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.
State Board of Education member Brian Burdette, briefed on the commission’s actions during a committee meeting on Thursday, said amendment opponents were wrong.
“You’re productive and you’re giving money back,” he told the commission’s executive director, Bonnie Holliday. “How many agencies are doing that?”
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