Guest column: Put even more limits on power of school boards

I like the writer’s idea about unpaid board members and the fact they should be voted on by the entire county. If that should take place, it should attract citizens that aren’t looking for a political career.

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County-wide elections would probably improve the selection process. The problem with Mr. Kapembwa’s Op/Ed is that he seems comfortable with letting a bunch of the Governor’s cronies make these decisions. That is one of the reasons I am adamantly opposed to this constitutional amendment. My other reason for opposing it was addressed by Jason Carter in his recent Op/Ed.

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Electing Supt’s is a failed process that was tossed out 20+ years ago. I served on a BOE that was elected at-large, and recieved no pay. Yes, I agree, that makes for a better system. I also agree that education reform is needed. This amendment is just not it. VOTE NO!

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The best solution to ineffective inward focused bureaucracies is always competition….which forces them to make decisions that make their “product” (in this case, theirs schools) more attractice to the customer. With the current system, Local school boards view charter schools as competition for money, and since the boards can control charter approval, they can squash the charters ability to offer a more attractive service. Thus the local boards preserve their control of the money

This amendment is a positive step to removing the local boards ability to limit competition and keep control of our tax money.

“fixes” like the ones described in this blog are unfortunately ineffective bandaids that cant address the real problem. True competition is the only real long term solution

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There are other things that need limits as well, like a limit on superintendents’ salaries. Did you know that the Gwinnett County superintendent’s salary in 2011 was $410,000.00, plus travel expenses? Georgia superintendents’ salaries (and that of their staffs) have gone sky high in the past 15 years. No wonder the Superintendents’ Association is fighting so hard against the amendment. They’ve got a kingdom to protect. The average Georgia taxpayer would be outraged if he/she were aware of the amount of money that our education bureaucracy is raking in with these inflated salaries.

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Ditching school board salaries to weed out potential self serving politicians sounds like a good idea until you realize that state legislators are paid so low ($14k per year if I recall) they might as well be unpaid. This doesn’t seem to have any effect on corruption there.

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1. I might use the approach “define” what a school board does.

2. School boards have monetary power because of award of service / supply contracts, and there is the commercial real estate angle, too.

3. It is notable that superintendents are supposed to come from a specified supply chain. Locals Sally-Sue and George-McGeorge are not even considered for superintendent. It has to be an exotic person, often from a far away place. In other words, following the corporate “CEO” formula. But schools are not corporations, they are community based. For those who recall the “Jim Cherry” era of Dekalb, isn’t he from Georgia: There’s not even any biographical information about him on line. This is embarrassing, thank you “Georgia Encyclopedia.” There’s one photo http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Multimedia.jsp?id=m-2502 ., Anyway, picking a superintendent like you’re flying in as dentist from California seems kind of screwy to me and apparently this is what is mandated by SACS. I would suggest considering local talent, and then if the person turns out to be a thief or not follow management code of law, put them in court and put them in jail. Right now, the SACS method seems to make the assumption that local is bad. I would sure like to see an interview on who they think, or what process is acceptable for superintendent search and why – and who it automatically leaves out.

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I always thought “school board” was supposed to be a bunch of grandmas put out to pasture who just sort of kept an eye on things.

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Your zeal is refreshing, Mr. Kapembwa. Inquire more, speak less.

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Eddie, the power of said parent councils does not scale in the same way that school board power scales. The question may not be so much “who” has opportunity for malfeasance due to sheer scale. You have to consider incentives. i.e. what is the incentive to be on a school board, to be superintendent, to be charter school council etc (I know the last term is like sand in your shoes! or ants in the car!)

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Good article Maureen!! At last we are getting to the heart of the problem–getting government of school.

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Since local school board members don’t make that much money anyway, I say ok. But if we go down that road then let’s take it all the way and make every official position non-paid, including our legislators in the golden dome.

The Gates Foundation is well known for pushing the radical policies of ALEC and one of their agendas for privatizing education is to weaken the strength of the school board by putting that power into the hands of a non-elected official(s).

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Sorry, but this article is naive. Before we get our panties in a wad, let’s all get on the same page.

Control – What control are we talking about. The school executive administrations have all the power and control. Local boards can hire/fire the Superintendents, but board members otherwise have NO power or control. All the boards can do is set policies which the administrations can follow if they feel like it.

Board Salary – $20K annual salary is corrupting our board? Why don’t we make the Superintendent’s salary $20K? We already have many bad board members. I don’t see where the good people turned off by $20K are going to jump at the idea of doing it for free.

At Large Elections – Are you crazy?? Why don’t we elect all of our senators and reps at large? If we did, the largest group of people would elect everybody and the smaller groups of people would have no representation.

Aquagirl, What political power and perks are you referring to?

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Aquagirl, What political power and perks are you referring to?

Mostly the nepotism and employment of friends in cushy, well paying administrative jobs. There’s also contracts to be handed out to friends and for kickbacks. IIRC someone a while back had the school system buy their book that probably wouldn’t have sold two copies otherwise. Talk about blatant cash diversion…sheesh.

School systems employ a lot of people and buy a lot of stuff. Both of these avenues are ripe for exploitation.

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DeKalb Inside Oout

It is well known, across the state, that there are BoE members who simply want the job for the salary, regardless how piddly. When the original Clayton mess happened, it really was BoE members who were doing wrong. However, several told state officials they would only resign if the state found them another part time job with equivalent salaries.

Many of the highest performing school systems have non-paid school boards. I happen to strongly believe that this would bring in better candidates, because simply running a campaign costs money, most of which would be their own. It would show a strong dedication to the cause, to be willing to do it for free.

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Local school boards are sometimes imperfect, just as our democratic system has its imperfections, but to redirect the power that rightfully belongs to voters to a commission appointed by the state’s top elected officers is even worse. I disagree with the statement that everyone on either side of the charter school issue is working toward the same goal, a “better system.” While some proponents of the amendment clearly have that goal in mind, the chief architects of this amendment are driven by money they expect to make from education management corporations and other out of state investors who have a national agenda that further enriches them with Georgia taxpayer dollars. In my opinion, improving public education is not part of their agenda. If this amendment is so good, why did our state’s top elected leaders, e.g. Governor, Lt. Governor and Speaker of the House frame the language on the ballot to be grossly misleading if not intentionally false? I believe it is because they want to trick voters into approving something that sounds good but cannot bear up under citizen scrutiny. They have so little respect for voters that they feel sure no one will really study this topic and make an informed decision. I hope they are wrong, but I do fear at times that people are so busy that they will not have an opportunity to consider what is going on here, and will allow unethical leaders to reap financial rewards at taxpayer expense. We have a Governor today with a long history of unethical behavior dating back to his days in Washington, and he continues his practices today as though Georgia is Louisiana under Huey Long. Everything is for sale in this administration. How long he will continue to use Georgians’ tax dollars for his own political gain will be determined by voters who will either extend his leash or rein him in. I have voted against the charter school amendment because it is a fraud that will take badly needed funds away from the majority of boys and girls in our public schools and redirect those funds to “for profit” corporations that are acting in league with our Governor for financial gain. Charter schools are good things that need to grow in our state, but in my opinion we should not confuse the merits of charter schools with the scam that is the charter school amendment. We need to send a signal to the Governor, the General Assembly and those involved in perpetrating this scam that we are not as gullible as they think we are.

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@DIO
I’m with Aqua Girl. Some of what happens is illegal, but some is just shady, steering contracts towards friends. As for the nepotism, there are also “friends,” which in Dekalb’s case, are often incompetent. And while administration is most succeptible, its awfully naiive to think Walker, Cunningham and Bowen haven’t been influencing what the administration is doing on hiring. Gwinnet’s bribery cases also shows what boards can do even though the administration is actually putting out bids and making recommendations.

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“Mark Elgart, president of SACS, said the DeKalb board operates as nine political figures, fighting for their own special interests.” This statement addresses the crux of the “local control problem.” School boards are literally accountable to no one. We may believe that they are accountable to voters, but if they are it is three or four years after they have constructed the local academic destruction.

Mr. Kapembwa is right. Amendment 1 is supposed to be just a shot across the bow to tell local control that the whole enchilada is about to become a tamale.

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RAMAZADA, I’ll take one of the tamales, thank you. One thing about district electing of school board officials are that there are just not that many people who want to be on a school board. I don’t. I do not even associate the power of anything with a personal idea of being on a school board? What are they supposed to accomplish? To me, just guessing, it seems like school boards mainly manage the physical buildings of a school district, where they’re located, capacity, and condition, and that’s about it. That seems to be their exclusive use. The part about school districts signing off on hires makes me very very uncomfortable. When a worker is hired, the language is used that “the school board approved hiring so&so.” It is just very bizarre and I don’t relate to it. And it de-tracts me, not attracts me to their function. Companies hire people to get a job done, they don’t “approve” them. It is poor boundaries and poor language. It is pretty darn strange if they’re getting paid $20k/ year and then use the language of royalty. I don’t like it and I do not want anyone to “approve” of me and all that goes with it. I’ll go work where there is a market need and deliver value for what I am paid, but the rest of it – I’d rather be sipping a Miller Lite on my own time – and I don’t even drink. Get away from me with all that stuff!!! The first time you see it, it is like huh? wha? C’mon, surely this is not how teacher hiring is done elsewhere. And it’s the formal definition of micro-managing when you skip the manager and make decisions about what they are doing. Maybe there was a reason for this method at one time, but I don’t see the reason now. It seems excessive and burdensome. I think it would be good to see / make a list of what duties school boards are supposed to do exclusively and that no one else can do. What is their core and necessary function / duties?

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RAMZAD
Correct – School boards are virtually unaccountable. But what power/authority do they really have?

My point is they effectively have no power or authority. They can hire/fire the Superintendent, but that is it. The administration ultimately doesn’t have to comply with the board or their policies.

If the board and super start butting heads, SACS will step and tell the board to back off. SACS ALWAYS sides with the administration … even when the administration is breaking policies. Has SACS EVER held the administration accountable for anything?

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PS During teacher training, when you study education law it is limited to the classroom. They don’t train you about school boards and basically, when you finish, you leave the program and go into the workplace completely uniformed in this regard.

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What is needed is to get rid of these Mega sized school districts. No school district should be any larger than one to two high schools and their feeder districts. The Supt. Pay should be limited to a GS-15/10 on a Federal Pay Schedule about $155K. The principal of all Schools are direct reports. There is no palace, no Trinity Ave, no middle level of Friends and Family. Maybe 10 administrators combined with their staff who are direct reports to the Supt. The School Boards are parent volunteers who are elected positions, much like the PTA. They supervise the Supt. These school districts have Supt. that are members of the communtity and spend 10, 15 plus years in these jobs.

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I disagree. The more local control the better, in my opinion. If there is a problem at the local level, the local people need to fix it.

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I read Mr. Kapembwa’s other two articles — good stuff. He is obviously an impressive young man, who is thinking hard about education issues. Good for him, and I hope he keeps at it.

But unfortunately I think he is off the mark in a lot of what he says in this piece. There are many things I could say, but my biggest reaction is that I think the problem is that we pay school board members too little, not too much. DeKalb and APS school board members make about $18,000. If a school board member really wants to do the job right, and dive in and try and fix problems, and attend constituent meetings and be responsive to their concerns, it easily can become a full time job. Then on top of it they catch untold grief when things go wrong. Who in their right mind would really want a full time job for $18,000 that is really difficult and sets you up for all sorts of public criticism? Certainly many potential candidates who are conscientious and have to actually earn a living and support a family are eliminated by the paltry salary. In my view, if we actually want to attract good candidates, we should increase school board salaries to at least $50,000, if not $75,000, or, gulp, even $100,000. Then you might attract more quality, rather than glorified volunteers.

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Yes, the whole paltry pay arrangement is weird. -Wonder where it came from. Another question is, How is it down elsewhere? Does San Francisco have school board members paid $18k? New Hampshire? Seattle? Nashville? One thing about U. S. public K12, things done differently all over the place. They say San Francisco is very expensive real estate – been there a long time, sophisticated, high dollar. If it costs $100k in Atlanta, it costs $600k in San Francisco. I bet they do not have school board paid $18k etc. Would be nice to have more dimension / factual knowledge to go with the subject.

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From a tax payer prospective we are moving in the wrong direction by creating more overhead not less. I have made this point for years, we should be consolidating overhead not creating more. The best way to achieve this is by having high schools consolidate with colleges, JC………to increase options, quality and lower overhead. We should be coordinating facilities, administrators, staff…… We should be waving No Child Left Behind college prep requirements for vocational based. Students.

If done right we could open this option up to home school, public school, private and charter school. Finally school systems should be rated on graduation rates with job skills and or entrance into 4 year college not some mean level score that creates this crazy teach to the test………

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.

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Sneak Peak in Education posted:

“The Gates Foundation is well known for pushing the radical policies of ALEC and one of their agendas for privatizing education is to weaken the strength of the school board by putting that power into the hands of a non-elected official(s).”
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From the introduction to Mr. Kapembwa by Maureen Downey:

“Mpaza S. Kapembwa is a student at Williams College, studying on a Gates Millennium Scholarship, among other scholarships.”

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I admire the efforts of any young person to become involved in serious issues and to put his or her thoughts into writing in order to influence others, so I sincerely compliment Mr. Kapembwa upon his article, in those respects.

However, as a thinking citizen and as a committed public school educator, I must write to persuade the public to consider my thoughts, below, that may be uncomfortable for some to consider, but are nevertheless necessary for all to weigh carefully because the sustaining of our democracy may possibly be at stake, as I see it.

It is worthy of asking oneself why Mr. Kapembwa’s points-of-view in educational matters have a noticeable similarity to the points-of-view of Bill Gates. Again, it must be noted that the Gates Foundation has issued Mr. Kapembwa a Gates Millennium Scholarship. It is a compliment to Mr. Kapembwa that he is the calibre of student to be able to receive a scholarship, and it is also a compliment to Mr. Gates that he has invested in young people through awarding scholarships to them.

However, as a thinking citizen and dedicated educator, I cannot help but wonder if Mr. Kapembwa formed his educational views based on Mr. Gates’ educational philosophy. I am not suggesting that Mr. Gates would ever place any kind of coercion upon a young person – to whom he had offered financial support – to espouse his educational views, but I do wonder if a young person, grateful to a benevolent benefactor for the support given to him, might – of his own volition – thereafter lean toward the views of that benefactor.

Now, take an academic leap of the imagination with me. Suppose Georgia’s traditional public schools are supplanted with quasi-private public schools which become under the jurisdiction, and influence, of privately run corporations, such as those that might be influenced financially by – say – the Koch Brothers or by the Wal-Mart Foundation, and students in those schools are given scholarships by these benefactors to enroll in their quasi-private public schools, what can readers, as the thinking public, imagine might occur as a result? Do you think it possible that those students (and teachers who are paid to teach in these quasi-private schools) might embrace, inordinately, the educational philosophy of the proprietors of their quasi-private school? And who would be proprietors of those quasi-private schools have allegiance to, and why? I think that that scenario which I have explored is a real possibility of happening in Georgia if Georgia’s schools transition from being essentially traditional public schools funded by public taxes to quasi-private public schools based on the free market.

And, I also think that that scenario is the antithesis of what education should be about because enlightened education MUST make a concentrated effort to ensure that genuine freedom of thought exists in reality for every student and teacher. The sustaining of our democratic republ, as it was designed function, depends upon that untainted educational process that ensures real freedom of thought.

We must sustain public education as Jefferson conceived public education to be, which is education paid for by public taxes for all students in society so that those independently minded students – not beholden to anyone – might obtain the intellectual heft, skills, and fortitude to weigh for themselves the machinations of those of great wealth and power who might try to use them for their own mercenary self-interests and disallow that for happening.

Engraved on Jefferson’s monument in Washington, D.C. are his words: “I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”

Vote NO to Amendment 1 in NOvember!

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Mary, the ALEC / Gates corporate bunch already owns Georgia through RTTT and the testing fetish. It’s an appropriate term “attaching inordinate importance to something.” And who knows what else. There are so many outside initiatives and facets and details it is difficult to keep track of it all. Teachers are expected to obey and implement this stuff like it is The Pledge of Allegiance. Do any of these things have time-lines to go with them? What’s the next go-round? Future Force Forensics? It is like someone has a sense of humor and is a sadist. Isn’t the required testing program for elementary students called SLO? I’m voting for the charter amendment in the hope of a miracle and that someone will make some boundary lines about letting this stuff into the schoolhouse. It has really snowballed and is a nightmare and a dream come true for the middle managers. They can’t decide if they should spend their time figuring out the initiatives or penalizing the teachers for not following them to the letter. My friend was put in charge of some of this stuff, has to make the report, and he said there was no instruction book and nobody could tell him anything. That is another thing that has become common in Georgia public schools, these sort of “emergency” demands to do things, with very little information to go with it. It is like a crazy house, the whole thing so excessive and un-pruned. And the only thing that Arne Duncan guy knows how to do is threaten people if they don’t go along with his initiatives. That guy’s a real bully. He gets all bowed up and officially telling people if they don’t like it, they can hit the road. I’ve seen him do it on a video. It wasn’t the subject of the video, but I saw him in action.

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Ms. Mary Elizabeth – advocate however you wish but please do not do so while using my friend, Mpaza Kapembwa, as an object for your ad hominem arguments. Not only have you managed to drift far away from the question at hand you have done so by insulting Mr. Kapembwa. I had the pleasure of meeting Mpaza when he as a Junior at Cross Keys HS. He was then, and remains, one of the most independent, honest thinkers and is as strong-minded of an individual as I have ever met at any age. The implication that he would adopt a way of thinking as a result of winning the scholarship demonstrates ignorance of the man and a generally corrupted view of our youth. I know both to be false implications. Mr. Kapembwa is a bright light and voice on the question at hand in an otherwise dark and mantra-laced debate. Please return to the questions at hand and leave this fantasy of Mpaza’s indoctrination behind as it diminishes your arguments.

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Private Citizen, 10:29,

Private Citizen, 10:29 am

I appreciate your comments to me and to the readers of this blog, but we each have to prioritze what is important to us. There is NO way that I could vote yes to the Constitutional Amendment. My reasons are further expanded in the comments I made on Jay Bookman’s blog at 10:59 am. See below.
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” ‘Atlanta-based Georgia Pacific, owned by the Koch brothers, sent a similar letter to its 45,000 employees, warning that “many of our more than 50,000 U.S. employees and contractors may suffer the consequences” if the wrong man is elected president. . . the packet included columns written by the Koch brothers endorsing Romney and condemning Obama.’
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The Koch Brothers have also financially supported ALEC, which desires to turn our public schools into quasi-private schools run by corporate management companies for profit. The tactics that the Koch Brothers, et al., have used to attempt to control the minds and votes of their workers will later be used to control the minds and votes of the students and teachers functioning wthin their privately managed schools for profit, imo.

Two different visions for America. Romney and the Koch Brothers view workers, students, teachers, as well as women, and minorities as inferior to the moguls of industry because they see these moguls as all important to the success of this nation through private enterprise in which management’s voice is more important than workers’ voices. This is a hierarchial vision of humanity. If you vote for Romney, one day you, too, may find yourself at the bottom of their hierarchial vision of others, which will end up seeing only the top 1% of this world as worthy.

Jefferson, with his egalitarian vision for America’s evolving ideal, will weep for America if his dream for our democratic republic – and his dream for public education – are forfeited by an unaware electorate, and if unaware citizens cede their voices and their votes to the wealthy/ powerful elite who have stealthily tried to control this nation for their selfish, monetary purposes – through unsavory means – for decades.

Don’t be fooled and don’t be used. Vote for President Obama’s re-election. He will continue Jefferson’s egalitarian vision for America.”
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And, vote NO to the Consitutional Amendment, Amendment 1.

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Mary, You have a good heart, but you’re cuttin’ and pasting. Be careful about polarities and having so few sources as “the answer,” I think if Georgians want anything better for themselves, they’re going to have to make some law to protect themselves from this outside machine-approach, whether is comes from Obama or Romney or their friends. There is a lot of similarities in what both of these men are doing as far as using education in their checkerboard. I do not want either of them to rule over me or be in my classroom. I think maybe you have not had to bear, in person, Obama’s “Race To The Top.”

As far as Jefferson, not sure where I connect “the pursuit of happiness” with Obama’s education policy, I think you should take a minute and read about Obama’s appointee Arne Duncan, before you promote what he is doing with your Jeffersonian ideals. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arne_Duncan Best Regrds.

And really, as long as we do not have health care and eyeglasses for kids, a lot of this polarity stuff is moot. You can not effectively teach kids who can not see and who have headaches because their eyes don’t focus.

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PS Arne Duncan is a professional basketball player that was appointed to a foundation by an investment banker.

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Ray
An individual non-profit organization located in a community and generally comprised of parents, teachers and civic leaders enter into a “charter” with the state – a binding contract – and governs a school, as the contract requires.

The idea is to wrench away the power from Superintendents/Administrators and hand it over to that group for that school. The state has no power in running the school.

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DeKalb, I guess you can spin it however you like, but the decision on whether a charter school will be granted will be taken away from locally elected school boards and the superintendents they appoint, and instead turned over to a few unelected people at the state level. I get your point that if the amendment passes, then the state itself doesn’t necessarily run the charter school — but the state, or an unelected handful at the state level, does unilaterally decide who gets to run a charter school. Doesn’t it worry or raise an eyebrow with you at all, particularly with all of the out-of-state funding for this amendment from private charter school companies, that an unelected handful of state political appointees would have full say on diverting local taxpayer funds to private charter companies? Private charter companies that will no doubt be doing everything they can to have access to and to lobby this handful of unelected state political appointees for what they want? And doesn’t Dekalb already have several (6? 8? 10?) charter schools that the local school board has already approved?

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Dekalb you are once again spinning the truth with your 62 percent number. the truth is when you normalize for capital expenditures and add services like transportation, ap classes……in Cherokee county the schools cost less.

If you are proposing to end extra services and go with a model that parents pay extra for services than just be honest. Tell parents if you do not have the money for, special needs, ap classes, transportation,speach…….than you are just out of luck

I have posted the links and numbers numerous times on this blog.

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Jefferson’s mind was so visionary and complex that he allowed for a possible changing of the role of government in the future because he believed primarily in freedom of thought, even over the role of government. Americans are in danger of having their freedom of thought impaired in today’s America not by their government, but by the wealthy and powerful moguls of industry – of whom Jefferson always had suspicion because of their mercenary instincts. Jefferson wrote that the wealthy and powerful elite would try to manipulate the majority, average citizens to serve their own mercenary interests. Jefferson further wrote that these powerful few would be able to do accomplish this, unless all Americans were educated – through public education – to first see into the selfish machinations of the wealthy/powerful elite of our nation, and thereafter to refuse to be used by them.

We must not allow public education to be changed into a quasi-private educational model which is controlled by these moguls of industry. We must sustain public education for all students, paid for by public taxes, if for no other reason than to ensure that all students and thereby all citizens’ freedom of thought is never compromised by the powerful and wealthy few.
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Thomas Jefferson: “As. . . new discoveries are made, new truths disclosed, and manners and opinions change with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also, and keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy, as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors. . . .Each generation. . . has. . .a right to choose for itself the form of government it believes most promotive of its own happiness.”

‘Nothing then,’ Jefferson told Major John Cartwright in 1824, ‘is unchangeable but the inherent and unalienable rights of man.’

Source for the above: Saul Padover’s book “Jefferson”
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In the link below, to my personal blog, I compare and contrast my thoughts with those of Jefferson, for any reader who may be interested:

http://maryelizabethsings.wordpress.com/category/egalitarianism-and-capitalism/

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More choice is important. I think that the same principles being applied to education also need applied to other state run programs. Why not also have charter police and fire departments I can choose to send my tax money to instead of the bloated under-performing ones we have now? More competition for my tax dollars would go along way to making those organizations more efficient. I don’t care if the charter police and fire don’t have certified or properly trained staff or that they are more likely to be worried about profits over my safety. I’m saving some money and that’s all that matters to me.

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Dek,

This is why I have been saying this over and over…………………………

From a tax payer prospective we are moving in the wrong direction by creating more overhead not less. I have made this point for years, we should be consolidating overhead not creating more. The best way to achieve this is by having high schools consolidate with colleges, JC………to increase options, quality and lower overhead. We should be coordinating facilities, administrators, staff…… We should be waving No Child Left Behind college prep requirements for vocational based students.
If done right we could open this option up to home school, public school, private and charter school. Finally school systems should be rated on graduation rates with job skills and or entrance into 4 year college not some mean level score that creates this crazy teach to the test………

……….The State posts a breakdown of expenditures by school district using this standardized process at the following link. You can view one school district, or all 180 districts in Georgia and even sort them by category. Just choose the district and then select “Expenditure Report.” Beneath the table, you will see a breakdown of how the costs are determined. The most recent year available online is 2011: http://app.doe.k12.ga.us/ows-bin/owa/fin_pack_revenue.entry_form?p_fiscal_year=2011
As you can see, the total per student expenditure for Cherokee County School District for 2011 was $7,917 (which ranked 141st out of 180 districts, putting CCSD in the bottom quartile for spending). The State average was $8,593 (note: the National average, according to most recent U.S. Census data, was $10,615).
In the current budget year (2012-13), CCSD expenditures are significantly lower than two years ago, despite serving 500 additional students; and thus, the per pupil spending for this current school year drops to $7,072 using this standard calculation. The initial calculation in the 2012-13 budget summary was $7,116, based on an initial enrollment projection that has since been exceeded by more than 200 students.
As noted on the linked expenditures page of the DOE website, this same information for State and Commission Charter Schools is not provided. The current budget for Cherokee Charter Academy, a State approved “special school,” can be accessed at the following web address: http://www.cherokeecharter.org/governance/Budget%20Summary%20CHER%20June%2027.pdf
Using the same accounting standards and removing the same non-operational expenditure categories, the total expenditures for Cherokee Charter Academy are budgeted at $7,381,905 to educate 995 students, resulting in a cost per child of $7,419.
The CCSD calculation also includes transportation costs at about $395 per student, whereas the charter school does not provide any transportation.
Thus, CCSD is spending $347 less per child while providing more services.

Other CCSD vs. CCA fee comparisons
After School Program
CCSD $6 per day, parents can enroll 1-5 days a week, no registration fee
CCA $8 per day, charged in advance (must enroll by the month), $25 registration fee
School Lunch Program
CCSD $1.80 lunch ES, breakfast $1.10; $2.05 lunch MS, breakfast $1.10
CCA $2.85 lunch, $1.50 breakfast, paid in advance (by the month).
CCA also charges fees for required school uniforms and P.E. attire, school agendas and returned checks.

Based on the budget expenditure data available for 2011, here is where CCSD ranks among 180 school districts in Georgia in the following expenditure categories (with 1 being the most dollars per student spent, and 180 being the least dollars per student spent):
Total Per Pupil Spending: 141 of 180
General Administration: 172 of 180 (lowest in Metro Atlanta; 9th lowest in Georgia)
Instruction: 117 of 180
Pupil Services: 70 of 180
Staff Services: 145 of 180
School Administration: 92 of 180
Transportation: 120 of 180
Maintenance & Operation: 117 of 180…….

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John
http://app.doe.k12.ga.us/ows-bin/owa/fin_pack_revenue.entry_form?p_fiscal_year=2011

Spending Per Student – cherokee traditional schools may have been $7,900/student for FY2011, but traditional across Georgia is $9,000/student. Let’s skip FY 2012 until we get real numbers from the DOE. That Cherokee budget is for FY2013. We’ve got to compare apples to apples. FY2012 chartered school funding is $5,500/student

Services Provided – I agree, state chartered schools don’t offer the same services as a full serve traditional school. The state is forcing charters to trim the services fat. I argue that traditional schools shouldn’t be providing these services. You’ll notice that traditional schools are offering fewer of these services every year. For example, no transportation if you live within a mile of the school, etc…

Schools are in the business of education. Chartered schools are educating for less. They are forced to trim the fat. We’ve got to trim the fat and get back to education. If a chartered school can’t provide a superior education and stay within their budget, they fail and close.

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You said:

……. Chartered schools are educating for less…..

The actual Numbers in Cherokee County:

…….Cherokee Public current school year drops to $7,072 using this standard calculation verse Cherokee Charter cost per child of $7,419…….

Cherokee public schools still offer more services and have the best SAT scores in the state.

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@ DeKalb Inside Out. There have been many bloggers on these threads relating to Amendment 1 who have noted they live in rural districts that would be hurt in various ways, since their public school funding in any case is low, and any charter school would be unable to provide free transportation like the public schools due to the large distances. They have all suggested that this amendment might benefit Clayton, DeKalb, and Fulton Counties, but that the effects on all state districts should be considered.

I don’t have any school-age children and live in Fulton County anyway, but I found this argument very persuasive (along with others about the costs of starting this new bureaucratic layer and the lack of taxpayer accountability for this appointed, not elected board)—so I’ve already voted NO on this amendment.

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Prof
I would say those people do not understand how the funding works. That’s too bad because stated chartered schools means more money and not less money for education in the district. Let me know if I’m wrong with any of the following …

More funding per child – The local money stays in the local school district. For every child that goes to a state chartered school there is more money per child in the traditional school district.

More money flowing to your county for education. Traditional public schools only get local money and QBE funding from the state. Chartered schools get QBE funding plus a supplement from the state. Therefore, for every student that goes to a chartered school, that’s state supplemental money flowing into the district for education that wouldn’t otherwise be going there.

Formulas
No Chartered Schools
Total Education Funding In County = ALL local funds + QBE State funds for every child child

With State Chartered Schools
Total Education Funding In County = ALL local funds + QBE State funds for every child + Supplemental funds for every child in state chartered school

Again, please let me know if any of this is incorrect.

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@ Excuse me, Dekalb inside out, I also should have noted at 2:52 pm that the amendment isn’t really about whether you approve of charter schools or not. It only determines whether a new state commission board should be created to approve charters IN ADDITION TO the means of local approval of charter schools that we already have. Charter schools can ALREADY be approved.

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You have to have the administrative structure in place to “commission state chartered schools”! Of course there will have to be a State Commission Board, and we’ve already learned that the board members will be appointed by state politicians, not elected by Georgians. So they will not be accountable to Georgia citizens for their decisions, only to those who appointed them.

Administrative structures cost money: for offices, administrative service costs, salaries, and so on. Where is the funding for this new State Commission Board going to come from, especially in a time of severe budget cuts for schools and all government agencies? Never mind the separate issue of funding for the state-approved charter schools themselves. Where’s the money for this??

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