Charter school supporters claimed a first-round victory late Thursday in their fight to override last year's Georgia Supreme Court ruling, declaring that the state cannot approve and fund charter schools over local school board objections.
"We're very pleased. It's been in the works since the court decision," Tony Roberts, president of the Georgia Charter School Association, said after House Education Committee members voted 15-6 in favor of the constitutional amendment.
The amendment, House Resolution 1162, would give the state the power to approve charter schools, just as the Georgia Charter School Commission did before it was declared unconstitutional by the court last May. It is on the fast-track to the full House, having been introduced only last week. But, it still faces several hurdles.
The amendment must pass by a two-thirds majority in both the House and Senate before it can go before voters, most likely in November.
School superintendents and school boards have been lobbying against the measure and seemed unswayed by some last-minute changes to the amendment, which Speaker Pro Tem Jan Jones, R-Milton said, temporarily took off the table the issue of funding.
Jones, the amendment's chief sponsor, also is a member of the education committee.
Angela Palm, lobbyist for the Georgia School Boards Association, said she believes the new version of the bill could still give the state the authority to create charter schools, which are publicly funded schools that have flexibility from state and federal regulations, and divert money from traditional public schools to finance them.
"They changed the words, but the ability stays the same and that's what matters when it's the state constitution," Palm said.
Herb Garrett, executive director of the Georgia School Superintendent's Association, said the revised amendment appears to have "truck-sized loopholes that could be exploited.
In its ruling, the Supreme Court majority said the Georgia Charter Schools Commission, created by the legislature in 2008, was unconstitutional because it approved and gave local tax dollars to charter schools over the objection of local school boards.
The court ruling did not affect the vast majority of the 121 charter schools that had been approved by local school boards and were operating in 2010-11. But it left eight state-approved charter schools scrambling for money, which Gov. Nathan Deal approved for them on an emergency basis.
The amendment to override the ruling was filed a day before hundreds of charter school supporters rallied outside the state Capitol as part of National School Choice Week. Since then, charter school supporters have flooded lawmakers with telephone calls, letters and emails.
Roberts said the revised version of the amendment was drawn so the issue of funding the state-approved schools could be revisited later.
Roberts said he believes the amendment will "undo what we think the Supreme Court unintentionally did," namely cut off the state's ability to approve charters for schools that have been turned down by local school boards.
He said he believes the Supreme Court, like the local school systems, only were concerned about funding.
"The fears of local school systems are premature," Roberts said.
The House committee heard public comments last week and did not take any Thursday.
Alvin Wilbanks, superintendent and CEO of Gwinnett County Schools, the state's largest school district, spoke earlier to a joint meeting of the House and Senate education committees and urged defeat of the amendment as first proposed.
The original amendment could be construed "as a legislative sleight of hand intended to manipulate voters, institute a modern-day version of taxation without representation, and diminish local control," he wrote in a letter to lawmakers.
The Charter School Commission was created by choice-friendly lawmakers who said local school boards were rejecting charter petitions -- 26 of 26 in one year -- to avoid competition. Gwinnett and other districts filed suit, arguing that the commission was taking local tax dollars away from school districts at a time when many are reeling from the double-whammy of state budget cuts and declining local property collections.
Funding charter schools
A constitutional amendment (House Resolution 1162) giving the state authority to approve and fund charter schools cleared the House Education Committee on Thursday and now heads to the full House, where it requires a vote of approval from a two-thirds majority.
What the resolution would do: It would allow the state to approve charter schools over the objection of local school boards. It was revised shortly before the committee vote, and opponents and supporters disagree on whether it also could allow the state to redirect money from local school districts to state-approved charter schools.
What prompted it: Last year, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that the Georgia Charter School Commission was unconstitutional and could not approve or fund charter schools over local school board objections.
What are charter schools: They are publicly funded schools that have flexibility from state and federal regulations.
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