Today around noon eastern time the GA General Assembly passed HR 1162 which now will passed on to the Senate for voting and if passed will be on the GA ballots come election time in November. HR 1162 was a bill that changes the constitution and gives state the approval to create Charter Schools. Until May of last year the state created Charter Schools and created funds for schools until the Supreme Court ruled against the State for funding Charters when a lawsuit was brought against the state from other Georgia local school districts. The Supreme Court called it unconstitutional.
The state argument here is that some local districts will not approve charters school in there district even when there are areas a district that desperately need better school options than public schools. Charter school developers, parents, and community leaders are creating ideas to gain charters and districts over and over will not pass them. These are local parents that have good plans and have received advice on governing the school from other successful charter schools in the country.
There are areas in Georgia that do need other options. They agree and know that the school if not successful will be closed if they can not meet the requirements and quota to stay open. Lots of charter schools have waiting lists to get in the school and if a school is not successfully meeting standards, why would a parent have there child on a waiting list to attend there if it is not a great school.....bottom line is, They won't! If the school is successful and has creative ways of teaching and interacting with the students to where students are enjoying school, parents will won't there child on the waiting list if they already can't get it. If these schools are held accountable what threat is it to a public school? It is about educating the students, Right! This is number one priority and should be to all lawmakers, principals, teachers, parents and non-parents.
It's proven that when schools compete they have a better success rate at meeting the standards.... all the way around. It's not about fighting over funding it's about getting the kids interested in this day in time. Getting the kids to like school, behave at school, and want to come and learn. Charter schools are doing this because of the creative and flexible way of they are allowing to teach and if this is getting kids to school and getting kids to graduate, everyone should jump on the bandwagon.
A report released this week says that charter schools are meeting the same standards that public schools are and not exceeding the public schools. I just am curious to know did it measure the high school drop out rate for those that attend charter schools compared to public schools. We have not heard those statistics yet. Below you will find out more about the passing of HR 1162. Just remember when it's on the ballots in November, we need education reform in GA. Why not try something different because what we have now is not working.
