ALEC's Charter Schools Act Has Nothing to Do With Parental Choice

(click headline for full story)

A Media Matters analysis found that while Georgia media have frequently written about the bills, they have completely overlooked ALEC's influence in the debate. 

Georgia media have been silent as members of ALEC in Georgia's legislature have successfully pushed through a version of ALEC's Charter Schools Act, which would create a state-controlled board with the power to establish and fund charter schools over local opposition.



Was all of this year-long battle against the cell towers a fruitless effort? Did the cell
tower activists forsee something bigger on the horizon for our DeKalb Schools?
Virtual Education via the Charter School Ammendement - it's coming, Georgia
Prepare for schools without walls and teachers without jobs unless you plan
to VOTE NO in November!

GTCO-ATL is working to inform local media about the ALEC influence as we believe this is the same group that defeated the attempt during the last legislative session for DeKalb County citizens to ban cell phone towers at our own public schools.  Our bills never made it out of committtee where they were held up for unspecified reasons even though we had full support of 16 out of 18 local legislators, bi-partisan support, county commissioners behind us and testimony from every portion of the county. 

A rare unified front for a common goal should have sailed through committee and to the floor for a vote as the local bill was only seeking to protect our own local schools and children.  But, we believe the cell towers are part of an overall ALEC initiative to infiltrate our schools, take our public funds away from our public schools so they can be filtered to private businesses via charters approved by an outside council that is appointed, not elected.  The first charter they will likely approve?  A virtual classroom. 

Imagine ...

Imagine sending your child to a school without windows or doors, without school busses or even local instructors.  You may not even know what is being taught as there could be subjects without textbooks and classroom discussions that take place at any time of the day or night.  You might not have an opportunity to meet the parents of your child's classmates or even know who is attending the class and how they are influencing your child's success or failure.  And every time your child sends a text or receives a "tweet," he or she can simply tell you, "It's for school" and you will have very little way to find out if you are being told the truth. 

Virtual classsrooms are expanding and without a proven track record of success, this form of learning could be a bad sign for minorities and disabled children as these groups are more likely to not be served well under the conditions that require more at-home support or instruction from qualified specialists.

ALEC's education task force is headed up this year by three key people.  Read their background and who they represent and you will get a clear indication about the who, what and why of the proposed charter school ammendment.  www.alecexposed.org (currently this site is down, but check back later, or read more at http://www.prwatch.org/cmd.)

The people who started the bill, pushed to pass it and are asking for you to vote to change our state constitution are not parents waiting in line for their charter school to be approved.  They are political activists pushing a conservative agenda to privatize education and send our tax dollars to private industries seeking profit. 

K-12, the leader in online education, is behind the ALEC bill.  This is a for-profit company that is based in Maryland, one of the richest states in the U.S. today.  If we pass the charter ammendment, we will soon have a system of schools without local control.  They will be made up of a few teachers from out of state, and a lot of administrators who would rather spend money on technology than people.  After all, you can control the technology and it won't "blow the whistle" on you when you want to spend taxpayer funds by hiring your own friends and family, will it?

The Georgia Legislature Approved Language For A Charter Schools Amendment (HR 1162) To The Georgia Constitution. From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

The full-court press legislators endured during the charter schools battle in the General Assembly now moves to voters, who this fall will get their chance to determine how much authority the state should have to approve and fund charter schools. [...]

After the Senate passed a resolution sending the constitutional amendment to voters Monday, Tony Roberts, president and chief executive officer of the Georgia Charter Schools Association, noted that constitutional amendment campaigns in Georgia have cost anywhere from $5 million to $10 million. [...]

Republicans in the General Assembly have made that argument for weeks, saying a constitutional amendment was needed to counter a decision from the Supreme Court, which ruled in May that the state could not force local school districts to pay for charter schools they did not authorize.

That ruling all but killed the Georgia Charter Schools Commission, which had approved applications for charter schools that were turned down by local school districts. Charter schools authorized by the commission had, before the court ruling, been eligible for local district money. It meant 16 schools attended by thousands of students were denied more than $8 million in funding. [Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 3/19/12, emphasis added]

Companion Bills Were Introduced By Members Of ALEC And ALEC's Education Task Force

Republican Reps. Jan Jones, Brooks Coleman, And Edward Lindsey Sponsored Both Bills. [HR 1162, Georgia General Assembly's website, accessed 5/7/12] [HB 797, Georgia General Assembly's website, accessed 5/7/12]

• Jones Is A Member Of American Legislative Exchange Council's (ALEC) Education Task Force. [Sourcewatch.org, accessed 5/7/12]
• Lindsey Is An ALEC Member. [Sourcewatch.org, accessed 5/7/12]

 Provisions Of Georgia's Companion Bills Mirror ALEC's Model Charter School Legislation

Georgia's Companion Bills And ALEC's Model Legislation May Circumvent The Will Of Local Communities By Creating A State-Level Charter School Authority. HR 1162 allows Georgia's General Assembly to create and fund state charter schools that operate under terms set by the State Board of Education. For that purpose, Georgia's HB 797 aims to establish a "state-level commission" that "shall be appointed by the State Board of Education and shall be composed of a total of seven members and made up of three appointees recommended by the Governor, two appointees recommended by the President of the Senate, and two appointees recommended by the Speaker of the House of Representatives." The commission shall have the power to "approve or deny petitions for state charter schools." [GA HR 1162] [GA HB 797]