Charter schools amendment points the way for Georgia GOP
Republicans are doing some soul-searching after losing the presidential election and some winnable U.S. Senate contests. The Georgia GOP should be similarly self-reflective after delivering the second-smallest margin among states won by Mitt Romney.
The same demographic trends Romney failed to overcome are increasingly apparent in Georgia. Republicans here must learn to win over voters they typically haven’t attracted. Fortunately for them, Tuesday also offered a template for doing so: the successful charter schools amendment.
The referendum to affirm a state role in creating these public schools was passed in a Republican-dominated Legislature with crucial, but limited, Democratic support; was endorsed by our Republican governor; was opposed by the state Democratic Party; drew much-scrutinized financial support from wealthy Republicans outside Georgia; and was slammed in a radio ad by a civil-rights icon, the Rev. Joseph Lowery, as a precursor to resegregation.
Yet in Clayton, DeKalb and Fulton counties, home to about a third of all Democrats and black registered voters in Georgia, 72 percent of voters backed President Barack Obama’s re-election — and 66 percent approved the charter schools amendment. And why not? The students and parents in those counties face some of the most dysfunctional school systems in the state.
In all, the amendment got 62 percent in pro-Obama counties, 56 percent in pro-Romney counties.
Georgia Republicans have big trouble in big cities, but the amendment won in every single county where at least 40,000 people voted on it. And it got 65 percent of the vote in the 10-county metro Atlanta region – where the T-SPLOST was defeated in July by 62 percent of the voters.
It may seem odd to liken the passage of the GOP-led charter schools amendment to the defeat of the GOP-created T-SPLOST. But the pairing offers some important lessons.
Each contest featured a coalition of mostly suburban “movement” conservatives and mostly urban black Democrats that has rarely, if ever, figured into Georgia politics.
Why did these groups come together? In part, it’s because the losing side in each referendum essentially argued, “Trust us.”
For the T-SPLOST, it was the state transportation apparatus and the politicians who like to meddle with it. For the amendment — despite opponents’ efforts to tie it to the same politicians — it was the educational establishment that runs local public school districts.
Decades of experience left Georgians wary of trusting either group. There’s an opportunity here.
Republicans often talk about financial waste in public services. They’re less adept at addressing these services’ failings from users’ perspective.
This is less true when it comes to education. The amendment was a chance to reach out to non-Republicans with a solution for improving public education for them. There will be more chances — soon, I hope.
On transportation, the Georgia GOP shouldn’t talk about privatizing MARTA, for example, purely as a way to save money. As long as DeKalb and Fulton have a sales tax for transit, MARTA isn’t likely to cost taxpayers less.
But Republicans could promote privatization as a way to improve transit without spending more money. In my 2010 series on MARTA, I estimated the agency could increase bus services by about one-eighth (over 2008 levels) without increasing spending, by privatizing buses the way some cities out West have.
If Georgia Republicans don’t find a way to promote conservative principles with new blocs of voters, the choice won’t be theirs much longer.
– By Kyle Wingfield
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425 comments Add your comment
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
November 10th, 2012
8:47 am
The most pressing question is: do Obama fans have intelligence?
The overwhelming weight of evidence tends to suggest they do not.
Jeffrey
November 10th, 2012
8:48 am
The charter amendment shows the way? Really? a vague question that takes power from local voters and gives it away to cagles and deals cronies. What is wrong with you people?
MarkV
November 10th, 2012
8:48 am
“the most free-enterprise-hating, economically illiterate a-wipe to hold the office of president.”
Another “cleverness” for Dusty to praise, from the sleaziest loser on the blog.
South Georgia Retiree
November 10th, 2012
8:55 am
Kyle, don’t label these upcoming schools as “public,” because this is the big move to convert public schools to private schools using public tax funds. The advocates for Amendment 1 used language that was a facade for turning back the clock and taking over the institution that holds the most hope for our future. They don’t intend to make things better, only to take democracy out of public schools and go back to an earlier time when segregation was the forced rule and handicapped kids were not served.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
November 10th, 2012
9:00 am
News flash, boys and girls!
The amendment PASSED!
It’s a change to our Constitution and as such you don’t get to change it anytime soon, so DEAL WITH IT!
It’s not a politician you can lobby to change their vote.
It.
Is.
Over.
Done. Finished. Your efforts to complain about it are wasted.
Let it go.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
November 10th, 2012
9:02 am
“They don’t intend to make things better, only to take democracy out of public schools and go back to an earlier time when segregation was the forced rule and handicapped kids were not served.”
Oh, Holy crap . . .
If there was ever any argument that Georgia schools needed to improve, this was it.
Cactus
November 10th, 2012
9:05 am
Yes. By all means, please embrace the deliberate vagueness and intentional deception of the charter school amendment as the cornerstone of the GOP’s future. We don’t want voters who pay the taxes that make state and national government possible to make an informed vote; that would upset our plans to centralize decision making around what makes those of us at the top of the GOP wealthier. Voters are annoying when they are asked to think; they ask questions we don’t want to answer because to do so would reveal our hand and the things we are doing that the riff-raff of the electorate might find objectionable…..or even dishonest! I hope you are just young and naive; you can outgrow those things. Ralph McGill must be spinning in his grave today at the sight of an AJC “journalist” flacking for the GOP and advocating a political strategy that at its core relies on deceiving and manipulating Americans. The vast majority of Republicans in this country are good, solid conservative people who deserve more honorable leadership than exists in the party today; Barry Goldwater may have lost his shot at the Presidency but in my opinion his agenda was to serve the nation, not himself, and therein lies the difference in who leads the GOP in Georgia today and the grand old party of a more honorable time in this country’s history.
cc
November 10th, 2012
9:09 am
“Fail. Black people voted in much higher percentages for gore and Kerry. Not many voted for bush.”
And with that statement, LBB can now rest his case . . .
It’s unusual for one to prove his opponent’s case!
Del
November 10th, 2012
9:36 am
HAPPY BIRTHDAY UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS……Born 236 years ago at Tuns Tavern in Philadelphia.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
November 10th, 2012
9:38 am
Semper Fi! Hoorah!
Buzzy
November 10th, 2012
9:38 am
It certainly does point the way for the Ga. GOP.
It’s corrupt. It’s all about money. And it’s controlled by a sleazy governor and a corn pone legislator.
That’s a perfect picture of the Ga. GOP.
cc
November 10th, 2012
9:45 am
May God always bless the United States Marine Corps!
cc
November 10th, 2012
9:46 am
I wonder of Barack knows about the birthday of the CORPSE?
cc
November 10th, 2012
9:47 am
Obviously “of” should be “if”!
Excuse the typo . . .
SBinF
November 10th, 2012
9:54 am
I guess the charter schools amendment reaffirms the GOP’s dedication to smaller government….NOT
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
November 10th, 2012
9:54 am
You know, when this amendment was being debated earlier this year on Kyle’s blog, a number of times a question was posed to detractors: What is your alternative?
There were largely two answers: “Spend more money”, or “I don’t know but this isn’t it”.
And most of the complaints rested with one or two themes: Unelected board taking control away from schools” or “Out of state, for-profit schools”.
The bottom line is that you don’t have an effective alternative to improve Georgia schools.
The whining and complaining period is over. Your arguments – whether good, bad or indifferent – don’t mean a thing anymore.
Beverly Fraud
November 10th, 2012
9:57 am
“It’s corrupt. It’s all about money. And it’s controlled by a sleazy governor and a corn pone legislator.”
@Buzzy what does it tell you about the state of things in places like APS and DeKalb (two of the charter members of The Four Horsemen of the Incompetence) that the voters readily embraced a “Deal with the Devil©”?
At least there is some chance a sleazy, corrupt, dysfunctional charter school can be shut down by involved parents, unlike The Four Horsemen of the Incompetence which will most likely be with us unless an asteroid, in a moment of Christ-like consciousness, decides to sacrifice itself and descend upon the the educational monolith.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
November 10th, 2012
10:05 am
Obama fan, since you are incapable of discerning the difference between a law which can’t be changed and a politician (or body of politicians) which can be, any response will likely be wasted on you.
However, as has been pointed out time and time again, The President is the head of the Executive Branch. That is one-third of the three equal branches of the U.S. Government codified in the Constitution. The second branch of government is the Legislative Branch. Within the legislative branch there are elected representatives in two bodies – the House and the Senate. The House is controlled by the Republicans (and is guaranteed to be that way for at least 2 years, and likely longer than that), and the Senate is controlled by Democrats, but with a caveat that they have a rather arcane set of rules under which they operate.
The President cannot raise taxes without the consent of the Legislative Branch. Period. Therefore, your assertion that tax increases on ANY class coming soon is premature at best, and unlikely to be resolved in a way that you will like. In addition, laws on the books (such as Obamacare) need funding in order to be implemented, and Congress controls the purse strings.
All this is to point out in rather specific terms that your comment at 9:50 can best be described as ignorant, and more accurately be described as bull$h!t.
Uncle Billy
November 10th, 2012
10:10 am
The Amendment is an attempt to take away local control and institute state control, i.e. “big government.” It will be overturned by the courts as impermissibly vague i.e. fraudulently worded to achieve the result desired. Segregation academies will otherwise bloom as they did in the 60’s. But the courts will have a problem with that also. It was designed not to accomodate local parents but to accomodate large for profit school companies who poured a lot of money so that they could make more money. It is like what happened to a local school official in Walton County. He pushed a reading system on the teachers and students which they hated. He has pled guilty to taking bribes from the company in Conyers which paid him to push the system. Free enterprise at work but not working in the way “romantic free marketers” envision.
Del
November 10th, 2012
10:28 am
Correction on my last…237th. Marine Corps Birthday. Shame on me.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
November 10th, 2012
10:29 am
You’re really indoctrinated, Uncle Billy.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
November 10th, 2012
10:32 am
“Tibby – the truth hurts, huh?”
Sometimes the truth does hurt, Obama fan, however, what you posted wasn’t any form of “truth”.
In fact, it as incorrect on just about every level.
But you would have to have read and understood the Constitutional powers as described, which I’m sure that you couldn’t understand even if you tried.
Beverly Fraud
November 10th, 2012
10:34 am
“The Amendment is an attempt to take away local control and institute state control, i.e. “big government.” ”
Exactly They want to take local control away from people like APS, and DeKalb, where ignorant and uninformed voters elect board members who stand by idly while school system leaders engage in unethical and illegal activity.
They know this particular amendment is ripe for further exploitation, but they hope that some choice, any choice is better than the choices they have now.
The education monolith has no one to blame but itself
cc
November 10th, 2012
10:35 am
The following is excerpted from “Early Education or Early Indoctrination?” by Jamie A. Hope. It seems entirely appropriate that parents seek alternatives to the government indoctrination centers currently called public schools.
++++
When your children or grandchildren venture off to school in America, someday soon, most likely, their education curricula will be developed not by a state education association, or even by the National Education Association (NEA). Rather, they will be developed by the United Nations — specifically, their education arm, United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). This is an educational organization that could not only threaten the sovereignty of America, but indoctrinate our unsuspecting children with a dangerous progressive ideology — an ideology in which children are no longer taught that America is the land of the free and home of the brave or the right to freedom of worship.
This is not the first time early education and a call to hand over babies to the government has been attempted. The First Congress of Bolshevik Workers said in 1918 that “we must remove children from the crude influence of their families. We must take them over, and to speak frankly, nationalize them. From the first days of their lives they will be under the healthy influence of children’s nurseries and schools.”
The Bolsheviks understood that the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.
MarkV
November 10th, 2012
10:40 am
Kyle seems to be obsessed with the charter school amendment. Let’s hope this was the last time we heard about it from him.
Before somebody tries to say that I continued that debate– I did not. As I noted in the beginning, I did not have any strong feeling about the amendment, one way or another. My comment was not on the subject of the amendment, but to point out that Kyle in this article was making generalized conclusions based on the result of a vote, which was skewed by the language on the ballot.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
November 10th, 2012
10:40 am
Beverly Fraud brings up a good point about school board members.
Were any board members in Atlanta up for re-election this year, and did they get replaced?
Since one other argument from the public school advocate was that we can just replace our lacal board members if we don’t like their decisions. But apparently we don’t, even when they are incompetent.
cc
November 10th, 2012
10:45 am
“Re healthcare reform, the bottom line is that Regressives didnt have an effective alternative to improve healthcare.”
The Republicans tried time and again to put their “effective alternatives” before the American people, but the mainstream media would not air or print them. Obama, Pelosi and Reed treated the Republicans as if they were nonexistent and railroaded ObamaCare through both Houses of Congress.
We’ll see how popular ObamaCare is among all the Obama fans as the jobs disappear because of it.
sueellenewing
November 10th, 2012
10:51 am
The voters made a terrible mistake is all I can say. Anytime something is controlled by the state brings on a whole different kind of problems. I know because I’m a lowly state employee and I see waste and corruption everyday.
@@
November 10th, 2012
10:53 am
Clayton County voters were overwhelmingly in favor of the charter school amendment.
They’ve also overwhelmed us with another Victor Hill win.
I voted for one but not the other.
Based on what I’ve read, two of our BOE candidates are in a run-off? One’s a MARTA bus driver and the other a community organizer.
No retired teachers? No former PTA presidents?
Some things don’t make sense.
Linda
November 10th, 2012
10:53 am
Obama’s ground game had to have included moles on conservative blogs, i.e. full-time, paid professional bloggers to spew the Dem. talking points (lies, distortions & propaganda) & personally attack & try to intimidate conservative commenters. They were probably posting on all media blogs all over the country.
Surely, there have been no such bloggers on Kyle’s opinion columns for the past 5 years!
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
November 10th, 2012
10:54 am
It’s beginning to look a lot like Impeachment, every where we go…
The CIA ‘s reporting to Congress included a claim that protests over a YouTube video played a role in the attacks, thus allowing Obama to initially discount the possibility that the U.S. had suffered another terrorist attack just before the election.
In contrast, based on real time video and reports, the State Department was reporting that the attack that led to the deaths of four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, was terrorist-related.
Lock obozo up now!
@@
November 10th, 2012
10:57 am
Well….I’ve come to the conclusion that the neighbor fella just doesn’t like me. He’s even deleting my innocuous comments.
How will I ever survive the rejection?
schnirt
Dusty
November 10th, 2012
10:58 am
@@
I saw that Victor Hill was elected sheriff again. That IS incredible .Maybe some of the impending legal actions will get him.
So it’s @@ in Wonderland!
MarkV
November 10th, 2012
11:03 am
A new conspiracy theory to explain Obama’s victory – moles on conservative blogs!
Wonders never cease.
But there might be something to it, after all. Some comments of the seemingly conservative writers have been so outrageous, that they discredited the Republican cause. All that name calling about communists and Marxists, talk about climate change “hoax”, crude insults of the democratically elected President…
Linda
November 10th, 2012
11:09 am
Obama & the Democrats offered welfare without work, disability income, food stamps, free health care, free cell phones, extended unemployment insurance, cash for clunkers, tax credits to buy cars, refis to increase home equity & lower mortgage payments, money to fund union pensions & retiree health care, amnesty, union jobs, free abortion on demand, free birth control, college tuition, etc.
Romney & the Republicans offered jobs, lower gas & utility prices, lower taxes, fiscal sanity, the survival of the United States of America, etc.
And the liberals are laughing all the way to the cliff & beyond & below.
Linda
November 10th, 2012
11:11 am
Mole number one has stepped forward.
cc
November 10th, 2012
11:14 am
“Surely, there have been no such bloggers on Kyle’s opinion columns for the past 5 years!”
Of course not, Linda, but if there had been . . . I believe they would have been recognizable enough to now identify their “screen names”!
I have some nominations!
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
November 10th, 2012
11:23 am
Less than six months before President Bush leaves office, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing today on whether he should be impeached. Improper retaliation and obstruction of justice in the Valerie Plame CIA agent outing case.
So how does the murder of four Americans compare to such triviality?
Linda
November 10th, 2012
11:34 am
The corrupt alphabet, not FOX News media (NFN media) will now be eager to cover Benghazigate, now that a sex element has been introduced.
The timing of the resignation is just plain weird. Sort of like the timing of the leak on Iran firing on the US drone.
bluecoat
November 10th, 2012
11:37 am
Lil’B Now you are sucking up to the blacks.These are the same you have called plantation dwellers,parasites,obummers,leeches,etc.Rave on.
yuzeyurbrane
November 10th, 2012
11:43 am
Kyle, actually, I wish the charter Amendment proponents success in improving the quality of Georgia public education even though I am skeptical for all of the reasons I and others have previously put forth. I also think the vote margin would have been tight as a tick if the preamble had been neutrally worded. But it was a victory by a wide margin and I am willing to concede the legitimacy of the victory. Otherwise, you are giving some good advice to the GOP although I disagree on mass transit as being a likely candidate for your approach. You are a young fellow and probably don’t remember it, but ask your Dad, and he may concur with me when I say remember Atlanta Transit Company as my simple rejoinder.
Linda
November 10th, 2012
11:48 am
cc@11:14, Kyle knows who they are & I know where they are going.
cc
November 10th, 2012
11:59 am
Linda:
The sooner the better!
Dusty
November 10th, 2012
12:01 pm
MARK V
See your ophthalmologist. Either you are selectively blind or have tunnel vision.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
November 10th, 2012
12:09 pm
I do not believe that Obama should be impeached over Benghazi. I suspect that even is the worst-case scenario comes out, and his administration did know about the security problems there, that wouldn’t rise to the level of impeachment. If he refused to send help while his ambassador was being murdered, that might be sufficient enough, especially if he went to bed in order to catch some zzzz’s before a political rally the next day.
But I think the GOP would be foolish to embark on that course even if he did.
There will never be the votes in the Senate, so long as there is a majority of Democrats who would not vote to impeach even if Hitler were a Democrat, so impeachment would just be a waste of time and a political loser in this climate.
It is best to simply minimize this twice-elected mistake, and stay afloat until he is gone.
Dusty
November 10th, 2012
12:19 pm
Well, I just stopped by to see if I was “moderated” here. Hope not.
I’m wondering because i stopped by Maureen Downey’s blog, made a simple non-inflamatory comment and it was moderated. then I tried a very simple one line sentence. It was moderated.
That was the first time I had ever posted anything on her blog. I did mention George W. Bush but mildly. . Do you think that was it?
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
November 10th, 2012
12:22 pm
“talk about climate change “hoax””
Yeah, ’cause why would somebody call man-made global warming a hoax when:
It’s name has to be changed a couple if times to fit it’s new data,
The proponents alternately claim that warmer temps will cause less snow, but when more snow is generated they claim that is a result of climate change as well.
Their temperature sensors are strategically placed in and around known “hot-spots” such as urban areas.
The Atlantic Ocean heats up, but the Pacific Ocean cools down.
They can’t explain a leveling off of temperature rises.
They think that having companies pay fines for their carbon generation will fix the problem.
The only people studying this “problem” are people who get their funding from the very governments who can continue their income stream.
And they can’t explain exactly what man is doing to cause their data, but they just know it has to be us – hence the term “theory”.
But other than that, it’s all just one big fact to these guys.
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
November 10th, 2012
12:23 pm
Me: Kinda like when [blacks] voted for the most free-enterprise-hating, economically illiterate a-wipe to hold the office of president.”
An Obozo fan: Black people voted in much higher percentages for gore and Kerry.
———————
Well, at least they’re consistent.
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
November 10th, 2012
12:25 pm
The fact that Obozo did nothing about global warming in his first two years puts the lie to human-caused “climate change”.
Or is your Idiot Messiah anti-science?
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
November 10th, 2012
12:33 pm
“The fact that Obozo did nothing about global warming in his first two years puts the lie to human-caused “climate change”.”
I’m not even sure he “caused the oceans to lower” . . .