Archive for the ‘Charter schools’ Category

Here is a letter from former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin on behalf of Drew Charter School’s request to expand to a high school, a request opposed by APS school chief Erroll Davis.

Davis argues that a new 600-student high school at Drew dilutes the system’s effort to reinvent the nearby Maynard Jackson High school — $40 million has been budgeted for the transformation — and exacerbates Atlanta’s already costly problem of too many empty high school seats.

Dear Chairman McDaniel and Members of the Board:

Some of you will remember that in 1999 I helped establish Drew Charter School and served as Chair of the Drew board of directors until I became mayor. Two of you, Emmett Johnson and Brenda Muhammad, were part of the Board that unanimously approved Drew’s charter. And five of you have voted to renew Drew’s charter at least once since that time. In the thirteen years since the Atlanta Board of Education took a chance on a dramatic new idea in public education – Drew was …

Continue reading Shirley Franklin asks APS board to overrule school chief and approve Drew high school »

The opposition of APS superintendent Erroll Davis to a new high school at Charles Drew Charter School disappoints the plan’s proponents, but does not dissuade them.

I met with the principal and the chairman of the board Thursday at the east Atlanta campus. They are in the midst of a campaign to mobilize the school’s many supporters, including corporate sponsors and former Mayor Shirley Franklin.

“It is going to be an all-out communications campaign to get everyone on board to support this great opportunity,” said Cynthia Kuhlman, chairman of the board of Drew Charter School, Inc.

Opened 12 years ago, Drew now has 880 students and goes through eighth grade. The school serves as a central component of the revitalization of the East Lake neighborhood, which was once home to Atlanta’s most notorious and dangerous public housing development, East Lake Meadows. The vision of developer Tom Cousins transformed the barb-wired high-rise complex into a mixed-income model community that …

Continue reading Proponents of new high school at Drew Charter gear up to win support »

APS school chief Erroll Davis is not recommending that APS approve the addition of a high school at the Charles R. Drew Charter school.

Drew is an APS charter school in Atlanta’s East Lake community. (It connects with the East Lake Family YMCA.)

The news has disappointed Drew parents, some of whom saw their children zoned out of Grady High School — just ranked among the state’s best high schools by US News — to the less successful Jackson High. One reason those parents did not fight the reassignment was that they were expecting the charter school to add the high school. So, this news is bound to upset them.

I asked APS for a statement from Davis, who responded: “I am not supporting Charles R. Drew Charter School’s request to amend their charter to add high school grades at this time, because there is already an over supply of empty seats in the area for 9th through 12th grade students.  From a strategic standpoint, we have committed approximately $40 million to renovating …

Continue reading APS school chief opposes addition of a high school at Drew Charter school »

NBC brought its “Education Nation” project to Atlanta today with a two-hour town hall meeting with teachers at the Georgia Aquarium.

The web-streamed event revisited the usual education topics, teacher effectiveness, career and college readiness, the global workplace, charter schools and the role of technology.

While each of the four panels had a theme, panelists often strayed, so the discussions traveled far and wide. The teachers on the panel and those in the audience were articulate and committed; they certainly put forth Georgia’s best face in education. Many were National Board Certified teachers or county Teachers of the Year.

One of the panelists was a Georgia Teacher of the Year, Jadun McCarthy, a Bibb County high school teacher. (I have quoted the outspoken and eloquent Mr. McCarthy frequently on the blog in the past; he was more constrained under this format than when simply loosed at a microphone.)

McCarthy credited Georgia with applying for and winning a waiver …

Continue reading NBC’s Education Nation: In Atlanta today with teacher town hall »

From the governor’s office:

Gov. Nathan Deal today signed into law legislation that will provide additional educational opportunities for Georgia students through state charter schools. The bill, HB 797, was signed at Cherokee Charter Academy in Canton.

“By observing high-performing charter schools throughout Georgia, it’s clear these institutions promote competition, innovation and creativity while encouraging strong parental involvement,” said Deal. “We must empower citizens with public school options and true local flexibility if we want to improve student achievement.”

HB 797 creates a state level approval mechanism for charter schools when communities request them. Under current law, charter schools approved by the state are forced to operate on approximately half of the funds of other public schools.

HB 797 sets forth a new funding mechanism for these schools and establishes a State Charter Schools Commission to conduct the review process for charter school …

Continue reading Governor signs charter school enabling bill today and endorses November amendment. »

Readers of this blog will be familiar with the tensions in Cherokee between the school system and the legislative delegation and the board redistricting legislation that resulted. You can find quite a few posts on the issues if you search Cherokee.

It will be interesting to see whether the school system’s opposition to the state charter school amendment will have any impact on voters in November.

Here is a good summation of the Cherokee situation from the AJC’s Jeffry Scott:

For 10 months a battle has raged in Cherokee County over charter schools. A bill passed by the legislature putting a charter school amendment on the ballot November has done little to clear the smoke or diffuse the heat.

It has just ignited new opposition in the county and given rise to the prospect that the debate and battle could expand across the state, say opponents of the amendment that would give Georgia the power to create charter schools without local school board approval.

Over the last year …

Continue reading Cherokee provides view of natural tensions over charter school amendment »

I was driving my twins and two of their middle school pals this weekend when I discovered that both friends have been taking German in their schools for years. It was a delight to listen to the pair converse in German.

One attends a metro Atlanta public school while the other goes to a private school in Tennessee. (He had just returned from a spring break trip to Munich.) I was impressed with their proficiency and their grasp of grammar.

That’s why a New York Times story on the decline of German classes in U.S. schools caught my eye. The steep drop in German classes was documented in study commissioned by the German Foreign Office.

The study had many recommendations on how to rekindle interest in German, including providing financial aid to minority high school students to study in Germany, adding language classes to German soccer camps, and offering internships with German companies. (I know a UGA student interning this summer in Hamburg.)

According to the Times:

Among the …

Continue reading Hey kids, do you want to learn German? Nein. »

The chair of the Cherokee County Board of Education is asking the governor to veto House Bill 978, which is one of the most surprising and invasive pieces of local legislation this session. I am uncertain why a GOP-led body would violate its less government/local control mantra to meddle in a county with a darn good school system.

This bill has already drawn fire from SACS, the accrediting agency that oversees Cherokee schools.

I doubt Cherokee will get much help from Nathan Deal, who often takes a see no evil, hear no evil posture with the Legislature, but this bill does strike at the heart of much of what the governor professes to believe about the rights of local voters to decide their representation.

HB 978 has been described as payback to the Cherokee school board for nixing a charter school application, which again surprises me as there were legitimate concerns about the project.

I think the lesson here is that politicians of any party will violate their own foundational …

Continue reading Payback to Cherokee schools by local lawmakers: Will governor provide the knock-out punch? »

Pelham City school chief Jim Arnold is one of my favorite guest posters because he doesn’t pull any punches. If you haven’t read his stuff before, I think you will enjoy his essay on this year’s damage tally to education from the Georgia Legislature.

This is a long piece, so I am pulling out the key passage here for those of you with only seconds to spare: I think this paragraph by Dr. Arnold says it all:

It’s becoming harder and harder for educators – especially teachers – to provide damage control from what amounts to friendly fire, and I believe that is part and parcel of what these initiatives are all about. Sooner or later, even legislators must see it’s not about race, it’s about poverty; it’s not about a test score, it’s about student achievement; it’s not about a standardized curriculum, it’s about good teaching; it’s not about the business model, it’s about personalization; it’s not about competition, it’s about cooperation. Until …

Continue reading The Hunger Games for Georgia schools: Less money, more mandates and micromanagement from Legislature »

The state Senate passed the controversial charter school amendment this afternoon, enabling a constitutional amendment on the question in November. The amendment passed 40-16, which represents the two-thirds majority required. The amendment already had passed the House.

One of the reasons for passage is the assurance from its author, Speaker Pro Tempore Jan Jones, R-Milton, that the state would cover the costs of a state-approved charter school if its original charter application was not approved by a local school districts.

However, skeptics argue that the language is fuzzy enough that the state will still be able to divert money from local school districts to pay for state-approved charter schools.

The bill has become one of the most promoted pieces of legislation in the General Assembly this year, in part because of the assistance of the influential for-profit charter school industry, including online providers , which is looking to expand its foothold and profits in …

Continue reading Senate passes charter school amendment. Now, voters will decide the question in November. »