It’s hard to believe it’s happening in 2011. In Georgia, of all places. And that the Georgia Supreme Court is just fine with
it.
But parents here still are expected to go on bended knee before the government — in the form of local school boards — to ask permission to school their children in the way they see fit.
What an intolerable act.
Brought to you by the Georgia Supreme Court.
The General Assembly in 2008 passed a law creating a Charter Schools Commission, where citizens desiring to form a charter school could go — if their local school board wouldn’t cooperate.
Charter schools are public but are given certain operational freedom not unlike private schools in order to tailor the curriculum and other aspects of the educational experience to the community’s liking.
It’s beautiful, because it allows charter schools to get out from under a lot of the bureaucratic nonsense, while empowering faculty, staff and parents to take a larger role in a student’s schooling.
The thing is, until the charter commission came along, you had to go on bended knee to the local school board to obtain permission for a charter school. Often, they refuse to give up the power they have on public schools. The charter commission was a way for charter-school supporters to go over the local board’s head.
But by a 4-3 vote, the Georgia Supreme Court struck down the law and the charter commission — leaving some 16 existing “commission charter” schools in complete limbo.
More importantly, the ruling sharply reduces educational freedom in Georgia. And that’s sad. Hundreds of angry charter-school families protested the ruling May 17 at the state Capitol.
It’s hard to believe that in the 21st century, Americans still have to fight tooth and nail for school choice and educational freedom. But nothing will stop this movement, certainly not a shaky 4-3 ruling by the Georgia Supreme Court. ...
We’ve freed just about everybody else in this country. When are parents going to be emancipated?

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