**WBHF 1450 AM Charter Debate**
**Be sure to check out my follow-up post: Debunking Charter Amendment Myths**
There is a growing debate in Georgia right now on Amendment 1 the Public Charter Amendment. Teachers, parents, & legislators are all scrambling to vie for votes on the controversial issue. I have been asked by a lot of people where I stand on this issue so I thought I would write about own personal journey to SUPPORT public charter schools and Amendment 1. I am the son of a retired teacher, my wife is a teacher and I am a certified teacher myself. I served over 6 years on a local school board and spent almost 3 years teaching in a public high school. I am a conservative, but for most of my life I have been part of the educational establishment. In my case this has always meant that I am a huge advocate of public schools (and I still am by the way). There have been 3 moments that have changed my view on the charter school and voucher debate and I would like to address each of those quickly:
About a year ago I was asked to be part of an education forum on school choice and it was my job to be the lone representative speaking out in favor of traditional public schools. I really feel like I did a good job in spite of the fact that I was clearly outnumbered and probably should have factored that in to my agreement to accept the invitation. I love education so I felt like it was important to give my view as a former teacher, board member and parent. At this meeting, I had the opportunity to hear Rich Thompson of 100Dads speak and it left a lasting impression on me. Rich really forced me to think about this issue in a way I had never considered before. You can hear Rich Thompson too at the Northwest Georgia Education Roundtable on Oct 23rd at 7:00pm at the Clarence Brown Conference Center.
I finally realized that I must broaden my view of what public education really means. In Bartow County and the City of Cartersville we are fortunate to have great teachers and great schools. As a student, teacher, board member & parent I have been pleased for the most part with all of my public school experiences. In our community I do not believe charter schools will be a major issue because of the success of our schools and school professionals. This sadly is not the case in cities and other communities across the state. The question you have to ask yourself is: Would you want to be stuck in a failing neighborhood school with no process to offer your child an opportunity for a better education? This IS the situation many Georgia parents find themselves in. In many cases the schools have been underperforming for years and the efforts made by local boards and state officials have made little to no progress. Our children deserve better and offering choice is the best way to bring that about.
Waiting for Superman- I would encourage anyone on either side of this debate to watch this movie. This documentary really brings to light why so many parents want more public school choice. Watch this movie and decide for yourself if parents across this state and this country need more choice.
The education establishment will say that this is somehow violating local control but I would submit that parents taking action to improve the schools in their community is the ultimate form of local control. The educational establishment is really fighting for political control not “local control”. Others argue private companies will come in and set up charter schools and that means they will want to make money…is this bad? Is making a profit somehow anti-education? Some public school systems should adopt common sense business principles and stop wasting money & raising property taxes. We have already seen this model work successfully in colleges and universities and it can be scaled down to K-12 classrooms. Some private companies are already offering K-12 services in an on-line format in Georgia. In almost every aspect of our society free markets and competition have made this country stronger. Why should public education be exempted from this universal American truth? Competition will force innovation and lead to new strategies that benefit poor, rural and urban schools. Some charters will fail and mistakes will be made as we enter this new era in Georgia education. We will also learn that some of the innovation in these laboratories of advancement work across all of our demographic groups and that innovation can be applied to traditional schools around the state. The risk of doing nothing is far worse than trying this new approach. If you want more choice, more innovation, more competition then Vote YES on Amendment 1.
The Man in the Arena quote from Teddy Roosevelt from 1910 is appropriate for this debate in my opinion:
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.
Matt,
Wondering why you did not mention that charter schools already have access to open a school in Georgia, going through the correct avenues? This amendment creates a brand new appointed council to deal with ‘state’ charter schools, a completely separate entity, therefore creating a Dual education system. State Superintendent Barge has already said that this would require a minimum of a million dollars to maintain, adding a new line item to Georgia’s declining budget, therefore taking money away from our public schools at this crucial time, when we are fighting for every cent.
Kim, why don’t you crawl back over to the snake den opposing options for children and respect this person’s opinion?
Kim, if Supt. Barge said that, he’s lying. It will not add a new line item to the budget, the funds for the commission actually come out of the allotment for the charter schools. And when the Commission was in place for 2 1/2 years, they actually returned money to the DOE budget every year. Considering that we can trim down the size of the DOE Charter Division, this would actually save the DOE money. Not to mention, state charters are only funded at 62 percent of the amount spent by traditional schools. This sounds like exactly what we need at this crucial time of declining budgets.
Well, said. It was actually encouraging to hear the same logical arguments here that I have made several times on the radio. It’s amazing how scared folks are of competition. I will always choose more choice over less; private sector over public; competition over monopoly; and always for liberty and individual freedom.
He probably did not mention it because everyone knows this amendment is in response to the fact that the “correct avenues” are not open in most areas of Georgia. My local BOE, for example, does not care that at least two of the schools in it’s care are failing. The majority of the families in these schools feel their children are not receiving a decent education. The BOE’s response is that of either denial or indifference. Instead of telling those families that no one cares if their school is failing them, the state is attempting to find another way for them to give their children a better education. In regards to the funding, the supporting legislation for this amendment clearly states no monies will be taken from the public schools (HB797 lines 317-320 on the Georgia General Assembly web site). Matt was avoiding the fact that State Superintendent Barge is using lies and scare tactics to promote his agenda. But as a parent of a child who is thriving at a Charter school, and who does not want to return that child to a failing school, I say, so what if they do lose money. They are poor stewards of the money they are receiving and refusing to change. Maybe some competition and consequences will force them to do something about their lack luster approach to teaching children. Read the paper, the state has lots of failing schools. The problem will not get better on it’s own. There needs to be a change.
Thanks for a great article Matt!
I found my way here from a friend’s Facebook page. I’m not sure I understand the purpose of Charter Schools. If they are to create competition with hoped for better schools overall, why not go to a pure voucher system? If you don’t like what local folks are doing, why not set up criteria for approval and enforce it or get rid of local control and give it to the state? How do two systems make things better? It troubles me that the money for this effort come from out of state and from for profit entities. If what they want is so good, wouldn’t they (and parents) invest their own money rather than trying to get a slice of the public fund?
It sounds like some people are advocating that we go to a communistic society because that’s what public money staying in public hands means. That’s not how free enterprise works. Public schools are already sending millions and millions of dollars to private companies every day for books, testing, consulting, and on and on. The bottom line is PUBLIC charter schools do as good or better (remember the majority of them exist in failing districts) than traditional public schools with LESS public money. Because they do not take local funding away from the district they serve, but they do take the associated expenses away, they leave that district with more money per student than they had before. Because all charters are required to have a board made up of LOCAL citizens, control for that charter remains in local hands. Because only 9 BOEs have approved charters and 150 have not, we need an independent authorizing body, which as Bethany pointed out does not require any additional funding, to make sure that charter applications are given a fair hearing and also to make sure those charters stay on track and are closed if they fail. Our state and local boards of education are ill-equipped for this function because they are not concerned with the best interests of charter schools. They are too wrapped up in the politics of education and are unwilling to relinquish even a little bit of the control they currently have.
Cindy, the money is in public hands which you describe as communistic. You are in favor of the money being controlled by different, but public hands. That’s not communistic?
The Charter School Commission is not new…
http://buford.patch.com/articles/former-members-of-the-georgia-charter-commission-speak-out-3fd55f08