Eight imperiled Georgia charter schools got good news Thursday when Gov. Nathan Deal pledged $10 million to keep them afloat.
The schools lost their authority to operate in May when the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that their charters from a special commission were unconstitutional. The schools then got new “special” state charters, which came with state and federal funding but not local funding, which typically accounts for about half a school’s budget.
Deal’s new money will plug that gap and should assure operation this coming year.
“We decided to go ahead and fund these eight charter schools because several of these schools were meeting tomorrow to determine whether they could keep their doors open,” Jen Talaber, a spokeswoman for the governor’s office, said Thursday.
The money will be split among: Atlanta Heights Charter School and Heritage Preparatory Academy, both in Atlanta; Cherokee Charter Academy, in Canton; Coweta Charter Academy, in Senoia; Fulton Leadership Academy, in south Fulton County; Charter Conservatory for Liberal Arts and Technology, in Statesboro; Pataula Charter Academy, in Edison in southwest Georgia; and Odyssey School, in Newnan.
It’s unclear where the $10 million will come from. The governor will identify the source in his mid-year budget proposal, Talaber said.
The state money will replace the funds that the schools would have received from local systems had their local charter applications been approved or had the state Supreme Court upheld charters granted by a state commission, said Matt Cardoza, spokesman for the Georgia Department of Education.
The high court’s decision nullified all 16 charters granted by the Georgia Charter Schools Commission. The body, created in 2008 by state lawmakers, was controversial because local school systems had no say over the schools it created, yet had to help pay for them.
Of those 16 schools, 11 have been granted charters by the state school board (including three “cyber” schools, which will not get part of the $10 million), two have been approved locally and three lack charters, Cardoza said.
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