Monday, November 26, 2012
Charter schools may be part of a reform package, but they can't be the only reform.
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 …
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Charter school amendment appears headed for win.
UPATE 5:50 pm If you are in line to vote at 7 pm, you will get to vote even though the polls close then. Tens of thousands of Fulton County voters have already cast ballots today. Turnout is especially high for today’s General Election, as it is in most Presidential election years. It's too early to know how this year compares to 2008. In the evening after traditional work hours, peak turnout is anticipated, and tens of thousands of additional voters could exercise their right to vote. Fulton County elections officials released a statement advising that voters who are in line at 7 pm will be allowed to vote under Georgia law. As provided by Georgia law, voters who are over age 75 or who have a disability are eligible to ask to move ahead …
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Filed in Atlanta, the lawsuit claims the language is misleading.
Opponents of Amendment 1, which provides for a Charter Schools Commission, have long criticized the language of the ballot itself as misleading. As an earlier Athens Patch story says, Senate Democrats criticized the latest move by proponents of a November charter schools ballot amendment today, calling a new ballot preamble "biased, inaccurate and electioneering at its worst." "As it was written in March, the charter schools question on the November ballot was misleading. The addition of a preamble to the ballot question heightens the inaccuracy," said Senate Democratic Leader Steve Henson of Tucker. "The preamble language adds to the bias and subjectivity of what citizens will be voting on. The language intends to mislead voters in an …
Friday, October 19, 2012
This Cherokee County resident speaks in favor of Amendment 1. She is the chair of the Georgia Charter Educational Foundation, Inc.
- OPINION
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Friday, October 19, 2012
Dear Editor, For those who have been following the debate regarding Amendment One – the Charter Amendment – and wondering why everyone is so upset, I wanted to give you some final thoughts. For those of us in the thick of it, it’s a passionate subject that goes to the basic instinct of parents, what’s best for our kids and who is best to decide that? Looking at the last 180 days I can say with certainty that those of us in favor of this amendment have definitely been out “PRed.” We don’t have the ability to send home flyers in thousands of backpacks or have access to the public relations machines districts have. The fact the opposition has played the victim in this fight is both brilliant and hysterical. In most counties where there …
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Wealthy foreigners can in effect buy U.S. immigration visas for themselves and their families by investing at least $500,000 in certain development projects.
Investment advisor Greg Wing has established The Education Fund of America. It connects international investors with charter schools. According to the fund's website: The Education Fund of America is passionate about financing schools that help children move from indifferent to INSPIRED. It is more than just a slogan for us, it drives our school funding decisions. We are committed to helping our EB-5 investor families have a fulfilling experience with EB-5 knowing that they are also helping America's children - in the process. "The demand is massive - massive - on the school side," Wing told a reporter for Reuters. "On the investor side, it's massive, too." He is currently arranging EB-5 funding--which gives foreigners visas for …
Monday, October 1, 2012
Better Georgia is a progressive advocacy organization working on a variety of issues that concern Georgians.
- OPINION
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Monday, October 1, 2012
By Bryan Long, director of Better Georgia Charter schools are often a great choice for students. But like most Georgians, we believe that decisions on how local education dollars should be spent ought to be made by parents in the communities where those students live and by the school boards they elect. On Nov. 6, you will be asked to vote ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ for an amendment to Georgia’s constitution. You are not voting for or against charter schools. Instead, you are voting for or against the creation of a new, costly, and unnecessary state bureaucracy. Vote ‘No’ to stop the creation of the new government agency. Over the past decade, our state government has cut more than $1 billion from the state budget in money that is sent to local …
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Superintendent John Barge nixes idea of no local control for charter schools.
Georgia State Superintendent John Barge has broken with the rank-and-file Republican leadership. He opposes a proposed amendment that would take away local control of permitting charter schools and place it in the hands of a new state agency. "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," Barge said in a prepared statement that was quoted in the AJC. "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 …
Rebecca McCarthy
6:51 pm on Monday, November 26, 2012
Dear Rae, Since you don't know what a top notch reporter and editor Maureen is, and since you may have never read anything she has written, you don't know how fair and balanced she is in her reporting. She has been bemoaning the reduction in public money for public education for years. There are no sour grapes, just fears that may be realized. Stay tuned. more ›