Two Charter Schools Become One

Radio Commentary, 90.7, 91.7 New Life FM, July 15, 2011
By Sue Ella Deadwyler

Good morning, Jim. Schools that lost their charters May 16th, when the Georgia Supreme Court struck down the Charter Schools Commission as unconstitutional, are trying to enroll students elsewhere before school starts in August. Two of the un-chartered schools went before the state Board of Education in June and walked away with a renewed charter that merged them into one school.

Odyssey School, a K – 7 public charter school southwest of Atlanta, merges with the K – 10 Georgia Cyber Academy, a virtual public charter school serving students online throughout the state. As state-chartered schools, they are eligible for state funding, but not for local school tax money, which was a central issue in the 4-3 Supreme Court decision against the Commission. The seven members of the Commission created a major problem for themselves by allotting both state and local tax money to the 16 schools they chartered, although state-chartered schools are not and Commission-chartered schools were never eligible for local education funds.

The governor and many legislators are desperately working toward a “quick-fix” for the 16,000 students affected by the State Supreme Court ruling. But the issue is much more complicated than finding slots for students from schools without a charter. Something is dreadfully wrong when self-proclaimed faith-based schools come in under the radar to be chartered, funded with tax money, and managed by Turkish staff that enter the U.S. on H-1B visas. That’s particularly unsettling, because no faith-based public school would ever be chartered for the Christian faith.

A carte blanche Commission must NOT become constitutional. However the problem is fixed, voters must be the controlling factor in Georgia education, from funding schools to vital decisions about who teaches the children and what the children are taught. An appointed Commission is NOT acceptable, since appointees don’t answer to voters. We MUST educate legislators about Islam-operated charter schools and get laws passed to restrict and regulate the KINDS of schools that can be operated and funded with taxpayer money. Funding schools from outside Georgia is not the answer, either. Outside funding brings outside control and that’s what’s wrong with education now! For Georgia Insight I’m Sue Ella Deadwyler, your Capitol correspondent.