EDITORIAL: State should keep charter school as it is
Nov 28, 2012 (Menafn - The Brunswick News - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --Someone in the Georgia Department of Education owes Glynn County, the public school system and the business community an explanation. Someone needs to tell us all, every taxpayer in Brunswick and the Golden Isles, how someone in state government in Atlanta could have approved a school charter that failed to meet the specifics of state law.
In 2008, when Kathy Cox was state schools superintendent, the charter for the Golden Isles Career Academy cleared state review and was easily approved.
Now, years later, we are told it does not meet state requirements. The charter school is supposed to be under the control of a board of directors, not the Glynn County School System, which pays for the program with our tax-dollars. It also was a major contributor to the facility's construction.
Nothing will change right away. The state just wants the school system and taxpayers to know that they will no longer be in control of the school when the charter is up for renewal in 2018. The state will require that the language be corrected so that most authority passes to the self perpetuating board of directors. They will determine the use of funds at a school that is heavily dependent on tax dollars and on working on ways to lure more public high school students to its classrooms. It even offers parts of the core curriculum, the same curriculum the community is already paying for at Brunswick High and Glynn Academy, just to encourage greater student participation at the charter school.
This is not to say that the board of directors will be unable to guide and operate the school. It has done a terrific job given its limited resources. There is no reason to think it would do otherwise or do anything that will harm the school or dull the program. All have the students and community close to their hearts, and it shows in their actions.
It's just that taxation thingy -- you know, that hard-line stand by the nation that dates back to the pre-revolutionary days of 1776. "No taxation without representation," was the common refrain among early Americans.
No offense against the board of directors. It's just that board of education, the members of which are chosen and elected by the people, can be reminded, when necessary, at the ballot box just who is in charge.
Residents have no say over whom sits on the board of directors, which will decide where tax dollars need to go.
The state should allow the charter to remain as is. It approved it, after all.
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