Charter school measure wins, but the fight has just begun
Perhaps you thought that trip to the polls would settle the struggle for control over your kid’s education – the one waged between the public school establishment and the ladies and gentlemen who inhabit the state Capitol.
Not a chance.
The ballot issue to reaffirm the state’s authority to license charter schools, even over the objection of local school systems, enjoyed easy passage on Tuesday, confirming a new path for privatized education in Georgia.
But consider that vote a mere first volley. The next chapter, already being written, will be a vast melodrama with elements of revenge, naked assertions of power and – perhaps – some consideration of what’s best for more than 1.6 million kids who answer the bell each day.
Legislation is now being crafted to reduce the clout of Georgia’s 180 local school boards by making it easier for parents to seize control of individual schools.
And there’s the question of whether state School Superintendent John Barge, who bucked much of the state’s Republican leadership by opposing Tuesday’s charter school measure, will be reduced to a powerless figurehead.
At its root, the fight over Amendment One was yet another consequence of Georgia’s stalemate approach to education. Policy is in the hands of a school superintendent elected statewide, who answers to – but can’t be fired by — a state Board of Education appointed by the governor.
Gov. Nathan Deal is also in charge of the billions of dollars allocated each year to education, and requires control over how it’s spent.
Last month, at the height of the charter school debate, Barge sent a letter to Deal, announcing that he had rejected the governor’s selection and picked his own person to keep track of $400 million in federal “Race to the Top” cash.
“I am responsible for ensuring that [funds] are used to achieve the goals set forth,” Deal reminded Barge, in writing. More important, the governor noted that he – not Barge – is the one who fields the phone calls when Washington is unhappy.
In two years, both will be judged on how Georgia’s schools have fared. Their symbiotic relationship is best expressed on Barge’s re-election campaign website, johnbarge.com. Its home page features a half-dozen photos of the state school superintendent with Sandra Deal, wife of the governor and a former teacher.
On another page of the website is a picture of the governor and Barge, with the headline “Will the ‘real Republican’ please stand?” But Barge hasn’t just ticked off a governor. Speaker pro tem Jan Jones, R-Milton, served as the public face of the charter school campaign. Her friends in the House are displeased.
This spring, the Legislature passed a bill to give Barge more power. Deal vetoed it. Lawmakers won’t repeat themselves next year. In fact, Barge must now worry whether the Legislature will attempt to strip him of his budgetary authority – as happened in Virginia. (As a constitutional officer, Barge’s job can’t be erased.)
Only a few years ago, Roy Barnes created the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement to bypass state School Superintendent Linda Schrenko. She’s now doing time for diverting federal funds intended for deaf and blind students into her 2002 gubernatorial campaign – and toward a facelift.
A smaller target for lawmakers: The Department of Education has a charter school division that could be removed from Barge’s control.
Then we have “parent trigger” legislation now being drafted by House Majority Whip Edward Lindsey, R-Atlanta, to make it easier for parents to convert their traditional public school into a charter school – and allow them to take direct control over the hiring and firing of school administrators. “This will simplify the process, and hopefully open up a greater dialogue between the parents and school board and administration,” Lindsey said.
Lindsey agrees that both sides in the charter school fight need to cool off. “We need to beat our respective weapons into chalkboards,” he said.
Some school officials across the state agree that the charter school fight has shown the need for closer contact with parents. “We have to really listen to what people are saying about their public schools,” said Jeannie “Sis” Henry, executive director of the Georgia School Boards Association.
As for beating their swords into chalkboards, don’t count on it. “They’ve awoken a sleeping giant. The education community is as galvanized as I’ve ever seen it. They’re very concerned about the lack of resources,” she said.
Henry predicted a small army would be on hand come January, when the Legislature convenes and the fight over your kid’s school begins again.
- By Jim Galloway, Political Insider
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68 comments Add your comment
RJ
November 7th, 2012
10:23 am
Ok all You working taxpaying folks. Look for your taxes to go up as We pay outsiders to educate our children. We didn’t need state run charter schools, all we needed was to keep people accountable for the use of our money and to stand up when they see wrongdoing and not go along with it. As the commercial said; the girl’s school was taken over by gangs,drugs and abuse. Who is responsible for that? Administrators,Law enforcement, Parents or State Govt.?
RB Carrollton
November 7th, 2012
10:29 am
The quality of education that a child receives is more dependent on the values instilled by the home and the interest and effort of the parents than any school reform effort.
Charter schools allow cultural and economic segregation, (see AJC articles on exclusion of poor kids) which sometimes makes the school seem to be more effective than others. However, the vast majority of charter schools do not show any achievement levels above other schools in GA.(CHECK THE DATA)
The real goal of this measure as you say in your comments is to PRIVATIZE the schools. Big businesses have donated millions to get their hands on educational tax money through this charter amendment. The state proposes fund these schools at a rate about 50% higher than they do regular schools in this state. They hire people who want to teach the elite and promulgate a stratified society.The charters avoid the regulations that the state has imposed (that the state said a decade ago would improve the schools-HA!). The companies that will run these schools will cut corners in every way possible to make a profit.. Look at the states where they are in operation.
Sadly the outcome will likely be very disappointing to people who think they voted to help students learn. They really voted to put money into private educational companies and the pockets of lawmakers.
Our state must learn,there is no shortcut to better educated students. More effort and resources should be put to work addressing the real needs (longer school year, better teacher training, more parental responsibility, better school board leaders) than on another false hope of charter schools.
RB Carrollton
November 7th, 2012
10:29 am
The quality of education that a child receives is more dependent on the values instilled by the home and the interest and effort of the parents than any school reform effort.
Charter schools allow cultural and economic segregation, (see AJC articles on exclusion of poor kids) which sometimes makes the school seem to be more effective than others. However, the vast majority of charter schools do not show any achievement levels above other schools in GA.(CHECK THE DATA)
The real goal of this measure as you say in your comments is to PRIVATIZE the schools. Big businesses have donated millions to get their hands on educational tax money through this charter amendment. The state proposes fund these schools at a rate about 50% higher than they do regular schools in this state. They hire people who want to teach the elite and promulgate a stratified society.The charters avoid the regulations that the state has imposed (that the state said a decade ago would improve the schools-HA!). The companies that will run these schools will cut corners in every way possible to make a profit.. Look at the states where they are in operation.
Sadly the outcome will likely be very disappointing to people who think they voted to help students learn. They really voted to put money into private educational companies and the pockets of lawmakers.
Our state must learn,there is no shortcut to better educated students. More effort and resources should be put to work addressing the real needs (longer school year, better teacher training, more parental responsibility, better school board leaders) than on another false hope of charter schools.
Reality Check
November 7th, 2012
10:44 am
Puerile Pedant – have you checked the votes brilliant one? It did better in democrat areas than GOP areas. It’s very clear the educrats who have been in charge of Georgia’s education for well over 100 years aren’t getting the job done. Glad you are ok with continuing
to be at the bottom in education.
Reality Check
November 7th, 2012
10:46 am
RJ – You are clueless. This will save taxpayers money. Either you are ignorant or you are using scare tactics. I wouldn’t want to be either of them.
double
November 7th, 2012
10:51 am
As long as we keep the title in bank failures,tells you all ain’t dummies.
n
November 7th, 2012
11:13 am
The state leadership will now in effect control millions in local school tax revenue which can be channeled into the pockets of supporters and cronies.
There will be for-profit schools popping up everywhere like mushrooms, and the local taxpayers will foot the bill, like it or not.
This was not about educational choice. This about privatizing education and gutting public schools for the sake of ideology and profits.
I and everyone I know are the products of public education. It is the cornerstone of our democracy.
If it is systematically destroyed in the name of ideology and profits we are lost.
The electorate was bamboozled, and the cynical folks who run this state are now totally convinced that they can get away with anything.
And they can.
Attack Dog
November 7th, 2012
11:13 am
There are a reason Georgia has always been at the bottom in education. Besides, Dixiecrats must have lied when they said that they were against unfunded mandates and for more local control.
honested
November 7th, 2012
11:15 am
So when this ends up as a disastrous failure, will we accept the truth and stop believing the ‘free market’ has the answer (because we heard it on talk radio)?
Daily Headlines for November 7, 2012
November 7th, 2012
11:16 am
[...] Charter School Measure Wins, But The Fight Has Just Begun Atlanta Journal-Constitution Blog, GA, November 7, 2012 Perhaps you thought that trip to the polls would settle the struggle for control over your kid’s education – the one waged between the public school establishment and the ladies and gentlemen who inhabit the state Capitol. [...]
[School] Segregation Now, Segregation Forever
November 7th, 2012
11:37 am
GOP Corporate handlers will be getting in to the school business, especially with our tax money is magically appearing for new schools without any strings, and not coming from locals…I’m planning a state chartered and taxpayer funded Madrasa to get my cut, and my lawyer expects he’ll make some taxpayer money on getting the charter through, too.
Just look at how willingly the GOP ships off tax funded money out of state:
Perdue outsourced selling Huntin’ and Fishin’ licenses to a [GOP] outside Georgia company, costing us over $3 million for the contract, and slashing business to Mom and Pop bait shops and outdoor stores…
Deal and the GOP added the GORP pass–can’t walk in Georgia’s woods anymore without a $50 annual pass, in addition to having to pay to use any sate park with another $50 pass. Wow–that’s some expensive less government party planning and state control. But Deal is giving nearly $10 million to the vendor running Amicalola and Unicoi state parks. I goes we’ll be bonding the construction of private charter schools, too.
Deal and his GOP even made the venerable old Farmers Market Bulletin not just subscription only but requires a $10/ year charge to read ads online. Worse, some GOP buddy gets a $3 processing fee to get the $10 so you can read the ads from our Ag Department’s Market Bulletin, though the paper was supposed to provide articles and information to Georgia’s small and large farmers, and allow for business between us… The corporations can’t take the competition, without a GOP cut…
Just wait. The charter suckers may have to pay for report cards, grades, permanent records, and have all that digital data sold and traded and hacked. Johnny will be GOP owned from the get-go. His credit score will be affected by his elementary school behavior records. Perfect for GOP marketing.
n
November 7th, 2012
12:07 pm
Local taxpayers will be footing the bill. Federal and state money now, local taxes when the leadership figures out a way to grab it through more byzantine legislation.
The so-called non-profit charter boards will be planted by the for-profits corporation and will do their bidding.
Diego
November 7th, 2012
12:36 pm
These comments are crazy! Let’s be honest, our public schools stink. All of our children deserve better whether they are black, white, or orange.
Why doesn’t the public education administration try to adopt the fiscal methods used by the charter schools? Why does a computer cost $600 at a charter school and $2000 at a traditional public school? Why don’t we create consulting groups to help the parents in poorer neighborhoods fix their schools? The answer is the bureaucracy doesn’t want change. They love the fat cat contracts and nepotism.
Charter schools are going to raise taxes? That is uninformed prattle.
Heika
November 7th, 2012
1:34 pm
Peter, please respond to Diego from page #1. I know you’re busy being a professor and everything, but your lack of response is giving this person a green light to use anecdotal evidence to force simplistic “charters good, traditionals bad” posts on us, over and over again, and that’s terrible.
Education Ballot Initiative Results Show Mixed Returns On School Reform | Education News
November 7th, 2012
4:07 pm
[...] debate over the purpose of charter schools and who they serve. A measure to restore that committee passed Tuesday [...]
northern neighbor
November 7th, 2012
4:18 pm
I think it is pretty clear – the larger the school system, the more disconnected the parents. Most of the complaints I read here are about large systems and large schools. That shouldn’t surprise any of us.
northern neighbor
November 7th, 2012
4:28 pm
I get tired of hearing that charter schools operate on 60% of the funding of regular public schools. That insinuates waste. I’m sure there is a little waste in all systems, and a lot of waste in a few systems. But that does not tell the entire story.
A regular public school provides many services and accommodations to special needs/special ed students that a charter school typically does not.
I suggest some of you sit down with your superintendent and their financial person and get an education on the economics of the typical public school.
Chartr Schools rule
November 7th, 2012
9:21 pm
My kids attend a charter school, complete with on line meetings with other students and teachers, when we compare their lessons with the brick and mortar local school they are two grades up in what they are learning in many areas. ABC news did a story on the chicago teachers strike and mentioned how the charter schools held a higher standard and had a higher graduation rate, lower drop out rate and higher test scores than the public schools. Poorer children in fulton and dekalb and atlanta can now tell the public schools goodbye and get a real education in a charter school.