Yes to charter schools, no to commission
The state overstepped its bounds when it created the Georgia Charter Schools Commission
by Editorial Board
- Staff Illustration by Chris Mihal
When the Georgia Supreme Court ruled in mid-May that the law that enabled the creation of state-licensed charter schools is unconstitutional, it inadvertently left in limbo the fate of more than a dozen schools and, more importantly, the thousands of students who attend them.
It's unfortunate for the parents of those children that the court's decision has left their kids' educations in doubt. The state and three charter schools have since filed motions asking that the ruling be reconsidered, but it's doubtful the court would change its decision. And, ultimately, the court's decision makes sense.
In the piece of legislation in question, the Georgia Charter Schools Commission — whose members are appointed by the governor, lieutenant governor and House Speaker — was given authority that duplicates, even supercedes, local school boards. According to Chief Justice Carol Hunstein's majority opinion, there's nothing in the state constitution that would allow for an entity like the GCSC to have that kind of power.
But the court's ruling should not be seen as an attack on charter schools. In fact, one can be passionately supportive of local charter schools and still agree that the state overstepped its bounds when it created the commission.
Charter schools have a noble goal: to provide families with educational alternatives in areas where the existing public schools aren't fulfilling a perceived need. Up until 2008, when the Legislature passed an act creating the GCSC, the process operated purely on a local level. Parents organized and applied to create charter schools, and the local school board had the sole authority to either approve or deny the applications. Ostensibly, that system worked, as hundreds of charter schools have been created in Atlanta and elsewhere.
In recent years, the GOP-controlled state Legislature has methodically chipped away at the funding and authority of local school boards. Conservative lawmakers have attempted (and occasionally succeeded) to grant private-school vouchers to narrow demographics — students in foster care, children of military personnel, students with special needs and so on. Whether intentional or not, the creation of the GCSC effectively continued this undermining of public education by making some schools less accountable to local school boards — while still siphoning money away from the local school districts. And because it's manned by political appointees rather than elected officials, the state commission has little accountability to voters.
The GCSC's advocates argue that the state needed to get involved because some local school boards had blocked the creation of proposed charter schools. That may be so, but the remedy for that situation is the same as for any unpopular decision by local elected officials: Voters have the option of replacing school board members. For the state to instead divert local school district funds to state-chartered schools that don't answer to the local school board is a form of taxation without representation.
What will become of the schools that were created by the stricken legislation remains unclear. We'll leave it up to the courts to decide what does or doesn't violate the state's constitution, but suggest that citizens — even those whose children could potentially be affected by the supreme court's decision — be wary of efforts that allow the state to usurp local control and accountability.
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