We don't need state takeover of schools; we need greater school choice as in HOPE program

110125 Atlanta: Signs were everywhere Tuesday during the rally. Hundreds of parents and students attended the School Choice Celebration and Rally at the Georgia State Capitol Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2011. The gathering rallied to push state lawmakers to expand educational options for Georgia families. The event joined together unlikely allies, public and private school leaders in a display of unity where they urged lawmakers to expand scholarship opportunities so parents can better afford to pick their children's schools. Private schools want the state to raise the $50 million cap on the tax-credit scholarship that has helped hundreds of public school students transfer to private schools. Charter school officials want the state to support the continued funding of their campuses, which faces a state Supreme Court challenge from a handful of Georgia public school systems. The rally comes as the country celebrates National School Choice Week. David Pusey, director of a Center for an Educated Georgia, said more metro Atlanta parents appear to be concerned about choice than ever before, especially with accreditation problems at Atlanta Public Schools. John Spink jspink@ajc.com A state Supreme Court ruling today means the program that provides tax exemptions to those who contribute to scholarships for students to use at private schools, including religious schools, will remain in place.

By Maureen Downey

Sept 11, 2014

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Atlanta attorney Glenn Delk has 30 years of experience in education reform efforts, primarily in increasing options and choices for families and their children through charter schools, tuition tax-credit scholarships and other means.

Delk recently found a new nonprofit, New Schools for Georgia, to lead public-private partnerships to offer high-quality educational options to all students, regardless of income or zip code. He wrote this essay in response to Gov. Nathan Deal's announcement yesterday that he wanted to allow state takeover of failing schools.

By Glenn Delk

Gov. Nathan Deal, while on the campaign trail with Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, indicated he’s interested in a New Orleans-type recovery school district, saying “We’re continuing to put money into schools systems that continue to fail. That is not the end result that we want...”

Gov. Jindal added...”There are too many children in America who are trapped in failing schools…and charter schools are simply one more way to give those parents and children another option…”

While I agree with the comments from both governors about the problems with our k-12 system, especially given that nearly 400,000 students in Georgia now attend a school ranked D or F by the state, rather than creating another top-down, centralized approach in the form of a state-wide school district, Gov. Deal would do well to follow the approach of former Gov. Zell Miller in creating the HOPE Scholarship.

Georgia led the nation in education in 1993 by adopting HOPE to give students who had the desire and ability the financial resources to attend a public or private college in Georgia. Since 1993, 27 other states have created similar programs, while over 800,000 Georgia students have received a scholarship.

Unfortunately, given the poor academic results from our k-12 system, few Georgians using the HOPE Scholarship, especially minority students, ultimately graduate from college.

According to the Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education, only 9 percent of all ninth grade students, and just 2 percent of minority ninth grade students, in Georgia, ultimately receive a two- or four-year college degree.

Just as in 1993 when Gov. Miller gave students hope, Georgia can lead the nation in education by offering families, teachers and schools the freedom, flexibility and autonomy to deliver education “personalized” for each student.

Passage of what I call the Education Freedom Act would be a natural progression of the effort started by Gov. Zell Miller in 1993: you could even call it the “Early Hope” scholarship program.

What are the elements of educational freedom?

State returns control of existing traditional public schools to Georgia's 180 school districts by relieving them of all state regulations
Teachers, if they choose to do so, would be allowed to self-regulate all aspects of their profession, just as doctors, lawyers, accountants are allowed to do.
State authorizes and funds Education Freedom Accounts in the amount of $10,000 per student per year via an education debit card to pay for any authorized educational expense.
State doubles the annual monetary cap on tuition tax credit scholarships each year for four years, and then remove cap entirely, assuming sufficient demand.
Funding starts at $100 million annually for each program, beginning with the FY ending 2016, doubling until 2019, when the cap on both programs is removed.

By 2020, when the cap is removed, Georgia would have the most diverse k-12 market in the country with private, charter, online and traditional public schools. Teachers have the freedom to self-regulate and determine their own working conditions. Parents have real power to become educated consumers, with an incentive to shop for the highest quality at the lowest price.

Government’s role shifts from running and heavily regulating a one-size fits all system, to funding students, just as the HOPE Scholarship does, and requiring annual publication of financial and academic results by all schools receiving state funds.

We have real accountability because, if teachers or schools don’t satisfy their customers — the students — they go out of business naturally.

By combining educational freedom in Georgia’s k-12 system of public education with the HOPE Scholarship, Gov. Deal would stop funding school systems that continue to fail, and instead give real hope to all Georgians, regardless of their age, income or zip code.

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