What Comes Next for Georgia's Schoolchildren After Passage of the Charter Schools Amendment?

The fight over the Charter School Amendment is over. Come January, the Georgia General Assembly will re-authorized the Charter Schools Commission that had been declared un-Constitutional by the State Supreme Court.

And, says Maureen Downey in a blog post in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, that may be all the legislature does for public education this session, believing that choice is a solution to funding problems for public education.

"Lawmakers can relax and let choice work its magic. If students don’t do well, it will be blamed on their parents failing to make the right choice," says Downey. "In elevating choice to their top legislative priority, lawmaker shirked what ought to be their main concern: Ensuring that existing public schools in Georgia remain viable and have sufficient resources to educate students to increasingly higher standards."