Why No on Amendment 1 —J.C. Cunningham for GA House District 175

J.C. Cunningham, running for state representative district 175, reminded us all that the basic purpose of the Georgia state government is to provide public education, according to its constitution, and that local school boards already can and do approve charter schools. He gave five reasons for voting No on Amendment 1:

1. Because out-of-state corporations are paying for this campaign....
2. It creates a new Atlanta-based government bureaucracy.
3. The new commission will be filled by appointments done by politicians, not the citizens.
4. Georgia already has 200 charter schools, and we've already proven the process works.
5. A Yes vote would... cost us an additional $430 million while most of our schools are not open a full year as it is....

The only reasoning that I can tell you that proponents have been giving us is school choice, and again, they already have school choice; we have school choice. The only new things about Amendment 1 are higher cost and unnecessary state bureaucracy....

Here's the video, followed by a partial transcript.

Why No on Amendment 1 —J.C. Cunningham for GA House District 175
Talks, Liberty Outbreak (LO),
Video by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
VHS PAC, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 27 October 2012.

Partial transcript:

Article 8 Section 1 of the Constitution of Georgia states:

“The provision of an adequate public education for the citizens shall be the primary obligation of the state of Georgia. The public education for the citizens prior to the college or post-secondary level shall be free, and shall be provided by taxation. The expense of other public education shall be provided in such a manner and in such an amount that may be provided by law.”

As most of you know I'm J.C. Cunningham, and I'm running for state representative district 175.

On November 6^th will be asked to vote on a very, very, very, very important ballot question which states:

&ldquo:Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended to allow state or local approval of public charter schools upon the request of local communities?”

Now I ask you, why is this amendment necessary, when locally approved charter schools are already constitutional? I just read that to you. It's already constitutional.

Because the passage of this amendment has nothing to do with granting local approval. If approved by voters, it will give state officials full legal authority to create and fully finance with state money local charter schools even over protest of local elected school officials. The passage of this amendment, House Bill 1162, would authorize the legislature and the government to establish a private committee with the power to approve applications for charter schools, thus taking the power and decision-making from local school systems.

I oppose this amendment because it is designed to overturn the Georgia Supreme Court decision that ruled that the power to create charter schools lies with local school boards, not the state. I am also opposed to this amendment because taxpayer dollars, and I repeat, taxpayer dollars, should never fund private for-profit charter or special schools.

The proposed amendment is about who creates and controls our schools Our local school boards, which answer only to parents and taxpayers, now control whether charter schools are created. That's called accountability. It's called good common sense. Those who live and pay taxes in our communities know best what the kids need in our communities, not the bureaucrats in Atlanta. A system of checks and balances is already in place to ensure that the needs of all of our students are met.

The proposed constitutional amendment would get rid of that accountability. State-controlled charter schools would cost an additional $430 million in state funds. Now Georgia's already cut nearly $5.6 billion from our education over the last nine years. The passage of this amendment would require a shift of funding that would result in larger class sizes, shorter school days, more teacher furloughs, layoffs, and, worse, more local taxes to each one of us, so we can supplement that loss.

Now I'm going to give you five reasons why all Georgians should vote against this amendment.

1. Because out-of-state corporations are paying for this campaign....
2. It creates a new Atlanta-based government bureaucracy.
3. The new commission will be filled by appointments done by politicians, not the citizens.
4. Georgia already has 200 charter schools, and we've already proven the process works.
5. A Yes vote would, as I said earlier, cost us an additional $430 million while most of our schools are not open a full year as it is....

The only reasoning that I can tell you that proponents have been giving us is school choice, and again, they already have school choice; we have school choice. The only new things about Amendment 1 are higher cost and unnecessary state bureaucracy....

Let's follow the money. Check out the groups promoting charter schools and high-stakes testing and policies that link teachers evaluations to test scores. In particular, who's on the board of education reform? Why are huge interests in Wall Street and hedge funds and real estate moguls; what are they doing in charter schools? What are their connections between education reform, Stand with the Children, CAN, a host of other groups promoting privatization: what are they doing? Also, New School Venture Fund, and the big foundations like Bill Gates and Wal-Mart?

And another interesting thing I was reading about this morning, there's not another high-performing nation in the United States that's even proposing anything this ridiculous. That should tell us something right there.

Follow the money, take it by corporate interests that control our local politicians, they control our legislature, and most of all they control our governor. The policymakers pushing charter school expansion ask taxpayers to overlook the business side, but they don't give us a good reasoning on how to save money to spend in our classrooms.

Some of you may have already read this, but every time I read this statement by state school superintendent John Barge, I feel inspired. I feel inspired because he's a Republican and he knew when he made that statement he put his political career at risk, especially with the Republican-controled legislature. But I have a great amount of respect for him and I want to just read something that he said....

“I fully support the continued creation of high quality charter schools for Georgia's students, but after careful consideration of what is best for all of Georgia's students, I have decided to take a position in opposition to the constitutional amendment that will be on the Nov. 6 ballot.

Until all of our public school students are in school for a full 180-day school year, until essential services like student transportation and student support can return to effective levels, and until teachers regain jobs with full pay for a full school year, we should not redirect one more dollar away from Georgia's local school districts — much less an additional $430 million in state funds, which is what it would cost to add seven new state charter schools per year over the next five years (the annual average of the Charter Commission that would be revived if the amendment passes).

...What the legislature did that we have not talked about a lot is that they actually passed a funding mechanism before we passed the actual charter school amendment; that's in House Bill 797. But the only way we can really calculate those numbers if if we get the amendment passed or defeated....

I cannot support the creation of a new and costly state bureaucracy that takes away local control of schools and unnecessarily duplicates the good work already being done by local districts, the Georgia Department of Education, and the state Board of Education. What's more, this constitutional amendment would direct taxpayer dollars into the pockets of out-of-state, for-profit charter school companies whose schools perform no better than traditional public schools and locally approved charter schools (and worse, in some cases).

I trust our local school districts will continue to approve only high quality charter schools for Georgia's students, and I am committed to working with all of our school districts to ensure that high quality applicants are not denied locally — including mediating between high quality charter school applicants and any local districts that are reluctant to approve them, as provided by existing Georgia law.”

I think it just took a lot of courage for him to come forth for the betterment of the citizens of the state of Georgia.

J.C. Cunningham continued with an example of charter schools in Brady County, and a hypothetical example.

There's about four or five charter school websites looking for teachers. And not one of them asks about a degree. They were just asking did you have a background in this area. You know, we can't allow that. We can't allow for folks that worked for four and six and sometimes eight years to get degrees and have specialties to now lose their jobs and lose their health insurance because you're going to allow a for-profit corporation to let anybody walk off the street....

That's not their concern. Their concern is about profit.

-jsq