School chiefs official: The “rest of the story” on charter school amendment battle
Herbert W. Garrett is executive director of the Georgia School Superintendents Association and a former principal in Marietta and superintendent of Jefferson City schools and of the Henry County schools.
Here is Garrett’s response to the ongoing and passionate charter school amendment debate. The amendment, which lost last week in the House by 10 votes, is expected to come up for a reconsideration this week. You can read a piece in favor of the amendment by former Fulton Commission Chair Michael Lomax here.
By Herbert W. Garrett
Legendary commentator Paul Harvey always spoke of “the rest of the story.” Get the rest, he told his millions of listeners, and you get the whole story.
The whole story has proven hard to get on the current charter schools bill.
The issue is simple: Should Georgia voters be asked to approve a constitutional change this November? That change would result in the revival of a now-defunct, Atlanta-based commission of political appointees empowered to approve charter schools in local communities without the approval of local boards of education.
If I may, let me relate to you the version of that legislation as it is being told by those who favor a constitutional amendment. Then I would like to follow that with the very essential “rest of the story.”
Story line No. 1: “This is just an Atlanta issue.”
Not so. Before the state Supreme Court put a stop to it in a 4-3 ruling last Spring, “commission charter schools” were formed all over Georgia. They were set up without the advice or approval of the local school board.
Story line No. 2: “This is not about local control.”
The Boston Tea Party was not about tea, either. It was about taxation. Setting up school through a faceless commission in Atlanta without the approval of the local school board elected by the voters is just plain taxation without representation.
Story line No. 3: “This is not about money.”
According to the bill, that’s right, it’s not about money. All references to funding were wiped out of the bill when it was revised after an initial defeat in the House of Representatives, which has now passed it this week.
One reason is that money for local schools has been dropping as a result of the economic crash of 2008. It would drop further if the Atlanta-based commission plan were put in place.
Some leaders of the House claim there will be no attempt to divert local funds to commissioned charter schools, though there is no firm written commitment of that pledge.
Charter schools cannot operate on state funds only. Most charter schools state: “We cannot operate only on state QBE funds.” (The state has even thrown an extra $17 million in state funds to them to support them over the next two years.)
This whole matter puts the sons and daughters of Georgia in a box. We can write up a formula that takes money away from local districts or write up a formula that gives charter schools more state money per pupil than their traditional school counterparts. Whichever, the commission would create automatic inequity for Georgia schoolchildren.
Besides, outside management companies are often brought in to run charter schools. This third-party involvement not only diverts money from local boards, but it also raises serious questions of accountability. Voters are left outside looking in on a multi-layered operation of public and private entities.
Story line No. 4: “A state-level commission is needed to ensure that more charter schools are created.”
The website of our own Department of Education lists over seven pages of charter schools in Georgia, more than 150 of them all told. That includes start-ups, conversion of existing institutions to charters, and whole systems of nothing but charter schools. The charter school movement in Georgia is clearly flourishing.
Story Line No. 5: “This amendment is needed to ‘clarify the state’s role in setting education policy.’”
Without the amendment, the argument goes, it is not clear that the state can actually run schools. No, the state’s role is still what it was: a partner with local boards in educating Georgia’s boys and girls.
Story line No. 6: “Charter schools are good for Georgia.”
On this, we agree. But only if they’re set up and operated with the approval and support of local school boards elected by the people.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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© 2012 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
98 comments Add your comment
TW
February 21st, 2012
9:24 am
It’s odd that a people so proud of heritage and family would sit back and watch Chip Rogers lift his leg on their own public school children.
Way to go Cherokee, way to go…lol…
JB
February 21st, 2012
9:35 am
The argument here seems to be: quality schools are created by elected boards because they are accountable to voters and taxpayers. Atlanta Public Schools is comprised mostly of elected officials. They have acted with impunity for the last 10 years – fostering a systemic cheating scandal, and mismanaging tax funding, spending millions of dollars to build schools that sit half empty while letting overcrowded, high-performing schools literally collapse on students’ heads. Errol Davis – a non-elected official and the current darling of Atlanta politics, has recently stated that APS has no obligation to follow SPLOST budgets presented to the State and to voters – despite Georgia code which states just the opposite.
Private schools perform just fine without school board oversight – likely because people can vote with their feet –unlike current public school systems.
R
February 21st, 2012
9:48 am
From The Arkansas Times (http://www.arktimes.com/blogs/ArkansasBlog) – the SAME thing is happening here in Georgia.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012 – 06:33:46
Education The Kochs target public schools
[I’ve mentioned before that the billionaire Koch brothers have expanded their anti-tax, anti-regulation, anti-union portfolio to include an assault on public education. They want to voucherize, charterize and ultimately privatize it.
I’ve also mentioned before that Koch-paid Arkansas operatives are at work driving the so-called “school choice” privatization bandwagon.
So clip this article and save it. It will be coming soon to Little Rock, though bits of it are already in evidence. It’s about cookie-cutter legislation from the Koch-funded American Legislative Exchange Council popping up in multiple states. ALEC, you may also know, is the favored source of legislative influence for Republicans in the Arkansas legislature. The non-partisan National Conference of State Legislatures is targeted for financial strangulation by Republicans in the Arkansas House to clear the field for the corporate-sponsored influence of ALEC.
Some of the ALEC agenda has already insinuated itself here. The “reform” movement hates democratically elected school boards. You won’t find any at the charter schools. These are public schools spending public money that are unaccountable to voters or, for the most part, the parents of the kids who enroll there. Turning out the unacceptable student is, after all, a key element of the charter “success” story.”
Jill
February 21st, 2012
10:05 am
JB:
Below is the loophole by which districts have fudged SPLOST spending for years. Although Article VIII; Section VI; Paragraph IV of teh Georgia Constitution does state that the resolution calling for the imposition of the tax and the ballot question shall each describe: the specific capital outlay projects to be funded, or the specific debt to be retired, or both, if applicable; it goes on to say that with respect to excess funds raised “all such funds shall be maintained in a separate, restricted account and held solely for the expenditure for future capital outlay projects for educational purposes”. Almost any expenditure can be justified under the guise of educational purposes.
.
Brandy
February 21st, 2012
10:06 am
@Maureen, With the recent release of performance data on charter schools, is an analysis of the performance of the original commission charter schools’ performance available?
JB Voting with your feet / GM
February 21st, 2012
10:11 am
Very well said, JB, who wrote “Private schools perform just fine without school board oversight – likely because people can vote with their feet –unlike current public school systems.”
If a charter school fails or is not living up to parental and student expectations, the students can simply leave, which is not true of a traditional public school. When a public charter school fails, it closes. When a traditinal public school fails, it remains open and damages children for decades while sucking the tax dollars out of the parents.
People will and do vote with their feet and right now there are waiting lists at charter schools. So many people are voting with their feet that there aren’t enough spaces for all those feet.
Success is a waiting list. If you build a good school, they will come. If we continue to have failing traditional public schools with no charters, we all suffer.
Parents want and need a choice.
Good Mother
Beverly Fraud
February 21st, 2012
10:21 am
What Herb doesn’t want to admit. If local school boards didn’t have a VERY well earned reputation for turning a DEAF ear to their constituents the state commission wouldn’t have had the support it has.
You want a parent to waste up to FOUR YEARS of their child’s educational experience waiting to vote out a recalcitrant incumbent?
And what do you want to bet there are UNTOLD numbers of instances that Mr. “Local Control” has readily EMBRACED state AND federal meddling into education?
Charter Schools are PUBLIC Schools
February 21st, 2012
10:22 am
“Besides, outside management companies are often brought in to run charter schools.”
If really disturbs me that people at Mr. Garrett’s level still don’t even bother to learn how charter schools are governed and operate.
Also, I am tired of the same people throwing in words that imply that most charter schools utilize privately run companies for contracted services. “Often” really is “sometimes” and “brought in to run “ is really “contracted for services with” but that makes for a less compelling argument so why bother with the facts I suppose.
All charter schools in Georgia are non-profit and run by a volunteer (i.e. unpaid) Governing Board that isn’t allowed to have members that are also employees of any companies that contract with the school.
A misleading statement like this from the head of the Georgia School Superintendents is simply inexcusable. I continue to be amazed at the number of educators (especially in leading positions like this) who have failed to do even basic research on charter school governance (practice what you preach to your students!).
There are plenty of “factual” reasons to dislike public charter schools and the current charter school amendment so why do so many opponents of both continue to use these same false arguments over and over again?
From the Georgia Department of Education Charter School FAQ (scroll down to the Organization and Governance section):
http://public.doe.k12.ga.us/External-Affairs-and-Policy/Charter-Schools/Pages/General-Frequently-Asked-Questions.aspx
“Who runs a charter school?”
“A non-profit governing board holds the charter for the school. The governing board is responsible for ensuring that academic performance measures set forth in the charter are met. The governing board’s duties and responsibilities include school-level decision making, fiscal management, and a variety of school operations such as personnel decisions.”
“What authority does the board have if the school contracts with an educational management organization (“EMO”)?”
“The charter school’s governing board has the decision making authority, not the EMO. EMO representatives cannot sit on the governing board of a charter school, as this presents a conflict of interest.”
Aquagirl
February 21st, 2012
10:24 am
Setting up school through a faceless commission in Atlanta without the approval of the local school board elected by the voters is just plain taxation without representation.
Finally, someone who gets it! If a school board sucks, that’s the choice of the voters. That’s how our country works, you get the government you vote for. If you live in a place where people are idiots, they’re also voting on a host of other things and if you don’t like those results you either live with them or you move. Just because your precious little snowflake is involved doesn’t mean you get to overrule everyone else’s input while still taking their tax dollars.
If you don’t want me making decisions–through my elected officials—about your child’s education, then keep your damned grubby paws off of my tax money.
Beverly Fraud
February 21st, 2012
10:26 am
What Herb doesn’t want to admit is, if local school boards didn’t have a VERY well earned reputation was being unresponsive, this bill wouldn’t have seen the light of day.
You want a parent to waste up to FOUR YEARS of their child’s educational experience voting out a recalcitrant incumbent?
And what do you want to bet Mr. “Local Control” has UNTOLD numbers of times he has EMBRACED state and federal meddling?
Beverly Fraud
February 21st, 2012
10:27 am
The blog monster is feeding this morning?
MannyT
February 21st, 2012
10:32 am
If the state wants to control educational options, why doesn’t the state create a state level charter school that is (potentially) open to all students within the state? It could evolve from the Governors Honor Program to cover as many areas/career specialties as the politicians want to support.. NC has a “state” high school like this, the NC School of Science & Mathematics.
http://www.ncssm.edu/
Otherwise, the state level politicians should not get into the fiscal weeds of local school systems. No need to create additional unfunded mandates within the political mess.
All that said, I think the reasonable next level of voting with feet is allowing school choice within a school system. The money stays within the bureaucracy. However, the student movement will push school boards to address problems at their lower performing schools when they have space while the top performers are oversubscribed.
Aqua Girl Forgets
February 21st, 2012
10:54 am
Aquagirl, you are forgetting something. You wrote “If you don’t want me making decisions–through my elected officials—about your child’s education, then keep your damned grubby paws off of my tax money.”
Here’s the part you are forgetting — it’s not just your tax money. The tax money also belongs to the parents of the students who are not satisfied with the failing traditional public schools. If you are worried about grubby paws stealing your tax money — look at the APS and Dekalb county school boards. They are the ones stealing it. Have you read about all the theft and corruption and lying by those thugs?
I agree with you that you want your tax dollars used wisely and treated respectfully and spent wisely — but just because a criminal gets elected doesn’t make him or her an honest citizen. Crooks get elected to school boards. When those crooks get elected, I want their grubby paws off my tax dollars too.
GM
Beverly Fraud
February 21st, 2012
11:03 am
By the way, weren’t the state legislators who pushed this legislation LOCALLY ELECTED?
Like Charters but not those with for-profit EMOs
February 21st, 2012
11:12 am
If the private EMOs exert no control on local non profit charter boards, please explain the issues at Heritage Prepatory Academy and Imagine Wesley in Atlanta. Please explain how the novice board at Heritage Prepatory Academy cannot get rid of ther EMO because they are MILLIONS of dollars in debt for the building the EMO built. The State chater approval board was only concered with the financial viability of a charter schools starting and not the academic soundness of the charter plan.
C Jae of EAV
February 21st, 2012
11:12 am
Its shameful that officials like Mr. Garrett insist on projecting half-truths that distort the debate. His statement “…Besides, outside management companies are often brought in to run charter schools…” simply doesn’t reflect the facts as documented in the GA BOE report on Charter Schools released just last week.
The report in question identifies that approximately 13% of the 110 charter schools operating in GA have operational partnerships with EMO’s (i.e. for profit private enterpise). We’re talking a grand total of 14 schools out of 110! The numbers do not support the validity of the claim made. There are simularly styled half-truths woven throughout in his op-ed that for me manifests his expressions were meant to mislead public opinion.
JB
February 21st, 2012
11:17 am
@Jill
Interesting point. However, that language would indicate that excess receipts – above the submitted budget — could be set aside for future unnamed expenditures after the named projects were completed. APS is claiming that they have not completed projects due to a shortfall of dollars – lower property tax receipts due to economic downturn and the $45 million payback to Fulton for a miscount of students. To submit the 2011 budget before the vote and then throw it out, indicates either an inability to forecast and budget, or deliberate misrepresentation.
Dr. John Trotter
February 21st, 2012
11:18 am
Well said, Herb. I am not against charter schools per se, but I am against this not-so-veiled attempt to get around local control, however bad the local control may appear to be at the time. I agreed with the ruling of the Georgia Supreme Court, and I think that it would be very unwise for a Constitutional Amendment to be proposed and/or passed on this matter. I was also opposed to the Constitutional Amendment in 1994 on the State requiring all school systems to have an appointed superintendent. This certainly has been a failure. Appointed superintendents are virtual tyrants, answering only to a handful of school board members whom they have already co-opted!
If you as a parent are not satisfied with local public schools, then go about trying to get a charter school approved by the local board. If this doesn’t work, run for the school board and encourage others to do the same. If you are not successful in your electoral endeavors, then pay the money to send your kid to private school. This is how the process works. But, changing the Georgia Constitution so that you can get around local control (however “bad” it may be!) is not the answer. This appears to me to be a backdoor attempt for the State to fund certain children’s “private” or private-like education. My children went to private schools for years. I have no problem with private education, but we paid for it, not the State. My children also attended public schools.
Charter schools, by definition, are rather selective. I don’t really like the idea of using public monies to fund “selective” schools. Nevertheless, if elected school board members make the decision to fund these schools, then at least these school board members are accountable to their constituents. But, this Super Deluxe Charter School Commission would not be accountable to the People. The politically connected would be appointed to this Super Deluxe Charter School Commission, and the power and concomitant corruption which will surely ensue will be frightening. Those in the State who want a “private” charter school could then ignore their local school board, travel to Atlanta (or clandestinely meet with individual members in out-of-the-way places) with hat in hand, and kiss the Golden Posterior of the Super Deluxe Charter School Commission. This SDCSC will end up being an educational monster, totally out of control and wreaking havoc within public education in Georgia.
rascal
February 21st, 2012
11:19 am
How can any sensible person continue to support government run schools when they have failed the citizens of this state for the past 100 years? This in spite of funding that has driven up property taxes to unreasonable levels, all to protect the “untouchable” notion of “public education”. Why is a public institution, even one that fails most of its customers, protected by the very people that have been failed by it? The real issue is that people do not know what they are missing in a truly competitive environment, until they have actually seen one. The current system is anything but competitive. Most of the people protecting the current structure are making money off of it or are in what they consider good schools. Try telling that to the poor family stuck in one of the underperforming schools. Tell them how they should” wait for us to fix the problem” while their kids are stuck in the system due to zip code and no competition. What is the government run bureaucracy scared of, SUCCESS? How do the leeches in the current system claim they only have the interest of the children at heart when they have allowed this to go on for so damn long. How much more harm can come to these families than the current system forces on them?
HS Public Teacher
February 21st, 2012
11:23 am
@rascal -
Wow. Read your first sentence. Could you exagerate any more? You sound like you are quoting for some FOX news report. LOL!
All public education is not failing. Many or possibly even most are succeeding quite nicely, thank you very much.
I could point to specific examples right here in Atlanta and in the rest of the State, but it sounds like you are the type that is hard headed and not open to listening to (gulp!) the facts.
Lastly, you mention that school “success” seems to be related to zip code. Gee. Ever wonder why? Don’t you think that maybe, just maybe, it has to do with the community more so than the school?
By the way, I don’t teach English and I am a horrible speller. Forgive me if I didn’t spell word(s) properly!
Beverly Fraud
February 21st, 2012
12:10 pm
Dr. Trotter states:
Well said, Herb. I am not against charter schools per se, but I am against this not-so-veiled attempt to get around local control, however bad the local control may appear to be at the time.
Well so much for the theory that Beverly Fraud is Dr. Trotter in disguise LOL.
Funny Dr. T, but when you wrote “not so veiled” my first thought was Carnival in Rio!
And I agree it’s an “end around” a “not so veiled attempt” a BLATANT political power play. I’m just not sure, at this point, how we get local boards like APS to RESPOND to their constituents, especially when the educational industrial complex is giving them NATIONAL awards.
The cure may be worse than the disease granted, but since we can’t EUTHANIZE school boards, something has gotta be done.
I’ll say this…if the Georgia General Assembly spent even a TENTH of the time crafting legislation that would EMPOWER teachers to hold students accountable for both academics AND behavior, with some protections against administrative RETALIATION, we wouldn’t need these “end runs around local control”
But then educrats can’t get PAID to “fix the teacher” if you actually EMPOWER them can they?
Ron F.
February 21st, 2012
12:11 pm
To those using defunct local boards as a reason to approve charters, think about this: these boards are elected by us as citizens. Those elections turn out pitifully low numbers of voters typically. Look at voting numbers in the last twenty years for local elections where there was no hot-button issue, and you’ll see that fact. In all my years in Clayton county, even when the board members were challenged in elections, the populace simply didn’t bother to vote. So they ceded control to the few diligent voters who did show up. If you want to have influence and change these defunct boards (and many do, in fact, need serious change quickly), then we have to get involved. The problem with charter schools is that the management of them can be difficult to contact, especially if they are “managed” by an outside company. And you can’t convince me that the state really wants to manage all the state-approved charter schools it will set up if this amendment passes. And when we have no vote to insert our influence with, then how will we hold them accountable? Simply leave and return to the already underfunded public school?
I understand the parental frustration, and I support the idea of charters or some sort of school structure that can change the current mess in many districts. That said, is giving control to the state the answer? How will we influence the commission’s decisions and hold them accountable when we don’t vote for the members?
Aquagirl
February 21st, 2012
12:12 pm
The tax money also belongs to the parents of the students who are not satisfied with the failing traditional public schools.
Saying the tax money BELONGS to those parents is a telling choice of words. No, it doesn’t. And people with that attitude—that this money BELONGS to me because it’s MY kid—need a kick in the pants. You pay school taxes as an obligation to society and everyone’s kids. That’s why people without school age children pay them too.
Now, if you want to confine taxes to only those with kids in school (which I would oppose, BTW) and those people want to exclude others from voting, that’s understandable.
But no, you don’t take other people’s tax money and then create your own little fiefdom where they get no opinion. Sorry you don’t like the Constitution, it understandably upsets those who like to spend other people’s taxes without giving them a vote.
When those crooks get elected, I want their grubby paws off my tax dollars too.
Oh, you don’t have the unilateral power to un-elect whoever you personally deem a crook? Well boo-hoo. You have one vote, like every other citizen.Your control freak tendencies are not my problem, try therapy.
Beverly Fraud
February 21st, 2012
12:14 pm
I think the lesson we have learned today: If your local school board REFUSES to address your grievances, alert the media that your local school board member was seen with oregano, then demand his/her immediate resignation.
Ron F.
February 21st, 2012
12:14 pm
Beverly: Look to Wisconsin. When enough people get upset and get involved, they get a movement going. The problem in APS and other districts is that plenty of people want to complain, but how many will get out and knock on doors and start recall campaigns or volunteer to campaign for a new candidate when elections roll around? They’re in this mess, in part, because not enough people voted or cared enough to even know who the candidates were.
Ron F's good question
February 21st, 2012
12:16 pm
Ron F asked a good question (regarding charters) “How will we influence the commission’s decisions and hold them accountable when we don’t vote for the members?
Charter schools also have a board. The parents elect the board and the board chooses to run the school themselves or the board hires a company. There is accountability and it is much more local than a gigantic defunct school board like APS. I do vote but my elected board member is often outvoted by other board members, which is no vote at all. THe truth is, APS and Dekalb are just too big. We need to break those mega-districts into smaller school districts for more local control.
GM
Mary Elizabeth
February 21st, 2012
12:23 pm
The people of Georgia are going to have to decide if they support public education or not.
Rick Santorum, conservative Republican candidate for U.S. President, within the last day has said that the federal government and the state government have no place in education. His words reflect the far-rightwing ideological position regarding public education. Those of great wealth and of high political power support this position in lock-step fashion. The Koch Brothers, and others of their ilk, have been contributing funds toward the end of dismantling public education. The link which was posted on this blog a couple of weeks ago, which showed that Chip Rogers sits on the National Board of ALEC, is no longer able to be seen.
There are forces who are trying to undermine public education in this nation and that fact must be acknowledged and faced openly, with full insight, by the people. The charter movement is only one step toward dismantling public education.
Public education was advocated by Thomas Jefferson, paid for by taxes from the general public, to ensure that public, not private, interests are served throughout our nation. The unprejudicial education of the American populace is essential, wrote Jefferson, toward ensuring the continuation of our democratic Republic.
Public education must be sustained, in my view, if our nation – as it was designed to be – survives. The charter issue is more a political movement than it is an educational one, and its presence offers no less stark a choice than I have described. We do not need a parallel bevy of public charter schools functioning alongside traditional public schools. We need public charter schools that work in harmony with locally elected public school boards. And, we need to fund, and to improve, traditional public schools for all of the children of this state.
http://www.pfaw.org/press-releases/2012/02/alecs-grip-ohios-legislature-puts-corporations-above-people
Ron F.
February 21st, 2012
12:31 pm
GM: “THe truth is, APS and Dekalb are just too big. We need to break those mega-districts into smaller school districts for more local control.”
Now that makes sense. In my small district, the whole county knows, lives near, and goes to church with the board members. Even the super lives right in town and you run into him at one of the two grocery stores in town. Perhaps dividing these large districts into smaller units would help. That could be done without costing a fortune and perhaps save some of the waste we see now at the district. I tell you, it doesn’t happen for long in my district. Folks go to the county office and personally share their opinions!
I still don’t think we’d have as much influence with a charter school board if an outside company is hired and paid to run a school. Even with oversight, the money spent hiring this company could be so much better used. I think that is my main issue- the state really isn’t discussing how the schools it sets up will be managed. True public charters may be good. I just don’t want private companies coming in and I really think the state will allow and even encourage that.
MannyT
February 21st, 2012
12:39 pm
Influence often comes early. If your charter board hires a 3rd party to run the school, then much of that influence comes in the contract terms. Get what you expect in the deal prior to the selection of a company to run the school.
Similar to when people get in trouble on TV judge shows, often it comes down to the contract that was signed prior to any dispute. The better that contract fits your local needs, the better your chances of getting what you originally requested.
Raquel Morris
February 21st, 2012
12:39 pm
@Dr. Trotter-
You can use the word “private” as many times as you want, but it won’t make it true. Charter schools are public schools. They are financed by public dollars and are open to all children within their district. Charter schools are public schools. They cannot choose their students and are subject to the same standards as neighborhood public schools. Charter schools are public schools.
You say that, “charter schools, by definition, are very selective,” but there are no facts to back up your claim. Charter schools are public schools. Children who live within their district apply, WITHOUT submitting grades, test scores, or recommendations, and seats are assigned by a random lottery. Charter schools are public schools. They are subject to civil rights laws protecting students with disabilities and other special needs. Charter schools are public schools.
Shar
February 21st, 2012
12:44 pm
Do any contributors to this blog, overwhelmingly a concerned, well-intentioned and informed lot, truly believe that state legislators will actually make decisions based on the welfare of the children and taxpayers of a district to which they are not accountable when they are offered cash and favors by outside influences such as ALEC?
Please remember that these are the same people who are doing their best to force college campuses to allow students (whose susceptibility to drugs, alcohol, immaturity and stress we have extensively discussed here) to carry guns while at the same time pulling Georgia troopers from their duties in protecting Georgia citizens to add extra layers of security for themselves, including additional restrictions on what can be carried into the Statehouse. Needless to say, guns are not being considered for admittance into their sheltered (and tax-funded) bunker.
I do not trust these legislators to care that my children have an increased likelihood of getting shot, only to care that they can curry favor and money from the NRA. I do not trust people who lack even the most basic educational credentials to make decisions about what Georgia’s children will need to know to compete 20 or 30 years from now, but I do expect them to be far more open to the opinions of those who can line their pockets than to those who have no choice but to pay taxes. I do not trust the leadership of this state, which has ten years of proven starving of the public education system, to suddenly care about the quality of education, but I do believe that they will do just about anything to get their fingers into the glistening pile of property tax funds that can and will open up a whole new layer of “influence” that they can shop.
Local school boards have been too resistant to change, as it threatens their bureaucratic hold on power. This is a real problem that needs addressing. The charter initiative seeks to “clarify the state’s role in educational innovation”, which is already clear – the state DOE reviews curricular changes, including charters, and acts as a lever to force local boards to open up, as witnessed by the number of schools that are indeed operating. HR 1162 offers nothing that is not currently available to parents, taxpayers or the state DOE professionals – the only new thing here is the intrusion of state legislators to meddle in local education without any oversight or accountability. In the absence of any reasonable expectation of politicians putting citizens before lobbyists, or if the charter movement was not already expanding in the state, HR 1162 and its supporters are clearly just making a power grab at the expense of taxpayers and students.
Local tax payer
February 21st, 2012
12:57 pm
In order to win the support of those who were afraid of losing local tax dollars to charter schools, the supporters of the charter amendment have now said that they will fund their approved charter schools without using any local money. If that is the case, I say that we shut down all of our traditional schools and let the state create charter schools to replace them. We can then eliminate local property taxes to fund schools and shift the full cost of public education back to the state.
3schoolkids
February 21st, 2012
1:21 pm
@Local tax payer: That is a great idea, but the issue is they would have to raise taxes in order to do that and we can’t have that or our governor, senators and representatives would go down in history as having raised taxes.
The clear facts here are that the Supreme Court said the State CANNOT create what they call “special schools” because it is a violation of our constitution. Yet they did just that even after the decision when they approved charters and gave them money even AFTER the Supreme Court’s decision in May. Cherokee Charter met with the State on June 2nd and had a decision from them less than one month later. So they MUST push this amendment to get it on the ballot in November and voted in before someone wises up to what they are doing and files another lawsuit. Hmmm, maybe the Cherokee county schoolboard has a bargaining chip after all.
To Local Tax Payer
February 21st, 2012
1:21 pm
You have sage advice “….shift the full cost of public education back to the state.”
…and I would further advocate that we should shift the full cost of public education to the feds.’
Property taxes are a stupid way to fund public schools becasue the public schools become unequal.
Every US citizen deserves the right to a good public affordable education. Our democracy cannot survive without it.
GM
Dr. Craig Spinks/ Georgians for Educational Excellence
February 21st, 2012
1:22 pm
Is this the best that Garrett can deliver?
Beverly Fraud is on a roll...
February 21st, 2012
1:24 pm
“I think the lesson we have learned today: If your local school board REFUSES to address your grievances, alert the media that your local school board member was seen with oregano, then demand his/her immediate resignation.”
Please tell me you are interested in stand up comedy. I just love your funny sarcasm.
You are almost as entertaining as 30 Rock.
GM
Dr. Craig Spinks/ Georgians for Educational Excellence
February 21st, 2012
1:26 pm
Makes me pine for the return of the gentleman-scholar Dr. Barr.
Active in Cherokee
February 21st, 2012
1:28 pm
I hate that so much of this fight keeps coming back to Cherokee and the Charter that was not approved here (thank Chip Rogers and minions). I am sick of the political movement of Charter Schools. That being said – I think parents and students do deserve some type of choice – be it bussing, charters, STEM, Magnet, IB, Vocational or whatever else. Limiting all this legislation only to promote the creation of charter schools is just plain dumb. Dr. P has listened to the residents here about school choice and is trying to set up a magnet system for CCSD allowing parents/students more school choice- yet people are still calling for ‘their’ charter (led again by Rogers and the minions).
Locally generated tax money should be under the control of the local government – not the state or the nation via unfunded mandates or any or ways. That goes for education and every other facet of government. Any officials fighting/voting against that have no right to call themselves Republicans and should be stripped of their party designation.
Mary Elizabeth
February 21st, 2012
1:38 pm
These words from Shar at 12:44 pm should be highlighted:
====================================================
“The charter initiative seeks to ‘clarify the state’s role in educational innovation,’ which is already clear – the state DOE reviews curricular changes, including charters, and acts as a lever to force local boards to open up, as witnessed by the number of schools that are indeed operating. HR 1162 offers nothing that is not currently available to parents, taxpayers or the state DOE professionals. . .”
=====================================================
In other words, HR 1162 is unnecessary legislation. I believe that Herbert Garrett, also, confirmed that HR 1162 is unnecessary, when he appeared on GPTV’s “The Lawmakers” approximately 10 days ago.
Amazed
February 21st, 2012
1:42 pm
@ Spinks
Makes me pine for the some intelectual response. No response = nothing worthwhile to say except attack the messenger. Very weak!
yuzeyurbrane
February 21st, 2012
2:11 pm
If everything above is true then what is the motive of the advocates of the Constitutional Amendment? Chip Rogers sends his kids to private school. . .
Rick in ATL
February 21st, 2012
2:28 pm
@Shar: You want parents to accept this stance from local school boards: “We know we have historically made many terrible decisions to deny charters, often for cynical, self-serving reasons that had nothing to do with improving education. But we promise to do better, and in return thank you for continuing to grant us the absolute right to say yes or no.”
And you want us to accept this position from the GA Supreme Ct: “We know we added the critical word “exclusive” where it did not previously exist, in order to cement local boards’ absolute control over charter decision-making, and that we perverted a racist and ill-fitting precedent to justify our activist conduct. but we’re the Supremes; we don’t have to answer to you; you’ll take it and you’ll like it.”
Shar, you could write a million words (and from what I can tell, you’re fast approaching that threshold) to defend these indefensible positions. But parents know–we KNOW–that our role in education is oversight. Not collaboration, not acquiescence, but oversight. Charters ought NEVER be denied when a parent group does its prep work correctly.
We demand a route of appeal for those occasions when local school boards (like ours, APS) act foolishly or arrogantly.
3schoolkids
February 21st, 2012
2:44 pm
Funny…I haven’t seen any legislation introduced to change the structure of the APS school board. Are APS parents not exercising their rights of oversight and petitioning their legislators to do something? No, they are asking for more Charter schools, ones that would have to be approved and monitored by the State, because then you know they’ll have more oversight!
cherokee parent
February 21st, 2012
2:45 pm
@Ron F’s good question — Not all charters have elected boards — some have appointed boards and no accountability to either the school’s parents or the county and state taxpayers that are footing the bills. Cherokee Charter Academy has an appointed board (the Local Governing Council), and it and the Coweta charter school both are governed by another appointed board (the Georgia Charter Educational Foundation). Both schools are operated by the for-profit Charter Schools USA. Minutes for both CCA’s council and the foundation show many signs neither school was a grassroots effort, and also show signs that the management company is really running the show.
Reinvent_ED
February 21st, 2012
2:55 pm
This is coming from someone who is clearly misinformed. The compromise resolution is the right answer, and all Mr. Garrett is doing, with all due respect, is protecting the status quo. If you read the language, there are no funds being diverted from local schools.
This is very simple organizational behavior 101. If you honestly think that monopolies can innovate, then you haven’t done your research on the history of organizations and how industries work. I can assure all of your readers, unequivocally, that Georgia will never succeed in reforming its education system if it continues to allow local school boards to have monopoly control over education.
This is not about charter schools. This is about letting innovation into our system and how you manage it.
Read the compromise resolution, people. it’s a win-win in this messy debate.
Active in Cherokee
February 21st, 2012
2:56 pm
@Rick in ATL – saying an application of any variety should NEVER be denied if proper prep work is done is just ludicrous. That is not and cannot be true of anything in the public or private sector. Despite proper prep work (paperwork) often those putting it together cannot or do not see the big picture.
Dr. Craig Spinks/Georgians for Educational Excellence
February 21st, 2012
2:58 pm
Amazed,
Put your name on your response.
Anonymity is the first refuge of the coward.
d
February 21st, 2012
2:59 pm
GM brings up the “failing public schools” political rhetoric. I will say this (borrowed from another poster on another thread…. schools don’t fail. Students fail. Why students fail is another topic, but I will say this much: a neighborhood school is a reflection of the community. If there is a problem in the school, it is because there is a problem in the community. Arguments were made in recent DeKalb Board of Education meetings that the theme elementary and middle schools were top notch, all making AYP, etc., etc., etc. As with charters, there are requirements for attending. Yes, charters may be required to *accept* all students, but they are not required to *keep* them once they are there. Charters (and the themes) have strict requirements of their students and parents. If the students and parents do not live up to their end of the bargain, then the student is sent back to the neighborhood school. Time and time again, we see that the students who do the best have the most involved parents…. yes there are exceptions to every rule, but there is a strong link between active parents and successful students. Does this mean some students won’t thrive in a different environment, sure…. but I will, as I have said before, argue that if you want “choice,” figure out what you will sacrifice for that choice. Maybe you need to lay off the Starbucks, the unlimited everything cell, the 800-channel package cable TV, whatever. If you don’t like the decisions your elected board of education is making, start a movement, get people out to vote. Why vote in the same people over and over again if you don’t like what they are going to do?
I use a video in my economics course that talks about the San Tan Flat restaurant in Pinal County, Arizona. The county government threatened to fine the owner about $200,000 a day every day he allowed dancing at his restaurant. From what the video shows, San Tan Flat was quite popular, but I wonder how many people in Pinal County kept voting in the same people because of a party label despite their attempted enforcement of such an archaic law?
Change can happen if enough people take a vested interest in making change. I don’t need the General Assembly setting up any sort of board that does not answer to me as a voter to overrule my elected officials. I think that if there is enough anger over a particular decision, then enough people can organize themselves to make the change that they want to see.
no local control
February 21st, 2012
2:59 pm
@public schools ARE charter schools– here are the minutes of the first “local council” meeting for the charter school in Cherokee. Note that it is the company telling the local council what its role is…. gee, shouldn’t it be the other way around? AND, the parents don’t get to elect anyone to these councils. http://www.cherokeecharter.org/governance/BoardMinutesAug3-11.pdf
CharterStarter, Too
February 21st, 2012
3:10 pm
Mr. Garrett is the consummate bureaucrat. Let’s address his points one by one:
1 This is not just an Atlanta issue: Right you are, Mr. Garrett. Although most of our charters are in the metro area, there is a stark need for educational reform across this state. Rural south Georgia, in particular, is hurting. These local communities MUST address the quality of education to improve their local economy. It’s an important issue in metro Atlanta, but it is a critical one outside of the metro area. Children throughout Georgia need quality educational options.
2. It’s not about local control: Sure it is. this whole issue is about districts putting their “control’ over a chld’s right to learn. It’s about putting “control of funds” over the responsibility for return on investment in the way of a qualified workforce.
Your logic regarding loss of local control is non-sensical to me. If districts approve high quality petitions and deny low quality ones, there should be no cause for concern. If a district chose to act indiscriminately and refused to authorize a high quality charter, then it would certainly be their choice to GIVE local control away. Your argument implicitly assumes that you don’t trust your own school districts to act fairly when authorizing charters. What are you afraid of, Mr. Garrett? I think you’re afraid they will be caught in their own game.
3. It’s not about the money: You do realize, Mr. Garrett, that our charter schools have been operating across this state (even those who receive local funds) on LESS than the local school districts? The local districts continue to bellyache about funds being cut, and yet, every one of them are funded higher than the charters. The charters want their students to be funded equitably. Why is that wrong? How in the WORLD can you say that charter school students, who are public school children, are worth less than a traditional public school student? I cannot understand how anyone can defend a position that districts should be funded for students they don’t educate. That is beyond preposterous.
With regard to the resolution – your biggest beef with the original draft was that it included language regarding funding. So now we take out the language and you are STILL not happy. The legislature is working on enabling legislation that will address adequate funding for charters. The problem is that you do not trust the legislative process by those ELECTED OFFICIALS you continue to say we should allow to represent the people. Well, let them represent us. Let the legislative process play out. Your peers and defenders of the status quo continue to tell the charter sector to “vote out” those that don’t support their cause. Well, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. Our state elected these officials, so let’s allow them to do their job in taking care of Georgia’s children – ALL of Georgia’s children.
4. An alternative authorizer is needed to create more charters: I find it so interesting how you play the numbers….150 charter schools. Yes, true. HOWEVER, only a little over 50 of them are independent ones…the rest of directly and substantially attached to school districts and have nothing at all to do with this debate. This resolution ONLY impacts independent charters, and the growth of this portion of the charter sector is pretty stagnant, with the exception of those authorized by the Commission. Nonly are we seeing charters not authorized, but now we are seeing high performing charters CLOSED. The politics at play behind these decisions are too big for the charter petitioners and operators to tackle alone- we NEED an appeals body consisting of qualified, non-partisan indviduals to keep the districts honest. And again…if they are honest…really fair…then why are you concerned? Why would anyone oppose due process in any circumstance?
5. Charters are good for Georgia: Yes, they are…they offer parents options, they address community needs, they are a catalyst for educational reform. They are not a silver bullet. They are not the replacement for the traditional public educational system. They are a much needed and very valuable asset if districts could see past the nose on their faces and embrace them. Charters are ACCOUNTABLE. They can be closed for underperformance either academically or operationally, and thus, they will always provide a solid return on investment for taxpayers.
Mr. Garrett, I double dog dare you to make a real stand for something more important than the status quo – make one showing true commitment to OUTPUT rather than always focusing on the INPUTS. I’m happy to share the contacts of several charter schools who can assist you with how to make this transition.