Two influential House members urge support of charter amendment

…but, but, but this is an idea from those evil cons!

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Rep Jones & Morgan:

Over 70 school districts are operating with a deficit. At least 4 school districts are broke, and over 20 school districts are still furloughing teachers and students.

Please explain how the charter amendment will improve the situation in these districts?

Please outline your efforts during the 2012 legislative session to help these struggling districts.

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Republican Jan Jones-as a member of the ALEC education committee your motives have nothing to do with providing ALL students of GA with a quality education. In fact, your sweeping austerity cuts show that those in the Legislature do not care for public education. As is stated in ALEC’s agenda, you stand for the privatization of our public school system and this constitutional amendment is just one step closer to making that happen. What about showing some honesty in your motives and that of your fellow ALEC members-your only motive is to provide opportunities for big corporations to come in and pillage the coffers of Georgia’s educational system.

Everyone who reads this blog should watch the Bill Moyer’s special “The United States of ALEC”. This will open your eyes as to what you will really be voting for on November 6 and it has nothing to do with the children, as Jan Jones and her sidekick contends, but it has to do with providing unchecked and unlimited power to a limited few who will, in turn, make the for-profit charter school providers very rich. Follow the money, folks.

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Let’s not forget that the husband of Alisha Thomas Morgan makes his money on charter schools. As for Jan Jones, her state house colleagues cannot stand her. She is a snooty North Fulton resident who wants to split Fulton County into Milton County for the same reason she supports charter schools – to allow the more affluent to have choice – not to give choice to those who need it most but cannot afford it.

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baffling how some people view charters as “giving rich white kids a chance to go to a private like school”…..when they already have that option (they can pay for it themselves). The real beneficiaries of charters are poor kids who want to learn. They don’t have the money to pay for private, and are thus stuck in the failing schools, surrounded by thugs who spend every day dragging down the few students who really want to better themselves.

Charters offer pretty much the only (desperate?) chance for these kids to escape. Sadly, people with an ulterior motive (usually wanting to keep control of the money for themselves) try to slam the door of opportunity on these kids.

It’s unconscionable how the same people who berate others for not caring, are willing to sacrifice these children, just so they and their educrat and bureaucrat cronies can maintain control of the massive amount of public education dollars.

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No, no, no no on this amendment. If you do not have caring and involved parents, no school will succeed. Local boards may not solve all of a county’s educational needs, but they are local and answerable to the local taxpayer. The first thing cut in the state budget is education. This is a political ploy to provide tax payer money to schools over which they have not control. I thought Raw Deal and his cronies were all for smaller government…I guess they are except when they want their political cronies to be able to dip into taxpayer money.

Get the politicians out of education and let educators do their jobs.

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Will Alisha Thomas dare show her face on this blog and discuss her husband’s financial interest in charter schools? (If indeed what the earlier poster mentioned is true)

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Rob Adkerson, please provide a link to the Georgia Tech study you referenced. I cannot find it on the Economics School web page. Is it coincidence that one of the econ school’s professors has been serving on the board for two of the state commission schools (Christine Ries)?

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“education reform is frankly too important”

Jan Jones, if education reform is so “frankly too important” to you, show up on this blog, along with Ed Lindsey and Fran Millar and answer a SINGLE question:

What have you guys, the party of “the rule of law” and “personal responsibility” do empower teachers to hold STUDENTS accountable for discipline (the rule of law) or academics (personal responsibility)?

Can you point to a SINGLE piece of legislation that empowers teachers to hold students accountable for values you CLAIM to hold dearly?

Fran Millar?
Jan Jones?
Ed Lindsey?

Hello????

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@Maureen, thank you. One down three to go. Now if the esteemed Jones/Lindsey/Millar triumvirate can address why they don’t empower teachers with their own CLAIMED values…

Otherwise, they really do look like a group of privateers, with the only thing going for them is that they are in opposition to the PUBLICteers.

No wonder people are home schooling these days.

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Currently 2/3 of the public schools in Georgia are on less than 180 day calendar (used to be the norm by regulation) for students and less than the 190 day work (used to be the norm by regulation)schedule for teachers. The state has the constitutional obligation to provide funding for public education. The funding of public education has not been met for years in our state and now $6.7 billion has been cut from the K-12 education budget since 2003 as our state enrollment has increased. Rep. Jones and Morgan have little to no interest in restoring funding to public education in Georgia and this can be supported by their voting records over the years. The shifting of the funding burden to the local boards of education should carry with it a decrease in state regulations. (not enough relief has been provided) The two Representatives harmonious words ring quite hollow. Both have pushed for this legislation without standing up and answering why they have abandoned public education. I would guess each of their answers would not be so harmonious. This amendment will require funding from the state and I would ask them both to explain where would this funding would come from? K-12 education is 37% of the state’s budget currently at 7.2 billion dollars. Wonder what that number will look like in just a few years if they both have their way. Maybe Rep. Morgan could replace the current lexus she drives with a shiny new one. Rep. Jones will just fade back to her North Fulton bubble and get a thrill knowing that she has accomplished diminishing public education in Georgia two a dual system once again. What happened to our forefathers proclamation that public education was to develop a ctiizenry that would support the republic they fought to preserve. A common good! I don’t think they would recognize our current governing bodies nor the type of people that are serving in that capacity.

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Rob said it best “We must once and for all stop allowing them (public school boards) to hold our children hostage in a monopolistic system that has been near the bottom nationally for decades.
The “old” way has been given way too much money and way too much time to figure it out with embarassinga nd horrible results….
GA has been and is bottom of the education barrel.
It is TIME for a CHANGE.
And the change is CHOICE.
I will be voting for charter schools and lobbying for vouchers too.

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Jaynie,
Like you said, county boards serve the county and answerable to the all taxpayers in the county.
But, Charter School boards are answerable to the local community. If they don’t provide a superior service, they shut down. That’s not local control, that’s MICRO control.

This amendment addresses the constitutionality of the state to approve charters and doesn’t create more government.

Get the politicians ouf of education? Great idea! Let’s start with GSBA, SACS and the Superintendents.

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Was going to post on Rep Morgan’s gross conflict of interest re: school choice polifieration, but several others here beat me to it. Vote No on the 6th. The amendment is about money to be made and money to be paid. Overconfident posters on this and other blogs today have posted about Amendment 1’s guaranteed passage–my gut tells me that Amendment 1 proponents wouldn’t be scurrying if they weren’t worried. As more and more voters learn more about this misleading ballot initiative, they’ll reject it–just like TSPLOST.

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Sorry, voting YES. If you had asked me 10 years ago, I would have yelled NO at the top of my lungs. After 10 years in the metro Atlanta area, DeKalb to be specific, I am now in support of someone having an overriding say over the morons that run our school system.

Contrary to what is popular to say, the board is not accountable to the voters. Our board has 9 members, divided into districts. I am only represented by 2 of them (1 if the board shrinks by 2). There is nothing I can do to influence voters from the other districts, nor do they want people from other districts coming into theirs and telling them how to vote, particularly if our race and socioeconomic situations are different. We are trapped by administrators who are on a power and money grab, and there is nothing that can be done about it. Nothing. If we can slowly change the rules to take away some of their power, I am all for it.

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Traditional public schools would do better if we had more money. I mean a lot more than fully funded, because our numbers were bad even when we were fully funded.

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I will vote NO to the constitional amendment. In my opinion, this amendment is more political than it is educational.

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Beverly Fraud,

You are very bright person, who is well informed on the issue. I do understands the passion on both sides depending where you live. One side feels trapped by the school district their kids attend. Another side has good schools and see this bill as a land grab for private companies that we leave many of us holding the bag. That is why I proposed the compromise of school districts, with issues having a separate process track for charters, also the extra controls in place.

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Cactus, 3:44 pm

I agree with your comments. Thank you for expressing the detail.

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Parents will not choose to send their children to poorly performing charter schools. Most parents do not have a choice if the local school is failing to meet their child’s needs. Amendment One will give parents options.

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Liar(s) liar(s) pants on fire! I am feeling exceptionally eloquent today. Jan, do you think we are that stupid?

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Ron,
What are “involved” parents to do when the principal is part of the “Friends and Family” program? Without choices, that student is stuck unless they can afford private schools or the other alternatives.

It takes a lot of parents working along with principals, teachers and the administration to turn a school around. Quite often there aren’t enough people in those said groups. What is a parent to do when their aren’t enough caring parents in the school or the principal doesn’t care or isn’t qualified?

I just assume send my kids to Ivy Prep in South DeKalb and be done with the whole lot of them.

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DeK,
If the Charter School isn’t any better then people like me will chose to not go there and it will close down. Either way, I get to decide what is best for my kids.

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@ John,

while not speaking for Beverly, I think I understand where he’s coming from re: Fran Millar.

no matter what good works he might be trying to do, his constant shrill whining and attacks on
education, while not making any obvious effort to lead from the front (show us your cuts, Fran),
he has lost everty possible ounce of credbility in these discussions.

for me, this is nothing new. for years I watched him talk out of both sides of his mouth on GPC.
crapped all over us until he thought he could use us.

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“The amendment does something very simple but very profound – it will allow the state to create a commission to hear appeals when charter applications are denied by some school boards and superintendents” it says in the above article. What a distorted piece of propaganda. I can just hear Jan Jones talking down to everyone. Appeals from local school board decisions can already be made, and have been made, to the state education department. The difference here is that a new state bureacracy is created that will do much more than this. Essentially, the burden of proof would be on the local school board to show why the decision of this new state agency should be reversed. Further, other important provisions would endow this new bureaucracy with essentially the power to create a parallel quasi-public school system managed by for profit education corporations, most of them out of state. This non-elected new agency would be appointed by the Governor. I am not surprised that Jan Jones is leading the effort. She has long been a shill for the Koch brothers financed ALEC group which has been pushing their privatization agenda in this and many other areas. As to Alisha Morgan, I don’t know much about her or her motives, but I find interesting the comments by some posters pointing out her conflict of interest. As to Jones, her crocodile tears of concern for public schools would be more credible if she had not consistently voted to gut funding of public education at all levels since the Republicans gained control of state government. I agree with State School Superintendent Barge, this new agency should not even be considered until all public education cuts are restored, teacher furloughs and layoffs ended, and class sizes reduced to nationally recognized acceptable levels.

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Here’s a question for the pro-charter folks. If the amendment passes, and state charter schools are set up, how will funding be handled if a kid enrolls in a state charter, and then leaves after a period of time? Will any of the per student funding follow the child? Currently, schools are paid based on number of students. If that number goes up because a child leaves a charter school, will the state provide more funds to the school he enrolls in, or will the charter school keep the funds it has been given? With attrition rates in some charters at 40-50%, how will the state handle paying funds for those children who leave and go back to tradtional public schools?

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I still object first and foremost to an unaccountable board being given the power to override my elected board of education and therefore must encourage everyone I know (and don’t know) to vote no. This vote is not about charters, and people like Reps Morgan and Jones need to stop fooling everyone into thinking it is. This vote is about taking power away from voters and approving taxation without representation. Isn’t that very concept why our founders fought the Revolution to gain our independence from Britain? Why would we want to go back there?

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With 96% of the funding for the committee that is supporting passage coming from outside the state of Georgia, it should be fairly obvious it is not about improving educational opportunities for Georgia’s children. Follow the money, it’s about campaign funding and political power. The only problem with education is the continual politicization of something that is an easy target to criticize and run a political campaign on.

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Bla,bla,bla… I have become weary of politicians getting in the way of educational improvement. They seem to think that the problem with public schools just started last month. We have had a constant decline in college enrollment in the past 12 years, and it has little to do with the Hope SF. Our students are less prepared if and when they get to college, just look at the number of incoming freshmen taking remedial classes. I would like to know where these politicians were when the dropout rate was climbing and the money for the students still went to the school, and the school still failed!

Listen, I believe that teachers are the best public servants in our nation, but give them what they need to help our students succeed. I agree that parental involvement is the key, but that involvement must first start at home. If our teachers spent less time “parenting” in the classroom, perhaps they could actually get something in the heads of more students.

Long story short…I support the amendment and will be voting YES! Now let me qualify that by saying all charter schools are not equal, but if a charter model has proven success, why not incorporate that model into your consistently failing school and see what happens? After all, when a charter school fails, it gets closed. When the traditional school fails, it gets more money and an unlimited time frame to “get better”.

Thank all of you who agree with this, “we CANNOT keep doing the same thing and expect different results”, that is the remedy that State Sup. Barge and all who disagree with this amendment think. Let’s give these young Georgia citizens a real chance to compete locally and globally.

Go vote Yes to Amendment 1

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I will continue to support charters. I believe that people in the Atlanta Metro area (with easy access to school choice) have very little understanding of the problems being faced by rural communities. We lack incentives for people to move here, especially good schools. Out of the 5 surrounding counties, not one school board would even consider hearing a petition for a charter school. What are families like ours supposed to do? Continue to send students to failing schools with school boards that are unwilling to listen and cannot be voted out because of the “good ole boy” system that prevails in rural communities. I can’t afford to move 6 counties away and I want the same things for my children that you want for yours. The best possible OPTIONS for me and my family. Please vote for options, add oversight, do what you must, but give us a chance to have something positive for my child.

I am not opposed to public schools, but I would like the option to decide for myself what is best for my children as is afforded to me my the US Constitution and as should be by the Georgia Constitution.

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@The Deal: Then you should have options, and charter schools are available in Dekalb. What bothers me about this amendment is that the entire state will be subject to the power it gives an appointed commission at the state level that has no direct responsibility to voters. I know you deserve better in Dekalb, but out where I am it isn’t like that, and we should have the option to control locally since we’re happy without a state commission having the power to upend things here. Have you looked into the charters available to you? I don’t blame you a bit for losing support for your public schools. They’re a mess for sure, but not indicative of what the rest of us have.

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@ Ron

while I do support the charter concept, I do so with reluctance. not of the concept itself, but how it will be twisted, manipulated, and politicized to the point it only vaguely resembles what was intended.

besides my concerns about football academies, my other big concern is what happens when charters do not prove to be the magic wand so many are praying for. talk about a bell which can’t
be unrung…

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@The Deal: the governor has the authority to remove the entire board as was done in Miller county. What I don’t understand, and one thing that makes me leery of the amendment, is that while the governor will intervene in a situation in one small, rural county, he and his refuse to even discuss Dekalb, Clayton, etc. that would clearly benefit from having the boards cleaned out and restarted. The legislative delegation from Cherokee county redrew board district lines to remove those opposed to the state level agenda, and that is a successful district where the majority of parents are happy. Why? Politics. And that alone is enough to convince me I don’t want them having more control over establishing charter schools via a commission they have the authority to appoint. I’d love nothing more than to see the governor take a stand and clean house in Dekalb. He needs to, he knows it, and he won’t do it.

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David Morgan works for The American Federation for Children(AFC) as a lobbyist.

If knowledgeable of his, or his wife’s affiliations, what part of this is not true?

AFC made headlines recently when it brought together Govs. Scott Walker (R-WI) and Tom Corbett (R-PA) and former D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee at a major school choice event in Washington, D.C. AFC is perhaps the most prominent of all the current voucher groups, having been founded in January 2010 by Betsy DeVos. Working together with its PAC of the same name and the 501c(3) organization also lead by DeVos, the Alliance for School Choice, it has served as a launching pad for school choice legislation across the country. AFC made its mark in Wisconsin by pouring thousands of dollars into the state legislative races, donating $40,000 in the service of successfully electing voucher advocate Rep. Kathy Bernier (R) and donating similar amounts to elect Reps. Andre Jacque (R), John Klenke (R), Tom Larson (R), Howard Marklein (R), Erik Severson (R), and Travis Tranel (R). DeVos front group All Children Matter also donated thousands to many of these same voucher advocates. Altogether, AFC spent $820,000 in Wisconsin during the last election, making it the 7th-largest single PAC spender during the election (behind several other mostly right-wing groups with similar agendas).

So the son, and the wife the son of Amway’s founder, DeVos, are wanting to change public school education into private school education?

The family of the people who basically normed the model for pyramid sales are wanting to change education for what purpose?

I am sure they are great Americans.

However, why are they so passionate and so willing to give up millions for a REPUBLICAN education REFORM?

They are from great American capitalists who of course don’t want to benefit from educational SPENDING.

But why is the wife of David Morgan, Alisha Thomas Morgan so willing to back the REPUBLICAN SPENDING for ideology of charter schools?

They are both great Americans, and I am probably wrong to speak against such democratic people.

However, why is this democratic couple pushing such a REPUBLICAN SPENDING?

MONEY cannot be the reason.

noooo…

Charter school people will provide ample reason as to why the MORGANS are trying to help children.

MONEY cannot be the reason why the Morgans support charter schools and vouchers

DAVID and ALISHA MORGAN, as democrats can’t possibly be supportive of such REPUBLICAN use of MANIPULATION.

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Don’t wait for Morgan and Jones to come here; go to them…

alisha.morgan@house.ga.gov
alisha@alishamorgan.com
jan.jones@house.ga.gov

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yuzeyurbrane, 5:26 pm

Well expressed comments. I agree with your perceptions.

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[...] I posted a pro charter amendments piece by two Georgia House members. Now, here is a piece in opposition by a Senate member, state Sen. Steve Henson of DeKalb, the [...]

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Mary Elizabeth
Would you agree to these two statements:
1. Charter schools are public schools.
2. The State Board of Education via the State Superintendent of Schools can NO LONGER approve charters.

History behind statement 2:

HB881 was passed several years ago giving the State Cahrter Commission authority to approve charters. Last year, 2011, the Georgia Supreme Court threw out HB881.

http://www.senate.ga.gov/sro/Documents/AtIssue/atissue_nov11.pdf

Writing for the minority in the dissent, Nahmias stated, “The majority of this Court has announced the new policy and removed the issue from the political process, unless the General Assembly and the people of our State bear the delay and enormous burden required to correct the Court’s error through a constitutional amendment.” Similarly, Olens stated, “Under the Court’s order the General Assembly’s power has been transformed from one of broad power unless expressly limited, to one of limited powers that do not exist unless expressly stated in the Constitution.”

The Georgia Charter Schools, Amendment 1, addresses the 2011 Supreme Court decision giving the state the right to create special schools.

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[...] I posted a pro charter amendments piece by two Georgia House members. Now, here is a piece in opposition by a Senate member, state Sen. Steve Henson of DeKalb, the [...]

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It seems neither Morgan or Jones is willing to make an appearance on the blog. Are they unwilling to publicly debate the issue?

If my memory is correct, similar tactics were used in the last legislative session. Jones made sure public discussions on the amendment were kept to a minimum.

Why? Is it because she can’t debate beyond the “talking points”? Is it because she does not want to publicly admit this amendment will divert more money to charters?

From Dr. Barge:
“The General Assembly plans to come up with more than $430 million in new state funds for state charter schools over the next five years – the cumulative cost assuming a new commission creates only seven new charter schools per year, the average approval rate of the previous commission.”

“In FY 2018 alone, it would cost $109 million per year in new state funds for the 50 state charter schools that would then exist (including the 15 already receiving extra state funds).”

“This includes the additional $33 million per year in additional state funds for the 15 state chartered special schools for this year alone (including the 13 schools created to serve former Commission school students).”

“These extra funds average $7,400 per pupil – which is higher than the total funding of 60 GA school districts.”

“Almost 60% of the commission charter schools had contracts with EMOs (for-profit education management organizations) vs. only 12% for all other start-up charter schools in GA, which means a portion of the $86 million in state funds these schools receive will go to out-of-state companies.”

“Only one of the 13 schools serving former Commission school students meets the definition of a high-quality charter school – and that school is now a locally-approved charter school. Some Commission schools were academically of high quality, but in 2010-2011 all those that failed to may AYP were EMO schools.”

Does this amendment create more choice or does this amendment create more money for EMO?

Look at the list of donors for this amendment. Follow the money.

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[...] Two influential House members urge support of charter amendment “?Some school systems are going to tell you that public charter schools take money away from [...]

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” Charter schools are public schools that are free from many of the onerous mandates that schools are under these days.”

Here’s a novel approach….use your power as a legislator and remove the “onerous mandates” from ALL public schools. If these mandates are so bad, why are they there in the first place?

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