Case against Charter Schools Commission heads to state Supreme Court

"The Constitution specifies that public education is under the management and control of county boards of education," said Thomas Cox, who is representing DeKalb and Atlanta Public Schools in the hearing. "To allow the state to say we are going to set up a charter school is basically undermining that local control."

Commission-approved charters receive federal and state dollars, plus a hotly debated share of local matching funds, which come from the state allocations of the school districts that lose students to charter schools. In May, Judge Wendy Shoob upheld the funding.

The initial case pit Gwinnett, Atlanta, DeKalb, Bulloch, Candler, Henry and Griffin public schools against the commission, the state Department of Education, former Georgia Schools Superintendent Kathy Cox and charter schools - Ivy Preparatory Academy of Norcross, Statesboro's Charter Conservatory for Liberal Arts & Technology and Heron Bay Academy of Henry - among others.

Gwinnett Schools initially filed the case arguing that Ivy Prep, a girls school that has attracted some of its students, receives about $850,000 from a state allocation reserved for the system. The Statesboro charter school receives about $367,000 from Bulloch County Schools' state allocation and about $1,567 in state funds from Candler County Schools'.

Lawyers for the state maintain that funding is legal and the state Supreme Court will support the ruling.

“Nothing in the Georgia Constitution gives the local district a monopoly on public education,” said Bruce Brown, an attorney with McKenna, Long & Aldridge who is representing the charter schools. “The constitution expressly allows the state to fund charter schools with state money. Nothing is taken from local taxes.”

Charter school operators will be watching the case closely. A similar lawsuit in Florida by Duval County School Board and other supporting districts successfully challenged the power of a charter authorizer there. The Florida Schools of Excellence Commission was dissolved after an appeals court found that the legislation creating it conflicts with the Florida Constitution, which gives local school boards, not the state, the authority to operate public schools.

A Colorado lawsuit, however, upheld the constitutionality of its charter authorizer.

Mark Peevy, executive director of the Georgia Charter Schools Commission, anticipates that the Supreme Court will do the same.

“We believe just as strongly in our position as we did when the Fulton County Superior Court ruled on it," Peevy said. "The commission is constitutional. I am looking forward to our day in court."

Several professional organizations have filed briefs taking sides in the issue including the Georgia School Boards Association, who supported the districts. The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools filed an opposing view siding with the state.

“Our local elected officials passed this law and our governor signed it,” said Tony Roberts, CEO of the Georgia Charter Schools Association. “The money should follow the child."