Monday, November 5, 2012
News When it comes to the charter school debate, both sides agree on 'quality'
Posted by Max Blau @maxblau on Mon, Nov 5, 2012 at 4:39 PM
Over the past few months, the charter school amendment debate has come to represent much more than the actual ballot measure that will greet voters tomorrow at the polls.
The discourse surrounding the amendment has swelled into a much larger issue. Rather than looking at the amendment's specific effects, people are talking more about how charter schools compare to traditional public schools. In many ways, Georgia voters will indicate their confidence in the entire charter school movement.
Unlike many controversial issues in Georgia, however, this debate appears to cut across party lines as people are more concerned with one thing, in particular — the quality of a charter school. No one involved in the debate is necessarily against charter schools, but they want to ensure that only good charter schools get created.
- Joeff Davis/CL File
- Rep. Jan Jones, R-Milton
In theory, that should be something everyone can agree on. It's how state Reps. Jan Jones, R-Milton, and Alisha Morgan, D-Austell, reached across the aisle and co-sponsored the legislation which put the referendum on tomorrow's ballot.
It's also why Georgia Schools Superintendent John Barge, the man in charge of the state's public schools system, believes in charter schools despite personally opposing the amendment.
"Let me say this again: I fully support the creation of high quality charter schools for Georgia's students," Barge wrote on the first page of a 29-point document outlining the amendment's faults. ("High quality charter schools" is a phrase that charter school proponents use a lot — one which has no precise definition.)
Jane Langley, spokeswoman for the anti-amendment group Vote Smart Georgia, also acknowledges that talking about the charter schools movement is hardly a black-and-white issue.
"There are good charter schools and not-so-good charter schools; good public schools and not-so-good public schools," she says.
Her pro-amendment counterpart Bert Brantley, who represents the advocacy group Families for Better Public Schools, isn't against public schools by any means. In fact, he says his local public school is so great that he wouldn't consider sending his kids to a charter school even if one became a viable option.
"My kids go to a terrific public school," he says. "My wife teaches there. If a charter school opened next door to our school, we wouldn't go there. We love it, it's fantastic, but there are a lot of who just don't have that opportunity."
The case for quality schools — traditional or charter — cannot be overstated, particularly in a state that ranks 47th in the country in terms of graduation rates. How we achieve "quality" is something no one seems to agree on and why the issue has brought together Democrats and Republicans.
Barge, a conservative Republican, broke from the ranks of his political party to side with most traditional public school teachers and administrators, who oppose the amendment. Among his main arguments is a belief that reinstating the state commission would diminish local control.
"I trust our local school districts will continue to approve only high quality charter schools for Georgia's students," he says, "And I am committed to working with all of our school districts to ensure that high quality applicants are not denied locally — including mediating between high quality charter school applicants and any local districts that are reluctant to approve them, as provided by existing Georgia law."
Lou Erste, who helps oversee the process for approving charter schools at the state level for the Georgia Department of Education, contends that the amendment does nothing to ensure that groups who submit a charter petition have actually done their homework. It's a problem that Erste says he encounters on a regular basis.
"The constitutional amendment addresses a vehicle for approval," he says. "It doesn't address the key problem of high quality applicants."
Both Barge and Erste have valid points. Nevertheless, many amendment supporters think that having charter school authorizers at the local and state level will lead to more charter schools throughout the state. They believe that helps to return local control into the hands of parents and community members.
In the case of the Museum School of Avondale Estates, which was originally approved by the state-appointed commission after the DeKalb County school board rejected their proposal, board member Brian Deutsch has witnessed this firsthand.
"I think this charter school particularly is all about local control," he says. "We are run by a board of not all parents, but mostly parents, and pretty much all folks in this community that have high standards. If our school didn't meet those standards, we're not going to have a charter."
There's plenty of debate over whether charter school accountability leads to a higher quality of education. Like Deutsch, Brantley understands that not all charter schools produce at a sufficient enough level, and that even discussing what "higher achievement" actually means can be extremely subjective.
He says: "It's not one of those things that are red or blue — 'high quality' is very subjective — but the whole goal is: can we get a process in place where high quality charters are approved?"
Brantley's question is what we should ask ourselves when we vote on this amendment tomorrow. In fact, it's how this entire topic should have been viewed in the first place.
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