Community.” Why aren’t we looking at the bigger problem, and not just focusing on the school? Is it the job of the local public school to solve all problems? Is it the responsibility of the school to make sure students come to school well fed, washed, dressed, respectful, not frightened of the problems of the real world? Sure the school can and should be a safe haven, but sometimes the problems our children are facing are much greater than a school can solve, much less worrying about the standards on top of that.
Tony
February 15th, 2012
11:21 pm
Nice piece in AJC today about how charters are no better than traditional public schools. I’m sure facts like that will not deter our legislators, however.
Active in Cherokee
February 16th, 2012
8:35 pm
My biggest problem with both this house bill and the previous commission – Money collected locally MUST stay with local control. If amendments can be passed to change this for educational purposes what is stopping the state government from then doing the same with other local agencies such as police, fire, and sanitation, etc? LOCAL control is one of the fundations of the Republican Party and I am ashamed of any so-called Republican who votes against it. They are proving themselves no better than our current National administration in wanting to take power away from the local government and in turn the individual.
Shel
February 17th, 2012
4:51 pm
@ 3schoolkids- Thanks for the links, but they are just the tip of the iceberg. The devil is in the details.
@ Jerry Eads- Well stated and completely true! Thanks for hitting the nail on the head.
Active in Cherokee- My husband and I have this same conversation every day.
Tell the Truth
February 18th, 2012
10:34 pm
Lets see Maureen. So far you have had three op-eds against a constitutional amendment to deal with the Supreme Court decision striking down the charter schools commission and the schools of choice for thousands of kids. You have allowed one op-Ed for and that was by Rep Jones. Where is the balance in reporting and sharing of views?m I thought the paper didn’t take positions any more. But it is clear as day you have a position and you are printing every negative position you can find to push it. Not everyone can afford to send their children to private school (as do you). So, at least for the sake of those parents, why can’t you let this be a fair and balanced discussion? After all, what do you and so many of your readers fear? You don’t want the legislature to pass HR1162 because you fear the public will vote for it in a referendum? All you who tout local control–is a general referendum of the people not the broadest, most basic form of local control? Or is it not, if you don’t agree with it. Let our people let their voice be heard on this issue in November.
BJ
February 18th, 2012
10:58 pm
@Jack Parrish. I guess if you taught school in Clayton County and UGANDA, that also means you are a legal expert whose knowledge of law and, especially, constitutional law far exceeds that of Georgia’s Attorney General and Justice David Nahmias. Both of those, and now our Governor, Lt Governor, Speaker of the House, and a host of legislators are convinced that we must have an amendment to our Constitution to fix a very real problem. But you know better than all of them. That’s what wrong with education in Georgia. Everybody protecting their turf, but few from the professional education associations who represent teachers, supers, and others ever willing to concede that Georgia has a major problem and keeping things the way they are is not good for our children. The parents and children of Georgia have a friend in Rep Jones who is sticking her professional reputation on the line to insure parents have options when their children need them. But thanks for the legal lesson. Do you also do dental work and brain surgery?
Maureen Downey
February 19th, 2012
9:43 am
@Tell, I had two op-ed pieces promised last week, and one just arrived.
http://blogs.ajc.com/get-schooled-blog/2012/02/19/uncf-president-and-former-fulton-chair-michael-lomax-approve-charter-school-amendment/
Maureen