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McConnell Middle School PTA


Georgia PTA's Recommendation -- Vote NO on Constitutional Amendment

Excerpted and adapted from a report by Sally FitzGerald on Georgia PTA's Capitol Watch on 7/1/2012

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“Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended to allow state or local approval of public charter schools upon the request of local communities?”

This misleading language will be on our ballots in November 2012. Here is the rest of the story.

  • Charter schools are already allowed by local boards of education, and if the charter is denied, the applicants may apply to the state board of education to become a charter.
  • "Local communities" almost never are charter applicants. Individuals are, and for profit educational management organizations.
  • For profit educational management organizations have given large amounts to the reelection campaigns of all sponsors of this legislation. Hmmmmm!
  • The enabling legislation for this amendment restores the appointed Charter School Commission, declared unconstitutional by the GA Supreme Court, with powers to put schools in any locality without permission from or even notification to the local board of education.
  • The Commission is appointed by the state board of education, also an appointed body accountable only to the governor. Local board of education members are elected and thus accountable to you and other voters in your community.
  • Local school districts, however, have to provide 5 mills of their local property tax revenue to get state QBE funding.  Commission chater schools are charged only for an average of the 5 poorest school systems in the state.
  • Commission chartered schools get a capital outlay grant, an average per pupil of the ESPLOSTs in all systems, not just those same 5 poorest, with no requirement to use the funds for capital purposes.
  • A commission chartered school will receive more money for any student in any program than that same student would earn for a school, traditional or charter, under the aegis of a local board of education. This is inequity of funding – a favored class of students.
  • Local school districts currently share in the $1.15 BILLION in annual cuts to the QBE formula. The state foresees no immediate improvement in revenues. So where is this additional funding for commission charter schools to come from? Most likely from your school and mine.

PTA has no objections to charter schools approved by a local board of education. We reject the state power grab from local communities in the education of their children, the financial inequities, and the overt attention being given to those who intend to profit from the education of children.

 GA PTA recommends a NO vote.




Don’t Let Them Pull One on US! Vote "NO" on the Charter Amendment

November 6, 2012




For more information on Charter Amendment HR1162 please visit

votesmartgeorgia.com



Let your voice be heard on November 6, 2012

make this issue about our children and not money!

 

 

 

 










Don’t be fooled by the language used in the Georgia Charter Amendment. The official ballot text reads as follows:[1]

Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended to allow state or local approval of public charter schools upon the request of local communities?

( ) YES
( ) NO

All persons desiring to vote in favor of ratifying the proposed amendment shall vote “Yes.”

All persons desiring to vote against ratifying the proposed amendment shall vote “No.”

If such amendment shall be ratified as provided in said Paragraph of the Constitution, it shall become a part of the Constitution of this state.

Why is this Amendment on the Ballot?

Two years ago the Supreme Court of Georgia’s decision Gwinnett County School District v. Cox found that the state constitution does not authorize any governmental entity to create or run schools that are not under the control of a local board of education. The court ordered that no other government entity can compete with or duplicate the efforts of local boards of education in establishing and maintaining general K-12 schools. And it further states that local boards of education have the exclusive authority to fulfill one of the primary obligations of the Georgia, namely “the provision of an adequate public education for all citizens” (Art. VIII, Sec. I, Par. I.).

This made a lot of politicians and charter school advocates and charter management groups very angry. So angry that they decided to use resources of ALEC and its political and corporate clout to change the Georgia constitution that would enable three politicians (the governor, lieutenant-governor, and speaker of the house) to set up an unelected state charter board that could supersede the authority of your local school system. Even with out local approval this state commission could approve charter schools throughout the state on “taxpayer backs.”

Don’t Let Them Pull One on US! Vote no on the Charter Amendment


About

Jack Hassard is a writer, a former high school science teacher and Professor Emeritus of Science Education, Georgia State University. His most recent book is Science as Inquiry, 2nd Edition.

http://www.artofteachingscience.org

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