Backers of a constitutional amendment that would guarantee the state’s authority to approve and fund charter schools are pushing back against a claim that charter schools do not perform as well as traditional public schools.
That’s the assessment Georgia School Superintendent John Barge made in announcing his opposition to the proposed amendment — and it’s one amendment backers say is inaccurate and unfair.
“I don’t think the charter schools were given a fair and honest appraisal,” said Tony Roberts, president and chief executive officer of the Georgia Charter Schools Association.
Barge — a Republican who has come under fire from many in his party for opposing the proposed amendment — pointed to figures from the 2010-2011 school year showing that charter schools in Georgia were less likely than traditional public schools to meet federal goals for adequate yearly progress.
In 2010-2011, 73 percent of the state’s traditional public schools met AYP; 70 percent of charter schools met AYP.
Stating that local school boards — and not an appointed charter schools commission that would be re-created if the amendment is approved by voters in November — are best positioned to consider charter school applications, Barge said state-approved charter schools performed less well than those approved by local school boards.
“Georgia’s history of locally-approved charter schools has yielded some of the finest charter schools in the nation,” Barge wrote in a position paper on the charter schools issue.
Proponents of the amendment make several points in rebutting Barge’s statements.
First, they say charter schools approved by the state do not receive local property tax funding and are underfunded in comparison with traditional public schools, which do receive local property tax funding. State legislators closed that funding gap this year by passing a bill that provides state-approved charter schools with supplemental funding beyond the formula-based funding the state provides to all public schools.
Amendment backers also say many charter schools in Georgia are relatively new and should not be expected to match the performance of traditional public schools in their first years of existence.
“A lot of charter schools’ success is based on the culture — a lot of parental involvement,” Roberts said, adding that it takes at least three years for that culture to take root and for performance to rise.
Amendment backers say charter school performance matches or exceeds that of traditional public schools — if the data is examined in what they describe as a fair way, such as comparing a charter school’s performance with the performance of traditional public schools in the district where the charter school is located.
E. Donell Smith, a 51-year-old airline pilot who lives in Atlanta, said he and his wife decided to enroll their son at Heritage Prep Charter after considering — and rejecting — the idea of enrolling him in the traditional public school he was zoned to attend.
Smith said he believes his son is better served at Heritage and that charter schools, in general, are superior to their traditional public school brethren. The main reason, he said, is because of smaller class sizes, meaning “students can get more individual attention.”
Smith added that the teachers at charter schools “want to be there.”
“They’re not there because of the money,” he said, “because, typically, teachers at charter schools make less than those at traditional public schools.”
Charter school teachers do earn less than teachers at traditional public schools, but charter schools are not required to hire certified teachers.
Alison Bartlett, a Cobb County school board member, said charter schools have an easier task than traditional public schools.
She said many don’t have the same percentage of poor or special needs students. And she said some charters are havens for segregation, with racial demographics that are in stark contrast to the surrounding community.
Bartlett, who said she has supported charter schools that are not run by for-profit companies, said the state should think twice before approving new charter schools because it’s having enough trouble funding traditional public schools.
“The state of Georgia,” she said, “can’t afford — cannot afford — to educate the kids in [traditional] public schools.”
About the Author
