Charter school parents explain why we need Amendment One
“How can I in good conscience send my child to a school that didn’t even cheat right?”
The question from Shelby McDonald has surely been asked by many an Atlanta parent since rampant cheating on standardized tests was uncovered in the city’s public schools. Only rhetorically, of course, because the answer is: You can’t.
Unlike many of those parents, however, McDonald found a way out: a public charter school approved in 2009 by a state commission. That commission closed after a 2011 court ruling declared it unconstitutional, but it would be re-created if voters approve Amendment One in next month’s election.
“I did everything right. I looked at every [school’s] test score between here and what was driveable,” says McDonald, a widowed mother of one whose parents had pledged to drive her daughter as far as Macon each day if that’s what it took. She tried one charter-school lottery and lost. As a single mother, private school was out of the question.
“I did what I was supposed to do,” she says. “And what did I find out [about the local schools]? Y’all cheated!”
Cheating wasn’t an issue at the elementary school Rich Thompson’s daughter used to attend — at least, he didn’t think it was. But low expectations were.
Thompson was the PTA president at Deerwood Academy in southwest Atlanta when, one spring, he realized things weren’t as good as they seemed.
“We had the normal end-of-the-year Awards Day program,” Thompson recalls. “Pretty much every grade level walked across the stage, and every kid got some kind of a certificate or ribbon or trophy. The principal was patting them on the back, saying what a great job they did.”
Within a few days, however, Thompson came across the Georgia Public Policy Foundation’s 2009 “Report Card for Parents,” which ranks the state’s public schools according to their test scores. Deerwood Academy’s third-graders ranked 940th out of 1,208 schools statewide. Its fifth-graders were 470th out of 1,201.
“I just got livid,” Thompson recalls. “How in the hell can everybody be so happy with our performance when one grade level is in the 900s and one is in the 400s compared with the other schools in the state? …
“There just wasn’t any interest in doing anything beyond getting the public recognition we were getting. And it just wasn’t enough for me.” His daughter now attends an independent, start-up charter school.
It wasn’t long before that public recognition proved even more hollow: Deerwood was one of the first schools implicated in the APS cheating scandal. “It was just a big sham,” Thompson says of all the certificates, ribbons and trophies.
Accolades for his son at a south Fulton school also seemed suspect to Gavin Samms.
“His teacher said, ‘He’s so wonderful. He’s so quiet,’ ” Samms recalls. “But I said, ‘He isn’t learning anything.’ “
His son, Samms says, “kept coming home with the same worksheets of things I taught him two years before.” No one at the school was interested in giving the boy more challenging work, he says.
Samms didn’t just look for another school. He started one: Fulton Leadership Academy, which the erstwhile state commission approved in 2009. Despite its focus on the STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and math) and test scores that last year beat both state standards and south Fulton schools’ averages, the Fulton school board denied FLA’s application to keep its charter. The state granted it under provisional authority that is highly questionable in light of the 2011 court ruling.
“They [the Fulton board] said we’re not ‘unique,’ ” Samms says. “It’s an all-boys school. We have STEM, we have an aviation focus. … You must see African-American boys in planes every day, because apparently we’re not unique enough.”
A note to those who think Amendment One is designed to pave the way for a modern white flight from Georgia’s public schools: Like Samms, McDonald and Thompson are black. Charter schools have a higher percentage of minorities or low-income students than traditional public schools, according to the Georgia Charter Schools Association.
They’re also more likely to serve them better, to hear these parents tell it.
– By Kyle Wingfield
RELATED:
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The real statistics for Georgia’s charter schools
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361 comments Add your comment
Aquagirl
October 25th, 2012
9:19 am
Aquagirl, why are you concerned about kids that may be left out of charters.
Because despite the wishes of people like Tiberius those children don’t magically disappear when you remove your precious snowflake from their presence.
I give Whirled Peas credit for being honest, unlike some of y’all. You can’t pray the gay away, and you can’t charter the black people away either.
Finn McCool (The System isn't Broken; It's Fixed)
October 25th, 2012
9:21 am
People keep saying “fix the current schools first”. What, in the last 100 years of trying, makes you think that is possible?
But Charter Schools are the magic bullet? But then you say the magic bullet has never been found before and probably impossible to find???
Finn McCool (The System isn't Broken; It's Fixed)
October 25th, 2012
9:23 am
Aqua, they don’t want to address the problems, they want to remove their kids from the problem but can’t (or refuse to) pay for private schools.
So, pipe down and pony up for these snowflakes. K, thanks.
Kyle Wingfield
October 25th, 2012
9:29 am
Finn @ 9:21: Find one person, anywhere, who has said or implied that “charter schools are the magic bullet.” Just one.
In fact, charter-school advocates almost always say the exact opposite: Charter schools are not a magic bullet. But they can be part of the solution — especially if they aren’t run or overseen by the same people running and overseeing the schools we have now.
Peach Fuzz
October 25th, 2012
9:29 am
@ One perspective: If you feel like your kid is trapped in public school, then send him to private school on your own dime. Providing a superior educational experience for your “special” child is not the responsibility of taxpayers.
Kyle Wingfield
October 25th, 2012
9:31 am
Aquagirl @ 9:19: I would like to have some basis, other than figments of your imagination or the imaginations of people who write talking points opposing this amendment, that this amendment would have the intended or unintended basis of “charter[in] the black people away.”
It is a baseless claim that actually flies in the face of the evidence.
Kyle Wingfield
October 25th, 2012
9:32 am
Finn @ 9:14: Yeah, most “lines” grounded in fantasy do sound good.
Kyle Wingfield
October 25th, 2012
9:34 am
Peach Fuzz @ 9:03: “If the local schools are falling behind, what’s to say new schools under a separate government entity will fare any better?”
For starters, the data.
Junior Samples
October 25th, 2012
9:38 am
Charter Schools are much cheaper and your kids actually learn something.I am against government anything, especially a government that brainwashes your kids into their ideological way of socialist thinking. Vote Yes!
Kyle Wingfield
October 25th, 2012
9:39 am
cellophane @ 8:50: “With private for profit companies in charge, charter schools will be created where they are profitable (wealthy suburbs).”
Funny, I thought the location of charter schools might have something to do with demand — which happens to be in the exact opposite of the wealthy suburbs you’re talking about, because wealthy suburbs already tend to have good schools or, failing that, people with the means to take their kids elsewhere. The point of letting the funding follow the child is to allow lower-income people to have options.
Peach Fuzz
October 25th, 2012
9:39 am
Kyle @ 9:34 am: And we know from historical precedent that statistics can’t be manipulated to serve and bolster a political agenda. And like so many things, past performance is not a guarantee of future returns. Sorry, but it take more than numbers on a sheet of paper to convince me that adding a new arm to the Leviathan is keeping with the best interests of Georgia taxpayers.
Kyle Wingfield
October 25th, 2012
9:41 am
stands @ 8:18: So the fact that people pay little attention to school board elections makes you have less sympathy for that sentiment? I would have thought it’d make you have more.
md
October 25th, 2012
9:43 am
I hate to be so blunt (or do I), but we have been creating a very un-realistic society in the past few decades. We’ve become so PC in an attempt to not hurt any feelings that we no longer prepare our kids for the real world.
Sometimes, we need to understand that we actually do suck at some things……we can not improve ourselves if we think we are doing just fine when in reality we are not.
The suckiest kid on the ball team needs to understand that his trophy WASN’T for doing a good job……it was for trying……….and trying doesn’t always cut it in the real world……….
Kyle Wingfield
October 25th, 2012
9:43 am
Finn @ 9:23: ” they want to remove their kids from the problem but can’t (or refuse to) pay for private schools.”
The “refuse to” part is one thing. But are you honestly saying that people should stay stuck in bad schools because they can’t afford to get out? When we as taxpayers are going to pay the same either way?
EDUCATE OR INCARCERATE!
October 25th, 2012
9:43 am
Education reform needs to start somewhere!!! What we have been doing obviously doesn’t work. Georgia is #48 in the country-we have MORE 25% high school drop out rate. It is a fact that lack of Education equals HIGH CRIME RATE, LESS JOBS COMING TO GEORGIA & LOW PROPERTY VALUES. Should we invest in prisons or education? THE PROBLEM IS THAT LOCAL SUPERINTENDENTS WANT THE CONTROL! IF CHARTERS EDUCATE WITH LESS MONEY (AND THEY DO)- HOW DO THE SUPERINTENDENTS LOOK? Amendment 1 is neccessary if we are going to improve the education in Georgia. We will make the Schools accountable when then need to compete to keep up with the Charters.
md
October 25th, 2012
9:46 am
As for charter schools, we already have them to a degree, but many aren’t seeing it. The choice is called “moving”, and that will continue for any that have the means to do so……forever.
Kyle Wingfield
October 25th, 2012
9:49 am
Peach Fuzz @ 9:39: Actually, the manipulation of stats is being done by the opponents of the amendment, who water down the comparison to the broadest, least instructive level. What I did in that column was compare like to like. And it reveals that state-chartered schools are performing far better than the opponents let on.
As for the ” adding a new arm to the Leviathan” part: One argument by opponents is that this commission would be redundant because the state BOE already can approve charters. As I’ve argued before, that power is highly questionable in light of the 2011 Supreme Court ruling, and an amendment would take away that uncertainty. But even if we ignore the aspect of uncertainty: This “new arm of the Leviathan” would comprise seven unpaid appointees. The staff aiding them would be the same DOE staff aiding the state board now. They would have no more latitude to approve charters than the state board does now. So I fail to see how this adds more government in any substantial way.
Creflo Dollah
October 25th, 2012
9:54 am
I wanna teach children jesus rode on a dinosaur, and get paiiiiiiiiid!
Aquagirl
October 25th, 2012
9:54 am
I would like to have some basis, other than figments of your imagination or the imaginations of people who write talking points opposing this amendment
Are you claiming people will not vote for this amendment so kids can “get away from the thugs?” Or that those people are as scarce as hen’s teeth?
One of the most putrid aspects of current conservatism is the blatant use of fringe a-holes (like birthers and racists) while claiming “oh, we’re against that.” Posters like Whirled Peas aren’t rare here. So please spare me the kumbayah stuff about how you empathize so much with Ms. McDonald while someone here basically says her kid’s problem is negro genes.
BTW, I notice Ms. McDonald entered a charter lottery and didn’t get a slot. That’s too bad but if you propose we open charter schools for every parent that wants one, be honest and give us a cost assessment. I bet some of your conservatives would be a little less empathetic and concerned for the chiiiildren if they knew the price tag.
Peach Fuzz
October 25th, 2012
9:58 am
Ok, so who gets to pick and choose which students are sent to the new charter school, and which ones get left behind at the underperforming public school? Or will we be dealing in percentages where kids falling into a certain category get schlepped across town while those who fall below the bar are abandoned to mediocrity at the old school? Or will this be a lottery based system where the haves and have-nots are selected at random?
Joseph
October 25th, 2012
10:00 am
Everyone please vote “Yes” for Amendment 1
Why would any voter vote “no” on Amendment 1? I’ve heard many tired arguments of adults who oppose charter schools, yet, I’ve found no child who opposes them. Shouldn’t that be the key in deciding the future of education in Georgia?
One argument that’s thrown out by opponents of the amendment is that charter schools take away funding from local schools. That of course is false. Charter schools take away no local funds and many of the people spreading this rumor know it. This is obviously a shrewd way to try and sway voters to vote their way.
Another argument is that charter schools take the best students from area public schools. Perhaps that’s somewhat true but there’s still a process that each and every student must go through before they can attend. But think about this. If a child was a good student in a public school system and had a choice to go elsewhere there must be a reason. Perhaps they were bullied. Perhaps the public school was actually holding back their progress. Perhaps the environment is friendlier. It could be a number of reasons but obviously there must be a problem if that child is willing to leave the public school system.
I honestly do hope voters realize the importance of this amendment’s passage. Thousands of students who already attend charter schools could possibly have to look elsewhere for their education if it fails. Voters should realize its what’s best for our children.
ImprovePublicSchools
October 25th, 2012
10:00 am
Li’l Aynie, and others, you are missing the whole point. Charter Schools ARE PUBLIC SCHOOLS and they are testing methods to IMPROVE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. That was the whole point of the conception of charter schools. The public school system will get much worse if it fails to embrace these changes.
Don't Tread
October 25th, 2012
10:00 am
The comments from the liberals on this blog make me glad I voted “yes”.
DawgDad
October 25th, 2012
10:01 am
Two wrongs don’t make a right, and not all public schools and school districts are failing. State-sponsored charter schools may provide benefits to a few select children in the short run, but in the long run this form does not serve the public interest as it will foster corruption and deflect resources and desperately needed attention from the remaining local public schools. Removing local control is just flat out wrong-headed.
Kids do not get “trapped” in a public school. They get ENROLLED in a public school. It’s far beyond time for parents and the public to step up and take responsibility for the quality of their local public schools and the education of their children, public or otherwise.
JKL2
October 25th, 2012
10:04 am
aquagirl- You can’t pray the gay away, and you can’t charter the black people away either
Maybe you should read the article Kyle wrote today. It’s about BLACK parents trying to get a better education for their children. Why are you against educating blacks?
MotherOfTwo
October 25th, 2012
10:06 am
Kyle,
VERY VERY IMPORTANT:
Please stop saying Charter School supporters, as if, there is one unique group. There are Charter School supporters, who support, charter schools at the LOCAL level only.
We DO NOT plan to support the state charter school amendment.
DawgDad
October 25th, 2012
10:08 am
MotherOfTwo: “There are Charter School supporters, who support, charter schools at the LOCAL level only.”
Precisely.
yuzeyurbrane
October 25th, 2012
10:09 am
Kyle, you have engaged in what is called “cherry picking”. And you have presented distorted statistics from the charter school association. Break it out on race alone and they will show charters are much whiter than traditional public schools. What generally occurs according to Dekalb Board of Education Chair is that there is segregation more based along economic lines than racial. This is not good either. All children must receive quality education both for the good of themselves and the good of society, regardless of the racial or economic circumstances of their parents, for neither of which the child has any responsibility.
Aquagirl
October 25th, 2012
10:10 am
yet, I’ve found no child who opposes them.
Great. Let’s put pony rides, free candy, and abolition of bedtimes on the ballot and let kids vote. Let’s put a few in office. How about an Unlimited Recess Czar?
Although looking at our current crop of Republicans letting 10 year olds run the government would be a distinct improvement.
DawgDad
October 25th, 2012
10:10 am
“Actually, the manipulation of stats is being done by the opponents of the amendment”
I haven’t looked at a single stat. As a conservative, I reject this Amendment on principle.
DeKalb Dad
October 25th, 2012
10:14 am
Good work Kyle.
Do the ignorant establishment apologists have a serious suggestion for INDIVIDUAL parents who have no choice other than a failing/cheating local school?
The only suggestions I hear are move to a better zip code or give every school in the state an additional ~$100 per student and watch all schools thrive together.
Kyle Wingfield
October 25th, 2012
10:14 am
Peach Buzz @ 9:58: Charter schools by law have to take all comers. If there are more applicants than slots, a lottery is held.
Scrooge McDuck
October 25th, 2012
10:14 am
If Amendment One gives Travelin’ Don Balfour and Will the Winner “Chip” Rogers more control over my treasure, what’s not to like?
md
October 25th, 2012
10:15 am
Seems to me that those opposed to making any changes are voting for the status quo……which means those with the ability to move will do so and the poor will remain stuck in the non-performing schools…………..
Kyle Wingfield
October 25th, 2012
10:17 am
Aquagirl @ 9:54: Nice try suggesting Whirled Peas speaks for all, or even a majority, or even a significant portion, of the amendment’s supporters. I’m sure we could find some opinions of opponents you wouldn’t want to subscribe to.
And I haven’t heard anyone suggest “we open charter schools for every parent that wants one.” What has been proposed is that there be a way for quality charter applications to be approved even if local boards deny them, on grounds that may well have nothing to do with the quality of the application.
md
October 25th, 2012
10:18 am
“Great. Let’s put pony rides, free candy, and abolition of bedtimes on the ballot and let kids vote. Let’s put a few in office.”
We already allow the ignorant to vote, might as well add the kiddies………..
cc
October 25th, 2012
10:19 am
“Maybe you should read the article Kyle wrote today. It’s about BLACK parents trying to get a better education for their children. Why are you against educating blacks?”
Far too many of these comments either claim or allude to racism in this proposed amendment. It’s the same old liberal ploy: if you can’t defeat that which you dislike with logic and reason, claim that it is “RACIST”. Sorry, y’all have used that word into extinction, and no logical person is buying it anymore.
teaching taxpayer
October 25th, 2012
10:20 am
If Governor Deal wants to give Georgians an actual choice, why haven’t he and the legislature put forward an amendment that would have the citizens ELECT the board that would review charter appeals? The APPOINTED board Amendment 1 would put in place would have zero accountability to taxpayers and voters.
I would support Amendment 1 in a minute if We The People could vote in or vote out the people deciding how to spend OUR money. However, that would give the people too much power to suit Governor Deal and the Gold Dome Gang.
St Simons
October 25th, 2012
10:21 am
VOTE NO TO ALL AMENDMENTS
out of respect to the “no big gubmint” & “strict constitutionalist” con
hypocrites. We already voted.
Rafe Hollister, suffering through Oblamer's ineptocracy
October 25th, 2012
10:21 am
cc@6:55 AM
I can’t say it any better!
JDW
Take the waste involved in government schools and give that amount to those who would teach for profit, and there is their profit. Better education/same costs. Bonus, if they do not live up to expectations, fire them all and hire someone else.
DawgDad
October 25th, 2012
10:22 am
“and the poor will remain stuck in the non-performing schools”
Why? Why? Why? Why on EARTH has the dialog shifted from FIXING the non-performing schools? Have we thrown in the towel on the poor victims of corruption and neglect? Go ahead, say “yes” and THEN try to convince me to vote for any other tax increase.
Liberals are running away from NCLB because it EXPOSED the corruption. It was a God-send, shedding light on the leeches in the education system. We have to confront problems in the public sector to fix them, not run away from them.
This whole charter thing is so wrong-headed it boggles the mind.
Kyle Wingfield
October 25th, 2012
10:22 am
MotherOfTwo @ 10:06: I have made that distinction far more often than have the amendment opponents who pretend that all charter schools perform equally (they don’t), and that local boards always approve quality charter applications (they certainly don’t).
Aquagirl
October 25th, 2012
10:23 am
Do the ignorant establishment apologists have a serious suggestion for INDIVIDUAL parents
Not really, egotistical jerks only concerned about their personal situation are pretty much beyond help. They’ll be self-centered people who don’t give a damn about the hundreds of other kids in that school no matter what.
My suggestion for those parents would result in a ban, because I don’t like selfish self-centered people who are unapologetic about their selfish self-centered demands.
Kyle Wingfield
October 25th, 2012
10:25 am
yuze @ 10:09: What have I cherry-picked? And what is distorted about the statistics I presented?
“All children must receive quality education both for the good of themselves and the good of society, regardless of the racial or economic circumstances of their parents, for neither of which the child has any responsibility.”
This is the whole point of the amendment! The whole point of letting funding follow the child! So that children whose families don’t have the means to move to another school can take the money we’re already spending on them and seek a better education elsewhere.
cc
October 25th, 2012
10:25 am
Thanks Rafe, I consider that a high compliment coming from you!
DawgDad
October 25th, 2012
10:26 am
“This is the whole point of the amendment! The whole point of letting funding follow the child! ”
Then give them a voucher.
curious
October 25th, 2012
10:27 am
Make all schools Charter. Otherwise we are guaranteeing a two tier education system where the Charter Schools are producing high students/outcomes and the others are left to wallow in substandard school our better educated “leaders” care very little about.
Segregation returns.
DawgDad
October 25th, 2012
10:28 am
“Make all schools Charter. ”
I like that idea, too. Not this one.
carlosgvv
October 25th, 2012
10:29 am
Most Georgia parents who are so desperate for charter schools would put it this way:
“How can I in good conscience send my child to a school that teaches evolution and modern astro-physics? After all, we fundamentalists know these evil teachings are straight from the pits of hell”.
Hillbilly D
October 25th, 2012
10:29 am
I’m for local control. As I’ve said before, I also think that this is another one of those statewide solutions to a localized problem. A large number of counties in Georgia only have one high school and one middle school. When you get right down to it, I don’t trust any government entity to do what’s right (or rather the people in it) but I’d rather take my chances with a local board who has to face election, than with a state board that is appointed. And before anybody asks, yes, I have some problems with my local school board but at least I can walk up to them in the grocery store and talk to them.