Most pro charter amendment money coming from outside Georgia. Most against from state educators. Does either worry you?
The AJC has been following the money in the high-powered, high-profile campaign for the charter school amendment, which would give the state the power to overrule local school boards and approve and fund charter schools. Presumably, that would lead to more charter schools in Georgia. Voters will decide the question on Nov. 6.
The AJC reports:
Groups backing the charter schools constitutional amendment have again pulled in far more money than amendment opponents, the most recent campaign filing statements show. Families for Better Public Schools, which supports the amendment, raised $1.28 million during the filing period that ends 15 days before the election. Families’ haul was 70 times more than the $18,164 the main opposition group, Vote Smart! No to State-Controlled Schools, raised during the same period.
A second amendment supporter, Georgia Public School Families for Amendment One, raised $55,000. Despite the group’s name, all of its money came from a single donation made by PublicSchoolOptions.org of Arlington, Va.
Indeed, most of the money that has gone to amendment supporters came from outside Georgia. Families for Better Public Schools’ filing, for example, shows that 71 percent of the money raised during this filing period came from outside sources.
As she did earlier in the campaign, Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton of Arkansas contributed another $350,000. J.C. Huizenga of Grand Rapids, Mich., gave $250,000. Students First of Sacramento, Calif., also gave $250,000.
“Wow, ” said Jane Langley, campaign manager for the Vote Smart opposition group. “This gives new meaning to ‘families.’ Those out-of-state corporations, more than two out of every three contributions, must badly want to change permanently our constitution.”
Many traditional public school officials — superintendents, board members and teachers — have opposed the amendment, arguing that it would lead to the creation of more charter schools that would sap money from traditional public schools. Supporters argue that passing the amendment would protect from legal challenge the state’s ability to authorize charter schools, which are public schools that are granted flexibility as they pursue specific education goals spelled out in their charter.
Traditional education officials and those tied to school systems dotted the Vote Smart contribution list. Jeanne “Sis” Henry, executive director of the Georgia School Boards Association, gave $3,000. Victoria Sweeney, an attorney who represents the Gwinnett County Public School District, donated $1,000.
Families for Better Public Schools collected $250,000 from Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus and $100,000 from Richard Gaby, chief executive officer of Peter Island Resort and Spa. Real estate developer Tom Cousins gave $20,000.
My AJC colleagues Jay Bookman and Kyle Wingfield each followed the money pouring into the charter school amendment and ended up in a different place.
Bookman wrote:
Reading the list of out-of-state contributors to the campaign to pass Amendment 1, the state charter-schools amendment, you get the sense that an old-fashioned gold rush would begin in Georgia the moment the amendment is approved.
J.C. Huizenga, founder of Michigan-based National Heritage Academies, a for-profit charter school operator, has contributed $25,000; his company contributed a matching $25,000. Charter Schools USA, based in Florida, contributed $50,000 as well. D.A. Davidson, a financial services firm based in Great Falls, Mont., that touts itself as “a recognized leader in charter school financing, ” has so far given $5,000. And K12 Inc., a for-profit provider of online classes and “full-time online public schools, ” has kicked in $100,000.
Those account only for contributions made through Sept. 21; the final campaign-disclosure reports may include additional big-dollar donations from companies eager to enter Georgia’s public-school marketplace. Now, there’s nothing inherently wrong about for-profit companies operating in the education sector. However, despite the fervor of those who preach that competition solves all problems, there’s nothing inherently good about it, either. No countries that outperform the United States in education, for example, do so through the for-profit model.
In addition, the overall shoddy performance of for-profit colleges and universities here in the U.S. provides stark evidence that when the profit motive conflicts with academic standards, profit takes precedence…There’s every reason to worry that similar dynamics will play out in k-12 education. Take K12 Inc., the company that has so far contributed $100,000 to opening up the Georgia market. In Florida, where the company operates in 43 school districts, a typical K12 high school teacher may have as many as 275 online students per class, which enhances profitability if not education. Last month, Florida officials launched an investigation into charges that K12 also uses teachers uncertified for the classes they teach and that company officials asked employees to cover up that fact.
Looking at the same list of donors, Wingfield had a far different response:
After its latest report, filed Tuesday, the anti-amendment group Vote SMART! had a donor base comprising 146 people and eight companies that had given a combined $104,263 (along with almost $19,000 in gifts not itemized). Who are they?
Thirty-four of them are current or former superintendents. That group gave more than $16,000. Another 30 are other types of school-system administrators: area superintendents, assistant superintendents, directors of some kind or another. These folks contributed an additional $14,000.
Eleven members of various school boards around Georgia gave almost $4,000. Ten principals shelled out $2,576. In all, almost 60 percent of the Vote SMART! donors and more than a third of its donations came from people who run our traditional public schools. That’s one bit of turf. Then there are the professional organizations: the Professional Association of Georgia Educators, Georgia School Boards Association and Georgia School Superintendents Association. Fifteen employees of these groups donated more than $15,000.
Now let’s look at companies that do business with school systems… In fact, 35 people or firms who do business with traditional public schools, from attorneys and consultants to architects and contractors, have given more than $32,000 to the anti-amendment campaign. Now, am I missing any job description in the education field? Hmmm, let’s see …
From what we can see, though, almost 90 percent of the donors and $4 of every $5 donated come from the people running our schools and the firms they do business with. It’s a campaign of the educational establishment, by the educational establishment, for the educational establishment.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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226 comments Add your comment
bootney farnsworth
October 29th, 2012
9:14 am
@ChartersStarter, Too
its internet protocol all caps means you’re yelling/shouting/screaming. this is not new, it is common knowledge.
if you can’t or won’t differentiate on such a basic matter, it puts your perspective on larger matters into play. like, charter schools, for example
Phil from Athens
October 29th, 2012
9:16 am
Maureen Downey
I do find it interesting/weird that you try to go into detail to protect your colleague. I’ve sparred with Bookman over the years and the guy can never admit when he’s wrong. For instance, a few years ago some bloggers were pointing out Obama’s failures as president. One of them involved Obama promising to close GITMO and Bookman blamed it on the Republicans even though Obama had a Democrat Senate and House.
ChartersStarter, Too
October 29th, 2012
9:18 am
“All I did was point out examples of how Bookman is wrong on most everything. Libya was one of three examples.” ~ Phil from Athens
“I think Bookman is full of poo on this and most every other matter.” ~ Bootney Farnsworth
Looks like we all 3 agree that Bookman publishes nonsense.
Phil from Athens
October 29th, 2012
9:18 am
“The GOP argues that the administration was attempting to hide its own security failing, but frankly that makes no sense either.”
Another Bookman lie. See Maureen, if you just read what Bookman writes, you can find all kinds of lies. From day one, Obama and his administration claimed that a video caused riots that killed 4 Americans. Two weeks later his admin started calling it a terrorist attack once e-mails came out to prove that it was a terrorist attack. Bookman loves to blame the GOP because he is in the tank for the Democrats.
bootney farnsworth
October 29th, 2012
9:20 am
I’ll repost something in simpler language for the rabid supporters of this mistake:
-considering the considerable political weight thrown behind this, what makes you think this won’t
become another Sonny Perdue fish camp?
ChartersStarter, Too
October 29th, 2012
9:25 am
@ Bootney – I was trying to make it easier for the reader, which, it would seem, would be more important than some unstated protocol that you feel the need to police. Give it a rest, will ya?
Maureen Downey
October 29th, 2012
9:26 am
@Phil, Sat next to Jay for years. He is one of the brightest, most well read people I ever met. His knowledge of US history is amazing. (I also admire that he got into Harvard but chose Penn State. )
Maureen
Phil from Athens
October 29th, 2012
9:34 am
“Sat next to Jay for years. He is one of the brightest, most well read people I ever met. His knowledge of US history is amazing. (I also admire that he got into Harvard but chose Penn State. )
Maureen
That’s nice. I’m sure he is bright but living on a military base does not give one military experience. Also, I don’t really care what his knowledge of US history is considering the guy is on the wrong side of most every issue. Penn State over Harvard? Dang, that is something. He picked the university that will now have the worst reputation in the history of scandals over Harvard. Also, I never said Jay was/is a stupid person. I just said that he is a hack and spends most of his time covering for a failed administration while blaming the GOP for every problem in America.
Phil from Athens
October 29th, 2012
9:35 am
@Maureen
I’m not sure what your last comment has to do with Libya or education. I never said that Jay is not bright. I’ve said many times that he is a smart guy just wrong on most issues.
williebkind
October 29th, 2012
9:38 am
I have one question for you college educated minds and that is how much would it save the state on salaries, insurance, and pensions if charter schools replaced public schools.
williebkind
October 29th, 2012
9:39 am
If Jay is a liberal he is not very bright in my mind.
Phil from Athens
October 29th, 2012
9:40 am
williebkind
It would save a lot of taxpayer dollars. People who have no kids and pay for public education should be happy about this.
Phil from Athens
October 29th, 2012
9:43 am
williebkind
Quick story. Jay once wrote a piece about one of his daughters who went off to UNC to get a masters in poetry writing. Several people jumped all over that because Jay often ridicules Wall Street and big business. When someone asked Jay how in the world his daughter would ever get a job with a worthless degree like poetry writing, he banned that person.
williebkind
October 29th, 2012
9:44 am
Phil,
The last I read is that the American family size is declining but education costs are rising.
Ronin
October 29th, 2012
9:48 am
No surprise here about the funding coming from outside the state in favor of the amendment and local educators providing funding against it.
Local district schools have nothing to worry about if they have a strong program.
Willie @ 9:38, how much will it save? A lot. Pension liability and health insurance are a major factor in budgeting for state enmployees in retirement.
Colonel Jack
October 29th, 2012
9:48 am
I voted NO and I will tell you why. The way to “fix” public education isn’t necessarily through competition. Rather, it’s through the ballot box. Elect school board members who will bravely say NO to the morons who are trying to “improve” education by jumping on any new bandwagon that comes along. Elect school board members who will not go along with clowns like Michelle Rhee and Arne Duncan. Elect school board members who will remember at all times that the Superintendent of your system works for them, not the other way around, and that they work for YOU and can be fired by you at any time. If school boards had the interests of the children at heart (as they say they do), this amendment might not be seen as necessary by some.
My thoughts. Your mileage may vary.
Phil from Athens
October 29th, 2012
9:56 am
“The last I read is that the American family size is declining but education costs are rising.”
Yep, which is why people should be happy that their tax money isn’t going to failing schools. Some cities are closing schools because the number of kids has fallen over the last few years. I’m really not sure just why costs are going up in colleges considering the jobs aren’t there for grads. Who wants to graduate with an average of 50,000 dollars in student loans and have to move back in with mom and dad?
Phil from Athens
October 29th, 2012
9:57 am
“The way to “fix” public education isn’t necessarily through competition.
Competition always keeps costs down.
“Elect school board members who will bravely say NO to the morons who are trying to “improve” education by jumping on any new bandwagon that comes along.”
That makes ZERO sense. None whatsoever.
Phil from Athens
October 29th, 2012
9:59 am
“Pension liability and health insurance are a major factor in budgeting for state enmployees in retirement.”
Yep, and a lot of these people make way too much money. Just look at the midwest and their fights with union members. The CTU just went on strike, during a recession, and demanded a salary increase, less working days and lower amount of kids per class.
DeKalb Inside Out
October 29th, 2012
10:07 am
Colonel Jack
Your plan is to
1. Vote out a majority of the 700 board members across the state.
2. Replace the 250+ Superintendents
That’s a pretty tall order. Superintendents and their related organizations have the most to gain by keeping keeping the status quo.
What’s plan B?
ChartersStarter, Too
October 29th, 2012
10:18 am
@ Colonel Jack….
1 vote
1 board member
Every 4 years
3 times in your child’s career
How long will it take to make the changes we need? It’s already too late for some kids.
DeKalb Inside Out
October 29th, 2012
10:18 am
My I ask a crazy question?
If the avg State Charter in Georgia gets 62% of the funding of the avg traditional public school, Who cares how that money is spent by a state chartered school as long education improves?
ChartersStarter, Too
October 29th, 2012
10:19 am
@ Dekalb Inside Out – it’s an even taller order than that. There are well over 1000 current board members. And superintendents are appointed, so the public has no way to get them out.
sneak peak into education
October 29th, 2012
10:27 am
@charter charter-you and othesr who argue about all the ills of our local boards, who are elected by the public, have totally contradicted yourself. You have repeatedly stated that it is unfair for local boards to have control over local tax dollars and decide how to spend them, even though that is what they were elected for. At 8:24am you state that the arguments against the ineptness of Deal is wrong because he was fairly elected.
You can’t have it both ways.
VOTE NO IN NOVEMBER-YES, I AM YELLING IT FOR ALL TO HEAR.
sneak peak into education
October 29th, 2012
10:29 am
@Charter Starter; you stated earlier about the masses of failing districts in Georgia and you were asked to provide details of the masses. Still waiting.
ChartersStarter, Too
October 29th, 2012
10:30 am
Has anyone considered that our student growth is at 41% over about a 10 year period and our district administration budget has grown at about 74% (nearly double the student growth). What is this doing to not only our state and local budget to support this level of administration, AND, what this will do to the state budget LONG TERM in extra retirement payouts for these people?
Phil from Athens
October 29th, 2012
10:41 am
“you stated earlier about the masses of failing districts in Georgia and you were asked to provide details of the masses. ”
Dekalb, Clayton, Fulton all come to mind. You must have missed the mass cheating scandal that took place in Atlanta.
Phil from Athens
October 29th, 2012
10:42 am
“You have repeatedly stated that it is unfair for local boards to have control over local tax dollars and decide how to spend them, even though that is what they were elected for. ”
That’s not what they were elected to do.
ChartersStarter, Too
October 29th, 2012
10:46 am
@ Sneak Peak – I gave you the link to the state DOE’s list of focus, alert, and priority schools…as a start. These are only the Title I schools. List 1 had 33 districts….the list grows list by list.
ChartersStarter, Too
October 29th, 2012
10:47 am
@ Phil – tell me, please, that you are not a business owner. If you are, and you don’t understand basic economics, I am very concerned for you and the future of the business you may run.
ChartersStarter, Too
October 29th, 2012
10:56 am
@ Sneak Peak – I take no issue with local boards controlling their local budgets. That has never been the issue for me. What I have a problem with as a taxpayer is WASTE of that money and mismanagement. I expect them to make prudent decisions that, when the economy is poor, does not require them to negatively impact our teachers and classrooms. It’s about priorities and fiduciary responsibility, which in MANY (not all) districts fail to be about kids and sensible management.
Phil from Athens
October 29th, 2012
10:58 am
“tell me, please, that you are not a business owner. If you are, and you don’t understand basic economics, I am very concerned for you and the future of the business you may run.”
Deflect all you want, start. It won’t change the fact that you can’t defend the failing public school system.
Fed Up Parent
October 29th, 2012
11:03 am
The Anti Charter Amendment folks are a bunch of self-serving knuckle heads that are afraid of losing control of their bloated little fiefdoms! They are further misrepresenting that facts by trying to strike fear in people by saying that these will be state run schools. The fact is that these schools will be run by individual charter operators at the REQUEST of the local communities that are fed up with the complete ineptitude of our local school boards. It’s time for parent in Georgia to have a choice and take back the control of our public schools!!!!
Mary Elizabeth
October 29th, 2012
11:05 am
Phil in Athens, 8:59 am
“Mary Elizabeth
I know you’re pro-union, pro-socialism etc but please give it a rest. You can not defend public education because public education is garbage and the numbers prove it.”
=====================================
Name calling is the last refuge of those that have no substantive response. All I will write in response to your post to me, above, is to speak directly to the readers of this blog.
“Readers, please read my 11:33 pm post of last evening (10/28/12), which I believe you will find worthy of reading and which, obviously, was perceived by Phil in Athens to be threatening.”
Vote NO in NOvember to Amendment 1. I explained why readers should vote NO in my 11:33 pm of last evening (page 2 of this thread).
Phil from Athens
October 29th, 2012
11:07 am
“Name calling is the last refuge of those that have no substantive response.”
Reading comprehension isn’t your thing, Mary. I didn’t “name call.” You are pro abortion because I’ve read your posts on Bookmans blog. You’re also a pro-government person as well.
““Readers, please read my 11:33 pm post of last evening (10/28/12), which I believe you will find worthy of reading and which, obviously, was perceived by Phil in Athens to be threatening.”
You are some piece of work, Mary. Project much? You threaten me about as much as a piece of grass.
DeKalb Inside Out
October 29th, 2012
11:10 am
Allow me to take this time to say that school districts on average get record breaking amounts of money. We spend per student as much now as we ever have in adjusted dollars.
We are 49th out of 50 in education. We generally don’t hold our local boards accountable. We demonstrably don’t hold our school districts accountable.
If not state chartered schools, what’s the plan?
Phil from Athens
October 29th, 2012
11:22 am
http://scores.espn.go.com/ncf/recap?gameId=323010333
#1 Alabama beats #11 Miss St. 38 – 7
Ray
October 29th, 2012
12:06 pm
Let’s see: $1.3 million raised by the pro-amendment forces, 70-75% of which is from about 5-6 wealthy out-of-state donors. $18,000 raised by anti-amendment groups, by small, in-state donors. Hmmmmm. I wonder what that could mean?
WHAT A JOKE. WAKE UP AND VOTE NO!!
Claudia Stucke
October 29th, 2012
12:23 pm
“Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended to allow state or local approval of public charter schools upon the request of local communities?” I think we’re overlooking an important qualifier in this proposal: “upon the request of local communities.” There are many local communities that would welcome a charter school; but if they don’t, no one is shoving it down their throats. Just sayin’ . . .
d
October 29th, 2012
12:28 pm
@Claudia – the ballot language has nothing to do with what the actual amendment is trying to accomplish. That is just your General Assembly trying to do the ol’ bait and switch. We already have state or local approval…. if the language was true to the intent, we wouldn’t need the amendment to begin with.
Fed Up Parent
October 29th, 2012
12:36 pm
D……..please give us more FACTS! Not HYPERBOLE! I think Claudia is spot on!!! The amendment is what it is in black and white print.
Mary Elizabeth
October 29th, 2012
12:56 pm
Phil from Athens, 11:07 am
Phil, please know that I did not mean to insult you. I am not a Socialist. Desiring more of a balance between the power of the government and the power of the private sector, and advocating for a woman’s right to exercise choice in her reproductive destiny, does not mean that I am a Socialist. I am a Liberal Democrat. The way you framed these issues in your response to me indicated to me that you were threatened, somewhat, by a more progressive perspective.
I wish you well, even as I disagree with you on the value of Amendment 1 to Georgia’s educational delivery to all of Georgia’s students.
Retiree
October 29th, 2012
1:09 pm
I keep seeing and hearing that state approved charter schools will close if this ammendment does not pass. I also understand that the current approval process for state approved charter schools is still alive and well. So, if the ammendment is NOT approved, why will the state charter schools have to close?
sneak peak into education
October 29th, 2012
1:28 pm
@Charter Starter-I disagree with what you say regarding local boards-many, including you, gripe about how difficult it is getting the local BofE to do your bidding and how difficult it is to vote them out. Repeatedly it has been suggested that you run against the local board and if you get enough votes you get to help implement the change that the public voted you in for. That is one of the major reasons the proponents state for passing this amendment. Yet, when others state about the shady deals that our current governor has been involved in together with his high level of cronyism (last week he appointed one of his cronies to run the Georgia Lottery even though she has little to no qualifications to do while other applicants did) and we are supposed to get over it and trust that he will do the right thing because, guess what, he was democratically voted in. You and the others who gripe about the DEMOCRATICALLY VOTED local BofE because the”dumb masses” voted them in when the same is true for our governor. I certainly do not trust that the has good intentions for public education because he has already shown great disregard for it. Many of the people who chose to vote no are doing so because of a variety of reasons but I can bet that right up there at the top of the list is the fact that they don’t trust our governor and don’t agree with adding another layer of unnecessary and expensive government.
sneak peak into education
October 29th, 2012
1:29 pm
By the way, I forgot to say, Vote NO in NOvember; I just did.
ChartersStarter, Too
October 29th, 2012
1:31 pm
@ d – Go through this with me and help me to understand the validity of your statement that “we already have state or local approval…”
1. If the Supreme Court said locals had EXCLUSIVE control (i.e., unshared), how does the state have authority to approve on appeal?
2. If the Supreme Court said that charters don’t meet the definition of “state chartered special school,” then how would this not logically apply to those same charters (if the Commission is not operational) going to the state. What changes with these schools that suddenly helps them to meet the definition?
3. Sally Fitzgerald said last week that there WOULD be a lawsuit….why would they sue if the amendment fails if, as the opposition claims, we already have a state authority to approve on appeal.
I have been trying to get those questions answered for weeks and so far, NOBODY has been able to do it and few have even tried.
ChartersStarter, Too
October 29th, 2012
1:33 pm
@ Sneak Peak – again, I don’t have an issue with boards being elected by their local communities. But I expect them to do their jobs when they are there – particularly when it comes to fulfilling their fiduciary responsibilities.
ChartersStarter, Too
October 29th, 2012
1:39 pm
@ Ray – you say, “Let’s see: $1.3 million raised by the pro-amendment forces, 70-75% of which is from about 5-6 wealthy out-of-state donors. $18,000 raised by anti-amendment groups, by small, in-state donors. Hmmmmm. I wonder what that could mean?”
Do you not find it exceedingly ODD that our local school districts, who serve 1.6 MILLION children in this state could not muster up more than $100,000 in this state from parents and local businesses?
Furthermore, they have also not attracted support from out of state either from large foundations like those that have supported the charter sector.
That, to me, is a deafening message that the current bureaucracy lacks public support and confidence. I’d be mortified to have this poor level of support if I monopolized the whole system.
Just A Teacher
October 29th, 2012
1:41 pm
“Looking to the future, local districts may see more pressures and challenges ahead. The federal budget and deficit crisis may yield deep cuts to the federal education funding that helps local systems provide for the neediest students. In Georgia, the potential creation of a separate publicly funded state charter school system may lead to additional decreases in funding that systems cannot afford.”
This is from the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute web page. It follows what Dr. Barge, our State Superintendent of Schools says. Here is a link to the page.
http://gbpi.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/survey-says-trouble-for-schools-10152012-final1.pdf
ChartersStarter, Too
October 29th, 2012
1:41 pm
@ Sneak Peak: “…they don’t trust our governor and don’t agree with adding another layer of unnecessary and expensive government.”
But they trust school board elected officials who have demonstrated an inability to manage money OR to produce student outcomes.
In voting no, you are also saying quite clearly that you don’t trust your own local people – parents, teachers, and community members – to understand the needs of the community and the children and to effectively govern at the school level. This amendment ensure there is a pathway for local communities to be MORE engaged in public education – a pathway that the districts and their affiliates have thrown trees in front of over and over.