School Community

This opinion piece was sent to me by Andrew Broy,  president of the Illinois Network of Charter Schools and a former associate state superintendent for the Georgia Department of Education.  While with DOE, Broy oversaw charter schools and is considered an expert on the topic.

By Andrew  Broy

The Georgia Supreme Court currently holds the educational fate of nearly 15,000 Georgia public school students in its hands.  As reported last week, the Georgia Supreme Court has decided to delay issuing an opinion in the Charter Schools Commission lawsuit, a suit by seven local school districts to stop the State Charter Schools Commission from approving (and funding) charter schools that were not approved by a local district

The legal issue is whether the state legislature overreached when it established a state-level charter school authorizer with the power to overrule local objections to a charter application.  At base, however, the issue is over control of educational dollars and whether parents can affect the allocation of those dollars through their selection of a public school option.

While this delay is unusual, it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise given the significance of the case.  In fact, the single most influential educational lawsuit in our country’s history – Brown vs. Board of Education  – has a similar history.  The U.S. Supreme Court originally heard Brown in the spring of 1953.  Unable to decide the case, the Court reheard the case in the fall of 1953 and thereafter ruled in 1954 that legally segregated public schools were inherently unequal under the U.S. Constitution.

But it was not until 1955 that the court ordered Southern states to move “with all deliberate speed” to desegregate their public schools.  Seeing an opportunity, most Southern states “deliberated” for years.  This resistance achieved its intended aim:  By 1964, a full 10 years after Brown, only 2 percent of black children in the South attended desegregated schools.

The significance of this history should not be lost on the Georgia Supreme Court.  The principal defendant in the lawsuit is Ivy Preparatory Academy, an all-girls charter school in Gwinnett County.  Ivy Prep is a high-performing open enrollment charter school serving a population that is 94 percent minority.

Despite evidence that the achievement gap persists in Georgia, Ivy Prep is proving that demography is not destiny.  Indeed, every single one of its students met or exceeded state standards on the state English/Language Arts exam in 2010, a rate that surpassed Gwinnett County Schools, which itself is an extremely high-performing district and a recent Broad award winner as the nation’s top urban system.

Of course, the commission lawsuit is not about academic achievement.  It is about the allocation of school funding. While the debate rages, one thing is clear.  The Court should rule, and soon.  The delay signals that the justices are likely split on the outcome.  If the court rules in favor of the commission, business will continue as it has for the past two years.  If it rules against the commission, there will likely be an effort to amend the constitution to provide a funding mechanism.

In any event, thousands of parents and students are deciding right now whether to enroll in a commission charter school.  Only the Court can tell them if they can.

-From Maureen Downey and the AJC Get Schooled blog

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