Friday, November 2, 2012
Tuesday's ballot includes a Georgia constitutional amendment to re-establish a state commission to approve charter schools. Your job's to decide if that's a good idea.
There aren't a lot of statewide issues on the ballot Nov. 6, but one has the potential to affect school districts, parents and children throughout Georgia. It's Amendment 1, and the ballot will say it "Provides for improving student achievement and parental involvement through more public charter school options." The question voters will answer yes or no to is, "Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended to allow state or local approval of public charter schools upon the request of local communities?" So what does a yes vote mean? If the amendment passes, the state will create a commission that can approve charter schools in local communities, even if local school boards oppose them. Supporters of the amendment believe this is …
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Part of the problem is the language of the amendment itself.
With the Nov. 6 election about a week away, some politically active Athenians still don’t know how they will vote on Proposed Constitutional Amendment 1, which appears near the end of the General Election ballot. The statement of the proposed amendment’s impact, and the posing of the yes-or-no question, is so confusing that some voters mistakenly believe that a “no” vote would undermine – or possibly even destroy – charter schools that are an asset to many communities. In fact, this is not true. What the amendment would do is establish a new state-level authority for approving charter school proposals that have been turned by local authorities. That’s hard to discern in the ballot wording: “Provides for improving student achievement …
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 …
Monday, October 29, 2012
WalMart heiress, others, contribute more than $1 million to get amendment passed.
It's no secret that most of the money promoting the Charter Schools Amendment is coming from out-of-state contributors. According to Atlanta Unfiltered, Families for Better Schools contributed $1.1 million to the campaign to pass Amendment 1 on November 6. Atlanta Unfiltered is a document-driven, award-winning blog written by Jim Walls, the former long-time investigations editor for the Atlanta Journal Constitution. In this post, Walls says, All told, Families for Better Public Schools has raised nearly $1.8 million, 77 percent of it from outside Georgia. Corporate donors that stand to gain from amending Georgia’s constitution include K12 Inc. (which has given $100,000), Charter Schools USA ($50,000) and Huizenga’s National Heritage …
Kelly Cadman is the Vice President of School Services at The Georgia Charter Schools Association, a former founder of a charter school, and a dedicated charter school mother and public education supporter.
- GOVERNMENT
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Monday, October 29, 2012
Dear Editor: There has been an awful lot of energy expended by opponents of the Charter Amendment. The opposition to the Amendment claim, that the state can “already” act as an appeals body for charter schools. Those supporting the Amendment wonder, if the state can already approve charters, why is the Education Establishment fighting THIS hard against affirming that on the ballot on November 6? Most of the arguments posed against the Amendment are related to the enabling legislation, which establishes a Commission. The ballot question, however, ONLY reaffirms the state’s role in K-12 general education, so why the nasty battle against the Amendment? At the heart of the argument employed by the school districts and affiliate …
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Mom says the question on the ballot is misleading.
- OPINION
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Thursday, October 25, 2012
Dear Editor, Georgia is in the midst of an intense debate over a proposed charter school amendment that will be on the ballot in November. Whatever your position, you need to read my story. The polls predict this amendment will pass with flying colors, thanks to a misleading ballot question and a majority of funding from outside the state. If this amendment passes, politics and corporations will shape our schools. Charter groups with multi-faceted objectives are lining up to grab their market share. If a state-controlled charter school comes to your town, you will have no recourse if there is a problem. Why Local Control is Critical The problems I encountered at Fulton Science Academy Charter School, in Alpharetta, were not anticipated …
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 …
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Two students speak out against the charter school amendment, saying, "Vote no."
- SCHOOLS
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Thursday, October 18, 2012
This video was produced by the non-profit Southern Education Foundation.
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 …
Sunday, October 14, 2012
A parent who's also a teacher speaks in favor of charter schools.
- OPINION
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Sunday, October 14, 2012
Dear Editor, I am writing as both a parent of students who attend a charter school and a teacher who works at one. The school I speak of is Pataula Charter Academy (PCA) located in Edison, Georgia. This is one of the controversial schools that was created by approval of a state commissioned board rather than the local school boards. Now we are in danger of having our doors closed unless an amendment to the constitution is approved in the November election stating that it is legal for a state commissioned board to approve charter schools when local boards refuse. I am urging everyone reading this to please vote yes to this amendment. PCA serves students in five counties. All five of the local school boards of the counties that we serve …
Ed Uktr
6:42 pm on Monday, November 5, 2012
The teachers’ unions, represented locally by the Georgia Association of Educators, are steadfastly against education reform and parental choice. If the charter-schools amendment passes, the union strategy of fielding phony “Republicans” in local school board elections in order to block new charter school approvals—will ultimately prove less fruitful. Rent the film WAITING FOR SUPERMAN to learn … more ›