Elizabeth Cooper your humor is INeffective. Apparently, you do not live the day to day realities of what public school is all about for students who DO NOT fit into the public school model. I will tell you first hand by actual observations of public school classroom education that it is NOT working for some students. PUBLIC school is NOT working for everyone and FOR THAT, you NEED TO YOU NEED TO ALLOW ALTERNATIVES, such as charter school Inflexibility or lack of understanding that public school is NOT for everyone makes you RIGID, INflexible and UNreasonable.

Frank, you are sorely mistaken. Please look outside the world you look at. You HAVE NO IDEA. Do you know that there are quite several students with special needs or failing in the PUBLIC school system? Do you know that the public school system is IMpersonal, ran like a factory and your child is like a paper being processed through a machine / system ? You need to go to a public school and see what every day is like from a student's perspective.

YES for QUALITY EDUCATION tailored to each child. Our child is not a paper being processed thru the system. Every child is DIFFERENT. Until education is changed to show that each child is being cared for...... we need to PROTEST. Education IN FACT is the 1 single factor that will determine the future of the human speciies and earth. It is a daunting task. Education is something we all need to take seriously. We can have fun all we want but in the end we need to face what is truly important.

Julia the fact that you use the word "system" tells me you are lost. Education is NOT a system. It is not. You child is not being processed thru a "system". Every child is different. Every child/human learns differently. We need to acknowledge that.

If you're right, then those 'masses' are only 'less intelligent' because they were forced to attend American public schools, Frank.

You're so blinded by your love of more gov't and more spending that you can't see what a disaster the liberal agenda has been for American education. While liberalism isn't the source of every problem; it's not the solution to ANY problem.

And since gov't is full of liberals, that's a problem.

Frank Jones is telling it like it is!

Certainly makes sense to alot of me Allison. This debate is not about what is logical however. It's about a certain faction that would like to get rid of all government (think your local school board) and doesn't really seem to care how that transition to charter schools managed by for -profit emos and vouchers for private schools will actually occur. Do you have a detailed plan Steely? The other faction just has alot of money to invest and our education tax dollars are the last pot on earth that hasn't yet been raided. They are in it for the money. There is a third group that wants religious education to be subsidized by public funds. This group is coming to understand that Gulen schools are being subsidized by public funds as well - did any of our legislators care? NO. The local school board cared and took grief for it. A small glimpse into the future if this thing passes. Anything is possible, we will have no voice in the commission's decisions. That's why parents in Georgia andacross the country are very upset with what we see as the same reckless, "me first", greedy behavior that culminated in the financial crisis of 2009. Dr. Barge is the only one looking out for the big picture and his opponents have done everything in their power to silence him. Despicable. Please vote NO.

Allison, the issue is that school board's are more concerned about control and power and money that they have placed that above the education of the kids. Teachers become more important than kids. Money and test scores too. Local citizens wanting better options for their most beloved have been stonewalled for so long and have turned to the state for help because of being ignored at the county level.

That's what you fail to grasp, Mrs. Hooper. It's not a "Me First" attitude. It's an "Our Children First" attitude. This, compared to your attitude of "Funding is first priority!"

Besides "More Funding", what's your detailed plan, Mrs. Hooper?

The pot that holds our education tax dollars has been raided from repeatedly for decades by corrupt local BOEs. Since you can't live in the ATL metro area and be ignorant of the corruption in APS, DeKalb, and Clayton counties, that shows that you're only concerned with your own local district.

Talk about your "Me first" attitude.

I want competitive educational choices for ALL GA parents and children, not just those living in the wealthy districts.

Dan, since you avoided answering the question on a different Patch article, I'll ask it again here:

If you are so obsessed with not spending money, why are you okay with allowing a corporation to make $1,000,000+ profit per school off of our tax dollars that could be used to fund better education? (and for those that continue to not know the difference between salary and profit, this is over and beyond the operating costs and salaries of running the schools)

Let's see.... 1. increase spending 2. change constitution 3. more government .... mmm.... what was it they said... if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck... You seem to be quite liberal with your ideals here, Dan.

A side note... anyone that has any true understanding about education knows that COOPERATION, not competition, is what helps us to become better (sharing ideas, what works, what doesn't work). You know... the original purpose of charter schools.

Monty - the charter schools do a better job of educating while spending less money per-child than public schools. Locally, CCSD spends about $9K per kid. The charter school spent around $5K in 2011.
The only ones wanting to increase spending is the NO crowd - the fans of our current, mediocre traditional public school system. Mrs Hooper makes it clear that since it works for her in her elite, wealthy enclave of North Fulton County, it's therefore awesome for everyone. Such naivete.
I agree that Cooperation is key. However, local boards aren't interested in cooperating with parents, nor are they interested in providing a quality education for our children. They are only interested in acquiring more funding so they can continue to waste our tax $$$ on a system that fails our children and insists on no accountability.
Conversely, a charter school that fails to educate its children will be forced to shut its doors rather than cry for more funding.
And where's your outrage over the article below, that details how teachers & admins are getting kids hooked into Ritalin and other ADHD drugs regardless of their condition?

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/09/health/attention-disorder-or-not-children-prescribed-pills-to-help-in-school.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&;;

Where's the outrage on all this drug money being funneled to evil, out-of-state, for-profit Big Drug companies? I wonder what sort of kickbacks these teachers & admins are getting for running this scam?

1.Charters most often perform BELOW or equivalent to public schools. http://credo.stanford.edu/reports/National_Release.pdf
2. Spending per child includes many expenses that charters do not offer -i.e. transportation, ESOL, SpEd services, other specialists, and better paid teachers.
3. We do not want more funding. We want what the LAW says should be going to the school system to actually go there and to stop austerity cuts. Funding a parallel charter system will increase spending, with more than $1 MILLION per school not even going towards education.
The problems in education are caused by the same idiots that wrote this amendment to our Constitution- i.e. unfunded mandates & standardized testing (another $BILLION industry that legislators thought would be a good idea).
CORRECT FUNDING (not increased funding) would allow for zero furlough days and lower class sizes. Do you really think a Kindergarten class of 26+ is conducive for success? These classes should never exceed 20. High school classes with more than 30 students in math or science? Even Forsyth Co can't figure that one out without APPROPRIATE funding.
4. Several charters failed to meet requirements last year. NONE of them were forced to close. MYTH BUSTED.
5. That doctor has absolutely nothing to do with the school system. In fact, he should lose his license. Did you actually read the article? This guy writes Rx's for psychotrophic schedule 2 drugs for children b/c daddy said the kid is "blah". SERIOUSLY?

Jen, More School Choice is a plank for the GOP platform. The Dem educational platform is more teacher unions and hiring more teachers (see Obama's comments in last week's debate). The charter movement of providing more parental choice without union intervention is most-definitely NOT a liberal one. As far as I know, charter schools are gov't schools, since they receive gov't money. I am not aware of the Union status of any teacher - charter nor public - I only posted a link that unequivocally shows that teacher unions absolutely have a presence in GA.

No PTA should use public taxpayer-provided facilities to spread a specific political agenda, regardless of the agenda. While there have been numerous PTAs and school boards that have flaunted this with illegal campaigning for public schools, I'm not aware of a PTA that has done the same for a charter school. Can you provide evidence of that?

Jen, it is ILLEGAL to campaign for a specific agenda on public facilities. This is not an opinion I hold but rather GA Law. If you are angry about it, perhaps you & your other NO advocates should march down to the Gold Dome and lobby for a change to that law. Until that happens, the PTAs need to adhere to it or face legal action, which seems to be occurring, as Mrs. Hooper's strange rant here indicates.

Monty, I agree with you 100%. I think it is ludicrous to bring more government into our lives to control and direct us over matters that small government can handle in representation of the people. How in the world does it make sense to pay a corporation money to run a school when that money can be used to IMPROVE what we already have so that ALL children will get a better education and not just those who have been chosen by lottery? And yes, my child did attend a charter for one year. His education was very poor and I wouldn't send him there again. He is back in Carmel Elementary and is absolutely thriving!

Elizabeth, this comment is your most concise, on point explanation of your position that I've read since you began posting on the topic. You should make a copy post for your records, and post it whenever you need to address this topic. Well done.

Frank, as usual, you're wrong on most everything.

Fact: Without 1162's passage, the state won't have authority to approve a charter school that its local board failed to approve. When APS doesn't renew a charter, there will be no state authority to override that decision if 1162 fails to pass.

Fact: Most charters perform better than most traditional public schools.

Fact: 95% of Americans rate public schools as the Lowest Quality Education of the available educational options.

Fact: If a local board doesn't approve a charter that the state approves, it absolutely keeps the money that student's parents paid via property tax. Their $ doesn't follow their child.

Fact: Charter schools have lower per-child costs than the TPS schools per-child cost.

Fact: Like all examples of Govt vs Private, charter schools do more with less. It's like comparing FedEx or UPS to the USPS.

Fact: Charter school budgets are no less transparent than a local district's. Try acquiring the 1000+ page CCSD budget and then get back to me about 'transparency'.

Fact: GA Schools are failing to graduate 33% of their kids on time. Charter schools fail to graduate less than 10% of their kids on time.

Fact: The 48th of 50 argument isn't flawed - it's statistical reality. GA still ranks below other states with similar numbers of SAT-taking students.

Fact: Across America, our educational system is viewed as dismal by potential residents and companies looking to relocate.

Kathleen, I believe most GA taxpayers are fed up with local BOEs and the corruption that the current infrastructure creates. The APS Cheating scandals, the threats of loss of SACS accreditation in Clayton County, the wanton corruption in DeKalb and Bibb Counties... the list goes on. Local Boards have clearly not been the Great Answer to everyone's problems, as the NO crowd would have you believe. YES to 1162 still puts Charter School Approval into the hands of Local Boards. It just gives parents who live in any crony-filled, incompetent district another road to a quality education when these boards inevitably start trying to close down successful charters to funnel that money to their failing local districts.

The traditional public school model in GA has been a failure to too many children to trust it any longer. I'm voting YES to 1162 and NO to failure, corruption, cheating, and mediocrity.

Steely...You can believe that most GA taxpayers are fed up with local BOEs, but then again, you believe in a lot of crazy stuff. Your arguments for the Amendment are just as crazy and lacking of evidence. So go ahead and believe: that all BOEs are corrupt, that teachers are in it for the money, that corporations will put children ahead of their bottom lines, and that a centrally located state-appointed board in Atlanta will make the right decisions for all counties in Georgia and knows better than the people in those countries.

That's Crazy. That'd be like saying Washington DC should be overriding the states on everything. I guess you'd support Washington bureaucrats involvement in GA affairs.

I beg your pardon Mike? Who on earth do you think is paying me? Spewing my opinions? You are the only one who is allowed to have an opinion on this issue I suppose. Here's a thought, if you don't agree with my opinion, don't hurt your head by reading it. Or write your own blog - fact checking actually takes alot of time. Go ahead, put yourself out there and see what happens. Accusing people of lying about who they really are usually doesn't garner much of a following. Have a great weekend.

Here's my problem - the amendment and Hb 797 - really takes the door off the hinges and takes my vote out of picture. The legislation on it's own is so weak. It doesn't say anything - it is a blank check for emo's which may be the intent. Since when do business men and women give up on their investment - in this case billions of dollars in traditional "government" public schools - and jump on another ship, privately owned charter schools, because there is a temporary incentive (Obama, lots of private capital looking for a place to go)? I am spending so much time on this because I really see it as the beginning of the end if it passes. Florida is a mess. If certain legislators want to be like Florida, they should move there! The voters are not stupid. We don't appreciate being lied to and deceived which has undeniably been true in this debate. I don't get to vote on who is president of Walmart but I do get to vote on my school board rep. I am not giving that privilege up just because Alice Walton wants me to.

FLA's system outranks GA in every performance category. It's Georgia that's a mess.

It's interesting -- and telling -- how you continually pretend that the traditional public school model in GA is awesome and that the corruption and cheating in APS, DeKalb, Clayton, Bibb, and other local boards just doesn't exist. It's also a tad myopic.

I get to vote for my board rep but I don't need that gov't agent dictating what educational choices I should have as a parent. How anyone could support blindly trusting their boards after the disasters in APS and the other aforementioned counties is the height of naievete. Remember - those board members were elected too. Not sure how being elected suddenly equates to "They'll always do what's best for your child!"

Voting YES to 1162 doesn't remove your ability to vote for school board reps either. That's another one of your lies, Mrs. Hooper. Stop lying to voters.

Vote YES to parental choice and NO to the failed status quo.

Steely Dan, you say that Florida's educational system outranks Georgia's. Our politicians say they want to emulate Florida.

After a decade, as the Miami Herald continues to report in an investigative series titled “Cashing in on kids” (www.miamiherald.com/charterschools), among the findings are:

“During the past 15 years, Florida has embarked on a dramatic shift in public education, steering billions in taxpayer dollars from traditional school districts to independently run charter schools. What started as an educational movement has turned into one of the region’s fastest-growing industries, backed by real-estate developers and promoted by politicians.

“But while charter schools have grown into a $400-million-a-year business in South Florida, receiving about $6,000 in taxpayer dollars for every student enrolled, they continue to operate with little public oversight. Even when charter schools have been caught violating state laws, school districts have few tools to demand compliance.

“Charter schools have become a parallel school system unto themselves, a system controlled largely by for-profit management companies and private landlords — one and the same, in many cases — and rife with insider deals and potential conflicts of interest.”

Keep looking MP - you must spend too much time hanging around people who are paid to express their opinion. Guess what - there are 1,000's of moms like me and taxpayers without kids who really care about this issue and have had it up to their eyeballs with hired hands and politicians who are dishonest. I just happen to like writing. It's kind of a stress reliever - gets all the angst out you know.

It's all about Funding for Frank. At least he's consistent.

Meanwhile, the traditional public school system the NO crowd so blindly endorses has made us a national laughingstock. No matter how much the NOs try to spin it, our national rankings in all categories are laughable. But the NOs don't care about Quality - only Quantity...as in the Quantity of tax $$ they can spend. Not once in any NO argument do you see any interest in the Quality of education - only lies and misinformation about effects on their incessant desire for More Funding.

This spend,spend,spend mentality has helped lead to the corruption we saw in APS and the numerous accreditation issues seen in many GA counties(too many to list. Google 'GA School Board SACS loss'). It's led to corruption in places like DeKalb, where no vehicle is expensive enough for the superintendent even as they claim they can't pay their teachers.

If any of these examples were Charter schools, they'd be closed. Instead, their superintendents and BOEs actually have the nerve to stick their hands out for More Funding while insisting on Zero Accountability.

It's time for this failed system to change. We've given this liberal experiment some 3 decades of doubling per-child spending and we've got APS to show for it.

Vote YES to better educational Quality.
Vote YES to less corruption.
Vote YES to more accountability.
Vote YES to 1162.

Echo... echo.... echo....

You say the same thing every time. You ignore the fact that charter schools will increase spending. You ignore the fact that more than $1,000,000 per school of taxpayer dollars is going to a corporation as profit instead of toward our children.

You ignore these simple facts. You say spending is bad, then ask for more spending.

Have you ever been in a public school? 26+ five and six year olds in a classroom, 32+ high school students in math and science classes... how do you get these classroom numbers lower? Hire more teachers. What do you need to hire more teachers? The wrong answer would be decreased funding... again... we are not asking for more funding, we are asking for APPROPRIATE funding. QBE has not been followed for several years. Public schools are underfunded for what the legislators putting in mandates want the schools to achieve.

Speaking of accountability... has CCA posted their financials yet?

The only way to get LESS CORRUPTION will not be by voting at this point... it will only be achieved through a recall of one of the most corrupt politicians in America. If the legislators that got us in this mess are the ones supporting and writing Amendment 1, there is absolutely no way I'm voting for it.

Vote NO in NOvember.

Monty, why not cut some of the Admin fat to help out with funding? How can you whine about a lack of funding yet support monthly vehicle stipends for the superintendent? How can you support paying for the super's gasoline bill but then complain about a lack of $$ for teachers?

You're the same echo chamber - it's always more funding, no increase in quality, no accountability with you.

Cherokee county cut spending and SAT scores rose...this, after years of over-spending and stagnant scores.

It's not 2006 anymore for anyone. This includes education. Charters do a better job across the board since their existence depends on it. They graduate a higher % of students than the TPS model, and close if they don't. Conversely, last I checked, no APS schools have been closed.

Speaking of accountability, I'm still unable to get a copy of the 1000+ page CCSD budget unless I pay tons of $$$ myself for a copy.

Charter schools cost less than the traditional public school model and every company involved with the TPS model is making a profit off your tax dollars. Where's your outrage at the for-profit companies supplying books, food, gas, etc?

You're only angry because the charter admin $$$ isn't going into the pockets of already-overpaid TPS supers and admins...the very people you advocate for, the children's education be damned.

Vote YES.

Dan, so we should cut "administrative fat" in a county that spends about half on administration per child than what our local charter school does? How about Jon Hage's jet? You seem like paying for his jet fuel is okay. How can you complain about a Superintendent that has brought this county from the brink of losing accreditation to being one of the top 5 performing districts annually? He isn't even the top paid Super in the state of Georgia. Please do your homework and see how irrelevant your argument is here. He is paid accordingly. He's not getting the $1M bonus that Hage gets though.

No accountability? You can look up any real public school's financials online. Where's the accountability in charter schools? How's that financial cook book coming along at CCA?

CCSD scores can be attributed to all the work put in when the funding was still there. Those kids benefited from times past. If you want less funding, how about we do the same at your charter school? Lets cut funding and see what happens.

I haven't seen any stats on charter grad rate, but I'll bet they kick out those that will not graduate before that time comes so it affects the TPS grad rate and not their own.

Charter schools don't cost less, they just provide fewer services. Do charters not use books now?

I am advocating for the children that are most affected by this change.

I'm angry because of the misguidance of legislators, taking advantage of parents looking for change.

Vote NO.

Monte, I'm not paying anyone's air fare. Not sure what you're referring to. CCSD outspends any charter school in every category.

OTOH, you & I are both paying the super's gas bills. It's comical to hear you NO folks whine about lack of funding as you rush to defend the bloated salary and perks of various supers. We don't have to pay the super's gas bills in order for our teachers to succeed.

No offense but you're ignorant of the CCSD budget. The online version doesn't get into the line x line detail I'd like to see. To get that costs me, the taxpayer funding it, $100s to get a copy. Don't believe me? Call the CCSD and ask for the actual budget, not the edited PDF that gets published that doesn't list the various admin perks, interior decorating costs, etc that you rush to defend.

Charters cost less and provide more. Charters teach foreign language - TP schools do not. Charters graduate over 90% of students compared to the laughably-dismal 66% rate your TPS model does.

Look, I understand that you TPS lovers fear competition, since it exposes the numerous weaknesses of the TPS model but change is coming whether or not 1162 passes. People across America are tired of the TPS model and the multiple-choice-test mentality it teaches to. We're tired of a mere 1 in 4 college-bound students being prepared for that, thanks to the mediocre TPS model. Vote YES for more competition and less mediocrity.

Frank -

Read the whole study, friend. And read Hoxby, too.

Let's talk about PCA and its districts.

First of all - PCA transports kids.

PCA is an LEA and spends $0 on central administration with its over 300 kids. Baker County, with its 350 kids spends over half a million in central administration. They have comparable numbers of kids and comparable duties - and Baker County takes money OUT of the classroom to fund the bureaucrats.

You fail to mention that when QBE leaves, so does the associated expense. Class sizes go down, and variable costs, which are considerable, decrease. You folks always talk about money going away, but you always forget to mention that so does the expense.

Let's talk about the state funds. Again, you like to omit key facts. Let's line it up side by side so the public isn't misled with more omissions:

Traditional School Avg. State Charter School Avg.
State Revenue $4290 $5230
Local Revenue $3686 $0
Facility Funding $1071 $316

TOTAL FUNDING $8993 $5546

Tell the truth.

@ Monty - no, CCA has not posted their financials because:

* Fiscal year didn't end until 6/30
* They had to have the audit conducted
* The audit wasn't due to the state until October 1.

Has Cherokee County published THEIR financial data? Nope. For the same reasons - and you won't see theirs until after the first of the year if not later.

Dan - we finally agree on something. Education is messed up. Standardized testing is not what we should be doing. However, just like with charter schools, this is a billion dollar industry. There isn't a politician out there there will say standardized testing is failing our children. It's not the teachers, its not the schools.... its the legislators. They are the policy makers. Do you understand that? Yet we continue to vote again and again for the same idiots in our state Capitol.

We do need change, but Amendment 1 is not the change we need. VOTE NO. Amendment 1 is the T-SPLOST of November. Very few will benefit while most will suffer even more.

Know NO in NOvember.

You sound upset that tax dollars help feed hungry children.
I hope I'm not reading that correctly!

Mike - here is a bigger issue...

Calhoun County's CENSUS data does not show that high of poverty...or minority numbers. The COMMUNITY numbers are about 60/40 minority/white) and less than 40% under the poverty line. The districts down there serve nearly 100% minority and in the high 90s for economically disadvantaged students. They PERPETUATE the poverty cycle AND segregation. What, in the last 30 years, have these districts done to mirror their community? Does the administrative staff and school board mirror even their community? Nope - bunch of caucasian folks.

I find 92% a disturbingly high number and your response is I "want to do away with free/reduced lunch". Jen, do you want to try and reduce that number or are you good with 9 out of 10 parents needing help to pay for a lunch that is less than two dollars?

Well Mike... I can tell you what is not a solution... pulling funding from where 95% of students are attending school and putting it in a parallel system (that research shows performs worse more often then better - http://credo.stanford.edu/reports/National_Release.pdf) while creating an additional layer of bureaucracy and government that does not answer to the voters. I have seen and heard many solutions, but the educrats under the Gold Dome (that think they know more about education than people that actually work in education and come up with viable, real solutions) just ignore those peon teachers that work with our children on a daily basis because politicians obviously know better than all of us parents and those pesky teachers. How about lower class size for starters? How about attracting the best people into the field of education by offering better pay for teachers? How about we not abandon those children that would otherwise go unfed without free/reduced breakfasts and lunches? It's elitists like you, that are only looking out for themselves, that got us into this mess in the first place. Can you please tell us some more stories about how privileged you are and what you can afford while we have so many others that can't afford to feed their children?

The problem with your ideas, Monty, is that we've been doing that for years now. GA's teacher pay ranking is much higher than the state's ed. rankings (http://www.teacherportal.com/teacher-salaries-by-state/) and is the best avg. salary of any SE state.

In Cherokee County, we voted ourselves a tax-increase (you libs love those!!) called ESPLOST that will help build schools and other projects that should be used to help decrease class size. The only people abandoning children is the TPS model that lets 33% of its students not graduate on time, which increases costs across the board.

It's liberals like you and your incessant need for infinite spending increases with no accountability that have gotten us into this mess...and have gotten so many parents wanting to opt out of this failed TPS model you so blindly support.

GA has doubled per-child spending the past 20+ years. We've got bottom-USA rankings to show for it. It's time to give parents another choice with all these billions of $$$ the TPS model has been squandering over the years. Vote YES.

@ Monty Brewster -

You sound like one of those little dolls where you pull the string and it repeats the same GSBA, GSSA, PAGE, GAE, and PTA lines, "It's a parallel system." "It siphons money."

Let's look at the FACTS rather than the rhetoric that you repeat without verifying:

HR 1162, lines 50-54.
http://www.legis.ga.gov/legislation/en-US/display/20112012/HR/1162

HB 797, starting with line 317:
http://www.legis.ga.gov/legislation/en-US/display/20112012/HB/797

The laws (2 of them) PROHIBIT money from being taken from districts.

Break off the pull string and get your own lines to share - hopefully ones that are based in truth and hold with logic.

Dan - Do you understand how good schools affect local economy? Do you understand how increased population affects the number of schools needed?

MP - if you are blind, dumb, or just plain ignorant, your points could possibly make sense. However, for people that can perform simple arithmetic and can read, we can see between the lines of the politicking you have going on here.

Are the school districts experiencing more austerity cuts each year? YES.
Are charter schools getting increased funding? YES.
Where is that money coming from? The state.
Where do the austerity cuts to school districts go? The state.
I'm just saying... even if you say that money is not coming from the local schools to the charter schools directly, it is being withheld from the school districts and given to the charter schools. It's nothing less than money laundering at the state level.

Money will continue to be cut from the school districts and given to charter schools which will then go to fuel "Big Education" corporations. They'll get their millions in profits while the children in the school districts will have even more crowded classes, possibly 40 or 50 students in a class with little or no resources. These corporations care about the students about as much as "Big Oil" cares about you being able to get to work.

Charters will cost the state more money - this would be what you refer to as increased spending. Where is this money coming from if it isn't from the school districts? China? No wonder CCA is offering Mandarin. We may all need to learn Mandarin if this Amendment passes.

VOTE NO!

To sum up all of Monty's (& the rest of the NO crowd's) arguments:

"$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$! $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$! $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$!!!!!!!"

To sum up the "YES" arguments:
"We need to do a better job educating our children and Charters are a step in that direction."

The predictable "NO" rebuttal: "But $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$!!!!!!!!!!"

Vote YES.

You keep trying to say it isn't about money. If that is what you believe, you are completely ignorant to this matter. How will charter schools manage without money? Oh, that's right, they are getting MORE money. Why do charters stop enrolling after FTE count? Because the don't get anymore money - it doesn't benefit them. Go tell CSUSA that they won't make that million dollar profit margin next year as well. CSUSA will bail on CCA faster than Will "The Winner" can ramble off Saturday afternoon's spreads.

Say NO to larger class sizes.
Say NO to more furlough days.
Say NO to more government.
Say NO to Amendment 1.

Is this like when Lyn Carden tried to compare CCA's retakes to CCSD's original tests? You can pay researchers enough to have them change the numbers to say whatever you want them to say, but a study of this size can't be ignored. This is the most inclusive study to date (and bias free). This is kind of like you guys saying GA is 47th in the nation in education. It is.... when you compare 80% of the student population scores in GA to only the top 5-20% of other states. That's just ridiculous.

Caroline Hoxby (for anyone reading this) is a long time proponent of privatization and a senior fellow at the anti-public education think tank, Hoover Institution. Of course she is going to try and knock down anything that doesn't prove charters are superior.

VOTE NO!