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
mike
October 25th, 2012
10:29 am
It sure seems that deriding public schools is the answer. And if parents can divert their property taxes to private schools then Little Johnny will excel. Schools are not miracle workers. Especially schools in Southwest Atlanta where the property tax digest has virtually collapsed. Once again this whole argument is about one thing and that is to allow parents to divert their property taxes into private schools at the expense of the public schools. Since most of the costs associated with the public schools are fixed that means that everyone else’s taxes are going to have to go up. Don’t be deceived by false promises.
curious
October 25th, 2012
10:29 am
Don’t worry. The appointees to the Charter School review board will be the same type as that buddy of Gov Deal who just happened to have some land to sell.
Kyle Wingfield
October 25th, 2012
10:31 am
DawgDad @ 10:22: “Why on EARTH has the dialog shifted from FIXING the non-performing schools?”
This is about providing a better education for students in non-performing schools. Why are you so wedded to the institution rather than the kids? The institution has been telling us for decades that improvements are just around the corner. Those improvements have never materialized. Why do you believe that’s going to change?
“We have to confront problems in the public sector to fix them”
This IS about confronting problems in the public sector — by providing other public avenues (charter schools are public schools, too) for educating the public. If you want to avoid that confrontation, then by all means, vote no on Amendment One and let the same old gang keep running the same old schools the same old way and produce the same old results.
I am frankly shocked that so many people who have such an obviously low opinion of the public schools in this state think the answer is to keep the power and money in the hands of the same people who have been running those public schools. That’s what boggles my mind.
JKL2
October 25th, 2012
10:31 am
aquagirl- Although looking at our current crop of Republicans letting 10 year olds run the government would be a distinct improvement
I agree. I think you are confused about obama being a Republican though…
Kyle Wingfield
October 25th, 2012
10:33 am
DawgDad @ 10:26: Do you seriously think the Legislature is going to go the voucher route if this amendment is defeated? A defeat will be the end of serious education reform in this state, because it will suggest that the entrenched bureaucracy has the backing of the people.
Kyle Wingfield
October 25th, 2012
10:34 am
curious @ 10:27: The first step to making “all schools charter” is to make some schools charter.
DawgDad
October 25th, 2012
10:35 am
Look, I certainly don’t expect Kyle to agree with me, and it is a bit surreal being in the company of some opponents of this Amendment. But there is most definitely a “principle-based” opposing view that has NOTHING to do with trying to protect failing public shools or shield bad educators and administrators. I am dead-set against eroding local control of public schools, although I support State standards and oversight, and intervention into failing or corrupt systems. I just want to see that position aired fairly and represented properly.
EDUCATE OR INCARCERATE!
October 25th, 2012
10:36 am
It has been proven that Local Control means NO Charter. Do some research! They have and will close schools down even the ones that out-performing them! BECAUSE THEY WANT A MONOPOLY! If you were a Walmart owner would you want Target accross the street? If you want education to improve — competition will be necessary!
A VOTE FOR AMENDMENT 1 WILL END BUSINESS AS USUAL!!!!! AMENDMENT 1 IS A VOTE FOR EDUCATION TO IMPROVE EVERYWHERE! WE MUST START SOMEWHERE, AND GEORGIA’S CHILDREN AND THE FUTURE DEPEND ON IT.
DawgDad
October 25th, 2012
10:37 am
“Do you seriously think the Legislature is going to go the voucher route if this amendment is defeated?”
What does that have to do with my stance, based on the principles I’ve espoused? I will remain VERY firm in my beliefs regardless of what the legislature does or doesn’t do. I don’t change stripes with the wind.
sneak peak into education
October 25th, 2012
10:37 am
I agree with the writer – the cheating scandal in Atlanta is an abhorrence and should never have happened. However, if you think that the cheating scandal is just limited to traditional schools and not charters, think again. I found an example in just 30 seconds and I am sure that there are many, many more out there. So please don’t push for charter schools as a remedy to end cheating because they won’t, especially when you consider that they are supposed to be closed down if they don’t meet their targets. See the link below:
http://dianeravitch.net/2012/10/24/treasure-the-whistleblowers/
Also, in response to those who complain about the local BofE, you are complaining about a democratically elected board and you cry foul that they don’t dance to your tune. Instead of complaining and whining about them, run against them and convince the public that you are the future for the change and reform.
Lastly, there is no need to take the drastic step of changing the constitution to give up your democratic vote and put it into the hands of a non-elected board that is controlled by our current governor and his cronies-they have shown their true colors as poor guardians for public education and their contempt is blatant with the severe cutbacks and underfunding. They are pushing the policies of ALEC and their wish to see public education privatized. This is about MONEY and NOT ABOUT CHILDREN. Also, they have not said where the extra money to run these schools will come from. How does that make sense?
The only thing that makes sense is to VOTE NO in NOvember.
Kyle Wingfield
October 25th, 2012
10:38 am
OK, DawgDad, I’ll bite: What is your “principle-based” solution that addresses failing public schools, tackles the problem of bad educators and administrators, and provides for state standards, oversight and intervention into failing or corrupt systems, but also keeps control of public schools in the same hands as today?
JKL2
October 25th, 2012
10:38 am
aquagirl- They’ll be self-centered people who don’t give a damn about the hundreds of other kids in that school no matter what.
Sorry your children are lacking in the quality parent department. I guess they should have thought of that before they started reproducing. It’s not my fault “baby daddy” isn’t holding up his end of the deal.
One perspective....
October 25th, 2012
10:39 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?”
Actually, its about ALL parents trying to get a better education for their children… pretty much anywhere there is a failing school.
A parent cannot turn around a failing school. Parent of a failing school cannot elect different board members without the support of the citizens of the city/county they live in. Example: if there are a handful of failing schools in a school district of one hundred schools, it is unlikely that the parents of those school can affect any change in elected school board members. They are a tiny number compared to the voting population. Even when the entire school district is failing (Clayton Co.), it can be nearly impossible to make effective changes to the school board. So what would you have the parents of students in those schools do? No amount of involvement or political activism is going to make a difference.
But anti-charter groups want to leave it to that SAME dysfunctional school board to voluntarily give up power to a charter school in their midst… a school that if approved might make their school system look bad. What school board in the right political minds would do such a thing (NONE). Local control is never going to result in any new charter schools, and proponents of local control are delusional if they think a local board of education will voluntarily allow for a new charter school.
mike
October 25th, 2012
10:40 am
ok, it just came to me. THE ANSWER! Let’s just eliminate the portion that we all pay on property taxes that is devoted to education and let each parent spend that money they way they see fit. Close all public schools, sell the property and be done with it. Then, your child’s education will be your responsibility and yours alone. Not enough money to send your child to school? Too bad.
Kyle Wingfield
October 25th, 2012
10:40 am
sneak peak @ 10:37: No one said charters, or the people who run them, are perfect. The difference between charters that cheat and traditional schools that cheat is the charters can be closed down and/or the people who run them can be more easily fired. The traditional schools? How long have the hearings for APS educators implicated in cheating dragged on? And how many board members have been replaced?
curious
October 25th, 2012
10:40 am
Will local BOEs have any control over state approved/publically funded Charter schools? If not, will the state have separate school busses, sports teams/leagues, etc.
In any county with separate, public funded schools, there is going to be a big problem down the road.
Maybe local control needs to be abolished, but it should be across the board.
One perspective....
October 25th, 2012
10:41 am
I am frankly shocked that so many people who have such an obviously low opinion of the public schools in this state think the answer is to keep the power and money in the hands of the same people who have been running those public schools. That’s what boggles my mind.
Bingo.
md
October 25th, 2012
10:43 am
“A large number of counties in Georgia only have one high school and one middle school. ”
And some are that way by their own choosing.
Remember when Valdosta ruled the football universe? Football was the deciding factor as it was the money maker in the county. Valdosta knew that if they built another school in the county, the football team might take the hit……and it did. Now, the county school (Lowndes) is the big kid on the block and Valdosta is basically a has-been.
Another example of the same thing……perennial powerhouse Camden County……..only one high school for the same reason…..economics.
DawgDad
October 25th, 2012
10:44 am
“I am frankly shocked that so many people who have such an obviously low opinion of the public schools in this state think the answer is to keep the power and money in the hands of the same people who have been running those public schools. That’s what boggles my mind.”
Voting NO on this Amendment based on the principle of local does NOT mean I think the answer is to keep the power and money in the hands of the same people who have been running those public schools (in the cases where the schools are failing). I think local people, perhaps with State assistance, need to clean house in many Georgia school districts and get some honest and honorable board members and administrators in place. I am opposed to this particular solution. This is NOT the only option, it’s just the only one on this ballot. Think TSPLOST – wrong solution.
mike
October 25th, 2012
10:45 am
I think it should be clear to all why this is such a burr in the side of Republicans. Two words: tax and public. It just reeks of socialism — the thought of having something that is public like a school system. Something that all can attend whether they pay taxes or not. It’s got nothing to do with grades or performance, it’s all about privatization and the money that some giant corporation can make educating your brat. WAKE UP!
Aquagirl
October 25th, 2012
10:46 am
it will suggest that the entrenched bureaucracy has the backing of the people.
Um, that’s pretty much how it works Kyle. People vote for their representatives and those representatives make the decisions. I didn’t vote for Nathan Deal, yet he’s still the Governor. I don’t get a Federal charter alternative to whatever state service I don’t like. The majority of Georgians voted for him and I accept the rule of law. I may express disagreement but doing an end-run is not my style. Your mileage, along with a lot of other me-firsters may vary.
But then I was never very good at being a sore loser who insisted on taking OTHER PEOPLE’S TAX MONEY and spending it how I want, despite the opinions of the others who are being taxed.
If, like me, you think the entrenched county school board system is a failure, then propose an alternative and work towards that. If you think the State makes better decisions about education then man up and say it. But apparently you want to have your small-government republican cake and eat it too.
Please drop the pretzel maneuvers to justify an unelected state board overruling a local elected board. You’re gonna hurt yourself.
Hillbilly D
October 25th, 2012
10:47 am
md
That may be true but Valdosta is a good sized town. The counties in my area (and in some other areas, too) don’t have the population/students or the money to support more than one school.
These Lying Eyes!!!
October 25th, 2012
10:48 am
Blah, Blah Blah…… If you want the best educations for your child, Get involved at their publc school… be and active parent, speak to the teachers and the administrators….. If that fails to advance the cause for your child, stop looking to undercut the current system… Reach down into your own pockets and PAY FOR THE EDUCATION YOU WANT YOUR CHILD TO HAVE ON YOUR OWN!!!!! Dig deep, take out a loan, cut the cable and get rid of the extras to pay to send your kid to private school! My wife and I decided that the Gwinnette county system was selling us a bill of goods, so I buckled down got a PT job to pay the the $900.00 a month it cost to send my child to the private School of my choice. Thats right…this left wing Obama supporter undersatnds that I am responsible for my own…. ( Wish some of these begging , looking for a handout Right side Cons would do the same!!!
md
October 25th, 2012
10:49 am
“A parent cannot turn around a failing school.”
No, but parents can……….and in actuality, are the only answer to failing schools, for if the parents don’t care nothing will change. The non-caring parents will forever be left on their own……
Bob
October 25th, 2012
10:52 am
Aqua, you have not responded, why should we be happy with the 55% grad rate of APS and how can you defend it ? Don’t blame the tea party or repubs since neither have anything to do with APS. You don’t seem to have a problem with the failure of APS and others and if you and your ilk were in charge I don’t see things changing considering the fact that the left has run APS for 30 or 40 years. APS is on its way to competing with Clayton County and you want to defend the status quo. You can bash others for wanting change you don’t like but you really can’t defend the failure that is APS.
Numbers-R-US
October 25th, 2012
10:52 am
Take the “for profit” out of the Charter and see whom amongst the Republican backers are still supportive of this amendment. Make the Charter schools answerable to the tax payers in the areas that would establish these schools and see whom amongst the Republican backers are still supportive. Go for it. Only the conned would believe that we need a k-12 Phoenix School System. Anything for a profit.
md
October 25th, 2012
10:55 am
“The counties in my area (and in some other areas, too) don’t have the population/students or the money to support more than one school.”
And I didn’t mean to imply that it is the only reason……..but it is in those instances, and probably a few more. Football means an awful lot to some of these smaller counties and they know where their bread is buttered.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right
October 25th, 2012
10:55 am
Gotta love the big government loving libs run screaming away from an itty bitty appeals board.
Likewise the small government conservatives.
We’ve become a nation of unthinking extremists.
mike
October 25th, 2012
10:58 am
I only have a few more years to pay the education portion of property tax. So this issue won’t affect me in a few years. But I will say this: I attended a public school in the City of Atlanta and made good grades. I attended high school in the City of Atlanta and made good grades. I attended public college here in Georgia and graduated — not with honors — but with good grades. I went on to pass a professional examination and now have a professional career. You get out what you put in.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right
October 25th, 2012
10:58 am
Numbers, your “for-profit” argument has been debunked.
Move on.
Numbers-R-US
October 25th, 2012
11:00 am
If the state really was interested in just the students then why didn’t the state legislature write an amendment that authorized the state to step in and take over the administration of specific schools that have a record of not satisfying some minimum standards. The Republicans are not interested in the students. They are interested in profiting off the students and their parents and every other tax dollar they can get their hands on. Take over the APS and show us what you can do. Take over half of the students in each of the schools and give us a side-by-side comparison of your most excellent abilities. I’d pay extra just to see that one.
Numbers-R-US
October 25th, 2012
11:01 am
Tiberius,
You have not debunked anything. Now move on.
Finn McCool (The System isn't Broken; It's Fixed)
October 25th, 2012
11:01 am
think the answer is to keep the power and money in the hands of the same people who have been running those public schools
So, can we expect aliens to be appointed? Canadians? Or will we find normal Georgians appointed? In other words, the same people….
Kyle Wingfield
October 25th, 2012
11:03 am
Aquagirl @ 10:46: You’d prefer they keep taking OTHER PEOPLE’S TAX MONEY and spending it in schools where their kids are being poorly educated and more likely to be a future drag on all those OTHER PEOPLE?
I swear, for someone who claims to be in favor of what’s good for the whole, you sure are opposed to something that would first and foremost help those people who aren’t being helped now.
mike
October 25th, 2012
11:04 am
What I find most interesting about this subject is that the State of Georgia has consistently cut funding to public schools under the guise of lower tax collections and the poor economy. That made my property taxes go up considerably. Now that revenue collections are up I don’t hear the State rushing to renew that funding to public schools. Do you? Rule of thumb: ANYTHING Republicans are for will generally end up costing the average person more and benefiting the well off. Believe it.
Numbers-R-US
October 25th, 2012
11:07 am
And some are that way by their own choosing.
Absolutely. So many county’s citizens choose to not have the financial means to support more than one high school or the population to justify more than one high school. A for-profit Charter school is just what the doctor ordered.
Numbers-R-US
October 25th, 2012
11:09 am
I swear, for someone who claims to be in favor of what’s good for the whole, you sure are opposed to something that would first and foremost help those people who aren’t being helped now.
So now you’re talking about the whole as opposed to the micro-subset of the whole. Well. Why didn’t you say so in the first place. I didn’t see anything in that amendment that mentioned a Charter school replacing the entirety of a given underperforming school. Probably just an oversight.
Aquagirl
October 25th, 2012
11:11 am
Aqua, you have not responded, why should we be happy with the 55% grad rate of APS and how can you defend it ?
Well, I’ll amend my last post since you are obviously not good at reading comprehension: since APS is city based I think the entrenched LOCAL school system is a failure.
Why are you happy with the 55% failure rate in APS? You think state granted charter schools will lower that to 54%? I’m sure you’ll have a great argument to defend 54% let’s hear it.
md
October 25th, 2012
11:14 am
“Absolutely. So many county’s citizens choose to not have the financial means to support more than one high school or the population to justify more than one high school. A for-profit Charter school is just what the doctor ordered.”
The operative word in the sentence was “some”, may want to look that one up if you are having problems with the meaning………
Real Athens
October 25th, 2012
11:19 am
The Charter School Amendment is about corporate welfare and political cronyism. Follow the money.
“No one at the school was interested in giving the boy more challenging work, he says.”
So the answer is to siphon off more public funds to subsidize a system that requires less stringent qualifications for teachers?
$48,946,000 in “austerity” cuts to Fulton County Schools THIS YEAR (that amounts to $13,347 PER classroom). Restore public education funding in Georgia. Pay for it by doing away with the State House and Senate pension and healthcare system. Who gets a pension and healthcare from a part-time job?
Here’s the flip side from a parent who actually sent their child to Fulton Science Academy.
http://www.empoweredga.org/Articles/Guest/roswell-mom-no.html
Finn McCool (The System isn't Broken; It's Fixed)
October 25th, 2012
11:19 am
On Donald Trump, Obama joked that they knew each other growing up in Kenya: “We had constant run-ins on the soccer field. He wasn’t very good, resented it. When we finally moved to America, I thought it would be over.”
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right
October 25th, 2012
11:20 am
Numbers, you failed to refute my very first post of the day. In fact, you ignored my pointing out your lack of logic and consistency in your position.
Repeating a failed talking point doesn’t make it any truer.
DawgDad
October 25th, 2012
11:20 am
aquagirl @10:46 a.m.
When I find myself agreeing with you . . .
just this once, OK?
Numbers-R-US
October 25th, 2012
11:25 am
Tiberius,
You failed to refute any of my posts and you continue to do so. Now move on.
JDW
October 25th, 2012
11:26 am
@Kyle…”But they can be part of the solution”
Agreed, where we part company is on which part. After looking at this issue from a lot of sides, including the part where I am a parent of a child in a charter school I have come to the conclusion that the role of charter schools is from within the existing system.
Let me explain, if a group of parents wants to improve the local public school by working together and converting it into a charter I am all for it assuming the local school board agrees. If the local school board sees the need for a new school and a group of parents wants that school to be a charter same story. Now in that case I would even be open to some sort of an appeal process if the school board doesn’t agree.
What I am not in favor of is private companies, groups of parents or anyone else using state monies to build and fund additional schools outside the existing framework. I think it dilutes the role of both existing public schools and private schools.
The choice for parents is either work within the system to drive change or opt for private. A new network of charter schools does good for no one.
Numbers-R-US
October 25th, 2012
11:27 am
The operative word in the sentence was “some”, may want to look that one up if you are having problems with the meaning………
Feel free to back up your claim of “some” by way of example, md.
curious
October 25th, 2012
11:28 am
This is not about improving public education. It’s about us paying to provide a semi-private school education for the proponent’s kids and give out of state companies carte blanche access to our money.
Do you believe privately run prisons are trying to rehab prisoners and get them back as productive members of society. I don’t think so; they want to keep a full house and could care less about the inmates.
For profits in the school business will do the same; do just enough to stay in business i.e. maximize profit for their shareholders.
catlady
October 25th, 2012
11:29 am
I’d be willing to bet the members of the Commission Board have already been chosen. If this amendment is approved, I would bet good money that there will be friends and family of our governor and members of our legislature, and many will “magically” end up with stock in the companies that run many of the charter schools.
Numbers-R-US
October 25th, 2012
11:29 am
A new network of charter schools does good for no one.
Except the Republican backers that look to profit from them.
JDW
October 25th, 2012
11:30 am
@kyle…”But are you honestly saying that people should stay stuck in bad schools because they can’t afford to get out? ”
That is when they should get involved with their local school…they are the impetus for improvement. If you remove that impetus you will always have a failing school.