TV ad for charter schools puts a young lady in uniform
Here’s the TV ad that supporters of the November ballot issue on charter schools are riding with, starting today:
Autumn – we don’t have her last name – is wearing an Ivy Prep uniform and is a student there, campaign spokesman Bert Brantley confirmed.
The Ivy Prep connection is important, as my AJC colleague Nancy Badertscher explains today:
But nowhere is the amendment debate being more closely watched than in Gwinnett, where one in 10 Georgia public school students are enrolled and where, arguably, the dispute began a few years ago.
Gwinnett school officials filed a lawsuit in 2010 challenging the constitutionality of the Georgia Charter School Commission, an independent body created by lawmakers in 2008 and given the power to approve charter school applications that local school boards had rejected.
The suit, which cost the district $300,000, followed the commission’s approval of an application from Ivy Preparatory Academy in Norcross that the Gwinnett school board had rejected in 2007. The commission also redirected about $1 million annually from the district to the school. The suit included six other school districts that had seen some of their funding redirected to charter schools they had not approved.
- By Jim Galloway, Political Insider
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70 comments Add your comment
GOP for School Entitlements!
October 26th, 2012
7:29 am
Wow–let’s fund the corporate private schools for the privileged kids who can get there (and don’t have handicaps or health problems to be denied admission) so OUR elite kids get more than others. Never mind their scores aren’t better–there’s profit to be had for the Walmart and Romney and Bush families, they are all soaking up school money. It will be more lucrative than private prisons.
Problem is, what do we do about curriculum? DO we deny evolution like the GOP, deny climate change–that will be increasingly harder to do, even if we don’t have windows at school–and deny girls equal opportunity. Do we teach that RAPE is GOD’s WILL, or at least fail to demand that it’s not true? Taliban and Sharia law are here with the GOP platform.
We’re only about greed and old-style segregation and favoritism, not about real education. And as GOP minions, we can go for a Chinese pawn and drag dodger like Willard Romney. We’re going backwards and supporting what Scientific American, the magazine published since 1847, calls the greatest threat to America’s democracy–America’s AntiScience Beliefs.
Go charters…the GOP Tea Party needs more dumb Georgians. Plutocracy over equal opportunity!
Georgia Politics, Campaigns and Elections – Georgia Politics, Campaigns & Elections for October 26, 2012 – Georgia Pundit
October 26th, 2012
8:25 am
[...] Pro-Charter School Amendment supporters have released a TV ad that you will likely see ad nauseum if you’re in the Atlanta media market. [...]
cc
October 26th, 2012
8:29 am
td:
You and I agree on virtually everything to the point that those of lesser intelligence think that we are one person posting under different identities. On this one issue, however, we disagree.
I understand that the strong conservative approach is to oppose Amendment1 1, but I also see the catastrophic failure of the government schools to adequately educate children. To do nothing is to further the existing problem, and absent any other proposed alternative, the charter schools deserve at least the opportunity to succeed.
GOP for School Entitlements!:
I must give your post the attention it so richly deserves, which is nothing.
Big Papi
October 26th, 2012
8:33 am
The elephant in the room is out of wedlock births. Academically deficient parents spitting out kids like rabbits who surprise………are acdemically deficient and need a tremendous amout of remediation. Cut the out of wedlock births and see the achievement gap narrow. Dumb parents who were apathetic toward their education when they were students don’t usually produce star students.
Whirled Peas
October 26th, 2012
8:41 am
Get the government run monopoly schools out of our lives. Give us the chance to send our kids to the best available school. Competition will do more to improve schools than it has done to improve our communications system. Anyone out there old enough to remember the AT&T telephone monopoly. One telephone, black. If you wanted a pink princess phone, it would cost you an arm and a leg every month. No competition of any kind allowed.
Finally the AT&T monopoly was broken up and immediately new products and services were all around. I doubt if the internet would ever have happened if the AT&T monopoly was not broken up in the 70’s. Or if the internet did happen, it would have started in a country with a free market communications profile and the US would have been pulled reluctantly into the future.
The same concept goes to education. Get rid of these monopoly schools and let competition flourish. We will see innovation and improvement almost immediately.
Mary Elizabeth
October 26th, 2012
8:42 am
From the front page AJC article by Nancy Badertscher, entitled “Charter school dispute began in Gwinnett,” are these 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, expect your taxes to increase at some point if Amendment 1 passes. I’ll be voting NO to Amendment 1, primarily because I believe that Amendment 1 is more politically based than educationally based.
detritusUSA
October 26th, 2012
8:42 am
One of my grandsons attends a charter school and it is a good learning environment. The parents take responsibility for much that goes on there, but there are things that I take for granted in public schools that don’t go on there. Such as the parents must provide lunches and transportation, and no athletics. The school was approved by the local school board so the parents have direct access to these officials to resolve any issues that may come up. I’m impressed with this school!
This charter school amendment has two large faults: loss of local control and possibly tax money going to private corporations. That’s the only reason I voted no. Otherwise charter schools are a good thing.
Laurie
October 26th, 2012
8:58 am
Saw the ad, still voting no, cause the cute kid does not make me forget how this amendment came about in the first place. When companies from out of state come in and start greasing palms to change our laws, it’s not for our best interests.
Mike Kilpatrick
October 26th, 2012
9:04 am
Obviously filmed at a charter school during school time. How is that they can receive tax money and advocate for a political position. Sam Olens are you listening or is your selective understanding of the law preclude you from being an honest broker?
East Cobb RINO, Inc. (LLC)
October 26th, 2012
9:06 am
For the record, I am not against Charter Schools in general. I am against this amendment to the state constitution. To much outside money is behind it with control given to an unelected board.
Rafe Hollister
October 26th, 2012
9:22 am
If you are happy with what we have, and do not want to spend all that time “going through the change”, just vote NO. I voted yes.
cc
October 26th, 2012
9:35 am
Mary Elizabeth:
““Barge, the state school superintendent, has said that if more charters are approved, lawmakers will have to come up with more money.”
I don’t think so . . .
“Taxpayers, expect your taxes to increase at some point if Amendment 1 passes”
The movement of students from the governmental indoctrination centers to charter schools will mean that less resources are needed by the government entities, so logically they should (gasp!) reduce their expenditures. (WHAT? Less money for the government indoctrination centers to waste?)
Why would anyone think that Barge would speak to this issue differently? Passage of Amendment 1 will decrease both his power and his span of control.
Mary Elizabeth
October 26th, 2012
10:01 am
Regarding my 8:42 post, the date of the AJC article on charter schools was Thursday, October 25, 2012
And, cc, you are not taking into consideration many factors that will remain the same financially in traditional public schools, even when some students shift to charter schools, and some of those factors are the cost of traditional school building’s upkeep and maintenance including custodial service, utilities, and the salaries of whole school personnel which are not effected by the numbers of students in the school such as Media Specialists, Food and Lunchroom Managers, and many other factors you have not considered.
I support the assignment of some charter schools, but I believe that charter schools should be authorized by local school districts so that the resources needed to maintain both the charter schools and the traditional school – which serves all students within the district – can be balanced and weighed in relation to the cost factors of operating each. Moreover, when parents disagree with their local school board’s decision regarding a charter school, they can appeal to the state Board of Education to apply for a state charter school. Amendment 1 is not needed for them to form a state charter school.
About Dr. Barge, his actions and words indicate to me that he is one of those truly rare public servants who puts all the students of Georgia first, and not politics first. I do not think that Dr. Barge is about personal power. However, I believe some politicians who are supporting Amendment 1 are placing their personal power and politics first.
Ginerva
October 26th, 2012
10:46 am
I had one of my kids in a “State” charter school and it was no party. Inappropriate social studies curriculum (Julius Caesar being stabbed by senators) for second graders! One teacher resigned the other was reassigned, teachers unhappy because they are handling too many students. Unreliable software which meant interrupted lessons. Rude students continually cutting in when other students were called on. I could go on. Already voted NO!!!!!!!!!!!
Maude
October 26th, 2012
10:52 am
RE: Mitch. Where do you get the idea that PAGE and GAE can use public dollars? They have nothing to do with public school systmes other than support their members who work for public schools. How dare you speak about PAGE and GAE when you have no idea what they are!!
East Cobb RINO, Inc. (LLC)
October 26th, 2012
11:00 am
Charter Schools not approved by the local board and their outside/foreign investors can open all the Charter Schools they want. Just do not go walking around with their hand out looking for local or state subsidies. It is the free market after all. Knock yourselves out. Go for it.
Georgia
October 26th, 2012
11:18 am
The Charter Schools are going to get a Frankenstorm of money: City, County, State, Federal, World Charity Foundation money, donations from misguided philanthropists, time and treasure pledges from metro-tweeters, and even some google money for the kids. The Charter Schools are going to thrive because education is a gold mine.
MANGLER
October 26th, 2012
11:19 am
Charter schools and private schools magnify socioeconomic disparity, plain and simple. That is why we offer public school, so everyone gets an education, not just those who can best afford one. I don’t want public money being diverted to private schools – and a charter school is a private school, run by for profit companies. If the charter schools were completely funded by private dollars then yes, by all means, do what you will and have at it (you know, like all private and perochial schools already do)! But they are not. They are funded with money that was taken from me (and you) and intended to help everyone, not just those who can afford it.
I understand completely that some parents want something different for their child than their locally zoned school may offer. That’s their choice. Don’t make me (and you) pay for that private choice.
yuzeyurbrane
October 26th, 2012
1:03 pm
Several points:
1. where is the concern about school time for publicly funded chartered schools being used to advocate for Amendment?
2. nice use of very nice black kid as prop for ad; but they accidently included wider angle shots that appear to be at least 80% white—so much for argument about goal being to help poor black kids escape failing traditional public schools.
3. ad distorts the issue. Issue is not charter schools which local boards can already approve and have in large numbers but one of political power grab by state govt., most likely for corrupt purposes and at great dollar cost to taxpayers.
Don Coyote
October 26th, 2012
1:33 pm
The amendment is not charter vs public. It is in a nutshell: Do you want to cede your right as a voter to locally elect those who make the decisions on the use of your local school taxes to state political appointees?