State-created charters sidestep public schools
Will state-created charter schools offer poor and minority students a way out of troubled neighborhood schools, as claimed by advocates of a proposed constitutional amendment that will appear on the November ballot?
Or is there a danger that such schools — created over the protest of local officials — will become de facto private schools, drawing a disproportionate share of their student body from wealthier, more influential families, leaving others on the outside looking in?
As it turns out, the state Department of Education maintains a demographic database of every public school in the state, including state-sanctioned charter schools. (The most recent year in which such data is available is the 2010-11 school year). And the data tell us a lot.
Let’s look at Pataula Charter Academy, which serves students in kindergarten through grade six in a five-county area in southwest Georgia. That’s a poor region — in Early County, 76 percent of students are eligible for a free or reduced lunch. In Randolph County, it’s 90 percent; in Calhoun, 92 percent; in Baker, 83 percent and in Clay County, it’s 92 percent.
The public school systems in those counties are also overwhelmingly black. In Calhoun County, where Pataula Charter is located, just 2 percent of the student body in the local school system is white. In Clay County, it’s a mere 1 percent.
Yet in Pataula Charter, 75 percent of the student body is white. Moreover, the percentage of the Pataula student body eligible for free or reduced lunches (54 percent) is well below the regional average. The state classifies Pataula and its other state-created charter schools as “special” schools, and in Pataula’s case at least, that seems accurate for unintentional reasons.
In other state-created charter schools, the demographic discrepancy between their student body and that of the area they serve is less startling but still significant. At the Charter Conservatory for Arts and Technology in Statesboro, just 9 percent of the student body is black, compared to 36 percent in the surrounding county. The percentage of CCAT students eligible for free or reduced meals is significantly lower as well.
Even the exceptions are interesting. Ivy Prep in Gwinnett County boasts a student body that is considerably more African American than other public schools in Gwinnett. However, the percentage of Ivy Prep students eligible for free or reduced meals is barely half the percentage of the Gwinnett district as a whole.
Given that parental income is a strong indicator of student performance, it’s no surprise that such schools sometimes outperform other public schools.
In the interest of fairness, such statistics reflect challenges with charter schools in general, not just those created by the state. In many places, particularly in rural Georgia, charters attract students who would otherwise attend private schools. Because charters can require parents to volunteer as a condition of attendance, they draw families in which parental involvement — and the workplace and transportation flexibility needed to be parentally involved — are a given.
You then create a system in which committed parents and prepared students gravitate toward charters, stripping other schools of the raw materials from which successful schools are made. That dynamic is an important reason to leave the authority to create charters with local officials who know their own communities, rather than with political appointees in Atlanta.
– Jay Bookman
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356 comments Add your comment
Redneck Convert (R--and proud of it)
October 1st, 2012
11:42 am
Well, I don’t know about you, but telling that guy to read a book is kinda mean. Don’t you think so? I mean, you got so many other things to do with your mind and all.
Doggone/GA
October 1st, 2012
11:43 am
““Two choices here:”
You left out the third and best choice: raise the standards of education in ALL schools, so ALL students have the best chance to get a good education. If the state is going to get involved in schooling at any level (and they are) MY preference is for them to allocate money to schools on a per student basis. Allowing for local funding, ALL schools should be getting the same amount of money PER STUDENT. There should not ever be schools that can’t afford the things that other schools, in more affluent areas, CAN afford.
Brosephus™
October 1st, 2012
11:45 am
Paul
I doubt you’re going to get serious answers on that.
0311/8541/5811/1811/1801
October 1st, 2012
11:46 am
Doggone/GA:
You are forgetting an important point.
Those who would be tasked to accomplish your third choice are incompetent and incapable of doing so.
Mountain Man
October 1st, 2012
11:49 am
“No. The vote in November is to divert money from elected to UNelected officials. ”
If I remember correctly, the people approving these charter are APPOINTED by the Governor – who we ELECTED. Are you saying we should do away with all APPOINTED positions and ELECT every position?
Tom(Independent Viet Vet-USAF)
October 1st, 2012
11:50 am
Jose – That is the #1 reason, but locals try to find other excuses to justify their positions. I find it somewhat ironic that the same people on this blog who are concerned about where their tax-paying money in education goes, also wants everyone to pay their tax money to fund every free social program the federal govt can think up?
Daphne
October 1st, 2012
11:50 am
Aquagirl, I agree, I always thought you should only pay local school board educational taxes if you had children. I paid taxes for 15 years before I had children. . . But if a certain percentage is supposedly designated for EACH CHILD why shouldn’t it go to that child?
Marty Huggins'
October 1st, 2012
11:52 am
Doggone/GA
October 1st, 2012
11:36 am
Again I a. Fine with testing.
I have problems and issues with Standardized Testing.
Nothing untruthful.
Do you understand the differences between a test and standardized testing?
As to a way to judge the students….
I feel that falls as a responsibility of the teacher and the school. It should also be shown thru an advancement of the skills from the start of a school year or from the end of the previous year.
And yes a baseline would need to be taken. However that does not need to be in the form of a standardized test. Could be an essay for older students for example.
I would argue that for such a strict enforcer of all things literal I would have expected to you know the difference between an assessment and a test.
A test is one singular event. Thus one can be against using test as the measurement and not be against test as used as a part of a much deeper assessment.
Currently we test, we do not assess.
Mountain Man
October 1st, 2012
11:54 am
“How many of you who’ve done the posts about failing schools, moving kids from grade to grade, nonaccountable teachers, kids who graduate with no skills or knowledge, etc etc etc Oppose mandatory competency testing in math, reading and other subjects for all kids in public schools?”
I have blogged numerous times about public schools failing to address even the most basic problems (discipline, attendance, social promotion). I am 100% behind mandatory competency testing. If a student fails the end of the year test, then he/she should attend summer school before having a chance to progress. If he/she fails summer school, he/she is retained (as many times as necessary). The GHSGT shold be reinstated and NO variances should be given – if you fail the test, you DO NOT get a diploma. Period.
Paul
October 1st, 2012
11:56 am
Mountain Man
Thanks.
Given many Republican candidates’ position on eliminating the Dept of Education, which issues rules for No Child Left Behind, competency testing, it struck me as a notable contradiction.
MyChoice
October 1st, 2012
11:58 am
My daughter attends one of the schools mentioned, and she gets free. Before this school opened I didn’t have much of a choice of where to send her. I can not afford private school, and the next school district was charging out of county students $500. per child, because we don’t pay school tax in that county. I don’t mind paying something, but the charge of 500 per child adds up if you have 2 or 3 kids. I would have gladly paid the cost of my school tax. Then the school doesn’t even provide bus transportation. I am thankful that the charter open, and my family, freinds and I will be voting YES
Tom(Independent Viet Vet-USAF)
October 1st, 2012
12:02 pm
The last thing I’ll say on this issue is two-fold (1) Parental Choice and (2) the money should follow the child(got that from earlier poster). In some areas, even when children give their best, they will never excel at academics. The teachers and schools are not the parents of these troubled kids, it must start at home and for some it will never happen. No matter how much money is fueled in to these public schools.
Marty Huggins'
October 1st, 2012
12:02 pm
Doggone/GA
October 1st, 2012
11:43 am
Does the afford thing extend to football stadiums, gymnasiums, baseball and soccer fields?
Beverly Fraud
October 1st, 2012
12:05 pm
Let’s state the obvious:
There are a LOT of privateers looking to get their hands on gummit money with this charter school bill.
On the other hand there are a LOT of PUBLICteers who could make Somali pirates proud with what they have wrought on the public schools.
ALEC and the Koch brothers vs. Beverly Hall, Crawford Lewis, the APS school board and the DCSS school board.
It’s like (not to put too coarse a point on it) last call at the bar at 3:00 am, and choosing between the girl who most likely is a transvestite and the girl who know isn’t a transvestite because no self respecting transvestite would allow himself to look SO unfeminine.
Better to go home alone…no wonder so many parents are HOME schooling.
VOTE YES
October 1st, 2012
12:19 pm
I have dealt with the local public school with my son, and my prayers were answered when the chrter school opened. If I had no other choice my daughter would have had to attend the local school (with an out of county fee). Maybe all public schools aren’t failing, but ours is. If you live in area with a great school, good, but what about us that don’t. why should we settle, when the charter school is a better option. My child is doing so much better in the chrter school. She may not have all the extra classes that are offered in public school, right now, but everything comes in tie. Our local school board didn’t approve the charter school, becuse it took the out of county students and their out of county fee away from them. They didn’t care about the kids, it came down to them losing that money. Is that fair? My child, My choice where they go. MY CHOICE IS MY CHARTER SCHOOL!! VOTE YES nov 6th, you got alot of kids counting on you. If you vote NO, you could be tearing a family apart, because We Are A Family At The Charter School…
Daphne
October 1st, 2012
12:27 pm
I will be voting Yes for the Charter Schools on November 6th! It is either pay the $500 out of county charges to send my children to a public school that is providing a better education or move. Or wait and see if Nathan Deal will remove ALL boards members like he did in Miller County and replaced them. Remember the School Boards AND the APPOINTED Superintendent makes ALL decisions in a TRADITIONAL public school. People look around us here in Southwest Georgia, test scores are at the bottom of the scores in Georgia, which by the way is ranked 47th in the nation!
Keith
October 1st, 2012
12:36 pm
So those “poor” counties have a few good schools thanks to the charter schools’ existence. We need a way to work around the amazingly incompetent school board in Bibb County and this amendment will help that happen.
DeKalb Dad
October 1st, 2012
12:36 pm
“You then create a system in which committed parents and prepared students gravitate toward charters, stripping other schools of the raw materials from which successful schools are made. ”
The traditional public school system already creates incentives for involved parents to choose neighborhoods with high performing schools. Those that can’t afford those neighborhoods probably can’t afford private or home schooling and ARE left behind now. At least with charter schools, all students have a chance to enroll in schools they prefer, chosen by lottery rather than zip code.
Your last comment implicitly states what you find most important. “How can traditional public schools succeed if we allow the students most likely to succeed, regardless of income, a choice?” Where is the outrage about traditional public schools that serve 50%? It doesn’t exist, because as long as all students without means are trapped in educational bureaucracies your goal is met.
yuzeyurbrane
October 1st, 2012
12:42 pm
Jay, it is worse than “de facto private schools”. Its is de facto private schools that are paid for by the taxes paid by all of us. Next step is vouchers, just outright spend the taxpayer money on de jure private schools. If that is what proponents want they ought to stop disingenuous slogan of running on “choice”, claiming to be for public schools, lifting poor black kids out of failing public schools, and using misleading ballot wording and just say what they are really for. Then let people vote on it.
Sean
October 1st, 2012
12:43 pm
If you were in South GA and in this school district… and you want your kid to be the best he could be. I am sure you would NOT want to send him to a school full of kids having free lunch. Every parent knows kids with free lunch usually = bad school environment. So having the charter school lets you send your kid to a school where at least at a basic level the students and parents want their kids to learn. Why would anyone be against this?
Mary Elizabeth
October 1st, 2012
12:56 pm
Curious: “This is a backdoor approach to get government to pay for private schools.
When this happens in my county, I will refuse to pay.”
=========================================
I may join you, Curious.
VotingNo - mom
October 1st, 2012
1:15 pm
thanks for the article Jay. One little correction is that Pataula Charter is K-8th grade. I live in one of the 5 counties PCA serves and since it’s opening, our local private schools have lost so many children to them, that some are struggling to keep the doors open. I pay to send my kids to private school, but what about the kids that don’t have that luxury or don’t make the “cut” in the charters lottery system…..should we just leave them to perish in the public schools? No! I say we fix the problem. Just my two cents.
Joseph
October 1st, 2012
1:19 pm
Regnad Kcin:
Agree. This amendment ain’t it.
Neither is the status quo…..
Julio
October 1st, 2012
1:21 pm
VotingNo – mom:
You just suck it up and continue to pay taxes to fund failing public schools in the area. At least thats what Bookman wants….
Mountain Man
October 1st, 2012
1:38 pm
“Curious: “This is a backdoor approach to get government to pay for private schools.
When this happens in my county, I will refuse to pay.”
=========================================
I may join you, Curious.”
Go ahead. They will just put a tax lien on your house. Just like they would do if I refused to pay property taxes to support failing public schools even though my kids go to a charter school.
Joe Hussein Mama
October 1st, 2012
1:38 pm
Daphne — “But if a certain percentage is supposedly designated for EACH CHILD why shouldn’t it go to that child?”
Because the money’s not designated FOR THE CHILD.
Money’s designated for schools based on headcount. There’s no account in little Johnny’s name or Jenny’s name.
TonyaS
October 1st, 2012
1:55 pm
I am a teacher at PCA. I can attest that our school DOES want what is best for all students. We do not choose the students that come to us. We are open for anyone to attend. We believe in choice for students and parents so they can have a better education option. I have seen the difference the environment makes without the overwhelming pressures of outside interference. At pca all kids are learning not only educational value but life lessons and meaningful learning. They learn how to embrace everyone aside from ANY differences. For us it is NOT about which school is better. It IS about providing a new perspective and option for ANY child that may fall through the cracks and public school doesnt happen to work for them. ASK the KIDS. You will not here anything about race in their comments towards the school and their experience. It will be about education and the community felt in our school.
PCA Supporter
October 1st, 2012
1:59 pm
In the area where the Pataula charter is located maybe some of you would like to look at test scores compared to the other schools. Also our percentage is 70% that qualifies for free lunch. I personally cannot afford private school fees but I want a good education for my children. If this bill doesn’t pass my family and I will have to move. Also charter schools do not get local funding we get the same per student that the public schools get and have to make up the rest through fundraisers. So the charter school does not cost the taxpyers anymore than it does now.
JKL2
October 1st, 2012
2:02 pm
joe mama- You either take it like it comes or you make your own way and pay your own costs
obama says,”What?”
You just defeated the whole Democrat welfare-state program. It’s the government’s job to pick winners and losers because those evil charities might attach strings and actually expect you to change your bad behavior.
It’s much better to get $.30 from the government than $.97 from the United Way…
PCA Supporter
October 1st, 2012
2:04 pm
Also the local board where we live had so many problems it almost made it to where 12 years oe education didn’t matter for some, the state had the board on probation.
TonyaS
October 1st, 2012
2:09 pm
Also in response to kids with bad behavior being an issue. There are PLENTY of kids who do NOT get free lunch who show bad behavior. Thats not the issue. Thats bad rep and its sad. At PCA bad behavior is dealt with but in a way that the students WANT to change their behavior.
Joe Hussein Mama
October 1st, 2012
2:09 pm
JKL — “You just defeated the whole Democrat welfare-state program.”
Logic FAIL.
As I clearly pointed out, you take (for example) WIC and SNAP in the forms in which they come, or you don’t take them at all. Pointing out how public welfare programs work is hardly an argument against public welfare programs.
I swear, your attention span must be measured in milliseconds, because you seem to forget the first part of a sentence before you ever get to the period at the end ot it.
“It’s the government’s job to pick winners and losers because those evil charities might attach strings and actually expect you to change your bad behavior.”
HERP DE DERP
Dude, you need to become coherent.
“It’s much better to get $.30 from the government than $.97 from the United Way…”
Daphne
October 1st, 2012
2:40 pm
@ J H Mama – Good point . . . Maybe it should be designated for each child.
fedup
October 1st, 2012
2:43 pm
Mr. Bookman you believe PCA was established for wealthier Caucasian people
Who want their kids in a private school atmosphere without having to pay for it, but
Let the state fund it, the problem with this is they were paying for it before so they wouldn’t they continue to pay for it if they believe their kids were getting adequate education. And if parents cared about paying for their kids’ education why some many kids in college parents pay for that, they don’t look for a state funded college where they don’t have to fork out money, because their kids’ education matters to them.
In Randolph, Clay, and Calhoun area you will find struggling white and black people here, there are very few jobs in the area most people commute outside these counties just to have jobs to support their families that’s why PCA have free or reduce lunches black families are not the Only races that has a need for them or live in trouble neighbors. The 54% is below national level because at PCA they actually check the parents financial records which helps to give free or reduced lunches to only the kids that are eligible and these other public schools may not be as thorough since I don’t have to pay for my other kids who are in public high schools since PCA only go through eight grade.
I choose which grocery store or gas station I go to and which pediatrician my child sees
But I shouldn’t have any choice in where they go to school, because in our area its one public school per county and one private school my choices are a free public school
With poor results or a pay for them to attend private school with same results that just don’t seem fair if there isn’t any competition in the school system one school can monopolize so they have control over how they are ran, competition is healthy, this way they compete for students to attend their school so parents like me who supports their kids, and kids who work hard wouldn’t have to settle for schools who don’t support them causing the schools to step up their game. This Sounds like the America we know and love that’s why we have McDonald’s, Burger king, and ten or more different gas station chains so you choose the cleaner, safer, less expensive, and more convenient place to eat, gas up, and receive care.
Mr. Bookman I am an African American, my child is in school with white kids(Caucasians’), Mexicans’(Spanish American), and Indian(middle eastern’s) kids and
A melting pot wake and smell the new age buddy. More African American parents would send their kids if people like you wouldn’t make the think Chapter schools are full of racist people NOT! My child is loved AND supported by the students, teachers, and staff at PCA. Bottom line Mr. Bookman your article proves that the press isn’t concern with facts but how many CENTS you make for the despicable article that doesn’t make any common SENSE. WAY TO GO AJC FOR LETTING MR. BOOKMAN TAKE YOU BACK 400 YEARS!!!! YOU OWE AFRICAN AMERICANS’ AN APOLOGY
.
Mary Elizabeth
October 1st, 2012
2:54 pm
I just posted the following on Maureen Downey’s blog (New Hampshire/charter schools thread) in response to a poster’s inquiry of me. I decided to repost my thoughts here, for any reader who may be interested:
=======================================
“Both of your questions (to me) address the profit factor which is an element within traditional public schools and has been for decades. Notice that I said ‘an element within.’ Profit is not the overriding motivation behind the existence of traditional public schools. Traditional public schools exist to serve all students equally within school districts through public taxes. Please understand that the overall movement behind ALEC is to transform most public institutions to private ones, not simply educational institutions. I believe in balance. I believe ALEC’s ideology is unbalanced because of its over-emphasis on privatization. The public interest traditionally serves the common good of all citizens. Private markets serve private interests. I believe that profit needs to stay out of public education as much as is possible. The answer to your question, in a nutshell, is the DEGREE of emphasis on profit in traditional public schools vs. the DEGREE of emphasis on profit within privatized schools and within some quasi-private public charter schools. Many of the proponents of school choice wish to tap into the “educational industry” for overall profit reasons. School choice proponents often try to persuade the public that the profit factor within traditional public schools is equivalent to the profit factor in the private school market in order to sell their agenda to the public, but that equation cannot be made entirely equivalent because public schools serve the public good, primarily, not private, special interests, primarily.
Secondly, you must ask yourself why ALEC has attempted to keep its motivations, and even its existence, secretive for so many decades as it has advanced its ends for corporate interests. ALEC’s purposes have now been exposed to full public transparency through many publications, such as the article by Diane Ravitch to which I gave a link to yesterday on this thread. Moreover, corporations such as Coca-Cola are now withdrawing from ALEC, as are some legislators. One must ask why? Much of this is explained through the ‘ALEC links’ that I provided earlier on this thread.
ALICE (American Legislative and Issue Campaign Exchange) is an organization offers an antidote to ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council). Notice how ALICE has been open to transparency regarding what it wishes to accomplish since its inception. Notice, also, that it relies on public interest advocates and volunteers, not paid corporate lobbyists, to help form its legislation. I provided information about ALICE (and the link about it) in my 12:38 pm post yesterday on this thread. (I’ll repeat one paragraph for you, below.)
The below content about ALICE, from the link I provided yesterday, will offer you a contrast with ALEC:
‘Like ALEC, ALICE is a values-based nonprofit that offers model legislation over a broad range of state and local issues. But it’s easily distinguished from its counterpart. ALICE aims to promote, not destroy, economic fairness, environmental sustainability, and effective democratic government. Its model laws are public, not secret. They’re written by public interest advocates and volunteers, not paid corporate lobbyists. They cover local, not just state, policy. They include law originating from the executive branch and directly from citizens, as well as from legislative bodies. And ALICE only provides such model law and written supports for its persuasive communication.’
Thirdly, notice that billionaire donors such as the Koch Brothers, who are major contributors to ALEC, have had a stealthy ideological mission to to turn America to a more liberatian nation in which government is minimized and the private sector maximized for decades. Of course, minimizing government helps to keep under suppression government regulations that directly effect the Koch Brothers’ corporate expansions and, therefore, their financial expansions. (See The New Yorker article, “Covert Operations,” by Jane Mayer, August 30, 2010. Link to that article: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_mayer )
I believe, however, that America must maintain a balance between the public and the private sectors for the nation to function well, and part of maintaining that balance means keeping public schools truly public ones that serve the common good, not quasi-private public schools that are motivated to exist through the accruing of profit. We must improve public education from within, with the help of district-assigned charter schools. We must stop the ideological mission to dismantle traditional public schools.”
Aye Object
October 1st, 2012
3:36 pm
Your entire comment, while informative, did not speak to the issue at hand (until your last sentence which just hangs there like a limp noodle). The ballot question is simple: Do you want the local school board to be THE LAST WORD on whether or not charter schools are approved. There are school boards and board members who think about money first and kids fifth! School boards who don’t want checks and balances sound to me like they are afraid of oversight. And the question becomes WHY. The State, if this amendment passes, will simply be an appeals board for these charter schools who failed to receive the local green light. Same criteria SHOULD net the same result. In those instances where it doesn’t, a closer look should be given. This amendment will allow that.
Joe Hussein Mama
October 1st, 2012
3:50 pm
Daphne — “@ J H Mama – Good point . . . Maybe it should be designated for each child.”
Why should it be?
We pay taxes to support schools, not your children. The community supports the community’s schools. It’s your job as a parent to support your child.
If you want your child to have a different sort of education than the one the community provides free of charge, then I encourage you to seek out such an education. However, paying for that other variety of education is YOUR job, not the community’s job.
Mary Elizabeth
October 1st, 2012
4:32 pm
Aye Object, 3:36 pm
“Do you want the local school board to be THE LAST WORD on whether or not charter schools are approved”
==========================================
There already exists, by law, a means of appealing the decision of local boards of education which might deny a given charter school’s application. That means of appeal is to the State Board of Education via the state Superintendent of Schools. This amendment is not necessary. This amendment is political, more than educational, imo.
Daphne
October 1st, 2012
5:01 pm
J H Mama – I don’t have a problem paying for my children’s tuition or the supporting of my children. I have never depended on the community to do my job. I have paid tuition for 5 years to a private school. I don’t look at public school as a daycare. I just don’t care to support a community that doesn’t strive to provide a better learning opportunity for educating children, regardless if they are my children or not.
fair and balanced
October 1st, 2012
5:20 pm
Someone going to comment on the connection between the GOP pushing privately run charter schools and the fact that the GOP nominee for president has over ten million dollars invested with his son in a profit making entity that runs private schools. Or is that just a coincidence? Yeah Mitt is going to run this country just like he ran a business- all personal profit.
For the kids
October 1st, 2012
6:44 pm
Charter schools are open and free to anyone. Students are selected by a lottery. So demographics should not be a deciding factor in a school’s success rate. Test scores shouldn’t either, but if you want to look at them PCA is heads above the local districts it serves. It is attitudes such as this, spreading lies that charter schools are private schools and only for certain people, that created that environment at PCA to begin with. Maybe if the local schools would quit spreading those rumors more African Americans would feel comfortable to enroll their children. The demographics of all of these schools is disturbing since none of them represent the actual community demographics. Maybe there is some underlying issue at play here. Huh, wonder if PCA founders hoped this school would help educate students to look beyond race or any other superficial characteristic, to help create a new generation of citizens that could get over these ridiculous issues that cause the schools to be segregated. Yes, I could send my kid to the miserable, all white private school, but that is not the real world and private does not equal quality in this neck of the woods. So, for me, I will continue to support the BEST choice for MY child. I am a tax payer after all, why shouldn’t my child benefit from that?
For the kids
October 1st, 2012
6:56 pm
@ Joe Hussein Mama: tax money goes to schools FOR children. Without the children what is a school? That is a ridiculous comment. So we should just accept that our tax payer SCHOOLS are 48th in the nation even if that means our children are also 48th in the nation. Again, we see with the opposition, it isn’t abut the children. According to you they aren’t even in the picture. I am a conservative, but as long as the government pays for “schools” I expect to see my tax payer dollars are used responsibly 48th in the nation ain’t cutting it for my dollars.
Vast Right Wing Conspiracy (aka "Knuckle-Dragger")
October 1st, 2012
7:33 pm
These charter schools sure make it difficult for the “equal outcomes” y’all are so fond of, don’t they? Therefore, they must be crushed outright, or it least placed under the control of the idiot school boards, who will destroy them without even trying hard. Still have those pesky private schools, though, that keep opening, in spite of the rotten economy, at an astounding rate (check the GISA website). Y’all will probably have to bring the feds in to make everybody equally stupid, and thus finally accomplish your goals for the country.
Revgarth
October 1st, 2012
7:50 pm
Jay, I usually agree with your columns. In this case I feel the need to disagree because I am the person who started PCA by calling all of the community to talk about it at an open forum in Fort Gaines, GA. I am white but I am also often classified as a liberal. The stories about the school systems in our area were awful. Children were being beaten up at school for being white or for doing well in school and “acting white”. I saw a need to create a safe place for all children and so asked the entire community to join us.
PCA is not a corporate school. It is a locally controlled school run by a principal who was a former teacher who went to school to become the principal. The board were concerned parents. At each community meeting we invited the entire community to join us. We intentionally went out of our way to include as many minorities as possible on our board and in the school.
A lot of disinformation was sent out by other school leaders to discredit the school. Then they filed a lawsuit to keep it from opening.
PCA did draw same children from the two private schools in the area but it also is drawing from children that would have been in the local public schools.
My goal was to provide a safe environment for all of the children of the region.
I was heavily involved in the local community and worked to make it better not just in the schools. I did go to the schools to help and started a scout troop, a church youth group and drove our church bus to pick up any and all children that I could. I also founded a ministry to help those who are less fortunate repair their homes and teaching people to cross racial and economic divides.
I also hired people when there were not other jobs available such as caring for dying church members, washing my car, cleaning my home, etc.
PCA was founded upon the idea that all children deserve a great education and they could not get it..
Suzy Citizen
October 1st, 2012
9:16 pm
I will continue to support charters. I believe that people in the Atlanta Metro area (with easy access to school choice) have very little understanding of the problems being faced by rural communities. We lack incentives for people to move here, especially good schools. Out of the 5 surrounding counties, not one school board would even consider hearing a petition for a charter school. What are families like ours supposed to do? Continue to send students to failing schools with school boards that are unwilling to listen and cannot be voted out because of the “good ole boy” system that prevails in rural communities. I can’t afford to move 6 counties away and I want the same things for my children that you want for yours. The best possible OPTIONS for me and my family. Please vote for options, add oversight, do what you must, but give us a chance to have something positive for my child.
I am not opposed to public schools, but I would like the option to decide for myself what is best for my children as is afforded to me my the US Constitution and as should be by the Georgia Constitution.
Just say NO to the Charter School Amendment
October 2nd, 2012
1:08 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9ACS4PgDFA
Joe Hussein Mama
October 2nd, 2012
9:48 am
Daphne — “J H Mama – I don’t have a problem paying for my children’s tuition or the supporting of my children. I have never depended on the community to do my job. I have paid tuition for 5 years to a private school. I don’t look at public school as a daycare. I just don’t care to support a community that doesn’t strive to provide a better learning opportunity for educating children, regardless if they are my children or not.”
Then get INVOLVED.
If you’re going to stand on the sidelines and complain, I’m not interested in what you have to say.
Joe Hussein Mama
October 2nd, 2012
9:53 am
For the kids — “@ Joe Hussein Mama: tax money goes to schools FOR children. Without the children what is a school? That is a ridiculous comment.”
Sorry, no. You’re engaging in apologism and trying to advance the absolutely ridiculous proposition that the education of each child according to the PARENTS’ choice is the responsibility of the district’s taxpayers.
I’m sorry, but eff that notion and eff you. You can have access — for free — to the schools set up by the district in which you live, or you have pay the freight yourself. There’s absolutely no precedent for parental decisions to be backed FINANCIALLY by their taxpaying neighbors.
“So we should just accept that our tax payer SCHOOLS are 48th in the nation even if that means our children are also 48th in the nation.”
No, parents should get off their duffs and GET INVOLVED TO IMPROVE THEM instead of expecting all the improvement work should be done by others. If all you do is pay your taxes and send your kids to school, yet you’re dissatisfied with the job they’re doing, then you need to look at YOUR OWN LAZY SELF.
“Again, we see with the opposition, it isn’t abut the children. According to you they aren’t even in the picture.”
I neither said nor thought any such thing, and it’s quite dishonest of you to misrepresent my position in that way.
“I am a conservative, but as long as the government pays for “schools” I expect to see my tax payer dollars are used responsibly 48th in the nation ain’t cutting it for my dollars.”
And I expect to see you get off your lazy duff and GET INVOLVED in the schools instead of complaining about them from the sidelines. That’s the standard conservative complaint — I’m too busy to do anything constructive about it, but it is OTHER PEOPLE’S fault the schools suck so bad — not my fault.
GMAMFB.
Daphne
October 2nd, 2012
11:46 pm
Enter your comments here. I am doing something about it. I am supporting the charter school that my children are attending now. I would gladly donate a kidney to help pay for the education they are getting now. My child has a learning disability and was ready to quit the second grade. My prayers were answered when friends and family from our surrounding counties pulled everything together to for Pataula Charter Academy. These are people that I went to public high school together. When t was a great school. Some things have changed along the way. It would take more than me to make a difference. We are fighting together. We are making a difference. We have a lottery and it is open to everyone in the 5 county area. If I had a choice I would prefer you to just keepyour tax money and stick it where the sun don’t shine.
!
State-created charters sidestep public schools | Protect Georgia Schools
October 3rd, 2012
10:40 am
[...] Bookman explains how charter schools created under the state could become de facto private schools, leaving many of Georgia’s poorest children to fend for [...]
Joe Hussein Mama
October 3rd, 2012
11:10 am
Daphne — “I am doing something about it. I am supporting the charter school that my children are attending now. I would gladly donate a kidney to help pay for the education they are getting now.”
What’d you do to help or improve the public schools in your district before you have the option of the charter school?
“My child has a learning disability and was ready to quit the second grade. My prayers were answered when friends and family from our surrounding counties pulled everything together to for Pataula Charter Academy. These are people that I went to public high school together. When t was a great school. Some things have changed along the way. It would take more than me to make a difference. We are fighting together. We are making a difference. We have a lottery and it is open to everyone in the 5 county area.”
That’s great, but I wonder if you would fight so hard to improve your public schools.
“If I had a choice I would prefer you to just keepyour tax money and stick it where the sun don’t shine. !”
I’d like that, too. (giggle)
Georgia Faces a Choice and It Isn’t Over Charter Schools | Truth in American Education
October 3rd, 2012
2:46 pm
[...] the press and interest groups are largely on the school boards’ side, bemoaning the potential loss of [...]
Daphne
October 3rd, 2012
3:31 pm
I would prefer to: Fire everyone and start completely over, implement corporal punishment and put prayer back in school! I know, much easier said than done.
Our PUBLIC and PRIVATE schools did not want to change, they are the reason this alternative solution was even derived. Pull us up on the internet. We are not an Ivy League school. Our main campus building was previously a used car dealership. I look at that building and the staff and of the teachers that have given so much of their own personal time and took a chance on our community and our children and it warms my heart. I just can’t put a price tag on that!
Spend one full day in a public metro area school, and you will vote YES!!!
October 4th, 2012
3:10 am
I am really struggling stay in my seat while reading all of you posting against state sponsored Charter Schools when you OBVIOUSLY don’t have kids of your own who are in need of one! My family is fortunate to be able to afford private school, but choose not to because we believe in public education, and thought that as involved parents, we could be involved at our school enough to make a difference by rallying as a community and supporting our local public school. After three years of uphill marching, we realized that it was futile.
I’m dumbfounded when I read those of you saying that the Republicans are MOOCHING. Really? I have never voted republican in my life, and THIS is not about political parties. This is about our children and our nation’s future. We’ve been trusting the local government all along, and guess what? They’re stealing our money, giving friends and family jobs over qualified applicants, and BLATANTLY wasting my tax dollars and yours. So, REALLY?… WHO is mooching? Some people have come along who think they can do it better, requesting only the state portion of their funding (so as not to offend these FAILING local school boards), and you’re calling them moochers? Your tax dollars have been paying for a product that 47(!!!) other states are producing better than Georgia, and have been for many years. How long are you going to give them to get it right? If you have a child in the system, it WON’T HAPPEN IN TIME FOR YOUR CHILD. Without competition, what motive do they have to make improvements? Private schools are not competition. Every state and local dollar for your private school students goes to the local school where they SHOULD attend. Local School Boards LOVE it when you run away to private school!!! It is more money in their pockets! Every child who leaves to go to private school makes the public school mess that much bigger. At least public state sponsored Charter Schools will give EVERY child a chance for something better, and not just those who can afford it; and it will leave good families in public schools. How many stories do we have to hear about middle class folks enrolling in public school, only to be so disgusted after a year or two that they pull out and go private? Middle class Americans who really can’t even afford private school are now doing without other things so that their kids don’t have to go to a public school. If you haven’t spent any considerable amount of time in a public school lately, PLEASE don’t give us your unqualified opinion about this issue. You have no clue how bad it is. It has gone downhill VERY QUICKLY in the last 10 years. Should we elect new school boards to take care of everything for us? SURE! Every four years we get a chance to turn over the board. So if your Kindergartener can just hang in there until 4th grade, the new guys can come in and make big changes. If that new board doesn’t work out, no worries! When little Susie is in 8th grade we can try again. But wait, if the bad guys have more friends or more money, they win! By the next board turnover, Susie is graduating from high school! (Technically, the terms are staggered… which makes it WORSE because the newbies are always under the influence of the existing bureaucrats.)
The bottom line is this… When YOUR kid and your next door neighbor’s kids are the ones getting injured regularly at their neighborhood school because discipline is out of control, when they are in a classroom of 35 kids, when your 2nd grader comes home telling you stories that would make a sailor blush because they heard it from a classmate, when your African-American child comes home crying because if they want to do well in school, they are teased for “Trying to act white”, come tell me that you are OK with letting the people you’ve elected to the local school board take even two more years to elect someone new, then get their feet wet, then make sweeping policy changes, and push those changes all down to the local school level. I’m sure you won’t be OK with your child being exposed for the next four years to overworked and underpaid teachers, apathetic principals, and 31 classmates who need to learn but can’t because of the 4 in the room who have been so severely mistreated at home that they can’t function in a classroom without being disruptive. That’s a bad situation for even a motivated student. What about the ones with ADHD? It is hopeless.
So do I, as an involved parent, want to go to a school where there are other involved parents, and not parents who drop their kids off after starving them, showing their second graders their porn collection, speaking to them like they’re trash so that those kids come in and treat my kids like trash? You private school runaways can call me selfish for wanting to use my tax dollars for my kids to be in a good public school with other involved parents, but OH YES! I will vote YES!
Half of our very middle class neighborhood now attends a state-sponsored public Charter school, and if this vote doesn’t pass and our children’s chance to thrive is taken away, we’ll go private or become homeschoolers. There’s no way we’re trusting our local elected officials to take care of our kids again for another round of waiting and hoping and lobbying. OH! But guess what? The local school doesn’t care if we leave because they still get our money. And THAT, my friends, is why they’re against this Amendment. God forbid they have competition and have to make a real change to keep the money they’re lining their pockets with!
And one last thing… State Sponsored schools will not be making decisions for the schools outside of whether to allow them to open or not. They aren’t getting much control at all. Petitions will still go to the local school board for review, and if the petition is denied, the petitioners have the right to go a step further and see what the state experts think. They just say yes or no. Then in 5 years, when the charter is up for renewal, they review the Charter School’s performance and vote to let it continue or not. If it fails to meet its stated objectives, it doesn’t get renewed. What public school has EVER had to live up to that standard???
Joe Hussein Mama
October 5th, 2012
10:19 am
Daphne — “I would prefer to: Fire everyone and start completely over, implement corporal punishment and put prayer back in school! I know, much easier said than done.”
I am absolutely and unalterably opposed to organized prayer in public schools.
Pray all you want at church, at Sunday School or at home. And if your child feels a need to say grace over hur lunch or before tackling a math test, I have no problem whatsoever with that. But the formal and organized prayer that used to be in our schools needs to stay out of them for good IMO.
“Our PUBLIC and PRIVATE schools did not want to change, they are the reason this alternative solution was even derived.”
Once again, how involved did you get BEFORE you had the choice of the charter school?
icons collection
October 7th, 2012
9:41 am
I apologise, but, in my opinion, you commit an error. I can prove it. Write to me in PM.