Guest column: Charter schools amendment is cash cow
The charter schools amendment on the Nov. 6 ballot has generated record numbers of op-ed submissions across my desk. I published one here yesterday in support of the amendment. I am running an opposing view today.
This is by the Teaching Georgia Writing Collective, a group of educators, parents and citizens who engage in public writing and public teaching about education in Georgia. The group had its impetus in Athens and includes UGA faculty.
The writers contend that charter schools are now being seen as a business opportunity, and the amendment will increase those seeking to make money off charters. To that end, Reuters had an interesting story about the flow of foreign money to charter schools.
According to Reuters: (This is an excerpt. Please read full piece before commenting.)
Wealthy individuals from as far away as China, Nigeria, Russia and Australia are spending tens of millions of dollars to build classrooms, libraries, basketball courts and science labs for American charter schools.
In Buffalo, New York, foreign funds paid for the Health Sciences Charter School to renovate a 19th-century orphanage into modern classrooms and computer labs. In Florence, Arizona, overseas investment is expected to finance a sixth campus for the booming chain of American Leadership Academy charter schools.
And in Florida, state business development officials say foreign investment in charter schools is poised to triple next year, to $90 million.
The reason? Under a federal program known as EB-5, wealthy foreigners can in effect buy U.S. immigration visas for themselves and their families by investing at least $500,000 in certain development projects. In the past two decades, much of the investment has gone into commercial real-estate projects, like luxury hotels, ski resorts and even gas stations. Lately, however, enterprising brokers have seen a golden opportunity to match cash-starved charter schools with cash-flush foreigners in investment deals that benefit both.
Now, here is the piece by the Teaching Georgia Writing Collective:
Opening the floodgates to for-profit charter schools across the state of Georgia will have devastating long-term effects on our state’s public education. Vote “no” on Amendment 1, but don’t do it because we want you to. Vote “no” because you know the facts.
Without the approval of local districts, Georgia will open its educational system to a stampede of charter school corporations and real estate brokers who see this bill as a cash cow. These out-of-state corporations are funneling dollars into Georgia right now to get this amendment passed, and if we pass the amendment, we will funnel those dollars and many more right back into their corporate pockets.
Charter schools appear to be about money and politics and influence peddling. Why, with the state Department of Education reporting that charter schools don’t perform as well as traditional public schools and their graduation rates are no better, is the Legislature is so bent on changing the state constitution to allow charters to be created by an appointed state commission?
The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that doing so is unconstitutional – which is why we are now faced with a vote that would change the constitution.
Charter schools in other states do not compete favorably with traditional public schools. Why this big push for more charter schools?
The Miami-Herald did a study of charter school operators in Florida, and found that charters are nearly a half-billion dollar business, and one of the fastest growing industries in Florida. According to the newspaper report, charter school industry is “backed by real-estate developers and promoted by politicians” and “rife with insider deals and potential conflicts of interest.”
In Florida, management companies run almost two-thirds of charters. The management companies charge fees that sometime exceed $1 million per year per school. On top of such fees, these management companies frequently own the land and/or the buildings where the school is housed, and charge either the state or the local school system rent.
Our political leaders have turned what started out as a good idea—the creation of charter schools to meet particular local needs—into a political battleground where money takes precedent over education. Lurking in the fringes of this battleground are corporations that see public education as a new market in which to make bets and money – on the backs of our Georgia children and youth.
Be on the right side of history and on the right side of our children and their futures. Vote “no” on Amendment 1.
–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
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
84 comments Add your comment
yuzeyurbrane
October 17th, 2012
9:18 am
Absolutely correct.
catlady
October 17th, 2012
9:32 am
Anyone surprised? We shall soon have it verified if Georgia voters are too dumb to think.
More
October 17th, 2012
9:37 am
Link to a recent story in the Miami news on this very topic!
http://www.miamitodaynews.com/news/121004/story1.shtml
” A group of Chinese investors have put $30 million into [Florida's] charter school program to date and are looking to invest three times that amount in the next year…”
teacher&mom
October 17th, 2012
9:44 am
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/06/us/audits-for-3-georgia-charter-schools-tied-to-gulen-movement.html?_r=0
indigo
October 17th, 2012
9:55 am
Charter schools are not about education. They are about money, politics and fundamentalist Christian views.
Teacher Reader
October 17th, 2012
9:59 am
And our current schools aren’t cash cows for those running them or in the Administrative offices? We have secretaries making more than teachers, secretaries!!! We have administrators making a six figure category and don’t get rid of them when new people are added and they really aren’t needed any longer.
Sorry, but our public schools are a cash cow to everyone who doesn’t have direct contact with our children on a daily basis.
If a charter school fails or mismanages money, it closes. Our public schools constantly give children a poor education, lower standards, and don’t hold anyone but teachers accountable for a child’s learning, and also mismanage money while constantly asking for more, and the public cannot close them or stop this madness. How is this in the children’s best interest? It’s not.
If the charter school amendment doesn’t pass our children will forever be at the bottom, as our school boards and administrators do not seem to care about raising the bar and giving our children a better education or holding our children, parents, and teachers equally accountable for a child’s education.
Teacher Reader
October 17th, 2012
10:02 am
http://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/national-rankings/charter-school-rankings
Read about the best charter high schools in the country and tell me that your child’s high school is this good.
Dr. Monica Henson
October 17th, 2012
10:22 am
“[M]oney and politics and influence peddling” = business as usual for any sizeable district board of education. There is no public school district, charter school, or private school in the entire United States that doesn’t do business with a variety of for-profit corporations. I have yet to find a technology vendor, textbook publisher, or construction contractor that is incorporated as a nonprofit enterprise. Schools are big business for the suppliers that provide goods and services to them, and charter schools are no different.
While charter schools in the aggregate may appear to perform “no better” than district schools in the aggregate, drilling down and comparing, for example, charter schools serving urban, high-risk kids to their local district counterparts is quite revealing. Using the aggregate to make comparisons is a technique that public schools used to use for decades to hide pockets, often sizeable, of failure within individual schools and within the district. NCLB, for all its flaws, ended that practice and highlighted the fact that many “good” school districts do not provide an equal educational opportunity within their geographic boundaries, and sometimes within the walls of individual school buildings.
teacher&mom
October 17th, 2012
10:28 am
@Dr. Henson: What are/were the start-up costs for your charter school?
DeKalb Inside Out
October 17th, 2012
10:37 am
The Educational Industrial Complex is as much to fear as the Military Industrial Complex. Let me know when you guys are ready to fight educational profiteering … I want to be on the front line.
The author neglected to mention that Educational management organizations (EMOs) run less than a third of the charters across the country. The author lays out a lot of circumstantial evidence, but nothing tangible except the EMO fees. I just don’t see where educational profiteering is going to surpass the same thing traditional public schools.
living in an outdated ed system
October 17th, 2012
10:52 am
This letter unfortunately exemplifies the status quo in public education reform. As Jay Greene wrote in a recent post on “EducationNext” referencing the tactics used by the teachers union members such as Randi Weingarten and Diane Ravitch, “They are more accustomed to crushing opponents with ad hominem attacks or distracting the audience with emotional and irrelevant appeals.”
This amendment is NOT about for-profit charter schools or big business. There is already big business in public education, and it’s called “textbook publishers.” Unfortunately, opponents of the amendment will continue to use scare tactics to get you to vote “no.”
It’s not going to work, and Georgia’s voters will do the right thing for our children and support the amendment on November 6th.
10:10 am
October 17th, 2012
11:12 am
The teachers’ unions, represented locally by the Georgia Association of Educators, are steadfastly against education reform and parental choice.
If the amendment passes, the union strategy of fielding phony “Republicans” in local school board races to doom all charter school applications—will ultimately prove less fruitful.
Rent the film WAITING FOR SUPERMAN to learn more.
Then do a Google search on “NEA” and “donations” and you’ll see that the National Education Association, GAE’s parent union, is also a cash-cow for Democrats—and for every liberal-left
pressure group in the news.
Finally, vote “YES” on the Charter School Amendment ballot Initiative!
Kris
October 17th, 2012
11:12 am
I have said it many times this charter School Boondoggle is a political pocket lining (or SHADY DEAL) SCAM.
Save our children and grand children..
.
VOTE NO ON Charter School SCAM
TimeOut
October 17th, 2012
11:17 am
I find it frightening to think of Foreign investors assuming control of any educational resource in this country. I am ill at ease with the entire process of foreign immigration by investment. How long will it be before such investors own so much of this country that their values replace our own? How much of this is already the case? Is it true that most of us are just fodder for the use/abuse of the ultra rich of the world? Do Chinese, Russian, and other Foreign investors share our values or just our greed?
Metro Coach
October 17th, 2012
12:00 pm
Indigo-stop trying to equate charter schools with private schools. They aren’t even close to the same thing. As for charters being a “money making” venture, there is specific language in the amendment to prevent “for profit” schools.
Mary Elizabeth
October 17th, 2012
12:17 pm
For any who have not read Jay Bookman’s excellent column in today’s AJC regarding the Constitutional Amendment on state charter schools, and also posted on his blog, entitled on the blog “State-chartered school proponents show a lot of brass.” I highly urge readers to read his column in full. Below is the link to his column, and also below are my comments on his blog regarding his column.
http://blogs.ajc.com/jay-bookman-blog/2012/10/17/state-chartered-school-proponents-show-a-lot-of-brass/?cp=1#comment-1115321
===============================================
Jay Bookman’s words: “They aren’t being upfront about their motives, and they aren’t being honest about what they hope to accomplish.”
————————————————————————————–
Mary Elizabeth’s words on Jay Bookman’s blog, 10/17/12, 12:03 pm:
“Thank you very much for this column, here, and in today’s AJC.
The legal steps Republicans have taken to curb dissent. The subterfuge. The intensity to pass this amendment. These should all alert voters to the fact that proponents of this constitutional amendment have ulterior motives and, in my opinion, those motives are that they have an intense aversion to anything ‘government’ and, in addition, they want to turn public schools into a quasi-private profit-making industry to benefit the already well-heeled. This will destroy public education as we have known it, in which all children in Georgia are educated, equally. Improve public education with the help of charters that are approved by the local school districts or the state Board of Education. Defeat this constitutional amendment. Vote NO in NOvember to Amendment 1.”
Mary Elizabeth
October 17th, 2012
12:21 pm
NOTE: Scroll upward from where the link I provided “hits” on the page – to read Bookman’s article in full.
vince
October 17th, 2012
12:34 pm
I do not really care about whether Amendment 1 passes or not, but I am incensed that the ballot measure includes a very biased preamble.
How, in a democratic society, could a ballot be written with such a clear bias to it? Proponents of the charter amendment should be incensed as well as the opponents. The preamble provides a very clear legal challenge should the amendment pass.
What does the future hold if the state can write ballots in such a way that the voter is swayed by the wording.
It’s incredible and it’s embarrassing.
mountain man
October 17th, 2012
12:35 pm
By all means keep the money out of the Commie Chinese hands and out of the greedy, profiteering business community and keep it in the hands of the corrupt BOE members the way it is supposed to be!!!
Look at the investigation going on now in Dekalb, part of which is their “friends and family” policies.
Keep the money flowing to schools that are failing, which refuse to address the real problems of absenteeism, discipline, student (and parent) apathy, overspending on SPED, and social promotion. Heaven forbid that we allow schools which WILL address some of these problems.
I am voting YES, as a reaction to local BOE’s refusal to allow competition, to further parental choice, and maybe to get traditional schools to admit there are problems and design effective means of addressing them.
mountain man
October 17th, 2012
12:45 pm
“in which all children in Georgia are educated, equally.”
The problem is that our current system is that all children in Georgia are educated equally badly.
Except for those whose parents decide to send their children to private schools, or homeschool them, or where students are good students and so it looks like the schools are good.
mountain man
October 17th, 2012
12:49 pm
If the U.S. state department is selling visas, then that is a separate issue that needs to be addressed. Don’t muddy the waters by saying we don’t want foreign money running our schools. If foreign money creates better schools, then the amendment should pass so parents would have the choice to send their kids there.
Right now our children are imprisoned in a third-rate educational system that ignores its problems.
gsmith
October 17th, 2012
12:51 pm
im voting YES…… education should be about pushing our smart and high achieving kids not trying to make everything equal …. im all for educatinng low income , low achieving kids but not at the expense of our smartest and brightest
BehindEnemyLines
October 17th, 2012
12:55 pm
Since “local control” has been working out soooooo well. I’m pretty sure even the Chinese are no less trustworthy than the average local school board. Virtually anything is a better option than the current system that continues to pour money down a dry hole.
Big Al
October 17th, 2012
1:11 pm
The reason for-profit schools are in high demand is because the public schools have failed. Public schools failed because politicians ruined them by trying to use the public schools as forums for their political agendas and their out-dated cultural beliefs. Public schools also failed because they could not attract the best and brightest teachers who can actually make a difference in the classroom. The best schools make headlines for their student’s achievements. But Georgia’s public schools make headlines because many of them fail to meet the minimum requirements required for accreditation and because school boards want to teach myths like Creationism and other religious non-sense that adds no value to students. I think the last straw occured when Georgia phased out the high school graduation test.
Charter schools breed competition. Competition is good because it means the best survive and grow while the worst die and go away. While public schools loathe graduation testing, the best charter schools are continoulsy testing their students, and the students do not advance until they pass the tests.
Mary Elizabeth
October 17th, 2012
1:30 pm
To try to dismantle traditional public schools instead of improving them through charter schools (and other means) that will work with, not against, them is folly. Some have, obviously, bought into the intense propaganda.
disappointed
October 17th, 2012
1:53 pm
The issue is not charter schools! Choice is great, but it is absurd to believe that giving an ungoverned body in the state legislator the power to approve these charter schools changes absolutely anything. And yes, they ARE cash cows. Just like the testing groups and textbook groups, and yet we don’t get too fired up about those issues. Georgia HAS charter schools; some are preforming well, while others are still figuring out how to go about their business. Keep the power for approval in the hands of the local boards made up of elected officials that YOU actually have the ability to hold accountable. I don’t want the status quo any more than many of you; however, it is foolish to believe that allowing the state to approve more charters is the solution. The solution is in teacher training and quality, which begins at college and universities. Until we change how we train our teachers, we will not see the increases we want in the performance of our students or our schools. Remember, once we allow them to amend the constitution, it is nearly impossible to reverse.
old teach
October 17th, 2012
2:19 pm
“disappointed”’s response should be copied and pasted everywhere, everyday until the essence of the Amendment is understood by EVERYONE! There has been so much misdirection by the amendment’s proponents that even Blackstone would be jealous!
dc
October 17th, 2012
3:07 pm
The Empire Strikes Back!!!!! with a hilarious accusation that charter schools are all about the money…… meanwhile, the reason the amendment is needed is because local school systems are so focused on keeping control of our tax dollars.
What a bunch of hypocrites…..but of course, “it’s all about the children”
Clarity
October 17th, 2012
3:15 pm
Bookman’s article is exactly right – the whole purpose of this amendment has nothing to do with Charter Schools and everything to do with getting around the Supreme Court decision. All of you talking about failed public schools has yet to bring up the fact that since 2003, the legislature has not funded the formula that is in law to provide a basic education. There is a formula based off student count. Right below the amount to be funded is an “Amended formula adjustment”. This line has amounted to almost $5 billion since 2003. That doesn’t even include the fact that operational costs have not been changed for inflation since QBE started in the 1980s. So it is a real slap in the face of every educator when they are massively underfunded and then told you aren’t doing well enough so we are going to create a parallel school system not responsible to the local tax payer. People are so anxious to read the word charter and think this is about charters (with the cherry on top being the opinion in the preamble). It is also amazing that comparing statistical data, the results are even with public schools – yet EVERY charter school has been found to have a significantly lower percentage of free and reduced meal students as compared with the county they are in. Factor in this fact that admission is selective, I wonder how even the stats would be. Systems have approved many charters – I repeat, it has nothing to do with charters. In our county, one reason why a charter petition was denied was because they did not include payroll taxes in their financials, which would have made them run red. The State charter commission doesn’t care about feasibility.
There should be two questions everyone should be asking. First, with every department at the State level massively cut (10% a year for most, $1.1 billion for education this year), where in the world do the funds come from to start a new state school system? The closest answer found is that the funds will follow the students – which would be fine if students came in packages of 30. But they don’t so the scattering of students that would be lost would change an existing class from 32 to 30 (which are high due to the massive cuts), the transportation costs would be there, the teacher would be there, and the maintenance and utilities would still exist. Second question – if you have an issue with one of these schools, who would you go to? The charter commission is appointed by the Governor. Why in the world would they care what you have to say? With this amendment, one person can get your local tax dollars for their school in a time when every other agency has been massively cut. Where is the money for this?
DeKalb Inside Out
October 17th, 2012
3:17 pm
disappointed
If you say the solution is better trained and higher quality teachers, then ‘Amen’ … let’s do it.
Until then, many people would like public chartered schools and not necessarily state chartered schools. Unfortunately many local boards refuse to commission or even consider local charter schools. 75% of the state chartered schools are in districts that refuse to commission local charter schools.
Can we give parents a choice?
Ned
October 17th, 2012
3:20 pm
Much as I’d hate to ally with the outright liars,who assert FALSEHOODS about charters such as– all about money, or religious indoctrination, or segregation, or pick & choose who attends (Gene Walker has repeated this LIE), this post brings me back to my central concern with this amendment:
Charters are about education–about trying something new (and if it doesn’t work the charter, unlike the traditional school, closes); about giving parents input; about kids. This amendment, I fear, is motivated by something else–put another way, does anyone really believe that the sponsors of this amendment on this one occasion suddenly became interested in education? If so, you’ve spent some extra time at Sonny’s Fishing Hole. I really think the motivation behind this amendment is not a love for charters, for education, or even for kids. If it were, there would be more restriction on for profit charters (which is possible–for profit charters are restricted in other parts of the US). If ,for example, legislators cared about education in DeKalb they wouldn’t be sending DeKalb $ to Gwinnett via QBE, (this is NOT to say that DCSS cares all that much about education in DeKalb either). This smells like an effort primarily motivated by $, not educational improvement, and I’m leaning “no.”
Get Educated
October 17th, 2012
3:36 pm
Since the state can – and does – already approve charter schools not approved locally, you have to wonder why we need to change the constitution and expand government. GA has more than 200 charter schools and more are in the pipeline. . If amendment 1 passes, there are only two ways to pay for it- gut public schools even more or raise property taxes. Or both. Too bad if you don’t like it because 7 ppointed people will hold all the power. Who appoints them? The gov, lt gov and speaker. People didn’t trust politicians pushing t-Splost to build and repair roads and bridges and they trust them with our kids’ education? You’re kidding, right?
WhiteWolf of the Bones
October 17th, 2012
3:43 pm
I agree with Teacher Reader, among others on here. The government is selling entry into the US for big bucks, and they are allowing the infiltration of foreign influence on our schools. This is deliberate, and I would be very cautious about which charter schools we choose, as parents. But on the other hand, I am for charter schools, as I see the public school system as a cash cow that is enriching every one’s pockets at the top, while failing our teachers and children. Of course they couldn’t do what they do without government agreement…and the policies coming out of DC are deliberately enabling this scam. It is all intertwined, and is all a scheme to continue the dumbing down and take over the minds and bodies of the citizens in this country for their own nefarious reasons. The take over of America is real, and those who fail to see it coming will be the ones that will cry the loudest in the future.
As always, I say, take care of your own. You can not trust the government or the schools to do what is best, and right, for you or your children. We still have some great teachers, who are also aware, and they are doing the best that they can do, while being stifled in every way possible by administration and government policies. It is our responsibility to monitor what and how our children are being taught, and we are also responsible for making sure they get the education we want them to have. So many folks are ignorant of the real facts behind the educational system, and are simply clueless. But this is also true about the real truth behind the entire governmental system. Simply put, history does repeat itself. But history. as many of us learned it, is not being taught in the schools anymore. Propaganda is surely propagating, and most people are just as surely unaware of it all.
Clarity
October 17th, 2012
3:46 pm
If you would like to see how much your school system is currently being cut, go to this link: http://app.doe.k12.ga.us/ and click on QBE reports. This is what systems use to get their allocations. Choose the year you want to see (current year is 2013). Press Set FY, then a dropdown box appears. Click on QBE003 System Allotment Sheets. Choose the county you are interested in seeing. Blow the sheet up to be readable, look for the line QBE Formula Earnings in bold. a couple of lines above that is Amended Formula Adjustment. This is the amount in the current year where the legislature says we are not going to fund the law by this amount. These have occurred since 2003. It’s not hidden. Again, the question is – with massive cuts, where is the money to create a new system? Were the cuts intentional to try to be able to say your system isn’t doing well, so lets create a new system?
Beverly Fraud
October 17th, 2012
3:47 pm
Privateers like the ALEC crowd vs bureaucrats like the Errol Davis crowd.
So what do the voters get?
A chance to vote Yes, and open the floodgates for privateers that make Somali pirates look like benevolent mariners.
Vote No and support a monolith that makes the North Korea government look like it has the wisdom of King Solomon.
It’s 3 am, last call at the bar and the last two dames left are Joan Rivers and Aunt Esther.
Yippee!
WhiteWolf of the Bones
October 17th, 2012
3:58 pm
Wanted to add…our public schools are cash cows already, as teacher reader and others have stated. Our government is wrong to sell entry to our country in this way, but we can’t stop them. But we can choose who we want to fund these schools. Due diligence is almost as lost in this country as common sense, but it is what is needed. There are those who truly understand, and are just as appalled at what is happening in our schools, and are willing to fund the education of those willing, and able to learn. The government, on the other hand, is only interested in a few of the best and the brightest, and the rest will be schooled to be the willing slaves, and happy workers as needed. 1984 is here, and hasn’t gone, no matter how often they spew the words, “21st century”.
DeKalb Inside Out
October 17th, 2012
3:59 pm
Ned
Charters in Georgia must be non-profit. For-profit charters are not allowed. I understand your apprehension. I have had conversations with Jan Jones, Nancy Jester, Gene Walker and various other DeKalb BOE members regarding this issue. I believe Jan and Nancy, big charter advocates, are doing this for the right reasons. Gene believes that traditional public schools are doing just fine and we don’t need charters for anything. That’s my two cents.
Get Educated
This is a common misconception. In 2011 the Ga Supreme Court majority report says the 1877 Constitution of Georgia granted local boards of education the exclusive right to establish and maintain K-12 education. The state cannot therefore establish competing State-created general k-12 schools.
Barge estimated 7 new state chartered schools every year. Since the Supreme Court decision, no new state chartered schools have been commissioned.
A reader
October 17th, 2012
4:05 pm
Teacher Reader
October 17th, 2012
10:02 am
http://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/national-rankings/charter-school-rankings
Read about the best charter high schools in the country and tell me that your child’s high school is this good.
Head up to north Fulton county and you will see traditional public high schools that are just as good. Any school that has a high percentage of parental involvement as well as parent that expect their children to behave and perform their best will be a good school, traditional public, charter, or private. North Fulton schools get no more money from the country and state than south Fulton schools, but the difference in achievement and discipline is staggering. In addition, the charter high school in North Fulton, Fulton Science Academy High School, is mediocre at best.
bootney farnsworth
October 17th, 2012
4:13 pm
this reeks of Billy Mays hawking Kaboom and Oxyclean. with a mix of the Nigerian prince who will regain his throne if you just allow him to use your bank account.
BT Barnum put it very well – suckers are born every minute. anytime anyone tells you such and such will be as cash cow, you are being conned.
charters are not a bad idea, but are not the magic bullet either.
bootney farnsworth
October 17th, 2012
4:18 pm
@ DeKalb Inside
parents already have choices.
private school, home school, no school, religious school, move to different districts, even some charter schools. this bit about choice is a myth.
hell, you can even found your own school if you wish.
choice as it is popularly and incorrectly promoted is the same as you wanting to say your taxes will pay for bullets but not artillery shells. or recycling but not garbage pickup.
bootney farnsworth
October 17th, 2012
4:21 pm
@ 10:10,
(which my gut tells me is somebody hiding their pseudonym behind the lack of one)
1- GEA is not a real union, it is an association. it has no power and less influence
2-Waiting for Superman is a propaganda piece.
but I sense you know this already
living in an outdated ed system
October 17th, 2012
4:37 pm
Before you lambast this post as coming from some “conservative think tank,” I suggest you all read Chester Finn’s well written op-ed today about why we need a brand new K-12 education system in this country. Georgia included.
http://educationnext.org/first-we-need-a-brand-new-k%E2%80%9312-system/
Midway
October 17th, 2012
4:55 pm
“Charters in Georgia must be non-profit.”
That doesn’t mean people won’t be able to profit from bloated salaries, unnecessary job titles, and awarding contracts to the connected.
We need to put a stop to this with the current structure. Why duplicate it?
Tony
October 17th, 2012
5:19 pm
If teachers’ unions are so bad for schools, why is it that the states with the strongest teachers’ unions have the highest student achievement?
Tony
October 17th, 2012
5:24 pm
Here are some items from other states regarding charter management fees. The big hint in these should be the uncontrolled growth of those fees and the lack of legally enforceable controls. This is where our state is headed.
http://www.wftv.com/news/news/local/charter-schools-grow-so-do-management-fees/nPMTZ/
http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2012/05/comments-on-applications-of-two-more.html
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-06-15/opinion/os-ed-frontburner-charter-schools-con-061512-20120614_1_charter-school-school-board-action-management-fees
Lee
October 17th, 2012
5:42 pm
So, a bunch of anonymous public school advocates, who see nothing wrong with paying premium salaries to PE teachers with PHDs, are calling charter schools “cash cows”.
The irony is amazing. Sorta like politicians voting against prostitution.
Beverly Fraud
October 17th, 2012
5:50 pm
Somali pirates vs. North Korean bureaucrats
Joan Rivers vs. Aunt Ester at closing time in the bar.
What WONDERFUL choices in Georgia!
Ron
October 17th, 2012
5:51 pm
What happened to the concern/rage about using public funds for private purposes, which is what happens with charter schools? I say it’s time to rid public schools of corporate values that have created this mess. Why so much hoopla over competition? Do we really want a society of winners and losers–how barbaric that is! If folks want to send their kids to private schools (supposedly so much better, but somehow I doubt it), then let them pay out of pocket, not my tax dollars!
Ron
October 17th, 2012
5:54 pm
Just like T-SPLOST, vote NO!
lahopital
October 17th, 2012
6:03 pm
Of course it’s about the money. Why do you think anyone is spending money to get it passed? Vote no.
Phil from Athens
October 17th, 2012
6:05 pm
Public education is doing just fine…right Maureen? Wake me up when a charter school is accused of cheating like the schools in Atlanta.
Phil from Athens
October 17th, 2012
6:05 pm
“why is it that the states with the strongest teachers’ unions have the highest student achievement?”
Chicago has unions and most of their kids can’t read.
DeKalb Teacher
October 17th, 2012
6:23 pm
Bootney
YOU and your friends might have plenty of choices, but understand that many people do not. There are many less fortunate people trying to make ends meet. Charter schools aren’t going to fix education, but it is at least another tool in the belt. Please don’t forget about those who have fallen on hard times.
FUBU
October 17th, 2012
6:46 pm
All children in Georgia are educated equally! But the problem is this: NOT ALL CHILDREN ARE EQUALLY INTELLIGENT!
MAY
October 17th, 2012
7:24 pm
Less than 15 school systems out of 180 have approved independent charter schools after 11 years. Parents deserve to see if there might be a school that helps their child better than another. I love the idea that a family who knows their child is very hands-on could choose a constructivism curriculum at a charter school over the non-charter public school. That doesn’t mean one is better than another, just that we as citizens of Georgia will see more children reaching their full potential. I’ll vote YES!
I love teaching. I hate what it is becoming...
October 17th, 2012
7:51 pm
Oh yes. We can just “close” charter schools when they don’t perform well….
For a price….
“The closing of six St. Louis charter schools operated by Virginia-based Imagine Schools Inc. has cost $250,000, the Associated Press reports.
The schools boasted 3,333 students — about 89 percent of whom transferred to St. Louis Public Schools after the state voted last spring to close the Imagine network of St. Louis charter schools following years of academic and financial management issues.
….Speaking at the Missouri Public Charter School Association’s annual conference earlier this month, state Education Commissioner Chris Nicastro said that Imagine schools in St. Louis had performed below the city’s public schools on state tests, and also spent significantly less money on instruction compared to administrative costs, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.”
Full article here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/17/closure-of-six-charter-sc_n_1974695.html?utm_hp_ref=education
ChartersStarter, Too
October 17th, 2012
7:54 pm
Charters, because they have no access to capital dollars, ave a very difficult time obtaining facilities and financing. I have a solution to this problem! How about the school districts who have charter schools….
1. Actually allow them to use their unused buildings (rather than using them for storage/warehouse, professional development, bus parking, etc.)
2. Allow their charters to be a part of SPLOST.
3. Work with charters on obtaining bonds like any other school in the district.
And how about the legislature ensure that charters, like every other child in the state, has access to capital funds?
Miss Management
October 17th, 2012
8:37 pm
Yeah, I used to think like this author too. That is, until my child started to really not fit at our locally mandated public school. If I had the option to choose a Museum School or a Leadership Academy or DeKalb Academy of Technology and the Environment or a conversion charter like Kingsley or Chesnut, I SO would have applied for my child! Instead, he suffered — greatly — at the hands our our locally mandated attendance zoned public school.
Marney
October 17th, 2012
9:04 pm
@ChartersStarter, Too to your number 1 point above you need to add: or the occasional training of the district’s drug sniffing dogs.
That was the stated use of Forrest Hills elementary school for several of the years it sat empty as the children at ICS–less than a mile away– had to walk to lunch in the rain from their trailers. But it was still better than my mandated attendance zoned school.
Tony
October 17th, 2012
9:08 pm
Phil, sorry but last time I looked Chicago was not a state. How about actually checking into the question. What about the northeastern states?
catlady
October 17th, 2012
9:15 pm
How do you say “Moo” in Chinese, Nigerian, Russian, etc?
bootney farnsworth
October 17th, 2012
9:42 pm
@ Dekalb teacher
I’ve been laid off by GPC. I get the the limited resources bit. I haven’t had a raise of merit in at least 7 years before I got laid off. I quit being able to make ends meet some time ago.
doesn’t change the fact there are choices, and that there is never going to be a set of choices which pleases everybody.
YOU and your friends may just have to make some harder decisions than you want to.
choices don’t necessarily translate to convenience.
bootney farnsworth
October 17th, 2012
9:43 pm
@ tony,
it’s one of the extra seven states in the US of Obama.
he has 57 of them
bootney farnsworth
October 17th, 2012
9:45 pm
@ Phil
since you asked….
http://charterschoolscandals.blogspot.com/
Dr. Monica Henson
October 17th, 2012
10:06 pm
teacher&mom asked, “What are/were the start-up costs for your charter school?”
Apologies for the late response–it’s been a long day of writing federal paperwork.
Our start-up expenses totaled $134,837 for the first two months of operation, including personnel & non-personnel expenses. We were awarded a federal Implementation Grant of $600,000 that will be spent over the first two years of operation and that covers our start-up costs.
Ron F.
October 17th, 2012
10:08 pm
“How do you say “Moo” in Chinese, Nigerian, Russian, etc?”
Now THAT’S funny!! Thanks for the laugh!!
FBT
October 17th, 2012
10:20 pm
The expense of a failed charter to the state is nothing compared to the lifelong opportunity costs of students with no options being forced to attend a failing traditional school which has no risk of being shut down for underperformance.
Dr. Monica Henson
October 17th, 2012
10:29 pm
Clarity posted, incorrectly, that “EVERY charter school has been found to have a significantly lower percentage of free and reduced meal students as compared with the county they are in. Factor in this fact that admission is selective…”
I have to throw the BS flag on these two items, as well as the allegation that there is such a legal entity as a “for profit” charter school.
The statewide average FRL rate is about 57%, nationally about 46%. My state chartered school’s FRL rate is 70%. We also serve 61% minority students in 160 cities and towns. Our special education population is about 14%.
We have a contract for back-office support and education services with a for-profit corporation. We bought supplemental readers from for-profit textbook publishers. We have an account at Office Depot for business supplies and purchased fax machines & printers there; they are a for-profit corporation. We bought a refrigerator and microwave for our break room from–you guessed it–a for-profit corporation. The breakfast and lunch snacks we will provide for our students at our hybrid learning centers will be purchased from supermarkets, which are all for-profit corporations.
Our LEA/school, however, is governed by a nonprofit Board of Directors and does not turn a profit, just like any other public school district.
LarryMajor
October 17th, 2012
10:29 pm
These discussions always seem to degenerate into arguments about the value of charter schools, when the amendment is only about how charter schools are approved. Still, some of the misleading statements here need some sunlight.
The State BOE has had the authority to approve charter petitions denied by local boards since 1998 and nothing in the recent Supreme Court decision affects that authority. When the Commission was declared unconstitutional, the State BOE reviewed the petitions of all 16 Commission schools
Someone mentioned that there are “only” 15 charter schools originally approved by the SBOE, which is true (they approved 19 over the years and 15 are still operating). These 19 approvals were from something over 50 applications, which means the SBOE denied most of the charter petitions. The original Charter School Commission approval numbers are very similar.
The Commission had 50 applications and approved “only” 16. Even at this level of scrutiny, one Commission School collapsed in a financial fireball and a second is on notice for failing to comply with state and federal regulatory filing requirements.
The reality is that most charter petitioners have been judged incapable of operating a public school by local boards, the State BOE and the Charter School Commission – literally every entity ever involved with approving charter petitions. The reason most school systems have no charter schools isn’t because they voted them down, but because no one ever submitted a charter petition for approval.
Do we really need to spend sorely needed education dollars on yet another government agency that will – at best – duplicate our current working appeals system?
Vote NO on amendment 1.
horkheimer
October 17th, 2012
11:29 pm
It comes to this:
Corporate profits first. There’s no better way to separate folks from their money than by having the govt. do the separating. Education is the latest frontier for corporations to pad their bottom line at the taxpayers’ expense. And remember: in a corporation’s eyes, profit will always be more important than your child’s education.
Second is teachers’ unions (or professional organizations in Ga.’s case) and wage compression. The Powers That Be think teachers make too much money and charter schools are a good way to undercut established means of determining teacher salaries. There are those out there who cheer this, but remember: it’s your kids who are going to suffer when the good teachers leave for better paying jobs, and it’s your community that will suffer when teachers don’t have as much money to spend. If teachers’ wages fall, so will the wages of others who depend on teachers’ money.
It’s just another step in the pillaging of the country ( and Georgia in particular), and most folks are too deluded or distracted to see it.
DeKalb Inside Out
October 18th, 2012
10:00 am
Love Teaching
“St Louis closes 6 failing charter schools to the tune of $250,000.”
Question
Should we keep children in the worse of the worse failing schools like we do with traditional public schools? Wouldn’t it be nice to close the 6 worse schools in your county and put those children in better schools?
Note
Put the $250K in perspective. Considering the budget, that is a drop in the bucket. Go online to the last board meeting and check out how much was spent on the various items. Here are the fist couple of item’s at DeKalb’s last BOE meeting …
Software Maintenance, Hosting and Services for Y5 – $464,002.00
Leadership Development Program – $300,000
Telecommunication 24/7 Monitoring – $375,000.00
St Louis – Get kids out of 6 failing schools – $250,000
I would spend $250K to shut down our 6 worse schools and transfer all the kids to better schools.
Dr. Monica Henson
October 18th, 2012
10:44 am
horkheimer posted, “charter schools are a good way to undercut established means of determining teacher salaries.”
Darn straight! My staff and I are working on developing a creative and innovative way to pay our teachers HIGHER salaries than the traditional longevity salary schedule calls for. This means throwing out a lot of assumptions and not just thinking outside the box–but building our own box. Without a broad flexibility waiver and an independent charter, this kind of innovation would never be possible.
One of our goals is to have teachers able to earn six-figure salaries eventually. You can’t get there with the hidebound restrictions of the traditional brick and mortar school district. We won’t be paying people simply for breathing another year or adding another degree.
Incidentally, our for-profit education service partner does not hold any administrative decision making authority–we are constructing new paradigms without their direction and control, but with their support and assistance. THAT’S what we are paying them for.
Wonder if there are any public school districts out there paying independent consultants and companies to help them figure out new ways to do things? Nah–everyone knows that school districts only deal with nonprofits and no one makes any money from working with a district public school.
ELMom
October 18th, 2012
1:34 pm
The foreign investor line appears to be a scare tactic. If a wealthy foreign person wants to immigrate to the US there are many, many more ways that they could do so besides investing in education. http://www.cnbc.com/id/37357190/Want_to_Become_a_US_Citizen_Money_Talks
John Konop
October 18th, 2012
4:58 pm
The following are important taxpayer protections that should be added to the charter school amendment:
• School board members are forbidden from being a consultant, owner, or employee of the charter school management company or its vendors within the past two years. They must provide full disclosure of any such prior affiliations.
• Officeholders that vote on public or charter school legislation and/or funding must fully disclosure any affiliations with any charter school and/or vendors providing services to charter schools. They must also disclose any relatives that are affiliated with charter schools and/or vendors.
• No charter or public school board member and/or officeholder may have any interest in the real estate underlying any charter or public school.
• Charter school board meetings must be publically listed 30 days in advance and must be held after 7 pm (note: short-term notice, unannounced date changes, and inconvenient meeting times have been used to reduce public participation and oversight).
• Every privately managed charter school with over 750 students must secure a bond that compensates the school district if the charter school closes before the end of a school year.
• If a charter school’s private owners/management company owns an interest in the real estate underlying the school, that property must be put up as security to repay any free taxpayer money the school received (e.g. grants or loans) in the event the school fails.
• The contract between the private management company and the charter school must be fully disclosed.
Taxpayers have too often been left holding the bag for failed publically funded private businesses. The above are, for the most part, common requirements in the private sector. We taxpayers deserve these minimal protections.
Clarity
October 18th, 2012
5:00 pm
Dr. Monica Henderson – the comparison of Free and Reduced Lunch wasn’t to the state average, it was to the County the charter school is in. So please provide your Free and Reduced Lunch rate compared with the County that you are in. Wait a minute – you get to compare to the state because you are a virtual school (you say blended but I see no bricks or mortar that is really a component of your education). Everyone needs to recognize that the huge campaign money coming from out of state is from virtual school companies. Passage of the amendment will be a free for all for them to have access to taxpayer dollars. Part of the problem is not that virtual options are not part of the future of education, but it highlights that since public education has been cut $1.1 billion this year, where will the money come to pay for students who do these virtual schools that are currently not enrolled in public schools? Again, with a $1.1 billion cut, where does the money come from given that a virtual school can take a student from anywhere in GA, taking the taxpayer funds with him or her, but not reduce a class enough to reduce a teacher, let alone the maintenance costs of buildings or the fuel cost of buses? I call BS on you Dr. Monica Henson. I notice you did not throw the BS flag on anything else in the post – I’d love to see you tell me they are not factual and prove it.
I also like your schools parental involvement vehicle – since this deceptive opinion before the ballot question has this about increased parent involvement. How do you know? In a virtual setting I would assume parents would have to be more involved – otherwise they learn nothing. But how do you know?
Could you please show us where your F&R rate is published? I find it interesting that your post says your school is 70% when the document on your own website says, “As of August 31, 2012, enrollment is 347 with 54% designated economically disadvantaged, based on their qualifying for Free or Reduced Lunch.” I do not see your financial information submitted like every other school system has to do because of HB122.
Private Citizen
October 18th, 2012
5:35 pm
ha Someone posting using the name of Max Horkeimer. Well, just call me his best friend, Theodor Adorno.
Just a note to say, I like the Chinese. I buy my cell phones / smart phone / support parts, etc. directly from a person in the Shenzhen city region where they make all this stuff. Impressive manufacturing skills, excellent quality and intricate electronics. They’re really serious on the build. China has a lot of cell models, and I mean advanced stuff, too, that will never see the U.S. market. Sort of US is conditioned to by TOY-O-TA and other few brands, there is a lot of stuff out there being made and sold that does not go to the US market. Go visit France and the streets are filled with brightly colored nice new little cars from Renault, Peugot, and Citroen, and not a one of them are sold in the US and no one in the US evens knows they exist (put that in your standardized testing). Meanwhile, I’ve got a friend 30 year lifer guy, spent 20 years in a Volkswagen plant outside the U.S. and now is a dealership mechanic has nothing good to say about them. Cheap parts (made in China) break and the dealership replaces them with the same cheap parts. I think for the cell phones and smart phones, China has a big enough internal market, they make a lot of high end goods for themselves and have no need to hassle with the US market.
Fine with me if the Chinese invest in schools in Georgia. The person I buy my phone(s) from send me email in English, albeit a little chopped up. I can not return the courtesy and communicate of type or write in Chinese. I looked up their address on Google maps. It shows the whole neighborhood, Jinzhou Yiyun Kindergarten, Shenzhen Wende School, Buxin Middle School, Shenzhen Luogang Hospital. Based on my phone equipment, I do not think the Chinese suffer much waste. They’re environmental protections might be lacking, but they sure know how to manufacture electronics now.
Cool! “Students who were left idle at Wende School in Luohu District yesterday when 100 of the school’s teachers went on strike in a dispute over wages.” http://www.whatsonshenzhen.com/news-886-100-teachers-go-on-strike-over-wage-dispute-in-shenzhen.html
“Air-conditioners for honors students only in Shenzhen school” http://www.whatsonshenzhen.com/news-2523-air-conditioners-for-honors-students-only-in-shenzhen-school.html
Private Citizen
October 18th, 2012
6:31 pm
Chinese investment coming to a Georgia school near you. Sounds good. http://english.sz.gov.cn/lis/
annual average salary up 8.0 percent over the previous year.
per capita annual disposable income up 10.7 percent over the previous year. The per capita annual living expenditure up 5.9 percent over the previous year.
total bank deposits by Shenzhen residents increase of 17.4 percent over the beginning of the year.
registered urban unemployment rate was 2.45 percent.
public health insurance system that covers almost every resident. In 2010, 10.38 million residents were included in the public health insurance system, an increase of 13.9 percent over 2010.
Private Citizen
October 18th, 2012
8:46 pm
Wow. Trippy stuff from where they make the cellphones.
“These stores, to be called “Unlimited Yihaodian” will actually just be blank city spaces where Augmented Reality (AR) technology and your smartphone’s camera bring the store to life. So, yes, no actual physical products. The items that are bought will then be delivered – just like with Yihaodian’s regular website.” http://www.whatsonshenzhen.com/news-4239-china-s-online-retail-giant-yihaodian-to-open-virtual-stores-in-shenzhen.html
Good to read, like new air. All of this authority and faux regulation. And here’s their featured “rising international musician.” What does that make you think of? Blue jeans and booty shake? How about she plays marimba and is a graduate of the arts school. http://www.whatsonshenzhen.com/news-4234-meet-rachel-zhang-a-rising-international-musician-from-shenzhen.html
Intellectualism and the arts is alive and well where they make the cell phones. I guess it has to be because you need lots of engineers for both design and manufacturing.
Dr. Monica Henson
October 18th, 2012
10:05 pm
Clarity, we have already opened one brick-and-mortar hybrid center in downtown Atlanta and will open a second Atlanta center, along with one each in Macon, Augusta, and Savannah. The 11 students currently attending our temporary quarters downtown (construction remodeling will be completed mid-November and will have 30 workstations available, running at least two four-hour shifts daily) are 100% FRL and all but one are minorities, two of whom are also teen parents. Among my virtual students, I have several 19-year-old freshmen and sophomores who are dropouts that have enrolled with us to try to earn their high school diplomas before they age out.
Not sure why it would be “interesting” (read: not true?) that our enrollment as of August 31, 2012, was 347 with 54% FRL, and now that we are at 700+ kids, we are up to 70% FRL. We have engaged in a massive outreach campaign in the inner city and across the metro Atlanta area for the past month, which has not only increased our enrollment but also increased the percentage of FRL-eligible students.
Our FTE as of the October 2 Count Date was 602. As of today, we are at 713. The reason why you don’t see FRL rate published is because FTE Count Date data are still being processed by GaDOE and won’t be finalized until Oct. 25. Our general operating budget was submitted to GaDOE at the same time that all district school financials were uploaded across the state, in the summertime. I am not sure of GaDOE’s time frame for publication of FTE data and financial documents.
As for your question about “how do you know?” about parental involvement, I don’t know specifically what it is that you are asking me. Please rephrase and I’ll be glad to respond.
Finally, you posted, “with a $1.1 billion cut, where does the money come from given that a virtual school can take a student from anywhere in GA, taking the taxpayer funds with him or her, but not reduce a class enough to reduce a teacher, let alone the maintenance costs of buildings or the fuel cost of buses?”
The enabling legislation states: “No deduction shall be made to any state funding which a local school system is otherwise authorized to receive pursuant to this chapter as a direct result or consequence of the enrollment in a state charter school of a specific student or students who reside in the geographical area of the local school system.” The funding comes from state tax dollars separate from the funding pool that is allocated to district schools and locally-authorized charter schools.
It’s a fact that when students leave a school system, fixed costs are not automatically reduced. However, it is not the obligation of my, or any other charter school, to ensure that district public schools continue to operate sufficient funds to cover the same fixed costs when their students depart to attend elsewhere. That’s what happens when competition comes to town.
The identical situation occurs when a district public school student withdraws to be homeschooled or attend private school. The simple fact that districts insist that they somehow be funded sufficiently to continue to operate at the same fixed cost levels without making adjustments to reflect the reality of a declining enrollment is evidence of the stultified behavior of an organization that has enjoyed a monopoly and wishes to continue the status quo for its own sake. That is emphatically not my concern–educating students and saving young lives is.
If you are so concerned about transparency, how about posting under your real name? I find it “interesting” that you do not.
Clarity
October 19th, 2012
11:48 am
Dr. Monica Henson, you wrote:
Finally, you posted, “with a $1.1 billion cut, where does the money come from given that a virtual school can take a student from anywhere in GA, taking the taxpayer funds with him or her, but not reduce a class enough to reduce a teacher, let alone the maintenance costs of buildings or the fuel cost of buses?”
The enabling legislation states: “No deduction shall be made to any state funding which a local school system is otherwise authorized to receive pursuant to this chapter as a direct result or consequence of the enrollment in a state charter school of a specific student or students who reside in the geographical area of the local school system.” The funding comes from state tax dollars separate from the funding pool that is allocated to district schools and locally-authorized charter schools.
You can take any department – not just the $1.1 billion underfunded for public education -and ask where does the money come from? If your school is paid with taxpayer dollars and every department is already massively cut, where do you think the funds came from? It is one pot of state money divided out. With this new system of state approved schools, do you think the pot of total dollars magically expands because your school was added? I love enabling legislation that says we aren’t going to take from your formula, cuts every department, and will use a different pot to fund this. Not to mention that, by law, schools are obligated to receive $1.1 billion more than what they get now – they’ve created a lot of wiggle room in that, haven’t they? What happened to that obligation? Thanks for acknowleging that the fixed costs do not go away and that a public schools expenses will still be there with the creation of these new schools. I’m sure your school does an admirable job in trying to identify students that have not quite gotten on track yet (e.g. 19 year olds). Sounds like something that doesn’t have to go around local authority responsible to local taxpayers).
You identified the major problem by saying its not your obligation. When the revenue leaves with that child, and the expenses remain because the teacher still has 30 kids instead of 31, I’m sure it is not your concern. That’s why it needs to be everyone else’s concern. The State has one pot of money. They may not take directly from a funding formula, but whether its Higher Education, DOE, Transportation or some other department – the addition of this will divide that pot further with money they don’t have. That is why New Jersey has had to put a moratorium on approving charters.
The comment about the parental involvement refers to the ballot preamble stating that this vote is about increasing parental invovlement – which I’m not sure how you measure in a virtual environment. Like I said, if it didn’t exist in that environment, there would be no learning.
Lastly, I love the kind of competition created when $1.1 billion is cut from one group, they are told that they do not do well enough, and another group is created. So again, I ask, where will the money come from?
Clarity
October 19th, 2012
11:54 am
Also, there is a very specific reason why legislators were not putting language into the amendment to address funding, but rather doing it through enabling legislation. One is much easier to change. $1.1 billion is cut right now, what’s another few hundred million.
Dr. Monica Henson
October 19th, 2012
6:17 pm
I don’t find the ballot language to be confusing, but I’m obviously biased. I also am quite well-versed in charter school law, so when I read it, it makes perfect sense to me.
The preamble language, in my opinion, addresses the fact that families who want school choice are more likely to be involved parents, and therefore providing choices in the form of state- and locally-authorized charter schools would lead to increased parental involvement. I don’t think it was necessary to have this language, but I don’t find it particularly disturbing.
As far as the question, where will the money come from, I don’t know the exact response. State tax dollars fund all state obligations. For the time being, the Governor and the legislature have set aside funds for state-chartered schools that do not “dip into” the funds for district schools and locally authorized schools. If state-authorized schools do demonstrate that they can substantially improve student outcomes on less total funding than district schools & locally authorized charters receive, then there is certainly the possibility that funding would be redirected, and I think that’s what alarms the defenders of the status quo.
What I don’t understand is why school officials don’t look at creative ways to manage the declining enrollment versus fixed costs, better yet ways to improve the services they provide so that families don’t leave for charters/private schools/homeschool. Instead, they continue to insist that they should continue to receive funding when families pull their kids out, as if fixed costs alone are justification for allowing a district to hold kids hostage.
This is simply ridiculous. If McDonalds took that attitude when Burger King came to town, refusing to make menu adjustments and upgrades in service, instead complaining that the public should simply continue to eat at McDonalds no matter how much they prefer BK, Mickey Ds would soon be bankrupt.
educator
October 21st, 2012
8:04 am
I love the comment by “whitewolf of the bones,” who said “they” in speaking about public schools. The word “public” includes you, too, Mr. Bones, and every one of us. The welfare of all of our students is OUR responsibility. Like many other public school teachers, I support the idea of locally-approved charter schools set up to serve a purpose that the local public agrees on the need for. If these charters are difficult to get approved locally, it’s probably for good reason. I am not so naive as to think that state politics and money don’t play a role in even these, but let’s don’t just hand over our students to people who may not have the best interest of all of the public school children at heart. You as a voter have the right to disregard the public good, but it isn’t the RIGHT thing to do.
A. Friend
October 21st, 2012
5:13 pm
And then if the Charter school gets sued who is responsible for their mistakes? Why does Georgia Charter Schools Inc DBA Kennesaw Charter School now have have $300,000.00 law suit. If I read it correctly their former landlord has sued them for breaking their lease and not making repairs to their former building. Look it up in Cobb County records. Many questions need to be asked about how these schools use our State of Georgia and Cobb County dollars. Is it worth it?