Senator Opposes Charter Measure
"While alternative methods of education, including charter schools, should be pursued, I will never support decimating public schools nor taxing our citizens without representation," Senate Democratic Caucus Whip Vincent Fort (D-Atlanta) writes.
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Much has been made these past weeks about charter schools. The Georgia House of Representatives took up HR 1162, a measure billed as a pro-charter schools initiative. Proponents of this state constitutional amendment claim it is a decision of whether or not to support charter schools. It is not. They also claim a constitutional amendment is needed because the Georgia Supreme Court has deemed it necessary to establish the legitimacy of charter schools. This is not only a misunderstanding of the court’s ruling in Gwinnett County Schools v. Cox, it is an intentional misreading and completely invalid.
Many state legislators in the House and in the Senate support charter schools. The charter school concept is one of building community education, providing parents, educators and students the ability to self-govern, offering educational opportunities that may not be offered in their local public schools.
A very small number of people have conflated the concept of “control and management” of local schools and in doing so are threatening public school systems across this state. The constitutional amendment offered would allow the state to approve charter applications over the objection of local boards. If the state approves, it is allowed to appropriate local school funds to the charter school.
The state should not be allowed to spend local money, without accountability and with unfettered power. Local taxpayers would have no choice in the state decision but would be left with the consequences. This is the purest form of taxation without representation and is the equivalent to giving the state a blank check.
During the past decade, school systems have lost 25 percent of their funding. Some school systems have survived in spite of the cutbacks, but in many areas, particularly rural areas of our state, administrators are at a financial tipping point. Removal of any more money would mean collapse—not just of one school but of entire systems—leaving thousands of children without their primary constitutional right of an adequate education.
If a constitutional amendment or legislation similar to HR 1162 is approved, the state could create their own state schools then use local tax dollars to fund them. We cannot in good conscious allow the state to create a parallel system of public schools.
We cannot allow state administrators to reach into local communities and pull out money without oversight. All elected officials struggle at times to satisfy constituents. It is impossible to please everybody all the time, but duly elected boards of education are held responsible by the voters for the decisions they make—a group of seven people on a state commission are not.
While alternative methods of education, including charter schools, should be pursued, I will never support decimating public schools nor taxing our citizens without representation. Government should be accountable, honest and transparent.
Senate Democratic Caucus Whip Vincent Fort (D-Atlanta) represents District 39.
Involved Mom
11:44 pm on Saturday, March 3, 2012
Thank you, Sen. Fort for bringing to the forefront the most important part of this legislation - that the State can approve charter school applications over the objection of local boards. School Boards should determine what's best for their district, with the input and support of their citizens/taxpayers. Should this Legislation be approved and go to ballot as written, the Referendum to be placed on the ballot reads: 'Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended to allow state or local approval of public charter schools UPON THE REQUEST OF LOCAL COMMUNITIES?' That statement is completely misleading.
The question SHOULD read: 'Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended to allow the State to approve special schools or charter schools after being rejected by the local School Board?'
Frank Jones
11:00 pm on Sunday, March 4, 2012
'Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended to allow state or local approval of public charter schools UPON THE REQUEST OF LOCAL COMMUNITIES?'
Don't you just love how politicians use words to manipulate the people (their constituents) to vote against what's in the best interest of "we the people"?
Maybe I should start a fund called Concerned Parents for the Election of Chip Rogers...we're concerned that he never be elected again.
"The Real Deal" Education Advocate
11:03 pm on Sunday, March 4, 2012
What is perhaps the saddess irony of all is that a black Democratic senator (Mr. Fort) has no clue as to the justification used by the State Supreme Court to eliminate the State Commission on Charter Schools. From Douglas A. Blackmon (an award winning black writer) writing in the Atlanta Journal Constitution -
"In the first sentences of an opinion issued last week (May 2011) by the state Supreme Court, Chief Justice Carol Hunstein declared without qualification that the Georgia Charter School Commission was illegal because of an “unbroken ... constitutional authority” existing since the adoption of the 1877 Constitution giving only “local boards of education” the power to create k-12 public schools. As a result, schools for 15,000 underserved children soon may be forced out of business." But it’s the next sentence in the 1877 Constitution — left out of the court’s opinion — that reveals the true aim of “local control” in education in that era and punctures the logic of disallowing the charter commission a say in education today. It reads:
“Separate schools shall be provided for the white and colored races.”
(con't...below)...
Frank Jones
10:35 pm on Wednesday, March 7, 2012
@Real...so you're saying that the Georgia Supreme Court doesn't understand the law and that they erred in their opinion since they didn't relate the two sentences as a whole. In effect, you're saying is if one part of the state's constitution represents racism, then the remainder of the constitution represents racism and should be ignored. The same argument would mean that the US constitution should be ignored. However, you are wrong. The sentences can and should be interpretted separately.
"The Real Deal" Education Advocate
11:16 pm on Sunday, March 4, 2012
Here is the whole article from Douglas Blackmon...
http://www.ajc.com/opinion/charter-ruling-flunks-history-956354.html
Here is also a great documentary by C.I. Bryant titled, "Runaway Slave." I suggest Mr. Fort listen to Mr. Bryant's story, and perhaps realize he's been duped as well, and his continued support of a party that limits the community he represents is lethal to his constituency..what a shame.
http://www.runawayslavemovie.com/site/
"The Real Deal" Education Advocate
11:19 pm on Sunday, March 4, 2012
Mr. Blackmon adds, "It is astonishing that the court’s four-member majority, without the tiniest acknowledgement of Georgia’s history of racially abusive statutes, tainted court rulings and educational malpractice with regard to black children, would unblinkingly rely on one of the bleakest moments in the state’s political and legislative past for the foothold of its ruling."
So now here we have Fort, a black Senator, trying to justify that parents and children have no right to petition the State to establish Charter Commission Schools using Racial Segregation logic, along with Taxation without Representation?
The only taxation without representation is the forcing of taxpayers to fund the public only system of education regardless of whether or not it is serving the children. What about the school tax many of us pay but homeschool, or send our children to private school? Monopolies are outlawed in business, and there can be no State sponsored religions, but education can be permitted to be a government monopoly, and local boards can be permitted to run amuck without recourse to Parents and Children and to an authority who can intervene where necessary?
(con't) below...
Frank Jones
11:01 pm on Wednesday, March 7, 2012
@Real..."Taxation without representation"? For once, I'll agree with your statement but from the other side. We the people vote and should have representation. However, in GA, most of our representatives aren't representing the people but are in fact representing special interests (for-profit charter companies). So yes, there is taxation without actual representation.
Your argument that the charter crowd has taxation without representation is ridiculous. You are a minority, but you have the top dogs in the GA legislature fighting for you. Further, paying a school tax yet not sending your child to public schools isn't taxation without representation...It's your choice. And yet, if the public schools are good (which CCSD schools are) you benefit from higher real estate values, stronger economy, and a more educated populace.
If you want to open the flood gates but declaring that it's taxation without representation every time you choose not to use a public service then here are a few things I don't want to pay for:
Public parks - Don't use them
Libraries - I buy my own books
FIre station - I've never had a fire or emergency
Military - I don't think we should be the world police force
FAA - I don't fly
Campgrounds - I hate bugs and like hotels
I choose not to use the services yet am happy to pay my taxes to support them. Why? Because they are good for the country and available if I want to use them.
Kenya
10:11 pm on Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Great points Real Deal. Most of these charter schools exist because parents desired an alternative to public schools that did not serve their children. I really don't think the boards want more competition, it's not about 'taxation without representation'. Our current system is really failing most of our children and it's sad that people are bickering about money instead of encouraging alternative options for those that need them.
"The Real Deal" Education Advocate
8:20 am on Thursday, March 8, 2012
@Frank - your statements as usual are false and unsupported, Good Grief! The CEG and several other polling organizations have determined that 82% Georgians favor school choice. So it is YOU who are in the minority. Secondly, who gave you the freaking right to determine what is "good" and what relevance that has to every child? As the saying goes, you may work for a publicly perceived "good company" like for instance, Apple, but if your boss is a terror, it is the worst place to work and is not a good company for you. The same applies to education. I am tired of people like you telling everyone because a bunch of bureaucrats have determined something is good for some, then it is wholeheartedly good for all. That is insane. And lastly, educational taxation is specific enough to where at a minimum it should be permitted to be used where the child is ultimately educated. It is not I don't use discussion so I don't pay, but rather I use here but not here so what's the problem you yourself said in your statement that you are happy to pay as you may use those services. This is all about control, not money. It is all about Dr. P and a select autocratic, socialist elite having the power over the people and the money. It is interesting with you being a libertarian/anarchist you would support such control over yourself?