DeKalb’s Eugene Walker: Keep schools in local hands. “No” on charter schools amendment

[...] For an opposing view, read DeKalb board member Eugene Walker’s piece. By Nancy Jester [...]

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I find this letter to be extraordinarily disingenuous given the reality of the unprecedented power the state of Georgia has given to the unelected accreditation agency, SACS and AdvancED, that are not accountable in the least to taxpayers. It is also inconsistent with the hand tying the accreditors have now imposed on our locally elected school boards on what their authority actually is in any dispute with district policies and practices as I explained here after listening to a GSBA presentation. http://www.invisibleserfscollar.com/who-is-really-in-charge-the-school-board-the-super-the-accreditors-or-unesco/

I heard off the record from numerous school board members around the state that they are essentially now subject to gag orders and they were so glad I figured out what they were not permitted to tell me.

In fact I raised this issue because Martha Greenway was misrepresenting the Charter Amendment at a Riverwood Principals Coffee. Anything that so threatens officials who emailed me that a decline in PSAT scores does not matter because the PSAT does not measure “what we want Georgia schoolchildren to know and be able to do” must be a good thing.

We need somewhere for taxpayers and students who still want the knowledge measured by the PSAT. And it is abhorrent to bring up the spectre of Separate but Equal. Shame on you.

I am so tired of being lied to by educators who live off our taxes.

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“I find this letter to be extraordinarily disingenuous given the reality of the unprecedented power the state of Georgia has given to the unelected accreditation agency, SACS and AdvancED, that are not accountable in the least to taxpayers”

You don’t mean the same organization that if THIS VERY PAPER is to be believed (Maureen correct me if I’m wrong) tried to strong arm the Atlanta BOE into naming, as board chair, a woman conspired with Beverly Hall to hide evidence of systemic, widespread cheating?

A board chair is removed from power after she conspired with a superintendent to hide evidence of cheating and SACS tries to reinstall her back into power? This is “good governance”?

These are the “good guys” in this amendment squabble?

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Beverly-it is worse in certain countries than others. The Qualifications Frameworks and Quality Assurance and SEL focus is really the furthest along in the UK and the Scandinavian countries. In India and Australia the private schools have been targeted as well using tax supported vouchers as the rationale. In Canada the Alberta Wheel of Competency is now showing up all over the globe and Michael Fullan (Ontario) is an adviser all over the globe. The Bioregional movement and its ed vision originated in British Colombia and our Pacific Northwest. really strong in Portland and Seattle. My post before today’s was tracking from Hong Kong back to US and Canada.

UNESCO has always had a political vision from the time of its founding. That you could change the West politically and socially by changing culture. Atlanta and Dallas and Denver are all targets out of deep resentment at the Milliken (Detroit) school busing case. There is still active hope of overturning that ruling to maintain that economic segregation equals racial discrimination and only metrowide busing will remedy. The Environmental Justice movement is run nationally out of Clark Atlanta and the Regional Equity Movement has Atlanta actively in its sights.

This is in many ways a good old-fashioned political coup. Think of education administrators and accreditors as part of a class of the nomenklatura who would like to live at our expense all of their lives. And they want to rig education to benefit themselves in terms of continued revenue while knocking out every aspect that fosters mental independence and individuality. Then an insufficient number of voters can object in time. Very little in an ed degree would make you aware of the dangers inherent in Best Practices. Or appreciate the magic of an Axemaker Mind.

But the economic pie is not fixed. What is being done to gain political and economic power threatens everyone and everything that works. When I was at a breakfast recently a tablemate agreed I was right but laughed that I was so worried because anybody who can figure out things and connect the dots of stories they were never told will “always be OK.”

I really am a mom. I really was a history major. I live economics and use it daily in what I analyse. If something cannot work, we must talk about it before a fatal plunge together into the abyss. Even if I suspect I will be able to jump in time.

Our children cannot. This country cannot. These ideas really do have a tragic history that is the most likely consequence yet again.

So I write.

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Thank you Dr. Walker. This charter school amendment is completely unnecessary. There must be a lot of power and $$$ driving it because I KNOW the state Capitol doesn’t care about educating our children. There is no question that our educational system needs improving but that is more a function of the politics of this state than the educators who are hard at work to make it happen. I already voted NO.

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“The referendum before voters is, in short, the beginning of the end of universal free public education, and the decline of the control of local residents to control their own school systems. It would be turning back the clock to pre-1954 segregation, and we must fight to keep this from happening.”
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I totally agree with Dr. Walker’s words, above. Below are words which I have previously posted on Jim Galloway’s blog, 10/18/12 at 3:30 pm, which will indicate how politically based, rather than educationally based, the constitutional amendment is.

My response, below, is to a poster by the name of Phil who posted that the State Board of Education also consists of appointed officials, as would the state Commission for Charter Schools, after I had stated that parents – right now – have the choice of applying for a state charter school if their local district denies their application.
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“Phil: ‘You just described the State Board of Ed – every member of which is appointed by the Governor.’
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You are correct in that, Phil, however those State Board of Education members are primarily educators, not politicians; otherwise, you would not have witnessed the dissent of Dr. John Barge, Georgia’s Superintendent of Schools and a Republican, who has disagreed with Republican Governor Deal by opposing this Constitutional Amendment which would establish a State Commission on Charter Schools. Dr. Barge has proven himself to be a true educator, not a politician, in his core.

Moreover, the membership of the State Commission of Charter Schools would come from a list supplied by Georgia’s House Majority Leader and Georgia’s President of the Senate, as well as from the Governor, all of whom are Republican politicians. In addition, Rep. Jan Jones and Rep. Edward Lindsey, who sponsored HR 1162 which became the Constitutional Amendment, are both members of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Please preview the link, below, to see how ALEC has had its political influence into this legislation. Rep. Jones is part of the Educational Task Force of ALEC as well as on the Education Committee of Georgia’s House of Representatives.”

http://mediamatters.org/research/2012/05/09/how-alec-is-quietly-influencing-education-refor/184156

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The proposed Amendment 1 smells like backroom political favor-trading and has neon arrows pointing to fat private bank accounts at taxpayers’ expense. Parents have local control now, and they should start by demanding that we detoxify schools of existing standardized testing mandates that are feeding political cronyism and fattening profiteers who couldn’t care less whether your kid ends up in Yale or in prison. It also allows teachers who don’t give a hoot phone it in instead of actually creating a culture of curiosity and lifelong learning. Or, we can whine and pretend that knowing the difference between an abstract noun and a concrete noun is really important stuff for our future generations, and that ALL kids don’t really need computers or smartboards or clean bathrooms or good lighting at school. Let’s insist that the STATE fix our antiquated, corrupt, goal-less education system before creating a redundant one. Amendment 1? I’ve had sour milk in the fridge that smelled better. No thanks.

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Yo Doc, tell us about the school building program funded by bonds that has been looted by the thieves in Central Office, IMHO, who are I believe are under indictment for their crimes. Isn’t the school system also involved in a hundred million dollar lawsuit with at least one building contractor over these and other crimes? Now you want to save the taxpayers some money? I think you are just protecting your own rice bow.

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Keep schools in “Local hands?” Does anyone understand that the public schools in Georgia are now in “Gates Foundation hands?” That where all this stuff comes from that has been signed into law in Georgia. Georgia public schools are most definitely not in local hands and maybe? someone might look at where some of this comes from that is mandated into law and “re-delivered” into the school house? Every one of these initiatrives has a name and a source and none of the sources are in Georgia. So if you are cheerleading for local control, you are not only very naive, you’re just plain uninformed.

The best part is the Gates Foundation spends $300 million / year paying off the press (not meaning the AJC, but the national corporate medias and such) so there is ZERO counterpoint or commentary on them.

Do yourself a favor and do a web seach for “Gates Foundation” combined with “Race To The Top” “Valued Added Metrics VAM” and “Georgia charter school amendment.”

State of Georgia’ll sell its soul for $10. if it comes from a foundation and a cult of personality. If William Faulkner was alive, he’d come after you with a shovel.

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Paulo 977, 4:14 pm

Thanks for your response. For those who may not be more fully aware of ALEC and its stealthy “tentacles” into our democratic Republic – on many levels – through its political contacts and wealthy patrons such as the Koch Brothers, I will repost the following, below. There was good reason for Thomas Jefferson to have advocated for public education as a foundation of a democratic society, so that ordinary citizens would be educated to see into the machinations of the wealthy elite and how they might use the ordinary citizens for their own self-interests purposes. See below.
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Nancy Jester: “Parents deserve more choices.”
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Parents have more choices right now without changing Georgia’s Constitution in order to accommodate essentially, imo, a politically based state Commission for Charter Schools. They can apply to the state Board of Education to establish a state charter school, if they are denied a charter school by their local school district.

See below, as to why I believe that this Constitutional Amendment is more political than educational.

Posted originally 10/19/12, 10:19 pm:

“ ‘Also, there would seem to be an issue of coercion when a charter school employee gets such a request from a principal for what amounts to a political endorsement.
Wouldn’t the employees of the schools feel pressured to comply since it would be obvious if they didn’t as their names would be missing from the pro amendment ad?’
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I wish to connect some dots for those that may not be aware. Principals obliged to the Georgia Charter School Association that supports the Constitutional Amendment appear to be practicing coercion toward their teaching staff in their charter schools to support this amendment. Likewise, managers of a Koch Industries firm here in Georgia – Georgia-Pacific – also appear to be practicing coercion with their workers to get them to support Gov. Romney for President. (See link below.)

The sponsors of the original HR 1162 which became the Consitutional Amendment, Republican state Representatives Jan Jones and Edward Lindsey, are members of ALEC. The Koch Brothers are conservative Republicans who support ALEC financially.

On the front page of the AJC today (paper edition) was an article entitled, “Should your boss sway your vote?” and online that article was entitled, “Koch election mailing to employees sparks controversy.”

Below are the beginning lines of this article:
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‘Earlier this month, the corporate parent of Atlanta-based Georgia-Pacific sent its 50,000 employees election-related material that included a list of political candidates supported by the company.

The mailing by Koch Industries drew national attention, raising the question of whether employers should bring politics into the workplace, and to what degree. . .

The Koch Industries mailing also contained a letter from company President Dave Robertson and opinion pieces written by top executives David and Charles Koch, who are brothers and prominent backers of conservative causes. David Koch’s commentary states his support for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.’
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Those who initiated and/or practiced coercion in the workplace in these two instances appear to be Republicans supportive of a conservative ideology espoused by the Koch Brothers regarding free markets. Hmmm. That should make you think. Any time you have an autocratic setting in which power at the top dominates, you will get coercion of employees because workers are not seen as equal to management and are, therefore, not respected as much as those in superior positions.

If you do not see that that autocratic ideology has the potential to undercut the very foundational tenet on which America was based – that “all are created equal” – then you are in denial, in my opinion. Just another reason to vote NO to the Constitutional Amendment in NOvember, which appears to me to be more political than educational.

Btw, perhaps Dr. John Barge made his decision regarding not supporting the Constitutional Amendment based purely on educational considerations, not on political ones, so his particular political persuasion was irrelevant to his decision. If that were the case – and I believe that it was – then Dr. Barge is a true educator, not a politician obliged to others. Someone of standing should nominate Dr. Barge for a Kennedy Center ‘Profile in Courage Award.’ He well deserves that honor, in my opinion.”

http://www.ajc.com/news/news/national-govt-politics/koch-election-mailing-to-employees-sparks-controve/nSg9y/

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Serf’s Collar, Ir has occurred to me that having a private non-government agency doing K12 public school regulation is completely bizarre. It seems like in Georgia no one is willing to step to the plate and govern, it is like it is the governing avoidance state and I’d don’t mean that as a compliment. Outside of Atlanta, the standard of living in Georgia is really atrocious, tons of poverty. And no one can even comprehend that the rest of the 1st world has health care where you go get treatment and then leave without debt and with your bank account in tact. Recently I spent 2 hours at a doctor mega-plex. They didn’t even do any treatment and I left with a $1500. bill. I talked to the lady in billing and she said “You’re preaching to the choir, I’m trying to figure out how to buy groceries.” At another doctor office I went and visited the lady in the billing office and she confided in me that neither she or any of the workers there had health insurance (!)

This place is the pits, for real. If you ever want to go teach outside of the US, according the OECD, the rest of the developed world not only has universal healthcare, but also, teachers teach 35% hours less than US teachers, and then get paid more in comparison to other professions.

People need to recognize with Bill Gates foundation is doing to the state of Georgia. They’ve already signed all this trendy Gates-garbage into law. I stopped using Microsoft 15 years ago. Read a report of the new Windows 8 and the person said it is awkward, time consuming, and difficult to use. Gates made his fortune through monopoly. In Europe he is considered a criminal. Android operating system that is taking over the world is built on Linux and there are Americans who are the real deal and have made real design contribution to it, like Ian Murdock. Bill Gates has monopoly and appropriation in his blood. Now that Windows has run its course of opportunity and is obsolete, Gates was to appropriate and monopolize education as his new business venture. He knows how to pull the levers and do it. Over in Seattle, where he’s from, the educators are onto him and he’s no cult of personality there. Living in Georgia is starting to feel like stale Russia in the old era. Everybody’s broke, they’re signing communist era education law (already done that), and the exploit on medical care is extreme and the people are as dumb as any peasant that ever walked the earth. Living in Georgia is like having a dumb girlfriend that runs you down and costs you a lot of money.

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I heard it said that the UN Agenda 21 is the new curriculum. “Agenda 21 is a comprehensive plan of action to be taken globally, nationally and locally…” http://www.un.org/esa/dsd/agenda21/

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Gene Walker’s opposition to this amendment is enough to make me vote Yes, which I did. Here in DeKalb, we have no control, local or otherwise. The few good charters and magnets we have are full, and, before I spend my savings on private school, I think I am due more for my thousands of tax dollars than the disaster we have today. “Choice” doesn’t really exist in DeKalb.

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Eugene Walker personifies the disaster that is local control of public schools. He is the front man for the education rat hole that is DeKalb County.

He was there when former DeKalb County School Superintendent and project manager, Pat Pope, were misappropriating $10 million of the DeKalb School construction budget. He was there when fellow Board member Jay Cunningham was double dealing pizzas to the schools they both supervise. He was there when the DeKalb County School Board degenerated into a local war zone.

The CrossRoadsNews had to edify Eugene Walker last August that one in five DeKalb seniors did not graduate in May. Walker could not even open his mouth. He was clueless.

Eugene Walker is a primary part of the reason that SACS is now breathing down DCSD neck about Board cronyism, micromanagement, HR and hiring fixing schemes, Board harassment of school administrators and some fifty complaints from DeKalb residents to SACS about unprofessional budget practices, legal expense shenanigans, and other Board transgressions.

So, it is no wonder that Walker is playing on his propaganda trumpet to defeat Amendment I. What a day when DeKalbians get smart and fire him from the Board and relieve him of all contact with DeKalb County schools. DeKalb academic progress will begin immediately.

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@ Sandy Springs Parent, You need a charter school all to yourself, one with a helicopter landing pad! Seriously, you go to a school and “push for the removal” of teachers? Wow. That’s pretty out there. I’d think if a teacher did some crime or something, but to be frank, it sounds like you are deciding your school manager or something. Do you push for the removal of people work at stores you go to, or is this consumer method exclusive to education? Let me clarify a little.

My personal belief is people need to be shown the right way to do things, but the “off with their heads” or “fire this / that teacher” is really extreme. Sandy Springs Parent, please don’t be extreme with school staff. Its challenging work on a good day. You’re perspective is a good reason we need school choice. If you lived in Belgium, you could choose any number of schools and the funding goes with the student where they decide to go to school, what fits them best.

Seriously, you seem like the kind of parent where people warn of your coming and from the side, some roll their eyes at “the crazy one.” I’m not too un-crazy myself but I try not to go after people. Maybe I should take a lesson from you and I’d do better if I really went after people.

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Note to self: Don’t work anywhere near Sandy Springs. Parents’ll try to get you fired.

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Well, I’m of the opinion that if Eugene Walker is against it that means it will benefit the children more than him and his cronies…

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How can someone promote “a caring economics” in a country without a healthcare system?

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“[P]ublic schools are constitutionally mandated to educate all children.” Absolutely true.

“Charter schools can pick and choose.” Patently false.

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As hasbeen said before, follow the money. Where is the funding coming from that supports passage of this amendment? Out of state emtities are supporting it. Why would an out of state entity support a change in the GA constitution? I submit it is NOT because of altruism. There is money to be made and that tax-payer money, instead of educating GA children, will leave the state.

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This shouldn’t even be on the ballot since the GA courts already ruled against public funding of private schools. Kind of like going to the trouble of banning gay marriage when it’s already illegal.

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Charter schools have been and remain a valuable option for Georgia communities. Decisions about whether to approve a charter school are currently made by local leaders elected to their county or city’s school board by local voters. Charter school advocates who feel that the local board of education has dealt with them unfairly can already appeal that decision to the state board of education which is comprised of individuals appointed by the Governor. The charter school amendment isn’t about improving education options for Georgia’s boys and girls; it’s about the money our elected “leaders” expect to realize (and may have realized already) from the for-profit education management corporations that see our schools as a huge market for their “services.” There is nothing wrong with corporations making a profit, but there is also no evidence to suggest that the quality of public education will improve with their receipt of tax dollars. According to Stanford University, one-third of charter schools outperform their traditional counterparts, one-third perform at the same level, and one third underperform. I respectfully suggest we ask ourselves why the Governor and other “leaders” are willing to invest so much political capital on this issue and why they were willing to threaten funding for Gwinnett Tech if the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce didn’t reverse its opposition to the charter school amendment. In my opinion, this is all about money, our money and its redistribution to politicians and the education management corporations that are pulling their strings. I also believe that this is being sold as the means of helping children trapped in failing schools in a classic bait and switch operation. We know that charter schools, which again I believe are good things, benefit most from the enrollment of students formerly attending private schools. Many affluent parents today are looking for alternatives to private schools as a result of the economy, and I think their voices are being heard by the politicians who received their campaign contributions. Establishing a charter school commission that is not elected and not accountable to voters and taxpayers and whose members are appointed by the Governor, the Lt. Governor and the Speaker of the Georgia House provides the means to selectively establish schools using tax dollars badly needed by our existing and more accountable public education system. We have already seen this Governor’s willingness to direct tax dollars to projects that reward his friends and supporters regardless of benefit to taxpayers from whom this tax money is derived. Our political “leaders” deliberately stripped more than $4 billion from public schools, then decried the failure of local schools (many of which teeter on the brink of bankruptcy as a result of state actions), and forced through (ala TSPLOST) a constitutional amendment proposal to provide for more “choice.” Those who think passage of the charter school amendment will create opportunities for poor children to attend outstanding charter schools are likely to be disappointed with the actions of a charter school commission populated by appointees of the current Governor, Lt. Governor and Speaker, in my opinion. There will be window dressing, to be sure, but most of those attending the new, publicly funded charter schools will be the children of privilege, those whose parents have clout with the Governor and who see great benefit in having taxpayers save them the $24,000 plus dollars they currently pay – per child – for private school tuition. In my opinion, this is a major league gullibility test for Georgia voters. I believe the Governor and his agents believe they can sell this by portraying its passage as something good for parents and children who need an opportunity for a quality education not currently afforded them, but if that is not enough they’ve taken steps to ensure passage by using language on the ballot that is grossly misleading if not false. Why do they feel they must mislead voters on the language of the ballot if they honestly believe in this amendment and its benefits to the state? In my opinion, they don’t trust voters to look at this amendment objectively because we will ultimately see it for what it is and vote “no.” They want to trick us, and they think they can get away with it because we are distracted by the realities of working long hours, raising children, and fulfilling other duties that leave little time for anything else. Our elected “leaders” are supposed to be in office to understand issues and vote in ways that serve the interest of the community, not the interest of for-profit education management corporations or those affluent individuals who can afford to make large campaign contributions, in my judgment. I suggest we vote “no” on the charter school amendment and send a message to our ethically-challenged Governor that we won’t tolerate deception and efforts to redirect our tax dollars to corporations and individuals who favor him with political contributions. The Louisiana-style politics of our current Governor and his cronies will continue until voters make it clear that Georgians want a higher-standard of ethical governance that serves all citizens. Rejection of TSPLOST sent a message, but it doesn’t appear to have been heard. Let’s vote “no” on the charter school amendment and see whether those in power finally get the message.

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Do you really want to listen to someone that has lead DeKalb County schools?
Is DeKalb County the model we want for the rest of the state?
Competition is the only solution.

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DeKalb County schools are now a lost cause. When I was in charge they were top ranked. Charter school may be the last hope for public schools.

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While I think publicly funded “Charter Schools” should not exist and that it is just a way for a certain few to attend a private school on the taxpayers dime, being a DeKalb resident I think if we are to have these schools, then let the State make the determination on the need and funding, etc. The BoE and Administration do NOT know how to manage funds responsibly and care even less about a good education for the students. This would be just another fraudulent “friends and family” program. DeKalb already has magnet programs, montessori schools, etc. so I personally do not see the need for the “Charter” schools!

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My husband and I discussed this amendment and we’ve decided to vote against it. Personally, I agree with charter schools and school choice, but I do not believe that the state should have a say in how a local county should spend its money. While I agree that certain counties may have corrupt school government and misuse funds, and that misinformed constituents will continue to vote for the same ole, same ole (think Eldrin Bell), but I vote with my feet. Dekalb parents who are dissatisfied can move elsewhere. What happens, though, if you open the door to the state telling a county that they must fund this charter school. The same type of corruption could manifest itself on the state level, and that would be much harder to eradicate. Counties that have been fiscally responsible may end up being forced to hand money to a fly-by-night charter that does nothing but line some pockets. I can easily see someone abusing this system by starting “charter” schools in several counties through bribes and political connections and making money for 5 years until the charters are forced to close. If it happens on the local level, then it will probably happen on a state level.

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“Who would end up shouldering this $430 million tax shift into the duplicate school system? Local taxpayers, of course”

I love it when these anti-choice demagogues use patently false statements.

Why would LOCAL taxpayers be on the hook for money? They are not controlled by the State. The local school syystem will actually have MORE money per student to work with when some students leave for charters, and the local tax is the same. The only money that MIGHT be in jeopardy would be State funds, and that has not been announced. You would think that local school systems would LOVE this idea, less students to deal with and the same money. But they are afraid that they will be shown up by these charter schools who can institute programs for tighter discipline, required attendance, parent involvement.

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the fact that one of the a$$ clowns on the dekalb board of education opposes this….. then i will vote YES !!!!

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Our locally controlled school districts have failed us. We need alternatives. My family lives in DeKalb and our daughter attends a wonderful charter. if she had not gotten in, we were prepared to move out of the county before we would have sent her to the local county school with the 55% CRCT pass rate. You people who are for “local control” need to get your heads out of the sand. It’s not only local control you are voting for, it is local MONOPOLY control, under which the local districts have no incentive to improve. Please send a message to these districts, that their continued failure is not an option. Support state charters!

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No charter school funding with public money. If parents want more “choices” they should either homeschool, go private or pay $5000 dollars to send their child to a district like Decatur.

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Good call, Maureen, using Dr. Walker as a spokesperson for the anti-charter crowd. That probably increased support for the Amendment a lot just by publishing his article.

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As someone who plans to vote “no” on this amendment, but who strongly supports charters, I find parts of Dr. Walker’s piece highly offensive:

“DeKalb County has 13 charter schools, and the Board of Education believes in them and supports their work.” Historically the BOE sure has had a funny way of demonstrating that “support.” For example, the various ways in which the Board has shown “support” include letting Forest Hills rot for 5 years rather than letting ICS use it, not inviting charters to school choice fairs, referring to non-charter children as “our children” (implying public school charter children are not) . . .

“Charter schools can pick and choose. Since the measure of success of all schools is test scores, charter schools have their pick of the brightest students which often are from households of confortable affluence.” This is simply a LIE and Dr. Walker should be ashamed of himself for continuously pushing it. Charters are open to all and hold lotteries when there are more applicants than openings. Dr. Walker is LYING here.

“It goes without saying that in our current economy, local school systems cannot take a $430 million hit from the get-go,” One wishes the BOE would show such fiscal prudence with regard to their endless lawsuits.

“Children of lessor means will be trapped into the underfunded remains of a once-great school system.” It went to “once-great” a long time ago, and the charter movement is not to blame.

“children won’t be divided on the pure basis of race, but on the basis of economic class.” Visit schools in Dunwoody and Clarkston on the same day next week and tell me this isn’t happening now.

As I said, I’m voting “no” because the amendment seems motivated much more by money and special interests and less by any concern for children or education. About the only thing that would persuade me to vote “yes” would be more misrepresentations and LIES about charters like the ones Dr. Walker is pushing.

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The headline of this piece is enough for a “Yes” vote from me although I would have preferred the opportunity to vote on abolishing the school board itself in favor of a charter system.

It’s time for the incompetent “education mafia” to go both for the sake of students and taxpayers.

My two cents

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Mary Elizabeth Where I live the school system is completely obsessed with their power and they take real good care of their own. If you want to be one of “their own” you have to cater and play personality and go long with any number of things and if a teacher counterpoints ever for any reason, even something genuinely constructive, it embarrasses the directors and that teacher will be made to pay, The power people are always “seeking ideas and input” and then they smash anyone who makes a suggestion if that person is not part of their cliche and pays homage to the right people, says the expected phrases when expected, etc. There is a church down the street from me that runs a little school in their church. I stopped by their yard sale and they said the county messes with them whenever possible, for example “that stair railing needs to be moved 2 inches” because the county resents that they operate without allegiance to the county system. The people who said this at the church were sophisticated level headed and nice people.

And mainly what the local school system does is tote water for these policies from the state that require teachers to do any manner of things. That is really what the Georgia school systems have become. They are fully occupied with re-delivering the mandates from the “agents of change.” That is what the school systems literally spend all of their time on, like they are bought-off zombies, and meanwhile there is very little in the way of books and supplies. Maybe I live where they take all of this stuff seriously. I’ve heard of at least one Georgia county that did not sign on to “Race to the Top” and they have my respect. Working in Georgia public school system means a whole lot of indoctrination and very little support and supplies.

The joke is that Gates Foundation is behind the indoctrination and is also behind the charter schools amendment. There must be a lot of pressure on policy makers to do this policy. They seem to have no alternative.

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The Constitutional Amendment is more political than educational, in my opinion. Children “trapped” in their present school system already have the option of attending a state charter school by having their parents apply to the State Board of Education to establish a state charter school for them, which will remove them from their local school districts.

The Constitutional Amendment is unnecessary. The fact that it is unnecessary to create state charter schools for parents and children should alert readers to just how political this amendment is. Vote NO in NOvember to this amendment.

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Counties want to protect their brand and are used to being able to feature their high-performing schools. They do not like when a charter school steals their thunder and they can no longer tout schools x,y, and z as being the examples of excellence. It confuses the information space and counties want their reputation and power to be simple and direct.

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“Children “trapped” in their present school system already have the option of attending a state charter school by having their parents apply to the State Board of Education to establish a state charter school for them, which will remove them from their local school districts.”

Mary Elizabeth – Would you please tell me how many charters have been approved by the State Board of Education after they were turned down by their local system?

And what is to stop the charter opponents, after they use this argument to defeat the amendment, from going to the Georgia Supreme Court and declaring this method unconstitutional, just like they did with the earlier commission?

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I love teaching, etc – You say on one hand that you have a very well-performing district, but then on the other hand you say you are being squeezed with funds and you have a growing ESOL and SPED population. Have you ever thought that the two go together. How many high-performing students have been getting less attention and options because of the funds and attention diverted to ESOL and SPED?

You say parents don’t want charters, but I see some clear evidence that this is not true.

If all parents are happy with the local school system, there will be no charters.

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I keep seeing comments about :”local control” of schools. If the locals want 100% of the control, maybe they should pay 100% of the cost. Do away with all State funding of schools and make it 100% dependent on local county property taxes.

But then create an alternate State school system funded with State dollars for parents wishing to escape the “local control”.

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@mountain man, the SBOE has approved 19 charter school petitions (that were denied by their local BOE) since 2001 and 15 are still operating.

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Mountain Man, I have answered your questions already to a poster by the name of “Phil” on Jim Galloway’s blog. I will provide you the links to the two pages of dialogue with “Phil” in this post and in my next post. Please read my dialogue with “Phil” to get the answer to your questions.

http://blogs.ajc.com/political-insider-jim-galloway/2012/10/18/charter-school-fight-makes-a-jumble-of-georgia-politics/

Link to last page of dialoque with “Phil” on my next post.

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Disgusted in Dekalb posted, “If the amendment stated that the charter schools had to be run as non-profits, I wonder how much out of state support it would have….”

There is no charter school in Georgia that does not operate as a nonprofit, and there is no such language in the amendment because the original charter school legislation stipulates that all charter schools are to be governed by nonprofit boards of directors. Part of the process of startup includes incorporation as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

Any charter school board that has a contract with a for-profit charter management organization or education services provider is still governing a nonprofit organization. Read the law, please, before you post misinformation.

Further, and it’s important for voters to realize this, EVERY PUBLIC SCHOOL BOARD in the United States, charter or district, has multiple contracts with various for-profit entities to provide goods and services necessary to the operation of the schools.

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Private Citizen asked, “Maybe someone can clarify. Currently, can a county obstruct or otherwise interfere with the functioning of a charter school?, [etc., etc.]”

Schools that are chartered by local boards of education are under the control of the local BOE and must submit to its mandates. For that reason, the State BOE looks very carefully at those petitions that are for “conversion” charters in an effort to ensure that there will be true local governance, as much as possible, of the school. The devil’s deal that is made by start-up charter schools that are awarded local authorization is that they receive local tax funding, but they submit to local BOE control.

This is why an alternate authorizer is so needed. Yes, it’s possible for a start-up charter that is denied by a local BOE to appeal to the state and be chartered as a state special school. However, as the number of state-chartered schools grows, it will become unwieldy for the state administrative entity (GaDOE) to continue to be the administrative overseer of dozens, eventually hundreds (I hope) of state-chartered schools.

The legislature moved teacher certification out of GaDOE years ago for the same reason–to establish an independent body to deal solely with the important function of teacher certification and renewal. It will similarly be the purview of the Charter Schools Commission to serve as an independent body–dealing solely with authorization and oversight of charter schools.

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@mountain man “State funds are the one you are talking about being cut. If you hadn’t noticed, there has been a recession. ”

They started cutting at the state level LONG before this recession.

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Dekalb Count Board Charman Walker is a poster child for why we need State ability to approve charters.

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mountain man,

In my opinion, you should not vote for this amendment because fear of what the Supreme Court may, or may not, do in the future.

There is a big difference in establishing a separate State Charter School Commission to authorize state charter schools, and already having a State Board of Education which has approved state charter schools for almost 20 years. I feel pretty confident that Georgia’s Supreme Court would easily distinguish between the two, i.e., a separately appointed educational agency vs. the state Board of Education for all of Georgia’s public schools, including state public charter schools.

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@Mary Elizabeth. The state BOE is appointed by the Governor…who is elected. The commission will be created by nominations made by the Governor/Senate/House leadership who then select by group vote what they consider the better of the candidates presented. The nominees get a lot of scrutiny and the folks nominating them know it.

And the State Board hasn’t approved charters for 20 years…there wasn’t even an a law allowing creation of start-up charters 20 years ago.

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@Mary Elizabeth. I can’t remember any more then 2 state only charters start-up charters, commissioned before 2005…CCAT,& Odessy, Both teetered on bankrupcy on only state funds, so the state BOE stopped approving any more because they understood any of them to be doomed to financial failure. Then the commission law passed and several got “out the gate” through them. When the commission was ruled unconstitutional, the Govenor stepped forward and said to the state board…If you approve them I will find bridge funding until we can get the constitution fixed. (The state BOE had already reviewed all of them very carefully in their role of overriding the commission, so they had good knowledge of the groups as well as a 1-year track record of actual performance) So the state BOE quickly stepped in to approve the majority of existing state chartered schools AFTER the court ruling. They know that their authority is questionable, but the existing schools and kids that were in them are real, so they elected to continue the best of the existing commission schools.

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“The commission will be created by nominations made by the Governor/Senate/House leadership who then select by group vote what they consider the better of the candidates presented.”
============================================

I believe that this commission will be a political group that has its underlying intent to supplant traditional public education. And, I did not say 20 years, I said “almost” 20 years.

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@MonicaHenson
I agree that charter schools in Georgia do not get to choose their students. However, Charters cause students/parents to self-select in several ways:
1.) Parents have to be motivated/educated enough to find out about charter schools and charter lotteries well before the start of the next school year. Parents cannot show up two weeks into a school year and enroll their child in a charter unless they have space. The good charters do not have spaces.
2.) Most charter schools Georgia do not provide transportation. This eliminates many parents who do not have reliable transportation and working hours that can accommodate taking their children to school
3.) Charter schools in Georgia can draw students from all across a district or several districts. Large and medium sized school districts in Georgia cannot. There are specific attendance boundaries for traditional schools unless space is available at other in district schools.
4.) Students with low incidence special needs are routinely turned away from charters because the schools do not have the resources to serve these students.

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Well miracles never cease. Monica Henson and I are in agreement. Conversion charters in many ways are a scam to gain federal money that was available for innovative programs. The charter does not work as parents assume and schools really are subject to same accreditation rules and must hire certified teachers etc. Nothing worse than a talented chemistry major who has been teaching at a private school with tremendous results but cannot teach in publics because of lack of ed school credentials. Sad for the kids who would have benefited.

I asked this point, clarified it in a meeting, and then asked Maureen if it was her understanding as well. She confirmed in one of her rare responses to me that yes it was her understanding as well that the state authorized charter schools under this amendment would NOT be subject to SACS jurisdiction. Oversight comes from state and let’s face it. How many people will be watching what goes on in these state charters looking for problems to scream out “Told You So!!”

It’s no secret I regard the accreditors as one of the primary social poison delivery systems of what is really going on in education. I have enough of their documents going back decades to back up my opinions.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a beacon out there not subject to SACS that is being heavily monitored for comparison?

Nobody is going to adopt a state charter that is worse than that Fulton conversion charter in terms of taking public money, frustrating taxpayers, and gutting academics. In fact word on the street is that was the whole point of the conversion charter a la Ray Budde’s vision.

To take out and level academic excellence in North Fulton. And that will happen unless we talk about it now. As it is starting. As the Five Year Strategic Plan goes into effect.

Five Year Plan–how ironic. Does anyone in the Central Office know their history? Five Year central plans with a political vision sort of have a bad rep and track record.

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Injected with a poison!

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“Too bad. This could have been avoided if traditional public schools had been proactive about solving their problems and not denying charters just because they were competition.”
==================================

You are wrong in assuming this. Please see below.

From the GAE Magazine, “KNOW,” Volume 11, Issue 1, page 16

“Is this a fight over charter schools? No way. Back in 1993, GAE helped write the charter school legislation that opened the way for public charter schools in Georgia. We believe in trying anything and everything that will help our kids and strengthen our public schools in Georgia.

To date, Georgia has more than 100 charter schools – most of these charter schools were approved by local school boards. As it stands right now, the state Board of Education has the power to overrule a local board that rejects a charter application. So why add in yet another state-created level of bureaucracy that would discard the rulings of both the local school board and the state Board of Education.

The GAE Position on Charter Schools.

We believe that charter schools can be agents for positive change. They have the ability to develop new and creative methods of teaching and learning that can be replicated in mainstream public schools. . . . Proponents of Amendment 1 say it’s needed to clarify and protect the state’s power to authorize and fund charter schools. FACT: There is already a policy in place for reviewing charter school applications by local school boards + there’s already an appeals process in place, too.

Why we’re fighting for a NO on AMENDMENT 1:

* It expands state govenment and creates an unnecessary and redundant bureaucracy.
* It siphons money out of traditional public schools and existing public charters.
* Decisions are made by a small group of political appointees – not the school boards you elect.
* It creates a second and separate state school system.
* Decisions for our local public schools should be made locally – by school board members who are voted on by local community members.
* We believe that money should not be the driving force behind education decisions.

FACT: In four years, 4,280 Georgia teachers have lost their jobs due to budget cuts – while we’ve added more than 37,400 students to classrooms.

‘Let’s use our power to make public education stronger. . . .to make our nation a better place, moving ever closer to our great and noble ideal of equal opportunity – not just for a fortunate few, but for every single child.’ -Dennis Van Roekel, NEA President “

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Mary Elizabeth – what was your position when the old Georgia Charter Schools Commission was under attack and being taken to the Supreme Court Of Georgia. That was the alternative route to the local BOE control.

It was THAT decision that led directly to the current amendment.

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Mary Elizabeth: “It expands state government and creates an unnecessary and redundant bureaucracy.”
Answer: 85% of the state chartered schools operate in counties where the local board won’t commission chartered schools. Some boards refuse to even look at applications. This amendment is in no small part for the parents and children in those counties.

Mary Elizabeth: “* It siphons money out of traditional public schools and existing public charters.”
Answer: For every child that goes to a state chartered school, the local school district will have more money per child.

Mary Elizabeth:
“* Decisions are made by a small group of political appointees – not the school boards you elect.
* Decisions for our local public schools should be made locally – by school board members who are voted on by local community members.”
Answer: Our locally elected boards are doing a bang up job thus far. I hope they turn traditional public schools around! Unfortunately ‘hope’ is not a method, but the Charter School Amendment is a method for turning public schools around.

Mary Elizabeth: “* It creates a second and separate state school system.”
Answer: The state board just commissions the state chartered schools. They do not run them.

Mary Elizabeth: “* We believe that money should not be the driving force behind education decisions.”
Answer: Amen!! Although, it seems to be one of the big driving forces behind the opposition to the amendment

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The Dekalb County school board chairman opposes the charter school amendment, and the best explanation he can come up with is to play the race card?

I’m glad I voted for it. Throwing more money at a failed system (with people like that in charge of it, go figure) isn’t an option.

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“your high level official lied to you”
————————————–

DeKalb Inside Out, do you realize what an assertion – and assumption – you are making?

I will take the word of an official at the state BOE over the opinion of an anonymous poster. Morever, the GAE Magazine article further confirms what the official had stated.

Since you are wrong on that point, I must place your other assertions in doubt, also.

Have a good evening.

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Mary Elizabeth-thank you for that link between GAE and 1993. I had tracked the origination of the duplicitous use of conversion charters to Budde and Al Shanker and then to the Democratic Labor Party in Minnesota in 1992. In fact Ed Week did a story commemorating the 20th anniversary a few months ago. I recognized the link to the Transformational Outcomes Based Education that Minnesota was supposed to be piloting at the time. Except the legislature was pulling back when they realized how little academic knowledge was involved with the model they had enacted.

If Georgia was also involved in 1993, it plays into what was going on in Atlanta Public Schools that then became known as the Georgia Initiative in Math and Science and those controversial Frameworks. The ones that showed back up with the integrated math implementation.

My. My. My. No wonder there is so much fighting over this amendment providing a safety valve and exit.

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Also Mountain Man, you said you had read the link that I posted on this thread at 2:23 pm today with gave my remarks to a poster named “Phil” on Jim Galloway’s blog regarding the fear that the Supreme Court might take away the state DOE’s right to establish state charter schools. In case you missed that post, here is the content of what I had said to “Phil” regarding his concern on this issue.
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Phil, 2:08 pm

“. . . the only way the State Board will get to continue authorizing state chartered schools is if this Amendment passes. Not only that, but all of the existing state chartered schools will lose their authorizer. . .”
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Your words above sound remarkably like fear tactics to me. Moreover, no one has the ability to “play God” with the future.

But even if what you fear were to materialize in the future, I would be prepared to fight a battle, then, for the right of the State Board of Education, as part of Georgia’s traditional educational delivery system, to be able to grant appeal to parents who wish to form a state charter school when denied by their local districts, but I will not fight that battle for a separate state agency, such as the State Commission for Charter Schools, run by appointees who happen to be of a certain political ideology, to grant those state charter schools.”

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Philippians 2:8

And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!

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Philippians 2:14-15 Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation. Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky

Private Citizen applies etiquette theology

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@Another angle “It would not surprise me if the facts show that we spend more per pupil today than we did forty years ago. ”

Well, of course we are! It’s called INFLATION! People paid a lot less for a car 40 years ago too, but somehow they don’t expect to be able to buy a car for what they did 40 years ago, but they expect to be able to educate a child for that? Not to mention the growing number of children with special medical and educational needs due to medical advancements that allow them to live these days, when before they would have died. Those needs cost money.

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“Not to mention the growing number of children with special medical and educational needs due to medical advancements that allow them to live these days, when before they would have died. Those needs cost money.”

But are we (society) getting any benefit from these increased costs?

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“If the methods, creative thinking, and curriculum are working then utilize that in all the public schools instead of using tax money to provide a private school education for a select few.”

If the traditional public schools used the methods of the charter schools – were effective in giving a good education, gave parents the choices they want, there would be no DEMAND for charter schools. If traditional public schools would clean up their own messes, you would not see this demand for charters. But they have had 40 years and they have only become worse.

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@MonicaHenson posted, and I have included my comments following each item in the list as MH:

I agree that charter schools in Georgia do not get to choose their students. However, Charters cause students/parents to self-select in several ways:

1.) Parents have to be motivated/educated enough to find out about charter schools and charter lotteries well before the start of the next school year. Parents cannot show up two weeks into a school year and enroll their child in a charter unless they have space. The good charters do not have spaces.

MH: Agreed, and this is one of the reasons why we need more good charters. My school does not cap its enrollment because we are looking toward the future with an eye toward replicability of our model and methods by district high schools. If we cap our enrollment, that’s not replicable, so we don’t do it.

2.) Most charter schools Georgia do not provide transportation. This eliminates many parents who do not have reliable transportation and working hours that can accommodate taking their children to school.

MH: I agree that this is a method that prevents many families from taking advantage of charter schools. Most of our students work from home online, and we provide loaner laptops to students who need them if they qualify for free and reduced lunch. For high-risk students in the inner cities where we are putting our hybrid learning centers, students who meet income-qualification guidelines will also be provided public transportation passes.

3.) Charter schools in Georgia can draw students from all across a district or several districts. Large and medium sized school districts in Georgia cannot. There are specific attendance boundaries for traditional schools unless space is available at other in district schools.

MH: Not true that districts cannot extend attendance boundaries. Any school district anywhere in Georgia, no matter how large or how small, can admit students from across attendance boundary lines if they choose to. Some districts have “reciprocity” agreements (we’ll take yours if you’ll take ours). Some districts allow intradistrict choice–families can send their students to any school in the district, regardless fo attendance zone, as long as space is availabe. Some districts charge admission to accept out-of-district students. All perfectly legal and at the option of the local BOE of each district.

4.) Students with low incidence special needs are routinely turned away from charters because the schools do not have the resources to serve these students.
MH: I cannot confirm whether this happens in other charter schools, but it doesn’t at mine. We have 14% special education students and have not turned away a single family, including those whose children will require GAA instead of traditional state testing. It’s against the law for a public school district to turn away special needs students,and we are a district as well as a school. A locally authorized charter schools could direct a family to a centrally located special education classroom in the district, with transportation provided by the district, that could better meet the child’s needs, after a meeting by the IEP team. But a state-chartered school cannot legally turn away a special needs child.

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Mountain Man, You bring up an interesting point, and that is what to do with the children who get out of grade level. I certainly do not scapegoat these kids and families and why this happens. So of the families have very hard circumstances. Some of the kids get in a rebellion rut and clearly are not having their needs met, even if they are peculiar they just can not go along with things so they rebel and are made by law to go to the school building like they have a ball and chain around their neck. Some kids gets out of synch with grade level because of something transitional in their lives, maybe a divorce or moving or something else within the family.

Where I am going with this, is that right now as far as I can tell, when a child gets 2-3 years out of synch with grade level, in many places in Georgia, well you’ve got kids 2-3 years outside of the kids they’re in class with. It gets weird. 20 year olds in high school. High school age kids in middle school. Yes, if I was a parent, I would be concerned for my age appropriate kid going to school and spending the year with kids older in the same classroom who both do not fit the age group and who have pretty severe issues. This is a loop hole right now. Someone complains about “Don’t pass them along” but I tell you it would be better to pass them along to be with their age group than to trap older kids with social issues / rebellion issues and put them in the general ed. classroom with kids 2-3 years younger than them and I think this is what is happening now.

I’m not sure what the answer is except maybe kids who get in this predicament should be in a separate environment where grade level is achieved by doing certain work in sequence and is no longer age related, because there are some kids who threw all of that out the door. Again, I do not doubt their circumstances and reasons for doing it. Usually this type kids have a high level of personal discomfort, are sort of like “a cat on a wire.” I like working with them, but I do not like working with them in the general ed. classroom when they’re 2-3 years physically out of synch and are acting out in place of trying to fit in. I once met one of these dear souls and the first thing I said to him, took one look at him and the first words out of my mouth were, “You need a driver’s license and a job driving a delivery truck!” He was just just just under the cusp of 16 years of age at which time the state releases them into the wild if they so choose.

By the way. I had had 3 jobs by the time I was his age and probably already worked 2000 hours – with pay. Businesses used to hire young people to work.

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Same kind of thing in Plano, suburb of Dallas, where several years ago it became trendy for teenagers to commit suicide. In my opinion, it is not the best time for kids right now.

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I am a retired teacher, now. But, during my active years, I never centered upon judging students or blaming them or their families, but upon nurturing them and in finding solutions in how to best reach them for their advancement, academically and emotionally.

I believe that that caring approach is not only the best, and most effective, approach to take with students who are having difficulty in school, but it is also the best approach to take with adults who are part of the underclass in society. As citizens, we need to urge our legislators to place more focus on these students – and their families – not only within schools but also within society, itself, outside of the educational arena.

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“I have been inside public schools in all Metro Atlanta local school systems and they have technology and resources to spare. Then, why are they still failing?”

Because of the quality of the students and the parent(s).

It is NOT the teacher (mostly) as some people like to think. You could take a cadre of Teachers of the Month from the best schoosl in Georgia to APS and they couldn’t raise test scores.

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mountain man, as an educator I take responsibility for the results of my work and do not place it anywhere else but me and my side of the fence. If there is a structural problem, I will say so. As far as success of students is concerned, the responsibility for this is inside my building and those of us who are paid to do a job. I do not blame the students / families for lack of results. You and I are in agreement on many observations and you make excellent real-politik observations re: behavior, age of students, etc. but for me being paid to do a job, the answer to these issues is with the institution and how it organizes / sorts / directs activities. Let me repeat, I do not blame families. It is our job to deal with them, mold, shape, etc.

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You VOTE your local school board out if you don’t like how you’re being represented or how you school system is run. You DON’T strip power away from your local government and give it to the state’s APPOINTED bureaucrats!!

What is it with government hater types who want to take power away from an institution we ultimately control and hand it over to unelected and/or private entities who have little or NO accountability to US…the citizens, voters, taxpayers??

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Self_Made It’s not that simple. This is a state wide issue. In a lot of places in the state, the local newspaper and the school board are hand-in-glove together as one. The fact the AJC has enough school systems around it, and enough business sense and ethics that is not the propaganda wing of a school system is unusual on a state wide level. You say “vote them out” etc. but most communities are struggling and disabled and the people’s idea of interesting media is the five AM radio stations all owned by Clear Channel Communications where you can take your pick of the Limbaugh, Hannity, or Bill O’Reilly. There’s a story about a town (not in Georgia) with a bunch of these Clear Channel radio stations, and there was a big fire so the townspeople run over to the radio station and what find is a building with a fence around it and no one in it blasting away with it’s radio transmission / broadcast. A lot of that station ID stuff and messages are pre-recorded and they insert the local town. Self_Made, Ronald Reagan changed the law that used to protect te citizens from centrally owned media. This is probably the biggest, most determinant change in U. S. reality / policy. Broadcast media used to be owned my many different companies.

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Has anyone considered blaming the administrators? The school districts on average are getting $9100/student in Georgia. That’s record levels even accounting for inflation. Teachers have enormous classes, are getting RIF’d and furloughs while administrators are getting raises.

I honestly don’t think executive administrators care about children as much as they do their salaries and perks.

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Dekalb Inside Out You ought to see the administrators who retire, draw retirement pay, and then come back and get a second income as consultant and go around and abuse people and go into buildings, pull rank, and conflict with the principal as if they’re the second principal and the one in charge. Seen it. Their main object is to screw people around who are not connected to their clan. Pure destructiveness. Key word: Any place there are “acting” so & so as job title used as placeholders until the clan can get one of their own in place. See this in both K12 and public college. You have to wonder if anyone is home at the state university system Regents Office or if they’re all just playing golf while the crooks run wild in the hinterlands.

Did a quick search on the internet and found this gem: Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs. … Seems to be the operations model for a lot of places, imitating this method. Welcome to government management / politics 2012. It is ridiculous and undignified, like no one has a position any more in the system of shimmy-shammy while the managers are spilling their dominoes on the floor while they’re running around in circles.

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Can anybody point to any time where SACS or a BOE member has held the administration accountable for anything?

For that matter, who has ever held SACS and Elgart accountable? Why are they the ultimate authority?

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I have said all along that there are forces interested in taking the billions of dollars of tax money that goes to the public school education of all students for the profit self-interests of profiteers, and some of the comments since my last post confirm, once again, that this intent is a strong motivating force iwithn the charter school movement.

Vote NO on Amendment 1 in NOvember. Students should not be used for profit.

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The Dekalb school board is already run for the profit of the board members and their family and friends.

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