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Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Charter Schools Get Short Shrift In Georgia
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Atlanta, Gwinnett County and DeKalb County school systems recently denied three charter petitions by Building Excellent Schools graduates. BES, based in Boston, is the leading charter school training program in the nation.
Now BES founder Linda Brown is considering ceasing further efforts in Georgia. She thinks the prospects for new charter schools here might not be worth her group’s time, money and effort.
One local fellow, Nina Gilbert, is a former Gwinnett County Public Schools teacher and administrator. Her recent charter petition would have allowed for a public school for underserved, mostly minority, female middle and high school students.
But Gilbert’s petition was denied by the Gwinnett County Board of Education under the recommendation of Superintendent J. Alvin Wilbanks, who said he had legal concerns regarding Title IX, a federal law barring gender discrimination in public schools.
These concerns were made in spite of expert testimony by Rosemary C. Salomone that Gilbert’s proposal was well within legal parameters. Salomone was well-qualified to interpret Title IX. She drafted recent Title IX regulations for the U.S. Department of Education.
Wilbanks’ protests also continued in spite of assurances by officials at the Georgia Department of Education that they would not approve a charter school that was not 100 percent within the letter of the law.
If Georgia is to improve the opportunities and achievement of students in public schools, we, as a state, must embrace innovation.
To embrace innovation, education leaders must re-evaluate their chartering practices — or allow others, who will take the responsibility of authorizing charter schools seriously, to do it.
Today’s guest blogger is chief programming officer for the Georgia Charter Schools Association. He wants the state Legislature to explore new avenues for creating charter schools. To be a guest blogger here, send an entry on any education topic to bgutierrez@ajc.com.
