On Monday, August 14th, 2012, Georgia School Superintendent John Barge released a press statement claiming his opposition to the school choice amendment that voters will decide on in November. In doing so, he has alienated thousands of students who now rely on charter schools and are dependent upon the passage of this amendment to continue their successful education in this unique public school setting.
Dr. Barge is taking a direct stand against the slogan on his website: "Making Education Work For All Georgians". Not all students fit the cookie cutter mold of the traditional government-run public school system. Many of these students need a unique atmosphere to thrive in the learning process. Charter schools provide this unique learning environment that is free from much of the bureaucracy that limits the methods that teachers are able to use to reach each student. By speaking out against an amendment whose sole purpose is to offer an appeal process for these students that are sliding through the cracks of the traditional government education system Dr. Barge is putting a nail in the coffin of the hopes and dreams of a student whose education isn't working for him or her in Georgia.
For a man who is so concerned with the education of Georgians he did not once mention students in his press release. The focus of his statement was more money, not more adequate education. The purpose of the school choice amendment is to offer an appeals process for those students who have been denied an adequate learning environment at the local traditional public school level. Without this amendment these students are held hostage by a local bureaucracy that may or may not have their best interests in mind.
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Comments: 1
In his extended 8-page report, those two words appear 10 times on the first page alone.
At the GaBOE webpage below, clickable links for pdfs and docs provide more factual and detailed information, including statements of Barge's full support of high quality charter schools (present and future) in Georgia.
See http://www.doe.k12.ga.us/External-Affairs-and-Policy/communications/Pages/PressReleaseDetails.aspx?PressView=default&pid=54
Also, no student currently enrolled in a Georgia charter school is dependent upon the passage of the constitutional amendment for continuing his or her education in any of those schools. The validity of any current charter is not affected by either the passage or defeat of the amendment. Currently there are a total of 214 charter schools in Georgia.
And, there is an appeals process already in place--by the State Board of Education--as well as a mediation process for any charter applicant that is not approved by the local district.
Sadly for all Georgians, the ballot question's wording is extremely misleading. We ALREADY HAVE a mechanism for both state approval (authorizing) and for local approval (authorizing) of public charter schools.
What the amendment would actually provide for is another layer of bureaucracy in the form of an APPOINTED 7-person commission (appointed by the Governor, Senate President & Speaker of the House of Representatives) that would be permitted to authorize charter schools ANYWHERE in the state, over the objection of the elected local school board members.
The State Commission members would never have to answer to voters.
Of course, money has to be discussed because taxpayers are the ones who foot the bill for public schools in Georgia. And we all should ask before November where the money is going to come from! Education funding in Georgia is down by $5 BILLION DOLLARS since 2003...when is any of that going to be restored? Every school in the state is suffering because of that deficit but schools outside the urban areas have been hit the hardest.
The calculated cost of the Commission itself is at least $1 million dollars a year plus another $430 million by the end of 5 years, assuming that 7 charter schools would be authorized by the Commission each year. (That was the authorizing rate of the previous Commission, which was found to be unconstitutional by the Georgia Supreme Court.)
I encourage everyone to study this situation as much as they can. Learn about moneyed private foundations and well-funded advocacy groups, ALEC, the push to privatize education in the US, tax breaks for investors, for-profit charter school operators. Look at the problems other states are having with multiple authorizers. There's much more than what meets the eye.
This is a very complicated issue but in the end it truly is all about the students--all 1.6 MILLION of them who attend public schools in Georgia.
An informed citizenry is the bedrock of democracy.
But without public education, democracy fails.