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AJC.com > Legislature > Blog > Archives > 2007 > January > 18 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USCagle outlines charter plan
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle announced today a proposal to give grants to local school systems so they can convert all their schools to charter schools at one time.
Currently, schools have to apply individually to local school boards and the state Board of Education for charter approval.
“The idea here is all about local control,” Cagle told a gathering of educators and lawmakers at Tech High, an Atlanta charter school.
Charter schools are publicly funded but act under contracts with the state that allow them to ignore some laws in order to be more experimental.
Under Cagle’s plan, the state initially would provide a total of $625,000 in grant money, which would be distributed to approved charter systems. Each grant would be no larger than $125,000.
A state charter advisory committee would be established to make recommendations to the state school board about charter petitions.
Committee members would be chosen by the lieutnenant governor and the speaker of the House.
Cagle also proposed funding five new career academies to provide high school students with job training. The state would fund a total of $1 million in grants to help with that effort. In addition, the state would provide $15 million in bond funding to help with construction costs. The career school bonds would require local matches.
“I am very very excited about this announcement today,” Kathy Cox, the state superintendent of schools, said at the gathering. “Allowing this for a whole system … this would be a great innovation for the state of Georgia.”
Cagle’s bill is expected to be introduced next week.
The state currently has 58 charter schools serving less than 2 percent of Georgia’s 1.5 million students.
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