Georgia: Putting all our eggs and hopes in charter school basket
The battle in Georgia to win passage of a controversial charter school amendment turned out to be costly, divisive and polarizing.
Many might also argue it was unnecessary, given that charter schools were never in jeopardy and more continue to open every year in Georgia.
The state Board of Education already had the ability to approve them, and local school boards, despite the characterization that most were hostile toward charters, authorized nine out of 10 of the existing 108 charter schools now operating in Georgia.
It’s a futile exercise now to question the rationale for the amendment, which, in its most practical application, accords the state Legislature the power to appoint a commission that can approve and fund charter schools over the objections of local boards of education.
The benign question put before voters — “Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended to allow state or local approval of public charter schools upon the request of local communities?”— earned a “Yes” from an impressive 58.5 percent of Georgians.
So, now is the time to consider the impact of the passage of the amendment on education as a whole in Georgia.
And that impact is likely to be consequential to the 1.6 million Georgia children who attend public schools in Georgia.
Because now the Legislature will be convinced that it’s done its part for education by giving students more choice.
Lawmakers can relax and let choice work its magic. If students don’t do well, it will be blamed on their parents failing to make the right choice.
In elevating choice to their top legislative priority, lawmaker shirked what ought to be their main concern: Ensuring that existing public schools in Georgia remain viable and have sufficient resources to educate students to increasingly higher standards.
Instead, they have consistently disinvested in public schools while touting marketplace solutions.
Choice is not a substitute for adequate funding, talented teachers and strong leaders.
And more choices don’t necessarily mean better choices.
In the last 10 years, a period when school enrollment rose, austerity cuts and other reductions decimated state education funding by $5.7 billion. Two-thirds of Georgia’s 180 school districts have been forced to cut back on school days.
In four districts around the state, students now attend classes less than 150 days, even though the standard is 180 days. Class sizes have soared, with parents lamenting 37 kids in middle and high school classes.
A Georgia Budget and Policy Institute study noted that while enrollment jumped, teacher contracts in Georgia fell by 8,500 since 2008-2009.
The first education act by the 2013 General Assembly will be reconstituting the Charter School Commission that was in place before the state Supreme Court deemed it unconstitutional and an infringement on local control last year. And that will ensure a few more charter schools approved every year.
Charter schools are publicly funded schools that are privately operated and earn freedom from some state regulations in exchange for contractual pledges to not only meet standards set by the state, but eventually exceed them.
If charter schools fail to meet their contractual goals, they’re supposed to shut down. An examination of national data shows that doesn’t always happen, as parents often argue in favor of the school remaining open despite disappointing academics — a scenario that unfolds in many school closings. (Hundreds of DeKalb County parents fought closings there, even when the targeted schools had years of low achievement.)
As with every school model, charter schools show varying degrees of success and failure. An evaluation earlier this year by the state Department of Education found that charter schools in Georgia were less successful than traditional schools in meeting federally mandated, adequate yearly progress measures and had graduation rates in line with the state average.
No one who looks at the performance of charter schools in those states where there are many more of them could argue that they have been a transformative agent.
Without question, charter schools should be part of a mix of innovations and reforms. Unfortunately, in Georgia, charter schools have become the only reform. As one rural legislator commented to me about his House colleagues, “We’ve put all our eggs in the charter school basket.”
And all their hopes and energies.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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246 comments Add your comment
Alpharetta
November 21st, 2012
10:19 pm
Maureen, while you’re probably younger than I am, you really need to be “put out to pasture”. Your ideas are old and stale. You’re so “status quo”. I guess you figure we should put all our eggs in the failed basket called traditional public schools. You and your left wing, big government, socialist, “stick it to the average man” mentality needs to go bye bye.
Georgia’s percentage of charter schools is low compared to most other states. The changes to the constitution will change this a bit. But, charter schools aren’t the silver bullet. The traditional school systems need to change. They need to rid themselves of the educrats who suck all the money out of the systems for personal gain and then gripe that there’s no money (it all was magically put in their personal bank accounts.) We’ll need vouchers too. Another competitive tool to encourage greatness in education. We’ll need to also start shutting down failed schools and even systems, replacing them with new teams and new goals.
LarryMajor
November 21st, 2012
10:37 pm
crankee-yankee: The number of petitions reviewed by the State BOE is from the September statement issued by Dr. Barge. The actual number is 114, but I ballparked it at “about 110” because some of these were charter schools with a state-wide attendance zone, which would have been original applications not involving any local BOE. There was (is?) a document that has the details on these petitions, but I didn’t keep a copy of it. If you are more patient than I am, most or maybe all this information might be in that rather verbose charter school spreadsheet on the DOE’s web page.
Dennis, I certainly didn’t mean to imply that the SBOE in any way inhibited charter schools and personally feel the exact opposite it true. What I find relevant is that, as crankee-yankee noted, the majority of local BOE denials were also denied by the SBOE for the reasons you stated. This tells me the local BOEs were correct in their decision because these were not viable schools.
Private Citizen
November 21st, 2012
10:58 pm
Alpharetta, Why the “chop?” Did you recently take up karate and are doing some practice? As far as the visionary ideas, please add to it removing that burgundy brick behemoth depression era thing and putting the old stadium back with the nice optimistic 1960’s architecture. PS You need a comma after “vouchers,” and I agree with you. Like so many good ideas for education in Georgia, the sea has fish, too. Wishing you a swell Thanksgiving.
Lee
November 22nd, 2012
12:47 am
“Georgia: Putting all our eggs and hopes in charter school basket”
No, I think this is just the first step, of many, of parents who give a crap trying to distance their kids from those who don’t give a crap. And WHEN charters fail – most will, given the animosity directed towards them from the traditional public schools crowd – parents will again line up to try something else. ANYTHING else.
Vouchers? Probably so.
Traditional public school response? Continue to plop the high achieving student with a 120 IQ next to the dullard with an 80 IQ, who sits nexts to the illegal alien who cannot speak a lick of English, who sits next to the SPED kid who poops in his diaper three times per day.
Private Citizen
November 22nd, 2012
5:47 am
Lee, It’s more than not just giving a crap. It’s exploiting, exploitation. It’s using other people for personal wealth and using the government to do it, to make one’s own self prosperous. If you can see through the smoke and mirrors. You’re quite right to “give a crap.” Some bullies are brash and recognizable, but some bullies are smooth. smooth, smooth, and I’m talking about the edu-bureaucracy – whatever you want to call it. Saw that Arne Duncan on time only and I saw through him. If you don’t go along with me, you don’t love the children. My way or the highway. Meanwhile, they use public money to do seedy buying off of people. When did this type of “governing” become acceptable with the “I’ll pay you to agree with me” method of “policy.” Any you are oh so true to recognize the edu-bureaucracy for what it is. Don’t forget the character behind the actions. It would make a good academic paper, evidence of shallow character, and there are a few examples of this, Put together, the bully is going to win every time if you get suckered into their game and play along.
crankee-yankee
November 22nd, 2012
7:13 am
Mountain Man
November 21st, 2012
2:57 pm
Had to mull over this awhile (nah, just getting food together for the holiday). Anyway, you will notice I was not making any state-by-state comparisons to bolster my point. I was looking at trends from just GA SAT results and then comparing those trends to national SAT trends. National showing relatively steady results over the 1986 – 2005 period while at the same time GA showed steady increases. Lastly, both trend down since NCLB & budget cuts took root.
State-by-state comparisons are meaningless for the very reason you state & I allude to in a later post, percentage of population taking the SAT varies dramatically state-to-state from a high of 100% in Maine to a low of 3% in South Dakota. GA sits at about 70%. The pool taking the test affects the average score of the individual state making direct comparisons invalid (a point ignored by politicians everywhere). But if you look at an individual state’s trend vs. a national trend, you can draw some reliable conclusions.
Dr. Monica Henson
November 22nd, 2012
7:20 am
Maureen, you know that I have tremendous respect for your work and very much enjoy following your take on education issues. However, I have to take respectful issue with some of your assertions about charter schools in Georgia.
“charter schools were never in jeopardy”: Not true. The Supreme Court ruling left open the distinct possibility that districts and boards of education could make the legal argument that the state has no ability to create any school other than one serving the deaf, the blind, or other substantially impaired student populations, and win it under the Court’s interpretation of then-current state law. The intense focus by opponents of the first Charter School Commission made it quite clear that their objection to the very existence of an alternate authorizer stemmed from the redirection of local funds to the charters it authorized. Even with the assurance that no local funds would be so redirected, the education establishment continued to press the financial argument against alternate authorization. It is all about the dollars—not the students—for anti-charter school districts. I would argue that most districts that do authorize independent charter schools locally do so not because they actually favor charters and choice, but in order to keep control over the funding in the hands of the local board of education.
“a commission that can approve and fund charter schools over the objections of local boards of education”: Anti-charter BOEs have repeatedly proved that they will blockade any independent charter schools, regardless of the quality of the proposed school. Ivy Prep in Gwinnett is the most prominent example, and it continues to outperform the district dramatically, becoming one of the best schools in the state at educating low-income and minority girls. It has been demonstrated, by examination of the rubrics used by some local BOEs for charter application review, that there was no review at all of some charter school applications submitted to them, with rubrics left blank. In some cases, charter applications have been denied one day after they were submitted, proving that there was no substantive review at all because it is impossible for such to occur in a single business day. Charter school applications are lengthy and complex contract proposals that require thoughtful reading and thorough analysis.
“If students don’t do well, it will be blamed on their parents failing to make the right choice”: The comments on this blog, day after day, show that if students don’t do well in DISTRICT schools, parents and students are blamed, most loudly by those working in the schools charged with educating those students yet failing to do so decently. Poor performance in district schools leads to massive appropriations of federal school improvement dollars. The schools that fail are permitted to choose one of four “turnaround” models. More than 90% of them choose the path of least resistance—“transformation,” which involves firing the principal but keeping the rest of the staff in place. Poor performance in charter schools, on the other hand, can lead to the charter being revoked or nonrenewed, placing the responsibility for ensuring student performance squarely where it belongs: on the shoulders of the charter school board, its administrators, and its teachers. When was the last time we saw a failing district school closed due to lack of academic achievement? District school closures occur solely as a result of declining enrollments and are instituted as cost-saving measures—never as academic improvement efforts.
Only last week, the head of school of the Georgia Cyber Academy was publicly called on the carpet by the State Board of Education on the issue of educating special needs students, with the threat of closure invoked if the school doesn’t make state-directed improvements. I cannot ever recall a school district superintendent being brought before the SBOE and chastised in public for any failure, much less being threatened with district shutdown.
“lawmaker[s]shirked what ought to be their main concern: Ensuring that existing public schools in Georgia remain viable and have sufficient resources to educate students to increasingly higher standards.” Those who argue the loudest that the state does not fund public schools sufficiently are those who guard ferociously the stultified, failing model of schools, which are nothing more than methods of herding children into age-based cohorts in order to make it as simple as possible to calculate the number of adults deemed necessary to monitor them in the factory model that American public schools have followed since the early 1900s. It is a myth that adding more state dollars to the mix results in increased student achievement. This argument—give us more money and we’ll do a better job—has been disproved for decades. Erik Hanushek pointed out in the 1980s and 1990s that spending on public schools in the United States tripled from the 1960s to the 1990s, while student achievement remained flat. Recent reports by the U. S. Department of Education likewise show that most recipients of federal school improvement grants, which are multimillion-dollar awards, continue to fail.
“Two-thirds of Georgia’s 180 school districts have been forced to cut back on school days. In four districts around the state, students now attend classes less than 150 days, even though the standard is 180 days. Class sizes have soared, with parents lamenting 37 kids in middle and high school classes.”: The decision to cut back on school days is purely the purview of local BOEs and is based on an insistence on adhering to the longevity pay system for teachers. Salaries and benefits are the single largest line-item in any school budget, and the longer a teacher stays in the traditional system, the more expensive that teacher becomes (regardless of how well that teachers’ students perform academically). Likewise, many districts continue to operate more square footage of physical plant space than is actually needed for the education of its students because to close extraneous space would lead to school closure, which is politically unpopular. It also would reduce the number of jobs available, which is another political issue. Finally, an extensive body of research demonstrates that an excellent teacher will continue to produce excellent outcomes even if class size is increased. Class-size reduction has only been proved to contribute to increased student achievement (a) in the primary grades; (b) in sheltered classrooms for highly at-risk populations, such as special education students and English language learners; and (3) when it is accompanied by strong, research-based professional development, in which case it can be argued that it is the professional development that improved the teacher’s skills that led to the increase in student achievement, not the reduction of the class size—this argument is supported by the research showing that outstanding teachers continue to produce high student achievement even when their class sizes are increased. It is therefore fallacious to insist on adding more teachers to the payroll, at the significant expense of increased salary and benefit expenditures, without regard to the quality of those employees or the age and academic need of the students, for the goal of bringing down class size.
“An evaluation earlier this year by the state Department of Education found that charter schools in Georgia were less successful than traditional schools in meeting federally mandated, adequate yearly progress measures and had graduation rates in line with the state average.” This report was based on comparison of charter schools in the aggregate to district schools in the aggregate and found only a 3% discrepancy between all grade levels of charter school performance (70% AYP) compared to that of district schools statewide (73% AYP). Six of the eight Commission charters made AYP, which is 75%, higher than the state average. The report found that the percentage of charter middle and high schools making AYP was higher than the state percentage of district middle and high schools. Some charter high schools served 100% disadvantaged populations—I would argue that for them to meet the state graduation rate is actually overperforming, given their demographics.
crankee-yankee
November 22nd, 2012
7:41 am
The other interesting tidbit from state funding data is the drop in the state share of ed funding from 60% to 50%. It is my stance that when the state drops below 50% funding, they lose the moral imperative to dictate regulations on how & what to teach. This can have good & bad consequences. I submit if the funding level drops below that magic number of 50%, local districts no longer should have to abide by state policy & directives and can formulate their own. Some will make good, sound choices based on solid education theory, some will not and we will be back in the position the state was in before QBE. The problem being, we will revert to some systems that have a non-education focus (i.e.football). But when group memory fades, mistakes of the past are often repeated.
Shady Deal
November 22nd, 2012
7:51 am
Where is my cut of the action?
Chris Murphy
November 22nd, 2012
8:10 am
Dr. Henson, I appreciate your comments.
Chris Murphy
November 22nd, 2012
8:20 am
We’ve put our two daughters through charters, and now the oldest is in a regular APS high school. If you think charters, by their contract with parents, require parental time and involvement, check out APS ( and I would assume other failing systems- and I don’t use the term “failing” lightly). I may be required to put in 10 hours a year at the charter, but I do that almost weekly at the APS school- it needs that much. And less than an hour of that time is needed to keep up with my daughter’s needs. APS and other systems long ago became jobs programs (despite some posters’ claims, I suspect it was just as bad when whites ran it- GA never has been known for educational excellence, after all), and the good people in the system- and there are good people there- are marginalized by the careerism, paternalism, nepotism and self-serving politics that it currently takes to rise in the organization. I hate that the amendment was added to the state constitution because I see it as a means to a bad end for those who don’t like paying for public education. But I do have to give credit to those venal supporters of the amendment, because after looking at public systems in this state, they have a point.
d
November 22nd, 2012
8:35 am
Few random thoughts…..
1) @Mountain man – have you disaggregated your per pupil spending average to account for the huge increase in special ed over the last half century? I’m just curious what has happened to general education spending in that same time frame.
2) Would we be having this debate if the ballot language were clear to intent?
3) Someone mentioned yesterday parents not backing teachers. I’ll give one quick example… Had a student plagiarize a paper. When I spoke to the parent, she responded that her daughter submitted “the wrong paper by mistake.” Why did the plagiarized paper exist to be submitted by mistake to begin with? That behavior would get the student kicked out of a post-secondary institution.
4) At what point do we hold students responsible for their own learning? When teachers are held responsible for the students’ learning, what responsibility do the students have? If I cannot expect my seniors to read nightly, study, take notes, how can I honestly believe they will succeed in the 2- or 4-year institutions 98% of the claim they will attend next year?
5) If we continue to furlough away all my planning days and utilize planning periods for professional development, when do I have time to plan innovative lessons?
6) Why do students think that they are the equals of their teachers and are allowed to speak in anyway that they want. I am not your “bro.”
7) Students better learn quickly some basic social skills if they plan to be successful…. For example, look at a person who is talking to you, don’t interrupt, use proper English (I often tell my students to conjugate properly…. I “is not” doing anything…). Sad thing is they know because they correct themselves when I say something followed by “This isn’t English class.”
d
November 22nd, 2012
8:38 am
What's Best for Kids?
November 22nd, 2012
8:54 am
@Anon,
FSA closed due to egregious book keeping and some other unsavory practices by the people who ran it.
Yes, they had good test scores, but they also had some crazy, crazy practices that should have shut them down long before Avossa came into the picture in Fulton.
Cynic
November 22nd, 2012
9:12 am
Every day we put all of our eggs in the rotten basket of government run schools. They fail and they fail and yet we continue to imprison 95+% of kids in them every day. Parents put their hopes in the Charter amendment because they actually believed that something better would come of it, but fundamentally the socialist/immoral funding mechanism doesn’t change, the government is still setting the rules, parents still have no REAL choice, the free and competitive market is still artificially depressed by the government monopoly, and bureaucrats still rule the day.
Only by realizing that government must be taken completely out of the education equation will we ever hope to address the real needs of both children and parents.
jhan
November 22nd, 2012
10:18 am
Haven’t read very much on this blog about the parents role in educating children. I believe the parent is more responsible than the school in teaching kids. Too many parents are not involved to the extent they should be.
I don’t buy the whole class size issue. Look at how the Japanese teach their kids. Almost college size classes – bet we would be very happy with nationwide class scores like theirs!
crankee-yankee
November 22nd, 2012
10:20 am
Jefferson
November 21st, 2012
12:37 pm
Did say it…did lose my job.
Enjoying the show
November 22nd, 2012
10:34 am
I was always a little sad about not having children . . . until now. Parents in this state have been had by the oldest trick in the book. You were presented two options as your “only” choices: support continuing public school failure or allow the state to impose charter schools on your local tax base. This is the same game most of you play on your 4 year olds; avoid a fight over clothes by presenting only two choices. It gives the child the illusion of having a choice but controls the outcome.
What is even more interesting is that some of the pro-amendment people are the SAME people who yell “states’ rights” at the mere *hint* of federal government interference. And yet, they have no problem with the state telling their city/county how to spend their tax dollars (and seem unable to see how state control of local dollars could lead to higher taxes).
I am so thankful that no child of mine will be victimized by people who took the bait because they couldn’t see this shell game for what it really is. Good luck with that.
Tony
November 22nd, 2012
10:59 am
The GOP will not rest until they have destroyed public education in this state.
Bhorsoft
November 22nd, 2012
11:48 am
My nephew goes to a STEM charter school. The focus is on STEM and he can do math and computers far better than I can (and I have a degree in computer science). However, he doesn’t know that you start a sentence with a capital letter, how to spell properly or write well. My concern for him is that when he goes to college he’ll have to spend a lot of time in remedial English and composition classes. He’s not getting a well rounded education like I received in public schools.
paulo977
November 22nd, 2012
12:56 pm
The same word STANDARDS keeps popping up when we talk about EDUCATION ..
We just haven’t got it yet in one of this most educationally bankrupt of racist red states!!
http://www.alfiekohn.org/standards/rationale.htm
Jane W.
November 22nd, 2012
1:40 pm
Thank you, Dr. Henson, for your enlightening observations … and your persistence in challenging the union group-think which seeks to predominate here.
10:10 am
November 22nd, 2012
1:47 pm
Thank you, Dr. Henson, for your candid observations … and for your persistence in challenging the union group-think which usually predominates on Maureen’s blog.
catlady
November 22nd, 2012
1:59 pm
This charter school amendment is, in fact, similar to Judas washing his hands in the death of Jesus. Any problems won’t be due to lack of funding, according to our legislators. Parents, you have now got enough rope to hang yourselves. Unfortunately, your rope will also hang the other taxpayers. And those that can, will give their tax monies to private school foundations, in a dollar for dollar exchange, with the blessing of our “leaders.” Meanwhile, the feeding frenzy of for-profit corporations will cut an ever-smaller pot of money.
I am asking my 2 adult children who remain in this state to get out as quickly as they can.
Michele
November 22nd, 2012
3:58 pm
@Mountain Man. Your comments are so conflicting, I really don’t understand where you are on this issue. You blasted my comment about many parents not having the time nor interest in spending time with their children. From this comment, I cannot believe that you have recently been in a school. This problem is becoming rampant in Georgia. I do agree with you on your comment that some students just don’t want to learn because that would make them too “white.” I have often heard this comment in the school I just retired from. There are majestic social problems in Georgia, many related directly to race. I had a brilliant young lady as my student at one time who faced daily ridicule and bullying by her black co-students. She could not understand why they wanted her to be more “dumb.” As a white person, I cannot fix that problem. This problem can only be fixed by black parents and mentors. Until it is fixed, racism in schools will flourish. Charter schools will just make this problem more prevalent in government schools.
DeKalb Inside Out
November 22nd, 2012
4:31 pm
D
Where will the money come from?
Answer: Capital funds
The state’s total FY2012 appropriations: $15.9 billion.
Appropriations for Education: $9.97 billion
Amount of money spent on charters commissioned by the state: $56.1 million
62% of state appropriates goes to education.
0.35% (less than half of 1%) of state appropriates goes to funding state charters.
d
November 22nd, 2012
4:45 pm
DIO – an increased number of state-funded charters will have to be funded from somewhere – and I can’t honestly believe you think it will come anywhere else from that education budget. Teachers throughout this state have not worked full contracts in years, and as a DeKalb teacher myself, it has been since 2008-2009 since I have.
catlady
November 22nd, 2012
5:00 pm
Crankee-yankee: You should have a teacher on your staff who is willing to say, as one of my colleagues has when “mama” says Junior didn’t do it, “Are you saying I am lying? Well, yes you are. That is exactly what you are saying. You were not there, and did not see it. I WAS there, and I saw Junior do….”
And when mama says Junior never had this problem before, you say, “Well, that is rather strange. I have looked at his behavior reports since he began school and this has cropped up repeatedly.”
I had a mama who claimed I did not like her son–that is why he was in trouble so much. Then, she went on to tell me that his 4th grade, third grade, second grade, first grade, and kindergarten teachers had not liked him either! I “commiserated” with her by saying, “Wow, he sure has bad luck! 6 teachers in 6 years have not liked him!” It went right over her head. (He ended up in YDC in 8th grade, after making his classmates miserable for a decade. Guess the judge had it out for him as well.)
It is a good think our leaders cannot understand what our translators say to parents. I have to LOL. They lay it on the line–tell parents to grow up and parent their kids–in a very frank way.
Dr. Monica Henson
November 22nd, 2012
5:53 pm
Maude posted at 12:20 PM 11/21: “A student enrolls in a charter school, leaves that school after October and enters a regular public school, the money to educate that child for a year stays with the charter school. Regular public schools will be forced to educate these students for nothing. No money to support the needs of these transfers will take millions of dollars from regular public schools.”
Actually, the district EARNED money when that student left for a charter school. The local property tax-funded per-pupil allocation stayed with the district and did not follow the student to the charter school. The district’s fixed costs did not increase when the student left, so the local tax funds that remained for that student generated a net GAIN for the district in the year the student departed.
I’m willing to bet $1,000 per student, however
, that there’s not a district in the state that takes a single step to reduce fixed costs whether enrollment grows or when they see students depart for charter schools, private schools, or home school. They simply whine to the Legislature that they need more money. This is the problem–the district education machine does nothing to increase its efficiencies, regardless of what happens to its enrollment.
Clinging to the model based on regulations created decades ago to govern longevity salary, class size, bus schedules, food services, and specified square footage per student has led to 181 separate public school bureaucracies, all of which have their own administrative structures, that are inefficient government monopolies. When state funding shrinks, something has to give when local BOEs refuse to incorporate fundamental changes in the way they do business.
What you describe in your post is what happens to CHARTER schools–district schools hold onto students until the October 2 FTE count date, then strongly encourage problem students to transfer to charter schools, while the district keeps the state QBE money that the students generated, along with the local property tax-funded school allocation.
My school has open enrollment year-round and does not cap our enrollment. This means that any students who come to us after Oct. 2 do not generate dollars to support their education in our school until we submit our March FTE count, then we don’t actually realize the additional funds until the following October.
This is one of the prime reasons (but not the only one) why charter school boards enter into contracts with charter management organizations–to gain access to operating capital so that they can afford to grow the school’s enrollment in the beginning of operation.
l jones
November 22nd, 2012
6:15 pm
Georgia State Representative Earl Earhart, one of the architects of this new “charter school” law that takes hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars and hands them to private business to run these schools, defends the secretive nature of the re-distribution of income. “I think what disclosure becomes is a code word for wanting to regulate more of what we do.” Earl, this is taxpayers’ money. Only a blithering idiot or a crook doesn’t want plenty of regulation of what you twerps do with taxpayers’ money.
l jones
November 22nd, 2012
6:29 pm
Dr. Monica Henson
November 22nd, 2012
5:53 pm
Maude posted at 12:20 PM 11/21: “A student enrolls in a charter school, leaves that school after October and enters a regular public school, the money to educate that child for a year stays with the charter school. Regular public schools will be forced to educate these students for nothing. No money to support the needs of these transfers will take millions of dollars from regular public schools.”
Actually, the district EARNED money when that student left for a charter school. The local property tax-funded per-pupil allocation stayed with the district and did not follow the student to the charter school. The district’s fixed costs did not increase when the student left, so the local tax funds that remained for that student generated a net GAIN for the district in the year the student departed
OKAY, DR. HENSON, DID THE MONEY MAGICALLY DROP OUT OF THE SKY? NO, IT CAME FROM THE STATE’S TAXPAYERS. THIS IS THE KIND OF POLITICAL DOUBLE-TALK GEORGIA’S VOTERS SWALLOW ALL TOO OFTEN.
Dr. Monica Henson
November 22nd, 2012
7:07 pm
living in an outdated ed system posted at 1:18 PM 11/21: “Unfortunately, the Democratic Party in Georgia has completely lost the ideological superiority on education reform. And that mindset HAS got to change.”
AMEN to that. The Democratic Party at the national level has long been whoring itself out to support the agenda of the NEA and AFT. Georgia Democrats have to recognize that education reform is here to stay and follow the lead of President Obama, Secretary Duncan, Mayor Booker, and other Democrats on the national stage. And I say that as a Georgia Democrat AND a Democrat for Education Reform.
Dr. Monica Henson
November 22nd, 2012
7:18 pm
Dennis posted at 2:37 PM, 11/21: “When we have a student who can’t cut “it”, we need to have an alternative education for that student…
That student then becomes an even bigger societial problem for all of us…We could solve that, if we just would. But the public has been brainwashed by conservative politicians and conservative media into not wanting to pay for that…How many of these students do you suppose charter schools will take?”
To date, my charter high school has taken 881 of them. We have continue to take about 40 of them each week. We have district high schools that have set up mini-enrollment centers in their guidance counselors’ office just to process transfers of their problem students to our school. We provide them with enrollment documents and customized fax cover sheets, and their applications come right to our registrar’s office.
District schools are starting to see us as a lifeline for kids that they have been unsuccessful in educating, rather than as a drain on “their” public school tax dollars. Families see us as a lifeline for their children who, for many varied reasons, are square pegs that don’t fit into the traditional district school round holes.
We are working very hard to establish a model that can eventually be replicated by districts, rather than functioning as an external reform catalyst. This is the mission of charter schooling.
Dr. Monica Henson
November 22nd, 2012
7:31 pm
Mountain Man posted at 2:47 PM 11/21: “We used to have a solution for that, too – it was called vocational educational training. Shop. They learned to do woodwork and became carpenters and mechanics and were valued and productive members of society.”
I’m a strong advocate of career and technical education (what used to be called vocational education/shop). However, some trades now require reading levels beyond that required for university coursework in order to attain an industry certification. Auto mechanics is a prime example. It’s not enough anymore to say, “Well, we’ll just put the problem kids into trade classes and let them learn hands-on.” They have to be able to read and calculate to be employable in the trades.
What we have to do is stop using artificial age-based cohorts to herd kids into 30-student classrooms, beginning in the primary grades. It makes no sense to force a group of kindergarteners together when we know good and well that some of them already read at a 3rd grade level or higher and others barely know their alphabet, simply because they are the same age. That’s a recipe for failure for way too many children.
For that matter, it is entirely possible that a 2nd grader could have 7th grade reading skills but kindergarten math skills, perhaps due to a processing issue in numeracy. Why not place kids where they belong academically, which may be different placements for different subjects? (Answer: Because that makes the adults’ jobs different and potentially more challenging, and schools are designed and managed primarily for the comfort of the adults who work in them, not for the academic well-being of the children who bring the dollars in to pay those adults.)
living in an outdated ed system
November 22nd, 2012
8:09 pm
Dr. Henson, thank you for bringing common sense and sanity to a blog in desperate need of such elements!
bootney farnsworth
November 22nd, 2012
10:21 pm
seems even now people are still missing the point of charters as promoted in amendment 1. it had nothing to do with genuine education reform, and everything with the legislature taking more control while distancing themselves from the fallout at the same time.
while I agree with Catlady in principal, I have a different take: the legislature decided to sell children’s souls to Satan, and convinced their parents to do the dirty work.
gotta give red meat Fran and his cronies this – it was brilliant. disgusting, but brilliant
Private Citizen
November 22nd, 2012
11:21 pm
bootney, I think you localise it too much. the charter thing is bigger than the Titanic, bigger than an iceberg. Mayby New Orleans got the first “treatment” or beta test, but it is certainly an idea who’’s time has come. too bad the edu-establishment starved the schools to bring it in, sort of like the same mind of denying aid to Katrina victims (boy that was charming) but I sort of admire the seriousness of it, they’re definitely not messing around with their funny worded vote amendment. anyway, this thing is bigger than scapegoating the Georgia politicians and I reckon the people behind actually believe in the “concept” and probably want to do something about the spongey side of the edu-bureaucracy – there is a lot of it – some much of it – federal mayhem, state mayhem, school board mayhem, and everyone of them in Georgia expects the teacher to be their flattery artist / shoe shine boy / bathroom scrubbing girl. They treat teachers like dirt. I, for one, welcome our new charter overlords. Anything as a buffer to the fed / state / local. IB provided this buffer. So they savaged IB. Where there has been strong IB, just like strong specialty high performance programs, some of the schools disrespect the programs once they’re in place and running. I’ve seen it twice. So if they want to grind everybody up, maybe they’ll have less grist for their mill. From my perspective, teachers need a choice in where to work without being held hostage by the edu-bureaucrats. And another thing…. And another thing…. Truth be told, I don’t like them a bit, the fed, the state, the local. Maybe turn-about is fair play because they treat educated professionals like yo-yo’s, like their personal property or something.
Private Citizen
November 22nd, 2012
11:26 pm
I knew this chick who was making a bee-line to get a federal education job in Washington. She was a real shark. Her sole priority was getting set-up with a federal salary and retirement and she was willing to do anything to get there, to play-act any role required.
Private Citizen
November 22nd, 2012
11:37 pm
I think there are some local school boards in Georgia who really want to keep the kids as peasants. The school board / superintendent talk all this fluff and make their dramatic announcements, but the main they do is force the status quo. They like to work people thin. It seems to give some type of satisfaction to over-work people and put them in unreasonable conditions. They seem to get some satisfaction from it, like “we have done something.” It is also possible that school boards simply can not deal with any one who is more educated than them. They don’t relate and they sure do not have any vision for their charges – the students – to be educated to the level of wide-spread university attendance. Edu-bureaucrats do not like people with real education or real knowledge. Most of them are power stricken and not real sophisticated.
So I bought the book about the Emory eye clinic fiasco. It is a fantastic read. After the “star” eye doctor messes up, and then changes the patient chart, and then lies to the patient and instructs his staff to lie to the patient, when the chips start to fall and it all comes out, guess what? The head of the Harvard opthamology school sends out a letter to fifty people and university heads saying the lying doctor is getting a bad treatment and is being treated wrong (despite that he blinded someone and then lied to cover his tracks and instructed his staff to lie.) Conclusion: Harvard has really gone down hill to a condition where ethics is just a side show not of concern.
catlady
November 23rd, 2012
9:03 am
Bootney: I agree with you (about Satan) but in addition to the kids being sold out, the taxpayers will be feeling the pain in a very big way. “Competition” or not, costs will NOT go down, and somebody has to pay the piper. Most of us do not “hide” money in tax shelters and the “give your tax money to the private school program,” and we will be the ones hurt. Yep, the 60%ers who voted in favor of the giveaway, I mean the alternative route to charter schools.
How will those who enroll their kids in charter schools feel if they find their little snowflakes sitting next to many of the same “troublemakers” (because, we have been assured, the charter schools cannot discriminate)? I am guessing they bite the bullet and flee to private schools, after getting all their family to donate “tax/scholarship money” to the private’s fund on behalf of Snowflake. And where will that leave the charters? Either closing, or filling the spots with those self-same “troublemakers.” In ten years many folks will be very very sorry they voted for this.
catlady
November 23rd, 2012
9:07 am
And as for me, my property tax for schools is about $300 per year, and will go down greatly soon due to the amendment lowering property taxes for the elderly. At the same time, my income tax will drop exponentially as well when I retire. Can hardly wait.
Pride and Joy
November 23rd, 2012
9:28 am
Catlady, I pay $5000 for property taxes on ONE of my tiny crackerbox homes in Atlanta in the APS district and $3,000 for the other in the Dekalb county district. Now you should better understand the anger we tax paying parents in my area feel. For all this money we get failing, cheating public schools. I pay $8,000 a year every year and have for the twenty years before I had kids. If all I haad to pay was $300 a year in property taxes for public schools, I wouldn’t complain but $8,000 a year PLUS all my federal and state tax dollars? It’s insane. For that much money we should have the best public schools on planet earth.
DeKalb Inside Out
November 23rd, 2012
9:34 am
D,
First of all, thank you … Thank You … THANK YOU … for hanging in there as a teacher.
You said: Teachers throughout this state have not worked full contracts in years, and as a DeKalb teacher myself, it has been since 2008-2009 since I have.
http://www.nancyjester.com/georgiaspendingperstudent.aspx
Check out the history of spending on education in Georgia. School districts have received more and more money per student every year for the last 16 years. School districts have records amounts of money to work with.
The Superintendent and the BOE encourage citizens to speak at board meetings. Sign up to be a speaker at the next meeting (How To Sign Up as a Speaker at the Board Meetings). Get up there and look Dr Atkinson in the eye and ask her why teachers are getting furloughed and RIFed while DCSD is getting records amounts of funding.
Here’s a hint
State Chartered Schools – Funding
A few million dollars sounds like a lot to fund state chartered schools, but it’s really a drop in the bucket. 67% of the state appropriates already go to education. If the number of state chartered schools doubled today, that portion of the funds would go from 0.35% to 0.7% of the state appropriations. That’s a drop in the bucket for education expenses in Georgia.
Pride and Joy
November 23rd, 2012
9:39 am
Thank you, Dr. Monica Henson for your factual, professional, point by point, logical post. Please please be a featured writer on this blog.
Your mature, intelligent, thoughtful analysis is much appreciated.
Thanks again,
P and J
mountain man
November 23rd, 2012
10:53 am
“You blasted my comment about many parents not having the time nor interest in spending time with their children. ”
No, Michele, I didn’t blast the above comment – I agree with it – what I an another blogger attacked was your addiotion of the phrase DUE TO NO FAULT OF THEIR OWN. I’m sorry, when the parent (notice singular) has “no interest in spending time with their children”, that is a SERIOUS personal fault! Don’t excuse these parents that are keeping their kids from succeeding. Their worst offense is not requiring their kids to attend school every day, on time. And if their excuse is that they can’t get their lazy butt up out of bed in time to get their kid on the bus, that is SORRY.
mountain man
November 23rd, 2012
10:57 am
“How will those who enroll their kids in charter schools feel if they find their little snowflakes sitting next to many of the same “troublemakers” (because, we have been assured, the charter schools cannot discriminate)? ”
It is my fervent hope that charter schools will take a different path from traditional schools and actually deal with the discipline problem. Yes, these problems may be in charter schools, but then the discipline problem might be jerked out of class, made to “stay after school” , or expelled, considering the degree of the offense. Not just send them back to the classroom like traditional schools.
mammap
November 23rd, 2012
11:05 am
Looking through the many comments on this blog give true meaning to the beloved phrase “low information voter”.
catlady
November 23rd, 2012
11:07 am
mm: or counseled out of the charter school and back into the regular school. Here is the charter claim I don’t understand, “We require x parental hours, we require x behavior, we require x clothing” So what if the student/parent doesn’t comply? In regular school, it is just TS. Can a charter school remove a student/parent who does not comply? If it is a public school, how can it?
Private Citizen
November 23rd, 2012
11:14 am
The top 1 percent of Americans now have greater collective net worth than the entire bottom 90 percent. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/22/opinion/kristof-a-failed-experiment.html
Dr. Monica Henson
November 23rd, 2012
11:18 am
catlady, charter schools cannot expel students except by the identical due process procedures required of any public school. So while many charters “require” parental volunteer hours, for example, they have no way of enforcing the requirement legally. If a charter school asks a student to leave due to parent actions/inactions, the school is breaking the law. If a student breaks the rules and misbehaves, the charter school must follow its published, authorizer-approved discipline code, which must adhere to Georgia law.