State Charter Schools Commission sends money back to charter schools

The State Charter Schools Commission of Georgia is returning $607,000 in administrative fees to charter schools in the state.

Commission members also voted recently to reduce the administrative fee it is allowed to charge charters from 3 percent of a charter’s operating budget to slightly less than 2 percent of that budget. The reduction is expected to save charter schools an estimated $1.6 million.

Opponents of the 2012 constitutional amendment that led to the creation of the commission had argued that it would be an unnecessary, inefficient layer of bureaucracy.