By: Charlie Harper

Almost 40 years ago, I enrolled in Hood Avenue Elementary School in Fayetteville, as my two older sisters had done before me as they entered the first grade.  I was in Mrs. Darden’s class, as my middle sister had also been.

Fayette County Schools were relatively small then, though they continued to grow over the twelve years I spent between first grade and high school.  It remained largely the kind of place where school teachers and administrators were interwoven as the fabric of the community. Parents knew teachers.  Administrators knew their students.  We didn’t deride the school system as “government schools”.  It was public education, and it was a main reason that Fayette County grew almost ten-fold during my lifetime.

I am first and foremost a product of my parent’s upbringing, but as far as my education goes, I am a product of public schools.  They were far from perfect, but no system covering such a disparate population with differing needs will be.  They were consistently good, and occasionally great.

My political activities in politics have also frequently been around education.  I ran against an incumbent state senator in 2000 largely because he voted for Governor Roy Barnes education reform plan.  It violated many principles of local control, and took money away from the taxpayers of my county and the school system we viewed with so much pride.

During this race, I was quite close to many members of the educational establishment of all three counties within the district.  While I didn’t win, general opposition to the incumbent’s vote to strip local control from the counties was a central theme that ultimately led to his defeat.

I say all this to be very clear.  I am for local control.  I value public schools and the increasingly more challenging mission we ask them to perform.  I still owe much to the teachers and administrators that maintained an educational system that provided me an education to which I would otherwise have had no access.

Despite that declaration, I support the state charter school amendment on this November’s ballot.

The concept of local control doesn’t mean or imply that a county is a magical concept that must be enshrined as the perfect form of government, not to be questioned.  As we’ve seen with T-SPLOST, sometimes the unit of government is too small to effectively coordinate a plan with the impact needed for all citizens.  Likewise, local governments do not plan national defense.

The concept of local control is that decisions should be made the closest to the people that are affected by the hand of government.  It is an important part of having government for the people, by the people.

While the county (or city) is often the closest form of government to the people, counties differ greatly in size and demographics.  Fulton County is rapidly approaching one million people.  Gwinnett has well over three-quarters of a million.  DeKalb and Cobb are closing in on 700,000.   Yet Georgia has 32 counties with less than 10,000 people.

It is hard to imagine that the school boards of Georgia’s largest 4 counties are as “local” as Georgia’s smallest 32.  Likewise, it is equally possible to see that the smallest counties may lack the resources to provide the same opportunities for students in larger or more affluent systems.

Parental involvement is often cited as the greatest determinant in student success.  I remain extremely blessed that my parents spent a lot of time with not only me and my sisters for our education, but with our teachers and administrators.  For us, the system worked.

For parents who face bureaucratic walls and no choices but a non-responsive, failing school, there should be more options more “local” than a one size fits all school board.  That appeal’s process can come from a state charter schools commission.  Not “another level of bureaucracy” as critics attempt to paint it, but a volunteer appointed board that can grant charters to schools which can demonstrate a plan which involves parental commitment, educational rigor, and a reasonable financial plan.

Charter schools keep public money within the public domain.  They are not vouchers that take public money and give to existing (or newly created) exclusionary private schools.  Instead, they reallocate state (not local) funds based on the needs and desires of committed parents.  Parents who are willing to put their skin in the game to ensure their children get the best education possible.

I was lucky.  I had the opportunity to spend 12 years in the best public schools Georgia had to offer.  Charter school availability wouldn’t have affected my education much if at all.  Many of Georgia’s most vulnerable are not so lucky.  Charter schools give them a much better chance at some luck.

By John Barge

I fully support the continued creation of high quality charter schools for Georgia’s students, but after careful consideration of what is best for all of Georgia’s students, I have decided to take a position in opposition to the constitutional amendment that will be on the Nov. 6 ballot.

Until all of our public school students are in school for a full 180-day school year, until essential services like student transportation and student support can return to effective levels, and until teachers regain jobs with full pay for a full school year, we should not redirect one more dollar away from Georgia’s local school districts – much less an additional $430 million in state funds, which is what it would cost to add seven new state charter schools per year over the next five years (the annual average of the Charter Commission that would be revived if the amendment passes).

I cannot support the creation of a new and costly state bureaucracy that takes away local control of schools and unnecessarily duplicates the good work already being done by local districts, the Georgia Department of Education, and the state Board of Education. What’s more, this constitutional amendment would direct taxpayer dollars into the pockets of out-of-state, for-profit charter school companies whose schools perform no better than traditional public schools and locally approved charter schools (and worse, in some cases).

I trust our local school districts will continue to approve only high quality charter schools for Georgia’s students, and I am committed to working with all of our school districts to ensure that high quality applicants are not denied locally – including mediating between high quality charter school applicants and any local districts that are reluctant to approve them, as provided by existing Georgia law.”

I fully support the continued creation of high quality charter schools for Georgia’s students, but after careful consideration of what is best for all of Georgia’s students, I have decided to take a position in opposition to the constitutional amendment that will be on the Nov. 6 ballot.

Until all of our public school students are in school for a full 180-day school year, until essential services like student transportation and student support can return to effective levels, and until teachers regain jobs with full pay for a full school year, we should not redirect one more dollar away from Georgia’s local school districts – much less an additional $430 million in state funds, which is what it would cost to add seven new state charter schools per year over the next five years (the annual average of the Charter Commission that would be revived if the amendment passes).

I cannot support the creation of a new and costly state bureaucracy that takes away local control of schools and unnecessarily duplicates the good work already being done by local districts, the Georgia Department of Education, and the state Board of Education. What’s more, this constitutional amendment would direct taxpayer dollars into the pockets of out-of-state, for-profit charter school companies whose schools perform no better than traditional public schools and locally approved charter schools (and worse, in some cases).

I trust our local school districts will continue to approve only high quality charter schools for Georgia’s students, and I am committed to working with all of our school districts to ensure that high quality applicants are not denied locally – including mediating between high quality charter school applicants and any local districts that are reluctant to approve them, as provided by existing Georgia law.”

By Virginia Galloway

The State School Superintendent claims that he is conservative and is opposing the Charter School Amendment on Nov. 6 because it creates bureaucracy. I’m a firm believer in limited government and work hard against the encroachment of big government policies on our daily lives. And if you’re like me, you know it happens all too often.

But the simple truth is, the charter school amendment is the epitome of small government because it ultimately gives parents more power and freedom to choose the best education for their children.

The bureaucracy Barge refers to is the charter school commission, declared unconstitutional last year by a 4-3 vote of the Georgia Supreme Court. The commissionallowed groups of parents to start their own public schools, if they could submit a viable charter plan. Before the commission was created, charter schools were rarely available in Georgia because local school boards routinely turned down virtually all applications.

At its peak, the commission had seven unpaid commissioners and five paid staff. The commissioners were from all over the state and were not compensated for mileage to and from their meetings in Atlanta. At one of its last meetings, the commission voted to cut its revenues by one-third.

That doesn’t sound like big government to me. In fact, Washington, DC, should take a lesson from the Peach State’s former commission.

More importantly, what if you send your child to a traditional public school? What bureaucracy manages your child’s education?

“Local” public schools face oversight from the U.S. Department of Education, the Georgia State Department of Education, regional education offices, local school boards and their central office staff, and local school councils.

There are over 4,000 employees at the U.S. DOE. In fiscal year 2011, the state DOE had about 1,200 employees who were paid a total of $50 million in salary and almost $2.5 million in travel costs, according to open.georgia.gov.

Additionally, local school systems typically have 5, 7, or 9-member school boards. These boards employ administrators in their central offices and administrators in individual schools. According to the DOE, school systems in Georgia spent a total of $1.6 billion on general administration and school administration. This works out to $1,000 per student.

(Fiscal Note: If school boards could cut these administrative expenses by 20 percent, then we could give every Georgia teacher a $3,000 raise or give property taxpayers some relief. According to the Georgia DOE, per student spending on public school bureaucracy has more than doubled between 1996 and 2011.)

Finally, there are RESAs, Regional Education Service Agencies. There are 16 RESAs in Georgia.

RESAs are a layer of government between the state DOE and local school systems. RESAs have directors whose salaries average $100,000 and received about $4,000 per person in travel, according to open.georgia.gov. Not counting teachers of special needs students in regional schools, RESAs employ over 600 employees who are paid $27,000,000 in salary and over $1,000,000 in travel.

If your child attends a traditional public school, there are about 7,500 bureaucrats plus another $1.6 billion in local bureaucracy governing your child and your child’s teacher.

Bureaucracy by definition is a system of administration marked by rigidity, red tape, and proliferation. That makes the current traditional school a bureaucratic nightmare.

It’s apparent why Georgia’s chief school bureaucrat does not want to give you the option to send your child to a charter school by recreating an alternate authorizer— it removes a fraction of the power of his massive, multi-tiered bureaucracy.

Vote for small government and getting government out of private decisions, like how to best educate your children. Vote yes for the 5,000 plus Georgia students on charter school waiting lists. Vote yes for the charter school amendment on Nov. 6.

For Immediate Release
Contact: Julianne Thompson at 404-798-4663

ATLANTA TEA PARTY NEUTRAL ON CHARTER SCHOOL AMENDMENT
Tea Party Activists Divided on Amendment Statewide

Atlanta, GA – The Atlanta Tea Party has announced it will begin voter education on the Charter School Amendment and provide information on both sides of Charter School via Town Halls around Georgia.

Atlanta Tea Party Co-Chairman Julianne Thompson stated, “”The Atlanta Tea Party is 100% in favor of school choice. We support vouchers, educational savings accounts, and Charter Schools. However, we are currently remaining neutral on this Charter School Amendment and we intend to provide extensive information from both proponents and opponents of the issue so that voters can have the information necessary to make an informed decision at the polls in November. We are addressing this issue on our website as an interactive blog, and in emails we are sending out to activists around the state.”

Thompson added, “We are happy that both sides have been holding educational Town Halls, but it is important to have both sides together in a setting where voters are free to question, and participate in legitimate debate. We are working with Tea Party organizations around the state to hold these types of Town Halls. We hope to finish-up by hosting a formal debate in late October that will be free and open to the public.”

Atlanta Tea Party Co-Chairman Debbie Dooley stated, “The Atlanta Tea Party has four core values and uses those values when evaluating issues and legislation. They ask the following questions when it comes to every issue: Is it fiscally responsible? Does it fall under the premise of Constitutionally limited government? Is it a free market solution?  Is it ethical? These are all questions being asked and evaluated about the Amendment.

For more information contact Julianne Thompson at 404-798-4663.

Lowndes GOP Chairman Accuses Governor Of Offer To Campaign For Democrats In Exchange For T-SPLOST Support

See article in Peach Pundit 

***We hope to get a response from the Governor’s office and if we do, we will send it out immediately.