Follow the money for anti-charter amendment campaign, too
There’s a logical explanation for the bitter opposition to the charter-schools amendment. Just ask Edward Lindsey, the Buckhead Republican who serves as House majority whip.
“This isn’t about ideology,” Lindsey says. “It’s about turf. It’s about those folks who have a vested interest, no matter how mediocre the present may be, in not changing.”
The turf in question is the power to approve charter schools — and thus how some public education funds are spent. Amendment One would empower the state to create charter schools in two instances. The first is for statewide charters; think virtual schools that teach online courses.
The other is when a local school board denies a charter application. The state could then conduct its own review and decide whether to approve and fund the school.
Who considers those powers an invasion of their own turf? Follow the money.
After its latest report, filed Tuesday, the anti-amendment group Vote SMART! had a donor base comprising 146 people and eight companies that had given a combined $104,263 (along with almost $19,000 in gifts not itemized). Who are they?
Thirty-four of them are current or former superintendents. That group gave more than $16,000.
Another 30 are other types of school-system administrators: area superintendents, assistant superintendents, directors of some kind or another. These folks contributed an additional $14,000.
Eleven members of various school boards around Georgia gave almost $4,000. Ten principals shelled out $2,576.
In all, almost 60 percent of the Vote SMART! donors and more than a third of its donations came from people who run our traditional public schools. That’s one bit of turf.
Then there are the professional organizations: the Professional Association of Georgia Educators, Georgia School Boards Association and Georgia School Superintendents Association. Fifteen employees of these groups donated more than $15,000.
Now let’s look at companies that do business with school systems. Yes, traditional public schools already outsource some work to for-profit firms; the educational management firms that do administrative work for some charter schools would hardly introduce the profit motive into our education system.
In fact, 35 people or firms who do business with traditional public schools, from attorneys and consultants to architects and contractors, have given more than $32,000 to the anti-amendment campaign.
Now, am I missing any job description in the education field? Hmmm, let’s see …
Oh, yes. Teachers. Well, make that teacher: Just one current teacher is listed as a contributor to Vote SMART! Also, one retired counselor. They gave about 500 bucks total.
If these numbers don’t rise to the levels you’ve read about for the pro-amendment side, keep in mind that they don’t include money from education PACs opposing Amendment One. The PAC for the Georgia Association of Educators, for instance, has reported very few itemized gifts this year but almost $115,000 in non-itemized ones — and nearly $350,000 in cash on hand.
From what we can see, though, almost 90 percent of the donors and $4 of every $5 donated come from the people running our schools and the firms they do business with. It’s a campaign of the educational establishment, by the educational establishment, for the educational establishment.
– By Kyle Wingfield
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147 comments Add your comment
Google "NEA" and "donations"
October 26th, 2012
6:42 pm
The teachers’ unions, represented locally by the Georgia Association of Educators, are steadfastly against education reform and parental choice.
If the amendment passes, the union strategy of fielding phony “Republicans” in local school board races to doom all charter school applications—will ultimately prove less fruitful.
Rent the film WAITING FOR SUPERMAN to learn more.
Then do a Google search on “NEA” and “donations” and you’ll see that the National Education Association, GAE’s parent union, is also a cash-cow for Democrats—and for every liberal-left
pressure group in the news.
Finally, vote “YES” on the Charter School Amendment ballot Initiative!
Google "NEA" and "union"
October 26th, 2012
6:48 pm
… And for those who like to pretend there are no unions in Georgia’s schools—understand that each and every Georgia Association of Educators member pays an additional $168 yearly to belong to the NEA and fund its liberal-left politics.
DeKalbParent
October 26th, 2012
6:52 pm
Wow, Kyle you were reading my mind! And exactly why we need this amendment. I voted YES. A lot of others are too!
YouLibs
October 26th, 2012
7:06 pm
Vote “yes” on this amendment. It will help ensure that your children won’t have to go to school with poor people and people of other races.
Hillbilly D
October 26th, 2012
7:31 pm
It’ll never happen but if I had my way, I’d pass a constitutional amendment that only people who are eligible to vote in an election can contribute to the campaigns. That would do away with all the corporate money, union money, out-of-state money, etc. etc. Like I said, it’ll never happen but I am always suspect of anybody who donates money for an election in an area where they don’t even live. I have to figure they have an ulterior motive of some kind.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right
October 26th, 2012
7:31 pm
Its a shame conservatives aren’t as shallow as “youlibs” think we are.
We leave that to you libs.
cc
October 26th, 2012
7:56 pm
I wonder what the going rate is for an industrious blogger, such as those posting on this blog and others?
Hillbilly D
October 26th, 2012
8:01 pm
I wonder what the going rate is for an industrious blogger, such as those posting on this blog and others?
If anybody is paying for this stuff, it just proves P T Barnum knew what he was talking about.
cc
October 26th, 2012
8:02 pm
“… And for those who like to pretend there are no unions in Georgia’s schools”
Those lobbyists that appear annually when the legislature is in session and lobby for government indoctrination center ‘teachers’ don’t work for free! Someone is footing the bill for their efforts and the required “gifts”, dining and drinking!
Check this out
October 26th, 2012
8:12 pm
To learn more about how charter schools need MORE oversight, not LESS, take a look at the stories on this site:
http://charterschoolscandals.blogspot.com/
It’s a no-brainer! Local, elected boards will be more responsive than an appointed, UNelected state board. Keep local control, no matter how you feel about charter schools, we can all agree that oversight is a good thing.
Rafe Hollister, suffering through Oblamer's ineptocracy
October 26th, 2012
8:13 pm
Coincidence you should write this Kyle. I did not have this on my mind until driving around late this afternoon, in exurban Gordon County, where the schools are pretty good and mostly white. Low and behold, I started noticing the vote NO on Amendment 1 signs. I was shocked that many up here had even heard about the Amendment. Then it hit me that these signs probably were in yards of teachers, administrators, and school officials. These were yards where I had never before seen a political yard sign.
Amazing to me, the opposition to this by the education lobby. I now think that in areas like this, where there is no built in demand for charters, uninformed voters will just vote NO, based on neighborhood yard signs and word of mouth. Most people I think Vote No anyway, when they do not understand what is at stake. It will go down, I believe, which is a shame, because in some areas, people are trapped in poorly performing and managed schools with unsympathetic school boards.
Jake Brake
October 26th, 2012
8:13 pm
Yes ,and all these extra schools will cost $$$$$$.Guess where this money will come from.
yuzeyurbrane
October 26th, 2012
8:28 pm
Kyle, are you getting desperate? I don’t know what most recent report shows for pro-Amendment forces, but in September report it was about $500,000, mostly from out-of-state. At least that is what AJC said and I know you wouldn’t work for dishonest employer. And the anti folks are only now exceeding $100,000 with most from in-state sources. Just say you are sorry for distortion and we will forgive you if you promise not to do it again.
DeKalbParent
October 26th, 2012
9:00 pm
@YouLibs, you are way off base…our state charter school is 99% black with over half free/reduced price lunch. We have the kids many public schools (like Gwinnett) try to push off to alternative schools. Don’t insult the intelligence of the public with your statements that aren’t backed with facts.
DeKalbParent
October 26th, 2012
9:02 pm
Dear Kyle,
The union leaders stayed home tonight to comment…you are threatening their gravy train. How dare you!
another voice
October 26th, 2012
9:42 pm
Follow the money? Are you kidding? Did you not read the article in your own newspaper today about the money supporting passage of this ammendment?
Let’s see…34 current or former superintendents at $470 (avg) each, 30 other schpool adminstrative types at $467 (avg) each, 11 school board members at $364 (avg) each, and 10 principals at $257 (avg) each. The cost of taking a family of four to one Braves game complete with hot dog, sodas, parking and a souvenir – $200. The amount given by these educators in opposition to the passage of ammendment #1 is relatively small. That is especially so when considering the money given by individuals supporting the ammendment. Six individual donors in support of the ammendment gave respectively: $350K, $250K, $250K, $250K, $100k, $20K. Follow the money indeed! And where does the money trail lead? Mostly beyond the geographical boundaries of the state of Georgia.
DeKalbParent
October 26th, 2012
9:48 pm
@another voice stop changing your user name…
another voice
October 26th, 2012
10:03 pm
@DeKalb Parent the above is my first post
Mary Elizabeth
October 26th, 2012
10:14 pm
The Amendment 1 issue is not a matter of “turf” sustaining with me but about sustaining public education equally for all students through public taxes, and about keeping those who have an ideological agenda, like ALEC, from having its political influence in dismantling traditional public schools for quasi-private public schools in which private companies are frequently paid for profit to manage these schools.
The two sponsors of HR 1162 which became the charter-schools amendment, Representatives Jan Jones and Edward Lindsey, are not only members of Georgia’s House Education Committee but they are also members of ALEC. Rep. Jones is, also, on the Education Task Force in ALEC.
====================================================
From the 10/25/12 front page AJC article by Nancy Badertscher, entitled “Charter school dispute began in Gwinnett,” are the following final words regarding the economics involved in establishing charter schools, “despite reports indicating that, as a whole, most (charter schools) perform no better than traditional public schools,” according to Badertscher:
————————————————————————-
“Barge, the state school superintendent, has said that if more charters are approved, lawmakers will have to come up with more money.
If the new commission approves only seven charters a year – the average approved under the now-defunct Georgia Charter Schools Commission – that extra costs for five years will be about $430 million, he said.”
————————————————————————–
Taxpayers should expect their taxes to increase at some point in time, imo, if Amendment 1 passes and the growth of state charter schools increases. Factors such as the cost of a traditional public school building’s upkeep and maintenance including custodial service, grounds management, and utilities’ costs, as well as the salaries of whole school personnel who are not effected by the numbers of students in the school, such as Media Specialists and Food and Lunchroom Managers will continue even – if some students leave for charter schools.
I will be voting NO to Amendment 1, primarily because I believe that Amendment 1 is more politically based than educationally based.
cc
October 26th, 2012
10:36 pm
Mary Elizabeth:
Great cut and paste job! I’ve seen you post the same info before. I understand that you oppose passage of the amendment, but don’t you think if we have all read it once, it is sufficient?
cc
October 26th, 2012
10:39 pm
Rafe:
I posted something to you on Kyle’s previous column blog, if you want to go back and read it. Probably is the last post made there.
Gail
October 26th, 2012
10:42 pm
And you need to follow the money for the amendment. Chip Rogers is the Treasurer for ALEC – one of the groups supporting and campaigning for passage of the amendment. Another group has a local sounding name, but funds are not local. .
From the article in the AJC By Wayne Washington
“A second amendment supporter, Georgia Public School Families for Amendment One, raised $55,000. Despite the group’s name, all of its money came from a single donation made by PublicSchoolOptions.org of Arlington, Va.
Lisa
October 26th, 2012
10:43 pm
Are you kidding me??? Have you seen the donations for the pro-side?? $600,000 from Alice Walton? What does she in Arkansas have to gain for helping kids in GA? What about all these foreign and out of state for-profit schools? Hundreds of thousands of dollars. Let me tell you folks, people don’t give that kind of money and use these kind of tactics if there isn’t some serious profit to be made. Plus I thought Republicans were for less government.
teaching taxpayer
October 26th, 2012
10:45 pm
I would be happy to vote for Amendment 1 if it created an ELECTED board to rule on charter appeals rather than a board APPOINTED from Nathan Deal’s cronies. We voters should have a chance to see what the board decides and then, as appropriate, vote the bums out or reelect them.
Kyle, why have you abandoned the small “d” democratic and small “c” conservative principle of people empowered to spend TAXPAYER dollars being accountable to those taxpayers? Are you that much of a boot licker for Nathan Deal?
DeKalbParent
October 26th, 2012
10:53 pm
Republicans want to see EFFECTIVE use of tax dollars. Our local BOEs are not delivering that. Why would corporations want to move companies to Georgia if there are no educated employees to work there. Duh!
Jane W.
October 26th, 2012
11:38 pm
Kyle, a heads-up. Union money finds its way into many uses as they try desperately to prevent expansion of charter schools.
One is to hire bloggers, writing under multiple pseudonyms, to flood online forums with cut & paste union arguments against education reform. I recognize some of them—and their above spiel—from another AJC blog run by an anti-choice zealot.
Mary Elizabeth
October 26th, 2012
11:42 pm
cc, 10:39 pm
“Mary Elizabeth: Great cut and paste job! I’ve seen you post the same info before. I understand that you oppose passage of the amendment, but don’t you think if we have all read it once, it is sufficient?”
=================================================
I will address your post tonight and, thereafter, I doubt that I will respond to your posts to me again because you have shown a penchant for indulging too often in such pettiness as you wrote, above, for my sensibilities to value.
Not everyone who reads this blog also reads Jim Galloway’s blog. The first part of my post is original tonight although I have shared some facts from it previously, and the second part of my post is lifted from my post yesterday on Galloway’s blog. I do not assume that all of the readers of this blog and Galloway’s blog are the same people. I am interested in reaching as many readers as possible. The newpaper excerpt, which is contained within the second part of my 10:14 pm post, is available to online readers of both blogs only because I took the time to type that excerpt, myself, from yesterday’s paper edition of Ms. Badertscher’s article in the the AJC. Her article was not published online and I felt that citizens who do not subscribe to the AJC’s paper edition should, also, have the opportunity to read part of reporter Nancy Badertscher’s excellent article. You may find that I will, also, post part of that article, later, to the reading audiences of Maureen Downey’s blog and/or Jay Bookman’s blog, if those two journalists post another thread on the charter-schools amendment.
Please feel free to scroll past my posts.
Georgia
October 27th, 2012
12:00 am
Let me get this straight, Kyle’s saying that the money for the anti-charter school campaign is coming from the anti-charter school constituency, and that the money for the pro-charter school campaign is coming from the pro-charter school constituency. So it’s a transfer of wealth thing? It’s free market capitalism unleashed on our student’s future? Privatize education? Sell stock in the ventures? Talk about an incentive for cheating.
Vote no to vote yes on the Charter School Amendment. Or is it vote yes to vote no? The amendment is worded in a counter-intuitive near-riddle. The wording makes the voters think that if they vote no, our schools would go full Hunger Games.
LarryMajor
October 27th, 2012
2:07 am
If these numbers don’t rise to the levels you’ve read about for the pro-amendment side, it’s because Families for Better Public Schools raised $1.79 million in the same time frame – $1.38 million of which came from outside Georgia.
I want to know what these groups did for schools in their own state, that their own kids attend before deciding we need to change the Georgia Constitution.
Gimme Gimme Gimme
October 27th, 2012
3:32 am
cc@10:36 “Mary Elizabeth: Great cut and paste job!”
Mary Elizabeth is always quite impressed with herself.
lefty_316
October 27th, 2012
3:33 am
My primarly concern over legislaton is the potential funneling of taxpayer dollars to schools run by the three biggest cults in America – Southern Baptists, Pentacostals and the Assembly of God. And I’m defining cult as any sect in which 75% or more of its members believing the Bible is word-for-word true, and 75% or more of its members believing they are have a free ticket to paradise because they’ve been born-again.
“The clergy believe that any portion of power confided to me, will be exerted in opposition to their schemes. And they believe rightly; for I have sworn upon the altar of god, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.” Thomas Jefferson, 1800.
Techfan
October 27th, 2012
6:11 am
Most of the pro-amendment donors seem to be from companies and individuals associated with companies that run for profit schools, or provide products, such as software, teaching plans, etc. to schools. $50k from PublicSchoolOptions.org. whiich is Georgia Public School Families for Amendment One.
A Joel Hug who is listed as Chairman of the Board at Georgia Public School Families for Amendment One works for Excent (Global Education Technologies) that provides software for schools.Get has contracts with the state DoE.
Alisa Hug, (Joel’s wife) is listed as Georgia, Director of PublicSchoolOptions.org., and also listed as Board President of Georgia Connections Academy, funded by the state.
It seems like sort of an incestuous relationship with the state, contractors, and the supporters of Amendment1.
You might think twice about lecturing that a teacher who gives $50 is trying to game the system when the big buck supporters are getting away with this.
Karl Marx
October 27th, 2012
6:35 am
Indeed It’s not about the kids at all is it. What it is about is keeping their power and to heck with the kids. I’m voting YES
Rascal
October 27th, 2012
7:19 am
Any post referring to opponents that want to “Protect quality public education in Georgia” makes me laugh. Georgians have no clue what a good education looks like because we have all been shielded from it by the monopoly for the past 60 years or more. When the free market and education entrepreneurs, both for profit and non-profit, enter the Georgia marketplace, we will all have amazing options available to us. Parents making a choice will actually mean something for the first time in Georgia education. I hope a lot of very smart businessmen build great schools and compete for the kids with parents that care enough to make a good choice for their children. Yes, many parents don’t care enough to worry about it, but why should all the other parents and their kids be punished by the establishment for “EQUALITY” when the equality is such a low standard.
DeborahinAthens
October 27th, 2012
7:37 am
More charter schools, vouchers–all ways to eviscerate the public school system. The Repugs have never made any attempt to hide their agenda. What we have to do as voters is think about the motives behind this agenda. I am not an educator so I have no vested interest. But here’s what I believe. Right wing, religious nuts hijacked my Republican Party a long time ago. They want to keep as many kids out of public schools as possible, because having an electorate that is educated and can think on their own is terrifying to them. With vouchers and charters, they can use our tax money to supplement payments to the “right” private schools. The “right” charter schools will be created. Here’s how it will work. An upper middle class or upper class family that is already sending little Treys to the Christian school, will get a voucher, paid for with public tax money. Little Trey will continue going to his school but mommy and daddy will not have to pay so much out of pocket. Now a low income family will get a voucher for the same amount. It doesn’t cover the whole cost of a private school, and they can’ t come up with the difference. They don’t win the “lottery” for the charter school that sounds so good on paper. These private and charter schools don’t have to take the difficult students. These students stay in a public school system that has even fewer resources than they had before Sonny stole billions from the education budget. When Evans are done, the charter schools, with no “bad” students look super. The public schools that can’t afford the technology and good teachers get bad evaluations. Repugs–brainless,brazen manipulators that they are will say,”See! We told you so!” If religious nuts and too good to go to public school people want private schools, pay for them out of your pocket. Politicians, stop kowtowing to your religious nuts and fund our public schools. All this crap about teachers unions is just that–crap! You listen to Boortz and Hannity too much. Get up off your butts and go visit some of the public schools and see what these teachers have to deal with and figure out how to facilitate their jobs–not make them more difficult.
DeborahinAthens
October 27th, 2012
7:39 am
“Evans” above was supposed to be evaluations…gotta love IPad’s autocorrect.
spaceman109
October 27th, 2012
7:47 am
i would still like to see kyle address the high probability of a new state gommint bureaucracy if this amendment passes. his continued silence on this issue is quite deafening.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
October 27th, 2012
8:06 am
“i would still like to see kyle address the high probability of a new state gommint bureaucracy if this amendment passes. his continued silence on this issue is quite deafening.”
Gee, spaceman, they’re creating one stinkin’ appeals board with this amendment. That’s it.
Why do you even remotely think there is a bureaucracy in the works?
Reason is lost on opponents of this amendment.
“These private and charter schools don’t have to take the difficult students.”
Uh, DeborahinAthens? Private, no. Charter, yes, they do.
Mary Elizabeth
October 27th, 2012
8:11 am
DeborahinAthens, 7:37 am
Well said, DeborahinAthens, in terms of what will happen to traditional public schools if the charter movement does not have specific boundaries and limitations on charter schools. I would add that it is not only the “religious right” that has this interest in charter schools, but middle to upper middle class parents of all races who wish to segregate themselves from those who are less fortunate, instead of working to improve traditional public schools from within. I would, also, add that some politicians have the possibility of accruing personal gain through supporting, in lockstep fashion, the ideological agenda of those of greater wealth and power in our nation who wish to dismantle traditional public schools for schools of a “free market” model in which these powerful few can tap into the billions of dollars of public tax money spent to educate all of the children in America.
dabir dalton
October 27th, 2012
8:13 am
Kyle republicans have been tinkering with education here in Georgia for nearly 12 yrs now – for a lot longer then that on the national level – their primary tactic in their all out war on public schools has been to reduce funding and things have only gotten worse. Of course the republican plan all along has been to create an ever increasing crisis in our public school system in order to both justify and convince the public at large. To allow the republicans to not only continue to financially gut public education but to utterly destroy it and replace public schools with private – charter- schools created to promote religious dogma. While miss educating and churning out ignorant graduates programmed – brainwashed – into accepting conservative myths and outright lies as God’s own truth while making a profit for the corporations that own the schools. All on the public dime no less.
curious
October 27th, 2012
8:25 am
At least the anti money is coming from instate and from people having a vested interest in maintaining public schools. Maybe some of their interest is in the school children.
The pro money is mostly out of state and from companies or people with ties to companies with profit as a principal interest or reinstating a milder form of segregation.
I have more confidence in my neighbors.
Disgusted in Dekalb
October 27th, 2012
8:29 am
The only question here is what is best for our kids. I have two beautiful daughters in Dekalb public schools and I’m digusted by what our school board does. My first thought about Dekalb and about the charter amendment is ‘is anyone thinking about the chilldren?’.
Kyle, do you have kids? If so, where do they go to school?
If not, you need to stay out of the discussion because you have NO skin in the game.
I’d be interested in how many posters here have kids in the public school system. These discussions make me sick to my stomach because there’s no real mention of our kids, its all about the power and the money and ideology.
The State of Georgia guts our school systems and now wants to bring in corporations to run ‘charter schools’ with no oversight at all. Why is that?
The State broke our school systems and they need to fix what we have. Its all easy to talk about discarding the current system and starting fresh, but what about the KIDS. And its about ALL our children, not the select few who can attend the charter schools. Its already embarassing to see where Georgia education ranked against the rest of the states. You’d think that alone would shame our state government and local school boards into doing something.
There are so many pathetic issues with the State Government and how our elected officials run things, maybe we need to outsource our representatives and the governor. I think I’d vote for that amendment.
cc
October 27th, 2012
8:41 am
Gimme Gimme Gimme@3:32 am:
That’s self-evident, isn’t it?
cc
October 27th, 2012
8:45 am
“Kyle, do you have kids? If so, where do they go to school?
If not, you need to stay out of the discussion because you have NO skin in the game.”
Kyle has, as you phrase it, “skin in the game” whether or not he has children. He is paying taxes to educate the little darlings who aren’t being educated in the government indoctrination centers.
carlosgvv
October 27th, 2012
8:47 am
These companies and individuals are supporting the “anti-ammendment charter campaign” because they don’t want to see the majority of charter schools teaching creationism and calling evolution and astromony “lies from the pit of hell”.
Georgia
October 27th, 2012
8:48 am
The new F bomb has to be Frankenstorm. The new C word has to be Ann Coulter. The new N word is Neanderthal. And guess what? White folks have a shockingly large percentage of their DNA that is all up in the Neanderthal. There is according to NOVA only one population group that don’t have no Neanderthal in them no how. Gee, who could it be. I don’t know, no n-words come to mind. Cant think of a single minority. Could it be…….. Think about it. Whites are the n words: Neanderthals. Make that a capital N. Scientists say that our Neanderthal DNA helps with our immune system, and contributes to the flexibility required to oppose our thumbs, keep our balance, and stick our heads up our own behinds. I haven’t been able to confirm the NOVA report on line, and I’m too much of a lazy Neanderthal to do so. But the idea is that some Africans never ventured out of the continent and thus were never contaminated with Neanderthal DNA. 80K years ago was when all the white folk were bumping uglies with all that free Neanderthal trim. I’ve never heard this theory before, and so it must be a result of the latest data about our genome. So, I’m all for the Charter School ammendment, because it’s time Georgia provide a separate but equal school system to keep the Neanderthals out of our public schools.
get out much?
October 27th, 2012
8:52 am
I am just waiting for the wailing and gnashing of teeth when the first Madrasa applies for charter school status.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
October 27th, 2012
8:52 am
“The State broke our school systems and they need to fix what we have. ”
Oh, the “state” broke our school systems, but you’re disgusted with your local school board, DeKalb?
Stop blaming the state and look a bit more inward to you and your county. You people crack me up. You want local control, but don’t want to foot the bill for your schools. You cry out for state and Federal dollars, then complain about the strings and mandates attached.
Oh, and DeKalb? Anybody who is forced to pay school taxes, no matter if they have kids in school or not, has skin in the game.
Refresh my memory
October 27th, 2012
8:53 am
What was the Georgia tax break where you could donate money for tuition to private schools? I vaguely remember a video with a politician telling wealthy parents how to apply and receive the funds that were supposedly for at risk kids.
Refresh my memory
October 27th, 2012
8:54 am
Edward Lindsey heads up which pro group?
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
October 27th, 2012
9:03 am
If all you anti-amendment people have is hyperbole (and that’s all you shown thus far), you’ve got nothing.
Disgusted in Augusta
October 27th, 2012
9:06 am
wow…what a newsflash….the anti charter contributions are from educators IN GEORGIA because they care about education IN GEORGIA. However, when you follow the money for the Pro amendment side, the contributions mainly come from OUTSIDE OF GEORGIA. Following that money makes it obvious that our ethically challenged Governor, Emperor Deal, and his merry band of legislators such as Jan Jones have taken the bait of ALEC and the profit seeking charter companies. Mark my words…Nathan Deal himself will profit financially if this passes. He has quite a track record of making sure he and his friends get sweet insider deals and jobs in this state. The sleeping giant is getting awakened, however, and we can’t wait for 2014 to say goodbye to Nathan and his crowd. I’m voting NO to amendment 1 and Amendment 2 because this ethically challenged Governor does not deserve the right to extend business contracts for the state to multi year agreements. All of his buddies will be loading up on those, too, before he leaves office.
clanmack
October 27th, 2012
9:08 am
If you don’t like what the BOE in your county or school system is doing, you have the option of going to their meetings, writing them emails, getting your fellow citizens to petition and ultimately voting them out of office. (it is called Democracy, after all!) Let’s see you do any of that with the Charter Commission appointed by our Governor. See how much they listen to anyone but the one who appoints them. This simply further politicizes and already too political situation. The legislature has pandered to the big money constituency that is funding the pro-amendment 1 “campaign,” ALEC and other organizations from other places. Our legislature is too lazy to do the work needed to learn the issues and make more reasonable decisions in the interest of the citizens of Georgia, much less the smaller constituencies, like parents and school children.
Kyle, the courage you showed in writing this column and exposing your “follow the money” approach is to be admired. Thinking people will take a look at the money on the “yes” side of this amendment and draw the same conclusions you infer for the “no” side.
The idea that if you are not eligible to vote, you shouldn’t be able to give money, is a good one in principle. It would go the way of the “Citizens United” SCOTUS decision which said it is ok to give unlimited funds as long as there is no coordination between these super-pacs and 501 (c) 4 “social welfare” organizations and candidates.
@ Disgusted in Dekalb – both my kids went and graduated from public schools. At the same time, having a legitimate point of view or opinion doesn’t require having kids in public school to have “skin in the game.”
Kyle Wingfield
October 27th, 2012
9:08 am
One quick response while I have a free moment:
To those who are still trying to compare the Vote SMART! numbers to those for the pro campaign: You’re ignoring what I wrote about the associations’ PACs. Vote SMART! isn’t the only anti group raising and spending money on this campaign; when all is said and done it might not even be the biggest. The biggest of these, GAE’s, has yet to file the report that was due Thursday — so we’ll have to wait to see its numbers over the same time period.
As for the pro campaign’s donors: It’s funny, I don’t remember any of these detractors asking any critical questions when the Gates Foundation and other nonprofits funded by the wealthy have given money directly to APS and other public school districts. But now we’re supposed to think they’re up to no good when they give money to support the creation of another form of public education (which is what charter schools are; which is why the claims about madrasas and Christian-based charters are off the mark — charters are subject to the same restrictions on using public funds for religious purposes as traditional public schools are). In fact, the Gates Foundation is spending tons of money in a similar referendum out in Washington state right now. Will APS and other districts turn away Gates’ money in the future, since we now know it supports charter schools? Btw, Walton and these other wealthy folks have given money to support school choice in other states previously; as far as I know, Wal-Mart has yet to open its first charter school.
Have organizations that run charter schools donated to the pro side? Yes. But as of its previous reports — I have not had time to look thoroughly at the one filed yesterday — these are organizations that already have opened charter schools in Georgia. And they’re good schools. I would hope they’d apply to open more here if the amendment passes.
OTOH, we know exactly the motives of the people funding the anti campaign, as I’ve outlined in the column: To keep things the way they are now. If you’re content with the way things are now in Georgia’s public schools, then by all means, vote no to Amendment One.
(And, for the record: I have two children, neither of whom is old enough yet to be in school. But I agree with cc @ 8:45: Any taxpayer in Georgia has skin in this game.)
Kyle Wingfield
October 27th, 2012
9:10 am
spaceman109 @ 7:47: Actually, I have addressed this before. You just haven’t been reading. The new “state gommint bureaucracy” will consist of the same staff members now doing this work for the DOE, along with seven unpaid commission members. So I think the probability of some big new bureaucracy is actually exceedingly low.
Numbers-R-US
October 27th, 2012
9:11 am
Where does caring concerned Kyle offer up such a detailed description of “the money” in favor of this amendment.
Numbers-R-US
October 27th, 2012
9:14 am
Is the Gates Foundation a for-profit organization.
Numbers-R-US
October 27th, 2012
9:20 am
The way things are, we have local school systems capable of opening up charter schools as well as maintaining the traditional schools. The way things are, we have families that can teach their children at home or transport them to other school systems. The way things are, we don’t have the Rupert Murdoch’s of the world tapping that huge pot of tax dollars for profit. We don’t have Phoenix University expanding into k-12. I’m good with that and I am voting against that amendment.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
October 27th, 2012
9:25 am
Repeating the same “for-profit” argument 20 times doesn’t make it valid, Numbers.
But keep wasting your time and ours.
Numbers-R-US
October 27th, 2012
9:43 am
Tiberius continues repeating his same old line of nothing.
Not stupid
October 27th, 2012
9:53 am
Oh by the way Kyle…..those contributions most teachers would have made…..They have been retained by the state in the form of furlough days as we contributed to the budget cuts and deficit the state leadership has driven us into so that a balanced budget for all Georgians could be put together. OOOPS I erred…..it really isn’t balanced. Go to the FY2011 state CAFR http://www.audits.ga.gov/SGD/cafr.html and look at page 263 of the adobe toolbar (report is page 233) and check out how much worse off we are as Georgians under 8 years of “party leadership”. Thats a lot of debt…..guess the state leadership can’t live within their means. And now we need to add another commission?
RAMZAD
October 27th, 2012
9:53 am
Probably; the most curious variable in the Amendment One controversy is African Americans.
We have a long and sometimes bloody history of distrust for local authority. The local police, zoning board, chamber of commerce, PTA, local judiciary, and local school board. We have never been shy about taking matters to the state or federal constitutional deliberation or administrative adjudication, because we have always felt that local authority was up to no good, and frequently we were right- until this nonsensical switch-aroo.
It does not make sense, because African American children are the most likely to be failed by local public academic systems- smallest SAT scores, smallest graduation rates, smallest amounts of academic scholarships, smallest matriculation to college, most likely to wind up in an alternative school, most likely to be murdered during school pursuits, most likely to graduate to prison, most likely to be a baby momma. You name it and we are going to be distinguished for being the worst at what local public school systems say they do or offer. So; you would think African Americans would want to run to the state for refuge. Not this time!
Selfishness; a treasured classic in our race, is at work here. I will explain. Education is one of the few endeavors where African Americans have a foothold. It it not medicine. We are not regularly doctors. It is not the judiciary. We are not frequently lawyers. It is not science and engineering, because we are not frequently scientists, but every African American alive knows a black teacher or school administrator. The public school house is an African American preserve.
So, in order to stay on this preserve African Americans will go to the mat for this local control we always abhor- this time. It is not concern for our students. We were willing to cheat our own out of an education to keep our rank in and our checks from the school house. So, for African Americans, this has nothing to do with the quality of education for black children. The waves of “local control” cheating scandals in predominantly African American districts all over the country proved that eminently well.
It is about the loss of control that will be a necessary condition of passage of Amendment One that blacks fear. We saw what happened to the incumbent mayor and to Michelle Rhee, DC School Superintendent when African American school hegemony was challenged in Washington DC about four years ago. We saw what happened in Chicago last month when attempts were made to tie teacher advancement to student performance.
Amendment One is necessary to break this African American dictatorship in local public school control. We have seen the results of this dictatorship, and it is horrible.
Numbers-R-US
October 27th, 2012
10:09 am
Our local majority-white school leadership has come out against amendment one. We also have a charter school already with no new legislation. Will wonders ever cease.
Dusty
October 27th, 2012
10:22 am
I really am not sure about this subject but insulting Kyle for writing about it is certainly pure ignorance.
Somehow I do not want to be one of the rats that leaves a sinking ship. If public schools are sinking, I’d much rather patch the holes and repair the engines for a better trip for the passengers.
If you think that is impossible, I guess you want a new model and better captains.
LIke I said, I just don’t know. Public schools have been good for a very long time. Maybe we will end up with ALL schools online. Government on line? Police on line? Healthcare on line?
OK so I am getting off subject. To be or not to be a public school is getting to be the question. Let us think about this one a bit longer.
carlosgvv
October 27th, 2012
10:51 am
Tiberius – 9:03
We will give your observation all the attention it truly deserves.
cc
October 27th, 2012
11:08 am
“check out how much worse off we are as Georgians under 8 years of “party leadership”. Thats a lot of debt…..guess the state leadership can’t live within their means. And now we need to add another commission?”
I’m sure that NONE of that “debt” resulted from unfunded federal mandates, did it? I am just as sure that democrat congress, senate and current administration had nothing at all to do with it, did it?
Rafe Hollister, suffering through Oblamer's ineptocracy
October 27th, 2012
11:16 am
cc: thanks for the link, great story. I answered you downstairs, but hopefully Kyle will not get upset, if I post the link over here, for those of you tired of the parental choice/government dictate argument on schools.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/10/they_fought_for_their_lives.html
real john
October 27th, 2012
11:19 am
Kyle:
I usually really enjoy reading your articles. However, you have written what seems as an abnormal amount of articles on this charter school thing. Too many of us voters, this is such a SMALL issue. I’m not sure if you are personally involved somehow, but I think we have much bigger issues in this country/state, don’t you??
onpatroll
October 27th, 2012
11:22 am
This is the worst amendment ever. Nobody is scrabbling for a degree from Phoenix University. Don’t subject kids to this.
Rafe Hollister, suffering through Oblamer's ineptocracy
October 27th, 2012
11:24 am
Somehow I do not want to be one of the rats that leaves a sinking ship. If public schools are sinking, I’d much rather patch the holes and repair the engines for a better trip for the passengers.
I do not think anyone is suggesting leaving the sinking ship. It is more like having a car that is undependable and leaves you walking most of the time. You’re broke and can’t replace it, so when you get an offer to pick up a car that might be a little better, you decide to go for it, but keep the old one as a backup.
More options, less walking.
Georgia
October 27th, 2012
11:30 am
Kyle rightly knows many of the constituents on both sides of every issue. He and Jay are in constant touch with the lawmakers, and their blogs are really the only way to stay informed for the average voter. And neither Jay nor Kyle are responsible for the comments on their blogs. Aww, I can’t fool anyone. I’m scared of Frankenstorm, man. What if it changes directions back toward Atlanta? What if it becomes a category five? It’s Frankenstorm. Frankenstorm! FRANKENSTORM!!!!!
cc
October 27th, 2012
11:31 am
Rafe:
The article puts a little different perspective on that incident, and makes it much more personal and “human”. Too bad the MSM hasn’t given that aspect of this story the coverage it deserves, but that would seriously damage their creation, “the President the Press Made”.
ragnar danneskjold
October 27th, 2012
11:45 am
Good observation.
zinc
October 27th, 2012
12:28 pm
Kyle–
Two questions:
1. Why should I as a taxpaying citizen subsidize quasi-private schools operated by for profit companies that don’t have to play by the same set of rules? If a parent wants another education options, several private school will enroll their child.
2. Where is your research on the money from the pro-Amendment 1 groups? It should shock no one that the local public schools and their groups are against it. But who is supporting it? That’s more telling to me
Truth is
October 27th, 2012
12:35 pm
Kyle what you and the pro supporters fail to understand is that all of us in the public education setting are not opposed to charter schools. Charter schools, locally approved already exist in this state. What we are opposed to is a board of unelected officials approving new charters. These same people have been underfunding public schools for the past 8 years, forcing schools to cut their school years, rif teachers, (is that unconstitutional?) and then suddenly they want us to believe they care deeply about students. Sorry. We have been burned too many times on shady deals, back room deals and looking out for those on their friends and families plan to believe anything. Leave the constitution alone. It already provides an appeal process.
Old Physics Teacher
October 27th, 2012
12:37 pm
Really, Kyle? The anti-amendment donations from in-state educators are “pennies” compared to the “thousands” from the out-of-state millionaires and their for-profit education companies. Teachers, who spend their OWN MONEY ON THEIR STUDENTS, are giving money to the anti-cause through their associations, while millionaire lawyers and faceless corporations are trying to buy access to tax money while being assisted by millionaire lawyer-legislators…David vs Goliath, and you’re backing Goliath? If this is your, and your BFF Lindsey’s, best example for voting FOR wasting taxes, it’s pretty pathetic.
teaching taxpayer
October 27th, 2012
12:46 pm
Kudos to “Truth is.” I am a charter school supporter, and I believe schools that are rejected locally should have an appeal. Why Amendment 1 supporters are adamant that Nathan Deal should APPOINT unaccountable cronies to the board rather than allow the citizens to ELECT or DEFEAT them on their merits bewilders me. Unelected, unaccountable board with power to spend taxpayer dollars = government bureaucracy and cronyism. It’s really that simple, and Kyle should know it.
trails of money ...LOL
October 27th, 2012
1:31 pm
Who cares? after the Supreme Court voted in favor of PACs… the money is suppose to flow from rapid supporters to influence the points of view of other voters.
The columnist in this case is simply supporting one side by making the point of who is donating on the opposite side and making it sound worse than it is.
Better would be a column that discusses who are likely to run the new charter schools, what are the anticipated educational benefits etc..
so … who cares about the trail of money… we should be more focused on what is proven to work to meet the educational goals that will result in a more economically competitive Georgia..
Dusty
October 27th, 2012
1:50 pm
I see we have school info going left and right. Very good. Debates are the style.
But I hope you don’t mind if I wander off subject to mention some of my favorite people. Native Americans, our Indian citizens. Haven’t read the following anywhere.
NOVEMBER marks NATIONAL AMERICAN INDIAN AND ALASKA NATIVE HERITAGE MONTH.
There! Now don’t forget to remember the lives and legacies of Native American people who celebrated as part of our first Thanksgiving. They are fine people. Many of them have fought in our armed forces to protect this country.
I have had the pleasure of working with them many times.
Ronin
October 27th, 2012
2:00 pm
“The turf in question is the power to approve charter schools — and thus how some public education funds are spent”
The state wanted the Charter option and formed the Charter commission, district schools didn’t like their “turf” being encroached upon. The state supreme court rules 4-3 in favor of the plaintiff, which many will argue was based on political wrangling rather than state law.
So, not to be slighted, the state legislature floats an amendment to allow Charters to be established by a state commission.
Don’t be swayed by the corporate greed crowd, they are simply regurgitating left leaning talking points. The entire FOR PROFIT argument is simply nonsense. This is about control of capital expenditures for education and the golden rule.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right
October 27th, 2012
2:58 pm
Amaazing how an amendment with such little implications that might affect public schools in such an inconsequential way brings out the education lobby which couldn’t put two coherent sentences together on any other subject of their lives depended on it.
cc
October 27th, 2012
4:22 pm
Tiberius, it’s call “turf protecting”.
cc
October 27th, 2012
4:23 pm
“call” should be “called”!
Too much football . . .
bob
October 27th, 2012
4:32 pm
mary elizabeth and Deb in Athens, both of you seem to imply that if the charters pass the standard publics will fail. Why is it that you think these publics will fall by the wayside ?
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
October 27th, 2012
6:18 pm
“Within minutes of the first bullet being fired the White House knew these heroes would be slaughtered if immediate air support was denied,” said Ty Woods’s father, Charles. “In less than an hour, the perimeters could have been secured and American lives could have been saved. After seven hours fighting numerically superior forces, my son’s life was sacrificed because of the White House’s decision.”
And the libs shed no tears this time, huh.
Hillbilly D
October 27th, 2012
6:23 pm
So I think the probability of some big new bureaucracy is actually exceedingly low.
I’d have to disagree with Kyle on this; most everything winds up being a “big new bureaucracy”. It’s the nature of the beast.
cc
October 27th, 2012
6:25 pm
I Report:
Mr. Woods should have altered that jst a little to say, “because of the White House’s political decision to sacrifice American lives for the sake of reelection.”
cc
October 27th, 2012
6:26 pm
“jst” should be “just”
JAWJA
October 27th, 2012
8:30 pm
Yep, follow the money! If the repugs dont’t already have it, they soon will.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
October 27th, 2012
8:32 pm
In case you were wondering, I’m a total San Franfreako Giants fan.
Well, at least until they rid us of, eck, detriot.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
October 27th, 2012
8:33 pm
I often wonder why there even is a detriot.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
October 27th, 2012
8:36 pm
If there weren’t a detriot, there would be 706,585 fewer obozo votes, just sayin…
antinewt
October 27th, 2012
10:34 pm
I thought conservatives were always for “local” control of schools. Doesn’t this ammendment give the State the power to overrule local boards? Perhaps those in opposition are true conservatives.
Educator
October 27th, 2012
11:59 pm
While we cheerily destroy the public schools in the name of choice, can anyone show me some other nation that is allowing its schools to be picked apart by the death of a thousand budget cuts? Anyone? Bueller? Why do so many seem to believe that balkanizing our education system is a good thing?
As for charges that our public schools are government indoctrination centers, all I can say is that you’ve obviously never been in real school, with it’s emphasis on teaching kids to think on their own.
Miller
October 28th, 2012
4:33 am
Kyle,
It’s pretty easy. I trust my local school board in Cobb County to create charter schools – they have and they are good. I do not trust the State to do so and will be voting “NO” at this silly attempt by Republicans to remove local control yet again while claiming to be about local control.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
October 28th, 2012
6:30 am
“all I can say is that you’ve obviously never been in real school, with it’s emphasis on teaching kids to think on their own.”
Funniest post of the thread!
Kids haven’t been taught to think on their own for decades.
Now they’re only taught to take standardized tests.
cc
October 28th, 2012
7:00 am
“Now they’re only taught to take standardized tests.”
“Standardized” is the operative word. All students in government indoctrination centers must be “standardized”, preparing the next generation of leftists.
Michael H. Smith
October 28th, 2012
7:53 am
Good article Kyle, though, for most of the regular liberated market capitalist conservatives reading and posting on your blog nothing new was brought to fore on the GUB’MENT education monopoly that hasn’t been known and document seemingly forever.
I surely hope we have the votes to win this round (cram the charter school amendment down their tyrannical big government social democracy throats) in what will be a long fight for total public funding of school choice.
PS. To the worthless opposition: You might consider taking a very long vacation after you greedy public trough-feeders have been rejected at the ballot box… oh say, to somewhere like Cuba, Venezuela perhaps or some other fascist government places that continue to worship and praise the names of anti-liberty types like Karl Marx and Che Guevara.
Benghazi Gate
October 28th, 2012
8:00 am
OBAMA LIED, PEOPLE DIED !
catlady
October 28th, 2012
8:30 am
I’d agree with Mr. Lindsey, IF the problem were that the entrenched educrats don’t want ANY charter schools. However, if he is saying that, it is a LIE. The problem is the METHOD the amendment seeks to “remedy.”
Local voters need to be the impetus for a charter school. If you don’t have the support of local voters, and primarily parents, the charter school has much less chance of being successful. Those who want a charter school should use the FORCE of the ballot box, of showing up and raising cain at board meetings, of speaking to the media, to “persuade” the board to approve a charter school.
In the local school system, a group of parents has been working for 2 years to get the local board to approve a charter in their area. Thus far, the board has refused. So what did the voters do? In July they voted EVERY member of the board who was up for re-election OUT, by 70-80%! Do you think the other board members got the message? They did–they are next, unless they start listening to the parents, to the voters!
Charter schools should be at the discretion of the local school board, who is and who should be accountable for their approval! And VOTERS need to hold the feet of the board members to the fire, constantly, so that ALL children get a FAPE!
.
Lil' Barry Bailout - Vote American
October 28th, 2012
9:03 am
antinewt: I thought conservatives were always for “local” control
———————–
And the rest of us thought libtards were always for “choice”.
John
October 28th, 2012
9:12 am
There is a simple reason why teachers aren’t listed as contributors to the anti state controlled charter schools amendment. With the massive cuts in state education spending and forced furloughing of teachers in recent years, I don’t know of a teacher who has the money to contribute $101 to any political campaign.
@@
October 28th, 2012
9:22 am
“This isn’t about ideology,” Lindsey says. “It’s about turf. It’s about those folks who have a vested interest, no matter how mediocre the present may be, in not changing.”
Gravy stains?
It’s the grease that makes ‘em difficult to remove.
schnirt
antinewt
October 28th, 2012
9:49 am
Michael H Smith and Lil Barry: So all of the screaming over big govt. cramming healthcare down our throats was just because you were on the wrong end of the cramming? Got it.
Disgusted in Dekalb
October 28th, 2012
9:51 am
‘I pay taxes so I have skin in the game’. No you don’t, not really.
Perfect example of what I said. Its not the kids you’re worried about, its how your MONEY is being spent.
The arguements here still do not address the kids. All these ideological comments and slams against libs and cons do nothing for the kids. Its not a party issue, its an education for our kids issue. But most of the people on this board are too arrogant to put aside their poltical leanings to think about the future of our country which is our children, not Obama or Romney or libs or cons.
LostINGA
October 28th, 2012
10:20 am
If this amendment passes, don’t be surprised if local property taxes go up to make up for the reduced funds from the state. The state would have to increase overall funding to ensure the local schools maintain the current funding levels. The governor has asked for a 3% education cut when his TSPOST amendment failed, so additional funding is probably not going to happen.
carlosgvv
October 28th, 2012
10:49 am
“don’t be suprised if local property taxes go up”
In DeKalb County, any old reason will do to raise property taxes.
Rafe Hollister, suffering through Oblamer's ineptocracy
October 28th, 2012
11:49 am
Disgusted in Dekalb
The whole argument is about the kids. I don’t get your arguments. Either you think the Charters are good for the kids that go there or bad for the kids left behind. I am sure there are Reps and Dems on each side.
I think the current system is an ongoing fiasco, and any reasonable attempt to reform it should be given every chance and encouragement. Save the kids you can, or let them all continue to suffer with the status quo. I have no kids at stake, mine are grown, both with Masters degrees, but their secondary education in quote “good schools” was non challenging and much less than desirable. Every parent and student should have some freedom of choice in how they are educated. As the Army says “be all you can be”, which is hard when the government is mandating when, where, how, and what you learn.
Lil' Barry Bailout - Vote American
October 28th, 2012
12:42 pm
This amendment is all about “choice” and “access” so I expect all libtards to be in support.
Middle Grades Math Teacher
October 28th, 2012
12:49 pm
Why is it a bad thing that public school teachers and administrators are putting their personal time and resources toward the VOTE NO campaign? During the Obamacare debates, didn’t you value the opinions of health care professionals? So why would this be different? If you want to accuse me of protecting “my turf,” then let me define “my turf” for you — it is the education of the 95% of Georgia students who are in public schools. Defending my turf? Guilty as charged, and proudly so.
Many have pointed out that there are flaws in public education. Of course there are. But all of the efforts at “reform” in the past few years have been coming from the top down. And I put reform in quotes because ALEC has been one of the top players in this game. But they aren’t interested in reform. They are interested in profit.
Are you truly interested in reform? Then we need to begin with the “bottom up.” By that I mean, get the teachers involved. Give us the true power to do what is needed for kids. Keep in mind, however, that teachers AREN’T the bottom. We are the FRONT LINES.
Also consider this: Public schools are a reflection of society. If there are ills in the schools (and there are,) there are also the same problems and issues out there in the world. Our students bring their issues to our classrooms, and work within our power to give them everything we have. But at 3:00, they walk out of our doors, back to their lives, and what we’ve been able to do in the 7 or so hours that we have them can be powerfully negated (or powerfully reinforced) by what happens in the other 17 hours that they are not with us.
Lil' Barry Bailout - Vote American
October 28th, 2012
12:59 pm
If students are a reflection of today’s society, that’s not a good thing. Lazy, entitled, quick to be offended, endlessly greedy for other peoples’ property…not a recipe for success. A majority of “Americans” have forgotten what it is to BE an American.
The only way to fix that is for the makers to outnumber the takers on election day.
Vote American.
clanmack
October 28th, 2012
1:01 pm
Kyle, citing the Gates Foundation’s giving directly to APS, or any other school system is not in the same universe as giving money for a political campaign in another constituency. And if the Gates Foundation gives to a “similar referendum” out in Washington State, where they are founded and headquartered, is comparing an apple to a kumquat. Get your head out of wherever it is that is clouding your critical thinking skills.
Voting against this Amendment, is hardly voting to keep the status quo ante. It is simpley a vote against the amendment. Just as the TSPLOST vote was not a vote against any other regional, specific transportation plan. You need to use your head.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right
October 28th, 2012
1:54 pm
“Flaws” in public education,math teacher?
More like an unmitigated disaster .
Why anyone would work to protect this mess is beyond me.
Truth is
October 28th, 2012
1:55 pm
Kyle, I received pro charter amendment mail from “Families for Better Public Schools”, chairman Edward Lindsay. What is your opinion on his involvement with this group? Also, don’t you think if he was so dedicated to improving public schools, he would have worked harder to fund them so the students could attend 180 days?
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right
October 28th, 2012
1:57 pm
On, and once again, detractors, this is only an appeals board
Use your heads.
Middle Grades Math Teacher
October 28th, 2012
2:01 pm
Tiberius, no it’s not. Read the supporting legislation, HB 797. You can’t take this at face value. Read both the amendment and 797 in its entirety.
If you consider what public education has been able to do with the resources it’s been given, the wide range of demographics it has to work with, I’d hardly call it a disaster. Public education has accomplished lots of great things. There are MANY success stories out there. But again, we can’t do it alone.
saywhat?
October 28th, 2012
4:30 pm
Because of their own intellectual deficits, dave R , lil boring and the rest try to blame the schools. Honestly guys, you just weren’t very bright to begin with, and one can only do so much with inferior raw materials.
Rafe Hollister, suffering through Oblamer's ineptocracy
October 28th, 2012
5:07 pm
saywhat?
Honestly guys, you just weren’t very bright to begin with, and one can only do so much with inferior raw materials.
Got this reversed as usual.
So, the ones who want to sit around and do what the government tells them, when the government tells them to do it, take what the government gives them, asks the government to do for them, learns at the knee of the government, and whines for more taxes and regulations to help the government control their lives, are the bright ones?
It is the free thinkers, who do not trust government and know that they are best able to handle their needs and wants and want government out of their lives, that are the brightest.
Uncle Billy
October 28th, 2012
5:24 pm
Big money wants public funds to create private schools. What is new about that? Private, for profit, education companies want the State of Georgia to override local control of schools. Nothing new about that either. Does Kyle Wingfield believe that public schools should exist?
Lil' Barry Bailout - Vote American
October 28th, 2012
6:02 pm
Charters aren’t “private schools”, Uncle Billy. Get the basic facts right, and perhaps your posts won’t be dismissed out of hand like that last one.
@@
October 28th, 2012
6:41 pm
Off-topic but too on point to Miss It.
schnirt
But given the way Obama’s once-enormous edge among female voters has shrunk in many polls, tomorrow’s feminists may look back on his campaign’s pitch to women and see a different theme emerge: a weirdly paternalistic form of social liberalism, in which women are forever single girls and the president is their father, lover, fiancé and paladin all rolled into one. (Our future dissertation author may note with bemusement, for instance, that Dunham’s ad mirrors a similar advertisement cut for … Vladimir Putin.)
ew
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/28/opinion/sunday/douthat-President-Obama-in-Shining-Armor.html?_r=0
cc
October 28th, 2012
7:07 pm
Yes, we should definitely stick with exactly what we’re doing now. It is quite obvious that the government indoctrination centers are doing an excellent job of educating our children and grandchildren. Why change course when we’re behind?
“The following rankings come from various lists, but they all tell the same story. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), our 15-year-olds rank 17th in the world in science and 25th in math. We rank 12th among developed countries in college graduation (down from No. 1 for decades). We come in 79th in elementary-school enrollment.”
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2056723,00.html#ixzz2AdTxTI2P
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
October 28th, 2012
7:15 pm
Well, at least we know Kenya’s education system isn’t better than ours.
Have you seen some of the bozo’s they produced?
cc
October 28th, 2012
7:28 pm
I Report:
“Well, at least we know Kenya’s education system isn’t better than ours. Have you seen some of the bozo’s they produced?”
Actually, that serves to further Kyle’s point! One of their “bozos” convinced over half the voting citizens of this country to elect him president, and those citizens were products of the government indoctrination centers!
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
October 28th, 2012
7:36 pm
cc – Yeah but obozo has single handedly undone all those years of brainwashing.
Now that is monumental stupidity.
jd
October 28th, 2012
7:52 pm
Kyle — the children of those against amendment 1 attend public schools — which is more than you can say for the pro-amendment forces. So, who has our children’s true interests at heart?
cc
October 28th, 2012
7:58 pm
I Report:
No argument on that point!
Lil' Barry Bailout - Vote American
October 28th, 2012
7:59 pm
the children of those against amendment 1 attend public schools
———————-
We know several public school teachers, and a majority send their kids to private schools.
cc
October 28th, 2012
8:00 pm
jd:
“the children of those against amendment 1 attend public schools”
I’m sure the teachers at the government indoctrination centers had no influence on those young minds with regard to this issue, right?
cc
October 28th, 2012
8:02 pm
Lil’ Barry:
I also know several government center teachers who do the same thing, and that is an excellent point that you’ve made.
cc
October 28th, 2012
9:08 pm
I’m weary and tomorrow is another day. Good night, fellow conservatives . . .
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
October 28th, 2012
9:29 pm
Anybody else catch how layaway is now back big time thanks to no one having any money in this obozo economy?
Last time I remember layaway being such a big option – dhimmi karter’s days in office.
@@
October 28th, 2012
9:44 pm
Are they or aren’t they???
Chrysler issued a statement early Thursday flatly denying it has any plans to move Jeep output to China from the United States.
“Let’s set the record straight: Jeep has no intention of shifting production of its Jeep models out of North America to China. It’s simply reviewing the opportunities to return Jeep output to China for the world’s largest auto market.
Reads like a contradictory statement to me.
Mary Elizabeth
October 28th, 2012
11:46 pm
The issue is whether the public is going to vote for turning traditional public education, that has served ALL of the students in this state through public taxes, into a money-making enterprise that may very well leave the state’s children segregated in schools by those whose parents have resources and those whose parents do not.
I saw the ugliness of segregation as a teenager and I do not want to see that inequality ever happen again in Georgia. And I am not speaking of race, but of class status and of the varied resources of different parents. We must neither use our schools for profit purposes for private personal gain, nor must we use our schools to resegregate society into those who “have” vs. those who “have not.” That is not how I see America. That is not the America I wanted to see lived out during my Jim Crow teenage years in Georgia, and that is still not the America I want to see lived out in Georgia during my senior citizen years.
We must improve traditional public education, starting at the ground level, to be able to serve ALL of Georgia’s children equally well, educationally. We can do that through involvement – at the ground level up – starting with involvment by groups of interested parents in their local school board’s activities. Instead of creating separation, create excellence from within by committed involvement. And, if your local school board does not listen to your needs, then organize and vote THEM out of office. YOU stay and make your traditional school systems better. Don’t run away and create a newfound “panacea” of charter schools that will only serve the few at the expense of the many, while rewarding the profiteers.
Vote NO in NOvember to Amendment 1.
Phil Lunney
October 29th, 2012
4:58 am
Kyle, the normal one-sided approach. Follow the money? Please, where is the following of the money from those in favor of the Amendment. I realize the bloggers above provided some of that information but that should have been in your commentary. What? It doesn’t fit your ideology, exactly.
How about some real journalism from Kyle?
Also, where will the money come from if this is approved? You see, that the districts now have the responsibility for monitoring these schools, they will need to create a state run apparatus to monitor these Charters. Show us the money and don’t take it from current funding.
cc
October 29th, 2012
6:42 am
“And I am not speaking of race, but of class status and of the varied resources of different parents.”
Parents with the financial means and living where private schools are available long ago abandoned the abysmal failures known as government schools. You must be “speaking of race”. In fact, you go on to write, “That is not the America I wanted to see lived out during my Jim Crow teenage years in Georgia”.
Congratulations! You have turned an issue of education into an issue of race.
UNCLE SAMANTHA
October 29th, 2012
9:30 am
Mary Elizabeth
October 28th, 2012
11:46 pm
The issue is whether the public is going to vote for turning traditional public education, that has served ALL of the students in this state through public taxes, into a money-making enterprise that may very well leave the state’s children segregated in schools by those whose parents have resources and those whose parents do not.
=======================================================================
take the M E out of your diatribe………………. the educational system in GA ranks consistently at the BOTTOM in the nation……………. parents and teachers wanting to form charter schools to GO AROUND the INCOMPETENCE of the local administrators are thwarted………… its the LOCAL ADMINISTRATORS that are to blame for the low ranking of GA because of this local control………… if you really want local control then GIVE CONTROL TO TEACHERS AND PARENTS LOCALLY who want to create schools that excel and pull their kids away from the failing ones…………. They are the ones this amendment is for.
Finn McCool (The System isn't Broken; It's Fixed)
October 29th, 2012
9:42 am
Cons, buy your anti-depressants this week!
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
October 29th, 2012
10:52 am
“buy your anti-depressants this week!”
Why?
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/331828/two-polls-have-chicago-terrified-josh-jordan
sam
October 29th, 2012
11:06 am
really a weak piece here Kyle. how awful that these teachers and administrators would be so devious to actually try and protect what they work so hard for. for you to make it seem that they are all about money is pathetic. lets say for instance the AJC was struggling and someone had a plan to better write your column (i’m sure there’s plenty) would you sit by and allow it to happen? if this were about the struggling students we’d take them (and only them) and put them in charter schools. only thing you forget to mention in the column is the socialist agenda. a sunday column this is not
Mary Elizabeth
October 29th, 2012
11:20 am
“GIVE CONTROL TO TEACHERS AND PARENTS LOCALLY who want to create schools that excel and pull their kids away from the failing ones…………. They are the ones this amendment is for.”
=====================================
Your statement, above, proves my point as to what Amendment 1 is really about. Amendment 1 is designed to benefit the few, at the expense of the many (while rewarding profiteers).
Vote NO in NOvember to Amendment 1.
Ray
October 29th, 2012
11:48 am
From the AJC on Saturday: over $1.3 MILLION donated to the pro-amendment campaign in the Most recent reporting period, and SEVENTY TO SEVENTY-FIVE PERCENT OF THAT, OR CLOSE TO $1 MILLION COMING FROM A FEW OUT OF STATE DONORS. By comaprison, during the same time frame, $18,000 raised by the anti-amendment forces, all within the state.
GET A CLUE PEOPLE, THE FORCES BEHIND THIS AMENDMENT ARE BIG MONEY OUT OF STATE INTERESTS. Are these big out-of-state donors really concerned about the education of Georgia’s children, or is this more about ideology and private intersts cashing in at the public trough?
lou
October 30th, 2012
11:28 am
Is this journalism or is Kyle just a mouthpiece for the conservative republicans?
So, vote for corporate run schools built by buddies of politicians?
Charter Schools in Georgia and the Families who Need Them |
November 1st, 2012
10:54 am
[...] power bases that are opposing the Charter School Amendment. Georgia Representative Edward Lindsey recently commented in the AJC on the financial backing of such opposition [...]
Charter Schools in Georgia and the Families who Need Them « Moms for School Choice
November 1st, 2012
11:00 am
[...] power bases that are opposing the Charter School Amendment. Georgia Representative Edward Lindsey recently commented in the AJC on the financial backing of such opposition [...]
Award for Ivy Prep shows just how wrong Lowery and others crying ‘resegregation’ are | Kyle Wingfield
November 1st, 2012
11:19 am
[...] Charter Schools Commission’s being declared unconstitutional, and about 20 percent of all the money donated to the anti-amendment campaign has come from administrators in the Gwinnett system [...]
mark
November 1st, 2012
4:07 pm
My kids are enrolled in one of the richest zip codes in the state. Therefore, by kids are getting a great education. I teach in a county that is top in the state, both in pay and student achievement.
Go ahead GA vote, yes, what do I care. I have 12 years left, until my kids graduate and I am out of here!!! Unless, my wife comes to the realization that this state is so messed up sooner and lets us leave sooner.