There has been much recent discussion regarding Georgia’s upcoming Charter School Amendment, which would amend the state’s constitution to allow state authorization of charter schools. I’ve also seen many comments on the supporters of the amendment and where the funding is coming from and what they are going to gain from this. Now, I am not a politician and I am not an educator. I don’t serve on any boards. I am a simply a parent of children in a charter school that wants to keep her options.
Because I have a personal stake in the outcome, I talk to a lot of people about the amendment. Many are in agreement, some want to learn more about it. One night after coming out of a town hall meeting, I found a flyer on my car with a big red apple and a mean looking teacher that shouted, “VOTE NO – The Vote Smart Campaign.” I wondered who actually went to the trouble to print these color, two-sided cardstock flyers and how could they afford it?
I sat down to read over the flyer. They listed the reasons the amendment was bad and listed the “bad people” that support it: Georgia Parent Advocacy Network (GPAN), Governor Nathan Deal, Georgia Chamber of Commerce, Americans for Prosperity, 100 Dads, Brighter Georgia Education Coalition and Students First.
Then they listed the opposers, but not fully by name. The flyer said: “Every major state education organization in Georgia, including PAGE, GAE, GPTA, GSSA, GSBA, GREA and GAEL is working with the Vote Smart campaign to defeat passage of this amendment.” It goes on to ask for contributions: www.votesmartgeorgia.com. Well, that name sounds kind of familiar. It sounds like www.votesmart.org, a non-partisan reference for biographies, voting records, issue positions, ratings, speeches and campaign finance information for all politicians. It is pretty clear that this flyer is supposed to represent votesmart.org, except that the real votesmart.org doesn’t tell you how to vote, it simply gives the information and lets you make your own choice.
Now it is time to have some open dialogue about who is funding opposition to the amendment and why their names are not spelled out in the flyer: Professional Association of Georgia Educators (PAGE), Georgia Association of Educators (GAE), Georgia School Superintendents Association (GSSA), Georgia School Boards Association (GSBA), Georgia Retired Educators Association (GREA) and Georgia Association of Educational Leaders (GAEL). These are not education organizations, but EDUCATOR organizations that protect the interests of school employees and administrators that are paid with our tax dollars. And all of them have links to the votesmartgeorgia.com website.
Now I know what you are going to say: “There are no teachers’ unions in Georgia.” Let’s be clear-there is no legal collective bargaining. But the unions exist! Let’s start with Georgia Association of Educators. Their mission, according to their own web site: “GAE exists to support, protect, and strengthen those who nurture Georgia’s children.” GAE averages $9 million in annual revenues. The National Education Association (NEA) is the parent to Georgia’s GAE. NEA is one of the most powerful political groups in America. NEA spent over $50 million in political activities and lobbying alone in 2009. They have over 3 million due paying members. Like most unions, it exists solely to protect its members. It rises to challenge education reform in the form of school choice, especially charter schools. Georgia Federation of Teachers is another union. They contributed to the campaign funds of many Georgia elected officials in the state House and Senate. Union state level political contributions from Georgia groups total at least $1 million annually.
The next time that you see news coverage of a charter amendment debate or political forum, take note of who represents each side. They are easy to recognize: supporters are parents, students and charter leaders. They have a positive attitude and try to engage in meaningful debate. Opponents are even easier to spot: they are union leaders, lobbyists, special interest groups and politicians. They frown and look angry and demand you to listen. They don’t like to be questioned, and they try to motivate you with fear. And they never bring along children.
Don’t be fooled…vote kid smart, Georgia.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Vote-Kid-Smart-Georgia/422487624453474
Why is it that pointing out our dismal state HS grad rate is "uncivil"? Why is it that pointing out the repeated failures of increased-spending is "uncivil"? Why is pointing out the corruption of APS, DeKalb, Clayton, and Bibb "uncivil"? That's the problem with your side of this debate, Frank - you're more concerned with 'hurt feelings' than in discussing the facts. Fact is, employers of today and tomorrow do not care about one's hurt feelings. They only care about having qualified people to do the work that's out there. Right now, our TPS is failing to provide that for at least 33% of the HS kids who aren't graduating and an untold number of students who are but who still need remedial assistance. Why is it "uncivil" to point this out? It's telling that your numerous personal insults to me are OK and not considered 'uncivil'. Hypocrisy, thy name is Frank Jones. Your long-held beliefs don't need to be challenged. History has already judged them to be failures.
Please not that 80% of the student population took the SAT in GA. Compare that to those ranking higher than GA. Most of the top 20 had fewer than 10% of their student population take the SAT. If you compare the top 10% of students in any state, they should rank much higher than 80% of any other state. Now, what you really need to do is compare the top 5% for each state, or have every state require all students take the SAT to be able to have a fair comparison. If you compare the top 5% of the worst school system in the state, you'll likely see them perform better than the top 80% of any other school system. Also, I've seen people talk about this previously on here, so it is a bit redundant, but not all students can be educated at the same costs. Special Ed and ESOL/ESL students cost much much more than an Honor's or regular ed student, especially those with a lot of parental involvement.
Cutting funding won't have an immediate affect because the pieces for our school system to be successful are already in place. But over time, you will see those pieces start to crumble, the best teachers will go somewhere else where they are appreciated and valued and we will no longer see an influx of those teachers from other areas moving in to help rebuild our schools if the funding isn't there. This is about the only thing you've ignored about how schools should resemble the business world. You want the best? Then "show me the money".
Now, I'll go with your analogy for a moment. Sally does have to live with her consequences within the boundaries given her. But, there are boundaries. The EBT card will not pay for beer, cigarettes, nail polish, dog food, etc. She does not have ANY choice open to her. However, this is getting away from the issues that amendment 1 deals with.
Why not say that you want a choice in how your child is transported to school since the taxpayers are paying for it anyways? /// I don't feel safe with my child riding the bus, but I don't want to have to pay with my own money to drive him/her to school. I want a choice, and the state should send a limo driver to pick up the child.\\\ See how ridiculous that sounds? But at least it would give us another choice (that we don't have to pay for).
1 of 3 HS kids aren't graduating on time with the rest of their peers, no matter how you libs try to obfuscate that fact. Someone somewhere along the lines of the TPS system is FAILING to do their job in educating 1 of 3 kids. 33% of kids being left behind isn't a statistic I'd be happy to hang my hat on....but then, I'm not in GA public education, where mediocrity is the standard. Most private sector workers lose their jobs with a 67% success rate. You TPS supporters accept it as 'normal'. With that sort of C- attitude, no wonder we're getting our educational butts handed to us by the rest of the world. I guarantee you Asian HS students don't adhere to such below-average levels of achievement. And Jennifer, your complete silence of the internet bullying of Frank Jones, who always resorts to personal insults, is quite telling. YES on 1162 allows parents to bypass this C- mentality.
Perhaps these 'austerity cuts' resulted in teachers & staff realizing that they need to be doing all they can to educate students, given the dismal economy we're in and potential for job loss? Certainly the 3 decades of doubling per-child spending isn't the reason, else we would've seen improvement (rather than stagnation) years ago. I don't see any correlation between CCSD's half-billion-$$ budget and improved performance based on 1 year of great SAT scores. I credit our teachers more than our funding, which is already substantial. As you probably already know, my position all along is "Fund the teachers and classrooms first". And you clearly seem like a parent who is involved with your child's education, so I tip my hat to you and wish you & yours good luck in education and life. Being in the wealthy CCSD means we both have it better than many other parents around the state of GA, which is why I'm voting YES to 1162. For them and my son if he chooses to stay in GA and raise a family here.
That's Parental Legislation 101.
I'm sorry if I'm misinterpreting what you've said above, but it sounds like you're saying that the teachers were not working as hard prior to "austerity" cuts. I have multiple teachers in my family and know that they pour their heart into what they do and care for those kids as if they were their own. They work well beyond the hours they are at school. Having their job on the line, if anything, will make them less efficient and make them teach MORE to the test than actually teach the children. Teachers are going to work their butts off regardless of whether or not they work for a public school, charter school, or private school. They are not in it for the money, they are in it to help the kids. However, if you start cutting their paychecks to the point that they cannot provide for their family, they will go somewhere else. So my question is, why are we not putting more pressure on our government officials to provide the funding they are supposed to be to the school districts? If schools were fully funded, none of this would be an issue. When schools are not receiving the funding they are supposed to be, and millions of dollars are being allocated to pay "management" fees of $1 million dollars or more (this is profit in addition to salaries for those people that don't know the difference), there is a problem. Dan, for someone so obsessed with pointing out excessive spending, I can't believe that you could support using for-profit EMO's in a recession.
http://www.wabe.org/post/taxpayers-sue-school-districts-alleged-use-taxpayer-funds-campaign-against-amendment Rae (who is posting on the Canton Patch while living in DeKalb because...?) and Kara Martin are named as plaintiffs in this suit. THANKS, girls, for wasting my tax dollars in Fulton on this one. I hope there's a countersuit against you, because you DO NOT represent me, in either my role as taxpayer OR registered voter in this state. http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/wabe/files/201210/lawsuit.pdf Maybe you filed in Fulton because you were judge-shopping? I hope Wendy Shoob thinks about taking this one on, because your case for filing in Fulton is WEAK, WEAK, WEAK. There's an FAQ, with no position taken, and as a taxpayer, I APPRECIATE that my school system administrators provided a place to which interested voters could be referred for FACTUAL information on the amendment, rather than a) taking the time of already over-stretched staff to answers those questions and b) risking personal interpretation of the issue during explanations. There have been no PTA flyers, no faculty meetings, nothing at my local schools. Bad move on this one! http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/de30a3e16d2941ddb68cc02a86b2155d/GA--School-Boards-Lawsuit-1st-Ld-Writethru
"This law suit is not about whether or not you agree or disagree with the Amendment." Really? Then why does it specifically state "political activity using taxpayer resources IN OPPOSITION TO a proposed constitutional amendment?" (Emphasis mine.) If the school boards, PTAs, etc., supported it, this wouldn't be a problem? Gov. Deal using taxpayer funds (lots of it) isn't a problem because he's in support? Just THINK about it. (Perhaps you might want to read exactly what you signed and had notarized a bit more carefully...).