Question of the Week: Should Public Money be Used to Fund Private Schools with Explicit Anti-Gay Policies?

This week's question centers around public funds going towards private schools that have explicit, severe anti-gay policies.

Earlier this year a group called the Southern Education Foundation (SEF) released a report indicating that some scholarship money generated through a Georgia tax credit program has been used at religious schools that ban gay, lesbian and bisexual students. The report states, At least 115 private schools participating in Georgia’s tax-funded scholarship program have explicit, severe anti-gay policies or belong to state and national private school associations that promote anti-gay policies and practices among their members. While SEF did not take issue with the policies of private religious schools, it did have a problem with tax dollars going to schools that discriminate against some people. Tax money, the group said in its report, should…

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Senate Committee Endorses Tax Credit Transparency Bill

The committee's vote comes weeks after an Atlanta education policy group suggested some scholarship money was used at a Cherokee County religious school that ban gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual students.

Senate Committee Endorses Tax Credit Transparency Bill

The committee's vote comes weeks after an Atlanta education policy group suggested some scholarship money was used at a Cherokee County religious school that ban gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual students.

The Georgia Senate Education and Youth Committee on Monday unanimously endorsed legislation intended to strengthen a state tax credit scholarship program that has been the target of weeks of criticism. Senate Bill 243 now goes to the Senate for a full vote. If passed, it would "give preferences to students with financial needs," according to a copy of the legislation available on the Georgia General Assembly's website. The committee's vote comes weeks after an Atlanta education policy group suggested in a January report that some scholarship money generated through the tax credit program had been used at religious schools that ban gay, lesbian and bisexual students, including Cherokee Chrisitan School.  That group, the Southern Education …

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Report: Woodstock School That Bans Homosexuality Receives State Dollars

Schools that "exclude, condemn, and demonize students for who they are and who they accept in their lives" should not receive public funds, according to a report from an Atlanta education policy group.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Patch has reached out to Cherokee Christian Schools and is waiting to hear back from the administration.  Some scholarship money generated through a Georgia tax credit program has been used at religious schools that ban gay, lesbian and bisexual students, according to a report released late last month. One school in the report from the Southern Education Foundation, an Atlanta education policy group, is in Woodstock. At Cherokee Christian Schools, the Parent/Student Handbook for the 2012-13 school year states:  "In accordance with the Statement of Faith and in recognition of Biblical principles, no “immoral act” or “identifying statements” concerning fornication, adultery, homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexuality, or …

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Petruzielo: More Funding Needed From State

The state has lost millions of dollars it was owed by the state over the last 10 years.

Over the last 10 years, the Cherokee County School District has lost $147 million in funding it's owed by the state under the Quality Basic Education formula. And, this year, the school system is expected to lose another $26.5 million. "We're not talking about chopped liver here," Superintendent of Schools Dr. Frank Petruzielo said during a work session with the Board of Education on Thursday evening. "This is not small change. And, if it's $26.5 million here, you can imagine what it is state-wide." The QBE formula was created in 1985 as a way to solve the problem of inequality between rich and poor school districts following lawsuits filed in California and Texas. "You still get to supplement a kid's education with local dollars but you …

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No More Bullies

2:05 pm on Wednesday, February 13, 2013

If you take a look at candidates who support charters or the amendment, and their respective elections, it is a TOTALLY different picture. Look at the photos from the bill-signing event for the amendment's legislation, held at Cherokee Charter: Chip Rogers- gone. Sean Jerguson- gone. Charlice Byrd- gone. Kim Cochran- gone. Danny Dukes- loser.   more ›