Charter-school issue a drain on public education
Note: This post contains material published here earlier. It is posted here as the electronic version of my Sunday AJC column.
“The provision of an adequate public education for the citizens shall be a primary obligation of the State of Georgia. Public education for the citizens prior to the college or post-secondary level shall be free and shall be provided for by taxation.”
— Article VIII, Section I of the Georgia Constitution
As the Georgia Constitution makes clear, public education is supposed to be a primary obligation of state government. Yet in the 2009-1010 school year, legislators financed just 37.8 percent of the cost of educating Georgia students, leaving local government to cover most of the remainder.
It wasn’t always this way. In fact, 20 years ago, the state financed 51.2 percent of the cost of educating Georgia students, leaving local governments to pick up 37.8 percent. (The remainder is covered by federal dollars.) As recently as 10 years ago, the state still honored its constitutional obligation by picking up considerably more of the cost than local governments. But that changed rather quickly beginning in 2003-2004. That year — the first year in which Republicans controlled the state budgeting process — the state share of financing education fell significantly, and it has continued to fall ever since. The trend has allowed state elected leaders to portray themselves as fiscal conservatives while also chastising “free-spending” officials at the local level who have to raise school property taxes to compensate.
But here’s the galling part: As state leaders shirk the primary obligation assigned them under the constitution, they continue to take an ever-more-intrusive approach on non-financial aspects of education. The most obvious current example is the constitutional amendment that will appear on the November ballot. If approved by voters, the amendment will give state officials full legal authority to create local charter schools even over the protest of locally elected school officials, and to finance those schools with hundreds of millions of dollars in additional state money.
Noting that additional cost and the state’s existing failure to adequately fund public schools, state schools superintendent John Barge, a Republican, came out this week against the proposal. “Until all of our public school students are in school for a full 180-day school year, until essential services like student transportation and student support can return to effective levels, and until teachers regain jobs with full pay for a full school year, we should not redirect one more dollar away from Georgia’s local school districts — much less an additional $430 million in state funds, which is what it would cost to add seven new state charter schools per year over the next five years,” Barge explained.
Local school boards already are creating charter schools around the state as they deem fit, with local voters paying close attention. In Cherokee County, for example, charter-school advocates complained bitterly when the county school board blocked creation of a charter school. They targeted the school board chairman for defeat, hoping to replace her with a charter-school advocate, but they failed. Last month Cherokee voters re-elected that chairman by a large margin, in effect endorsing her cautious approach to charters.
The proposed amendment is intended to strip local officials — and local voters — of the right to make such decisions, placing that power instead in the hands of state officials who are already failing to meet their minimal constitutional obligation to education.
– Jay Bookman
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398 comments Add your comment
Common Sense isn't very Common - Bored in Pittsburgh
August 19th, 2012
7:10 pm
G Mare
were you a product of Catholic schools also LOL.
If you lived in Marietta back during the 60’s we may have gone to the same one
ragnar danneskjold
August 19th, 2012
7:14 pm
If “public education” was the same as “good education,” the argument would have merit. And if wishes were horses, leftists would ride. As is, “public education” is a drain on the resources needed to provide “good education,” a product that arises only from parent direction of the process. Parent direction is notably absent from the educrat-driven system currently fleecing the Georgia taxpayer.
josef
August 19th, 2012
7:15 pm
CHEROKEE
I much agree with you on local control, and I would go one step further and say that the “final word” be in the hands of the local site administrator. If you don’t trust him/her to make the right decisions pertinent to the needs of the client base served, what did you hire him/her for in the first place? There are way too many layers of bureaucracy with the Peter principle at work and people making decisions on what’s best who haven’t been inside a classroom in the last two decades. There’s too much “mandate” and not enough student-focused teaching. We’ve adopted an assembly line process and it flat, f”ing don’t work.
ragnar danneskjold
August 19th, 2012
7:16 pm
Grammar correction: “use” requires “were.” I knew that, although I am a product of the public schools.
josef
August 19th, 2012
7:20 pm
RAGS
“Parent direction is notably absent from the educrat-driven system currently fleecing the Georgia taxpayer.”
While you and I are usually polar opposites and my hotly disagree on how we got here and what has to be done to get out of the swamp, at least at this starting point we are agreed.
Jack
August 19th, 2012
7:34 pm
Send your kids to private schools. If you can’t afford private schools, make sure your kids receive enough parental guidance that will enable them to be accepted in theme schools.
Brosephus™
August 19th, 2012
7:37 pm
Mr_B: You got an address or website on that ,Bro? I’d sure love to join.
I wish I could get you into mine, but it wouldn’t be worth the money. My union’s about as fierce as a toothless hound dog that think he’s a pit bull.
—————————-
bman @ 5:38
Much better!!! You know we can’t be too positive about public sector workers here at Bookman’s.
On a serious note though, I have nothing but the highest respect for anybody who makes a conscious decision to become a teacher, especially in light of how they are generally treated nowadays. I tip my hat to every educator here on the blog… past, present, and future.
josef
August 19th, 2012
7:42 pm
BROSEPHUS
Take yore damn hat tip and shove it…show me the money!
Seriously, though, my ancestrally uppity Plantation Liberal thanks, Such comments do mean everything to us on the front lines.
G Mare
August 19th, 2012
7:44 pm
Yes, Common, I did go to Catholic schools – in Portland, OR. And by 1964, I had two children; as I said, it was a long time ago.
Recon 0311 2533
August 19th, 2012
7:48 pm
First step is to dump the Department of Education and next get the federal government out of it completely. Education is a state and local government issue with the state held accountable for fairness and equality. There’s indeed room for charter schools as competition drives results.
CherokeeRepublican
August 19th, 2012
7:51 pm
josef – you bring up many good points and I think there is far more that we agree on than we disagree on.
Can we agree that the proposed constitutional amendment to take decisions on charter schools away from local school boards and cede that power to “the State” is a bad idea and should be vetoed by the voters this November?
josef
August 19th, 2012
7:52 pm
D*mn…I know I’ve fallen through the looking glass. First I have to agree with Rags and now I have to agree with our in resident you know what. But point by point, I do. And I’d rather bite my tongue…but the truth is…
Common Sense isn't very Common - Bored in Pittsburgh
August 19th, 2012
7:53 pm
G Mare
Hopefully your children have as much ‘Common Sense’ as you do
josef
August 19th, 2012
7:54 pm
CHEROKEE
Agreed. 150%.
Brosephus™
August 19th, 2012
7:54 pm
josef
I couldn’t possibly count all the friends and family that I have in the field of education. I applied years ago, and I think it was divine intervention that I didn’t get hired. I don’t think I have the patience to survive here as a teacher. On a slightly different tangent, have you heard anything about West VA’s forray into the Finnish model?
barking frog
August 19th, 2012
7:59 pm
Cherokee Republican
Paranoia about competition
for public schools solves
nothing. I think the public
schools can compete and
succeed and smaller
classrooms can help student
and teacher. Directing your
tax dollar should not be
only for the few but for the
many.
Common Sense isn't very Common - Bored in Pittsburgh
August 19th, 2012
8:00 pm
Bro
Is this the one you are talking about
http://www.jurgita.com/models-id323777.html
0311/8541/5811/1811/1801
August 19th, 2012
8:00 pm
josef:
Read this last night:
17 Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace. ” 18 I also told them about the gracious hand of my God on me and what the king had said to me.
They replied, “Let us start rebuilding.” So they began this good work.
19 But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official and Geshem the Arab heard about it, they mocked and ridiculed us. “What is this you are doing?” they asked. “Are you rebelling against the king?”
20 I answered them by saying, “The God of heaven will give us success. We his servants will start rebuilding, but as for you, you have no share in Jerusalem or any claim or historic right to it.”
Nehemiah 2:17-20
josef
August 19th, 2012
8:01 pm
BROSEPHUS
I’m still trying to get some details on W Va and that…I guess I’m gonna have to go up there to find out. That one has really caught my attention. As far as you and being a teacher, I think you’d make a damned good one. I suggest you think about doing that once your civil service time is out. We need, desperately, more men, more Black men, and more people with experience in the real world there to be role models for our future. Patience? Believe me, if you can deal with this lot here, the little thugs in the making will be a piece of cake!
0311/8541/5811/1811/1801
August 19th, 2012
8:01 pm
Brosephus:
Your thoughts ?
THE BIG LIE !
“On Aug. 21, 1992, a team of U.S. marshals scouting the forest to find suitable places to ambush and arrest Weaver came across his friend, Kevin Harris, and Weaver’s 14-year-old son Samuel in the woods. A gunfight broke out. Samuel Weaver and Deputy U.S. Marshal William Degan were killed.” FALSE !
http://news.yahoo.com/20-years-ruby-ridge-theres-forgiveness-200635491.html
This is how the press deceives the public and gets a way with a big lie. I had pneumonia at the time and watched every minute of the Congressional testimony in this case.
After investigation by ATF, Weaver was indicted for selling a sawed-off shotgun. Instead of showing up in court he decided to defy the system.
None of us have that right.
He “holed up” in his cabin on his property in the mountains. After several months went by, a team of U.S. Marshals were ordered to set up surveillance
to determine his “routine” in an effort to make a peaceful arrest. One morning, one of Weaver’s dogs started barking at them and they rapidly retreated as they
had also been ordered to avoid a direct confrontation. In fact, they retreated for a couple of hundred yards “OFF” of Weaver’s property. Several times the Marshals
yelled for Weaver to stop. However, Weaver, Harris and Weaver’s young son (and the dog) kept pursuing and the firefight ensued. Weaver’s son and a U.S. Marshal were killed.
I also support the FBI’s actions. Once you have indicated you will not be taken alive and will immediately shoot at law enforcement agents all bets are off in my opinion.
Weaver caused the deaths of his son and wife through his own illegal, arrogant and irresponsible actions.
Common Sense isn't very Common - Bored in Pittsburgh
August 19th, 2012
8:02 pm
barking
and I want my defense dollars to go to my private army
0311/8541/5811/1811/1801
August 19th, 2012
8:05 pm
HEY JAY!
Here’s a great chart for you to use tomorrow !
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/08/19/niall-ferguson-on-why-barack-obama-needs-to-go.html
josef
August 19th, 2012
8:05 pm
A-ga-te-no
@ 8:00
You running dog zionist imperialist hoodlum, you!
barking frog
August 19th, 2012
8:05 pm
Common Sense
Take out some terrorists
and you may make a case
for funding.
0311/8541/5811/1811/1801
August 19th, 2012
8:07 pm
Common Sense:
“and I want my defense dollars to go to my private army”
Well ………….. that’s exactly what we have now !
“0.45%”
“I remember the day I found out I got into West Point . My mom actually showed up in the hallway of my high school and waited for me to get out of class. She was bawling her eyes out and apologizing that she had opened up my admission letter. She wasn’t crying because it had been her dream for me to go there. She was crying because she knew how hard I’d worked to get in, how much I wanted to attend, and how much I wanted to be an infantry officer. I was going to get that opportunity. That same day two of my teachers took me aside and essentially told me the following: “David, you’re a smart guy. You don’t have to join the military. You should go to college, instead.”
I could easily write a theme defending West Point and the military as I did that day, explaining that USMA is an elite institution, that separate from that it is actually statistically much harder to enlist in the military than it is to get admitted to college, that serving the nation is a challenge that all able-bodied men should at least consider for a host of reasons, but I won’t.
What I will say is that when a 16 year-old kid is being told that attending West Point is going to be bad for his future then there is a dangerous disconnect in America, and entirely too many Americans have no idea what kind of burdens our military is bearing.
In World War II, 11.2% of the nation served in four (4) years. During the Vietnam era, 4.3% served in twelve (12) years. Since 2001, only 0.45% of our population has served in the Global War on Terror. These are unbelievable statistics. Over time, fewer and fewer people have shouldered more and more of the burden and it is only getting worse. Our troops were sent to war in Iraq by a Congress consisting of 10% veterans with only one person having a child in the military. Taxes did not increase to pay for the war. War bonds were not sold. Gas was not regulated. In fact, the average citizen was asked to sacrifice nothing, and has sacrificed nothing unless they have chosen to out of the goodness of their hearts. The only people who have sacrificed are the veterans and their families. The volunteers. The people who swore an oath to defend this nation.
You stand there, deployment after deployment and fight on. You’ve lost relationships, spent years of your lives in extreme conditions, years apart from kids you’ll never get back, and beaten your body in a way that even professional athletes don’t understand. Then you come home to a nation that doesn’t understand. They don’t understand suffering. They don’t understand sacrifice. They don’t understand why we fight for them. They don’t understand that bad people exist. They look at you like you’re a machine – like something is wrong with you. You are the misguided one – not them.
When you get out, you sit in the college classrooms with political science teachers that discount your opinions on Iraq and Afghanistan because YOU WERE THERE and can’t understand the macro issues they gathered from books, because of your bias. You watch TV shows where every vet has PTSD and the violent strain at that. Your Congress is debating your benefits, your retirement, and your pay, while they ask you to do more. But the amazing thing about you is that you all know this. You know your country will never pay back what you’ve given up. You know that the populace at large will never truly understand or appreciate what you have done for them. Hell, you know that in some circles, you will be thought as less than normal for having worn the uniform. But you do it anyway. You do what the greatest men and women of this country have done since 1775. YOU SERVED. Just that decision alone makes you part of an elite group. “Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few.” Winston Churchill
Thank you to the 11.2% and 4.3% who have served and thanks to the 0.45% who continue to serve our Nation.”
General David Petraeus West Point Class 1974
getalife
August 19th, 2012
8:08 pm
Yes, honor the teachers for all the crap they put up with.
I would like to take a moment to thank the man that saved our country.
Thank you President Obama.
Recon 0311 2533
August 19th, 2012
8:09 pm
All public schools are not created nor administered to equally and education nationally has left our children paying the price. The best solution is to get social issues be it schools, welfare or whatever down to the lowest common denominator, local government, churches and other local civic groups. The federal government should concentrate on our national security and be gone from everything else.
barking frog
August 19th, 2012
8:09 pm
Common Sense
Companies hire private
police and deduct the cost
from income taxes but the
public police are not
protesting that.
CherokeeRepublican
August 19th, 2012
8:11 pm
barking frog – you have slipped way off the track. I am not in the education business and have no paranoia whatsoever about competition with the public schools. In fact, I am a senior manager in the private sector in an extremely competitive business and I welcome and encourage competition both in my business and in education.
But when tax dollars are involved you, or I, do not have the option to “direct” the funds any which way we choose. We elect public officials to make those decisions. If your priority is to put your kids in private school, then you need to pay for that – above and beyond your taxes to support public schools that everyone else has to pay whether they have kids in school, or not.
josef
August 19th, 2012
8:13 pm
A-ge-ta-no
@ 8:07
Excellent read. And you posting from Petraeus? Now THAT’S progress!
TaxPayer
August 19th, 2012
8:13 pm
On a side note, I just found out that the Republicans have two braintrusts that they rely on for all things science related – James Inhofe and Todd Akin. Move over Inhofe. You ain’t got nuthin’ on Todd with your puny little globally warmed igloo. According to Todd, women folk can turn off their their baby making machine at will in order to pertect themselves from the rapist.
Recon 0311 2533
August 19th, 2012
8:15 pm
0311, 8541,
Bring back the draft. The volunteers should fill the ranks of infantry and special operations. The others can serve the rest in support services.
CherokeeRepublican
August 19th, 2012
8:18 pm
barking frog – I would have no problem with your private school tuition being tax deductible – in fact it may already be (please see your tax adviser). But I am certain that the “public police”, and indeed the public in general, would be very incensed if You took half the public police budget paid by taxes and handed it off to private companies to do whatever they want to do with it with no public accountability.
josef
August 19th, 2012
8:18 pm
I’m for two years of national service for everybody. It doesn’t have to be military, but service to their country.
Brosephus™
August 19th, 2012
8:19 pm
NoCom
YESSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
————————–
josef
I’ve said that would be my next thing. If I can get to a specialized team and get a regular-type schedule, I may put my name in the hat to be a sub from time to time. Back when I applied, I got caught in a catch-22. I didn’t have certification. The professional to teaching programs wouldn’t let me enroll until I got a job offer. The schools I interviewed with wouldn’t offer a job until I got accepted into a certification program. I figured that was a sign that it wasn’t my time to go into the classroom.
————————–
Scout
I also support the FBI’s actions. Once you have indicated you will not be taken alive and will immediately shoot at law enforcement agents all bets are off in my opinion.
I couldn’t have said it better. That situation is like confronting someone with a blade. People always wonder why cops shoot assailants who are armed with a knife, but many fail to realize how dangerous a knife can be.
The most serious impression I received at the academy was during our defensive tactics class while discussing knives. The trainers showed us this photo here:
***Warning: Graphic image***
http://cuttex.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/slash-injury-on-back1.jpg
My understanding is that the officer there was armed and tried to apprehend the subject who was armed with a knife. That drove home the point that any threatening gesture made towards an armed officer has to be perceived as a serious threat.
barking frog
August 19th, 2012
8:20 pm
Cherokee Republican
Elected officials have never
had and should never have
the ability to have total
control to direct taxes where
they see fit. Citizen input is
a constant thing and more
input can be a good thing.
As always the ballot box
will be the final arbiter.
getalife
August 19th, 2012
8:21 pm
There is no trust in government so they will be no draft.
The Japanese can bribe them to go to war with China.
saywhat?
August 19th, 2012
8:22 pm
Kyle Winfield is FOR the amendment, and like George Costanza, you can pretty much rely on him being wrong every time. Just that fact tells me which way I should vote, even if I didn’t already know enough about this issue. Thank you, Kyle!
josef
August 19th, 2012
8:24 pm
BROSEPHUS
Your “Catch-22″ is precisely what’s wrong with the schools today…the piece of paper over the actual qualifications. If we don’t get back to the old school belief that teaching is a gift/calling and not a “profession” that can be “taught” in a classroom, we are doomed to a slow slide into a new Dark Ages…Gibbon, anyone?
0311/8541/5811/1811/1801
August 19th, 2012
8:24 pm
Brosephus:
Exactly !
0311/8541/5811/1811/1801
August 19th, 2012
8:25 pm
Recon 0311 2533 :
Only if women are drafted also and right now the Supreme Court has said they can’t be.
barking frog
August 19th, 2012
8:25 pm
Cherokee Republican
You seem to be assuming
that there will no accountability. The funds
distribution will be law and
can require whatever
accounting necessary.
Recon 0311 2533
August 19th, 2012
8:27 pm
If you do not know enough about an issue, decide along the lines of those who will tell you what to decide. Modern day liberalism.
josef
August 19th, 2012
8:28 pm
Women should be equally obligated to the same two-year service to the country.
CherokeeRepublican
August 19th, 2012
8:29 pm
barking frog – finally we agree on something
: “Citizen input is a constant thing and more input can be a good thing. As always the ballot box will be the final arbiter.” This is the point I have been attempting to make all along.
Can we agree that the proposed constitutional amendment to take decisions on charter schools away from local school boards and cede that power to “the State” is a bad idea and should be vetoed by the voters this November?
josef
August 19th, 2012
8:29 pm
FROG
Oh, ye of too much faith!
josef
August 19th, 2012
8:31 pm
CHEROKEE
It appears that the “bad idea” is cutting across all lines…for different reasons, perhaps, but generally being conceded to be a bad idea…
barking frog
August 19th, 2012
8:31 pm
josef
I think the six year obligation
still exists but the government does not need
the people.
Mr. Snarky
August 19th, 2012
8:32 pm
“Woodstock Mike” is proof that our schools are failing. What an ignoramus.
Recon 0311 2533
August 19th, 2012
8:32 pm
Woman should be subjected to a draft as well should the draft be reinstated. Woman should be excluded from infantry or special operations combat for reasons to numerous to describe.
Goody Three Shoes
August 19th, 2012
8:32 pm
“If you do not know enough about an issue, decide along the lines of those who will tell you what to decide. ”
Like Limbaugh, Hanitty, Boortz and the like?
barking frog
August 19th, 2012
8:36 pm
Cherokee Republican
Like the state police working
alongside local police, I have
no problem with the state
directing revenue to county
schools of their choice.
josef
August 19th, 2012
8:39 pm
William Pierce
You’re as full of sh*t as a Christmas turkey and don’t have the vaguest notion of what you’re yammering about. When was the last time you set foot in an APS school?
Recon 0311 2533
August 19th, 2012
8:40 pm
I really have to laugh every time I here Limbaugh, Hannity and Boortz. I have nothing against those guys but me along with most conservatives just don’t take the time for listening to what they say.
josef
August 19th, 2012
8:42 pm
FROG
Given my profession, I’m still “eligible” to be called into service in the case of certain national emergencies…
Recon 0311 2533
August 19th, 2012
8:43 pm
Y’all have a good evening and a great week ahead. recon out.
barking frog
August 19th, 2012
8:43 pm
Recon
Rush and company are
dependent on liberals
for listeners?
G Mare
August 19th, 2012
8:45 pm
Common, re my children: they are all productive, tax paying
members of society & have provided me with seven grandchildren.
barking frog
August 19th, 2012
8:46 pm
josef
i think everyone is within
certain physical and age
limits.
0311/8541/5811/1811/1801
August 19th, 2012
8:47 pm
“Either you side with ‘Chick-fil-A’or you don’t; but, one thing is certain. If you want to continue eating chicken you need a hen and a rooster.”
Goody Three Shoes
August 19th, 2012
8:47 pm
Some of the same conservatives who will say that they are not swayed by the media are also some of the same people who will tell you about the rating of Fox and how right wing radio crushes left wing radio.
And that is funny.
josef
August 19th, 2012
8:47 pm
FROG
The age limit for most is 45, for linguists (among others) it goes up to 65.
0311/8541/5811/1811/1801
August 19th, 2012
8:47 pm
josef:
Did you see my 8:00pm ?
0311/8541/5811/1811/1801
August 19th, 2012
8:49 pm
Sorry guys but the Supreme Court has ruled that women don’t even have to “register” for selective service let alone be drafted.
They ruled on that not long after they ruled that the “state” could control a man’s body for two years (and send him to be killed) but couldn’t control a women’s body for nine months (to save a baby from being killed).
Just sayin’.
josef
August 19th, 2012
8:49 pm
A-ga-te-no
A cartoon on my wall. There’s a chicken and an egg in bed. The chicken (a rooster) is smoking a cigarette with a satisfied look. The egg has a scowl and says, “well, I guess that answers that question.”
josef
August 19th, 2012
8:50 pm
A-ga-te-no
Yes, I answered.
barking frog
August 19th, 2012
8:53 pm
0311
I knew it was “able bodied
male citizens” but i thought
it was changed but that
would require a constitutional amendment
I guess.
0311/8541/5811/1811/1801
August 19th, 2012
8:55 pm
barking frog:
Either a new ruling or an Amendment I guess.
0311/8541/5811/1811/1801
August 19th, 2012
8:56 pm
josef:
“A-ga-te-no
Yes,I answered.”
It would be easier if you would reply to 0311.
0311/8541/5811/1811/1801
August 19th, 2012
8:57 pm
Brosephus:
Are you familiar with the 1986 FBI shootout in Miami?
Mama Says
August 19th, 2012
9:00 pm
Some pretty narrow minded arguments here by some of you libs.
The bottom line is that school is for education. Until Georgia can finish in the top half of the states in educating it’s children parents will seek to move them into a system that does educate. Charter, private, Christian whatever.
Seems that libs could look at this issue and at least admit that education in this state is very poor quality. It is not republicans who insist on pouring more and more money into a failing system.
Why does my child have to suffer when everyone knows our educational system has consistently failed ?
My child attended a failing school for 2 years. When we were notified ( yeah, notified) that he could go to better schools within the system they were on the other side of the county. Transportation is not provided to the other schools and we have one car. The net effect was that we were told the school was not sufficient but then basically told it was our problem. The solution ? Took him out and put him in a cheap private school. Same standards dramatic improvement in grades.
This is a no brainier people. Make educational standards high and there is no need for charter schools. Make me pay taxes to watch my chil fail simply is not an acceptable option.
Johnny B Good
August 19th, 2012
9:02 pm
Go read http://bettergaschools.org and listen to actual parents!
As everyone SHOULD know by now, no LOCAL tax money flows to state special charter schools. The additional dollars in the HB 797 funding formula are intended to partially offset the loss of local dollars when a charter application is denied by a school board. The funding formula results in an average $6,900/student amount for state special charters, while the state-local average for traditional schools is $9,700. Because you appear to have some difficulty with you math, that is a $2,800 difference between average local funding and the set funding for a state authorized charter school.
If the charter is successful, that is a savings to the state. If the charter is not successful, the charter is closed. (accountability is the part you and your status quo friends hate to talk about)
Now let’s look at APS as an example. You remember APS, the nation’s largest cheating scandal? A state charter school would receive about $6,400 for a regular education high school student. At Atlanta Public Schools, the system would spend $15,000 on that same exact student.
But I now what you will want to point out, if the people of Atlanta are so dissatisfied with their local board, then they need to vote them out of office. And in the meantime, you will continue to shackle the next generation of children of failing schools and districts to their economic disenfranchisement.
VOTE YES on November 6th. It is a vote for children and families or all color and economic backgrounds!
josef
August 19th, 2012
9:04 pm
A-ga-te-no
“It would be easier if you would reply to 0311.”
I can’t. See, every time I get sent to the lower 40 by Big Daddy for having the chutzpah to respond in kind to certain posters and told not to call them names, they have to get a Tsa-la-gi name (i.e. the Du-k-sha-nee). The other night you (and a couple of others) were called by the name you use and I was sent into lower 40 moderation. I figured your name for yourself was not acceptable, so you got this one…
0311/8541/5811/1811/1801
August 19th, 2012
9:07 pm
josef:
Well then stand up and be a “man” for once.
0311/8541/5811/1811/1801
August 19th, 2012
9:09 pm
Headline: “Georgia’s high school graduation rate takes a big dip”
http://www.wsbradio.com/news/news/georgias-high-school-graduation-rate-takes-big-dip/nRFZj/
JamVet
August 19th, 2012
9:10 pm
Willie Pierce, I get it.
You don’t wanna pay anything to live in this country. It is a common refrain amongs your faux conservative cousins.
One little problem you are not filthy rich.
Just another low-life bigot…
You libs
August 19th, 2012
9:12 pm
The thing is mama, there are a heck of a lot of well-educated, logical, reasonable people who don’t think that you can have a baby without getting pregnant, who think that there are no chosen people, and who think that society ought to be all-inclusive. They also think that the scientific method is one of the most dependable approaches to what is the truth and trust scientists over petroleum spokespersons every day of the week.
The people who won’t accept those realities are the ones who want to run off and have their own educational system and abandon their social obligation to participate in the education of All members of society in a way that is consistent with demonstrable truth.
josef
August 19th, 2012
9:12 pm
A-ga-te-no
I am. It’s a lot more fun this way! And what the hell do you mean, for once. I stand up to you all the time, don’t I? As for Big Daddy…the lower 40 is sufficient, no need to go for exile from the Liberal Plantation…
0311/8541/5811/1811/1801
August 19th, 2012
9:14 pm
Paradoxical Quote From Ben Stein:
“Fathom the hypocrisy of a government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured… but not everyone must prove they are a citizen.”
Now add this:
“Many of those who refuse, or are unable, to prove they are citizens will receive free insurance paid for by those who are forced to buy insurance because they are citizens.”
0311/8541/5811/1811/1801
August 19th, 2012
9:16 pm
josef:
Well, if you can’t be man enough to use my chosen handle then I dub you: “josephine” !
Brosephus™
August 19th, 2012
9:17 pm
Are you familiar with the 1986 FBI shootout in Miami?
Vaguely. Isn’t that one of the incidents that led them away from carrying revolvers and going to semi-automatics?
josef
August 19th, 2012
9:18 pm
A-ga-te-no
Well, do you know what the name means in Tsa-la-gi? Don’t get your skivvies in a wad just yet!
0311/8541/5811/1811/1801
August 19th, 2012
9:18 pm
“The main problem liberals have is that they could not exist without conservatives to defend their freedom and support them economically.”
Mama Says
August 19th, 2012
9:19 pm
Societal obligation ?
Come on. How can you use that argument ?
Every school is and has been supported by the taxpayer.
Your obligation theron has big holes in it.
Tell me if I have to send my child to a failing school where is your obligation to prevent my child from failing ?
You are basically arguing that no matter what- I must grin and bear it. You are saying that my obligation to others should be more than to my own child.
Where are the obligations of the non tax paying citizens of my county ? Those who live in rental houses or apartments ? When does their obligation to society demand that they recognize they are only contributing to the over crowding but contributing no money ?
Tell me when is ok by society standards to prevent my child from failing ?
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
August 19th, 2012
9:19 pm
“Call me Ishmael.”
– Thomas Jefferson
G Mare
August 19th, 2012
9:21 pm
Go get him, Josef!
josef
August 19th, 2012
9:21 pm
A-ga-te-no
Just call me A-se-gi a-ha-la-da!
0311/8541/5811/1811/1801
August 19th, 2012
9:24 pm
Brosephus:
Probably. Anyway, I had the privilege of meeting three of the indidviduals involved on two different occasions at a seminar. In brief, their biggest regret is that knowing what these perps. had done already, and seeing them loading up the mini-14 as they drove by that instead of ordering a tactically foolish “felony stop” that they didn’t just pull up and start blasting them with their shotgun.
As usual, too many of our “rules” favor the bad guys.
josef
August 19th, 2012
9:25 pm
K’CHAK
Have you read Daniel Quinn’s “Ishmael?” If not, do…
Brosephus™
August 19th, 2012
9:25 pm
Scout
Just went back and googled that one. It’s not the one I thought it was. That incident reads like the flying fecal matter hitting the oscillating wind generating machine. Wow…
0311/8541/5811/1811/1801
August 19th, 2012
9:25 pm
josephine:
Nope ………. you chose mine. I chose yours.
Brosephus™
August 19th, 2012
9:26 pm
Scout
I can tell you that some of those rules are changing. Not fast enough for me, but they are changing.
0311/8541/5811/1811/1801
August 19th, 2012
9:27 pm
Brosephus:
Yep. Everything that could go wrong ……… went wrong.
There’s a made for T.V. movie about it.
Brosephus™
August 19th, 2012
9:29 pm
I’m gonna have to look for that one. Reading it makes it sound like one of those game changing incidents like the North Hollywood shootout.
josef
August 19th, 2012
9:32 pm
A-ga-te-no
Yeah, but yours is not an insult! I guess I may have to go find you one that is, hunh?
Brosephus™
August 19th, 2012
9:33 pm
Y’all have fun. Time to call it quits. This rainfall is making me quite sleepy.
0311/8541/5811/1811/1801
August 19th, 2012
9:34 pm
josephine:
Just better to politely use the handle I have chosen. That’s the way it is supposed to work unless you want to be different.
0311/8541/5811/1811/1801
August 19th, 2012
9:34 pm
“Remington Model 700 – Over 5,000,000 sold. The world’s largest army ain’t in China.” Remington Arms, Inc.
Goody Three Shoes
August 19th, 2012
9:35 pm
U.S. Rep. Todd Akin, who won Missouri’s GOP Senate primary earlier this month and will face incumbent Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill in November’s general election, said Sunday that he misspoke when he claimed “legitimate rape” rarely resulted in pregnancy.
Answering a question about whether or not he thought abortion should be legal in the case of rape, Akin explained his opposition by citing unnamed bodily responses he said prevented pregnancy.
– Follow the Ticker on Twitter: @PoliticalTicker
“First of all, from what I understand from doctors, that’s really rare,” Akin said of rape-induced pregnancy in an interview with KTVI. A clip of the interview was posted online by the liberal super PAC American Bridge.
“If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down,” Akin continued. He did not provide an explanation for what constituted “legitimate rape.”
0311/8541/5811/1811/1801
August 19th, 2012
9:35 pm
………………. or we can just not exchange posts again.
Your call.