“No other state has had a positive outcome for a charter-positive ballot initiative” —former T-SPLOST proponents now pushing charter schools

The same people who pushed the failed T-SPLOST tax referendum on the July primary ballot are now pushing the charter school referendum on the November general election ballot. Four of their leaders are the same specific individuals, including one from right here in Lowndes County. They’re pushing something they admit has failed in every other state. Let’s not be the first to fall for it.

According to the Georgia Charter Schools Association (GCSA),

No other state has had a positive outcome for a charter-positive ballot initiative

So even one of the major proponents of charter schools admits no other state’s voters have thought they were a good idea. Their slides lay out a pair of statewide major money campaigns to push the referendum anyway.

We know about this because these slides fell into the hands of the AJC, and Jim Galloway published them today, saying:

The presentation describes a $2.7 million statewide campaign that will be divided into a $974,000 tax-free “educational” effort dubbed “Brighter Georgia,” controlled by the charter schools association, and a traditional get-out-the-vote campaign with a $1.8 million price tag called Families for Better Schools. That’s a page torn right from the T-SPLOST push.

The two organizations had raised a combined $988,000 as of Sept. 1, the memo said.

At the top of the organizational chart of the Families for Better Schools campaign — contained within the memo — is a bipartisan team of political strategists: Republicans Chip Lake, Heath Garrett and Mitch Hunter; and Democrat Chris Carpenter. A timely use of the word “hope” by charter school advocates

A timely use of the word “hope” by charter school advocates

All four were involved in the July 31 T-SPLOST effort — but in the statewide campaign outside metro Atlanta, where three regions actually approved the tax.

Bert Brantley, who served as the voice of the doomed metro Atlanta T-SPLOST campaign, will serve as spokesman for the charter school campaign. Brantley confirmed the accuracy of the information contained in the GCSA’s outline of the campaign — which was not intended for public distribution.

So, they’re doubling down on financial disaster for the state. And this time they’re gambling with our children’s education.

Bert “Little Goose” Brantley lived in Dasher and attended Lake Park Elementary School, Lowndes Middle, and Lowndes High School, according to Dean Poling in the VDT 31 December 2006, Former Lowndes resident hopes to bring governor’s message to small towns. It’s sad he’s now promoting a referendum that would work against the public schools he attended.

Vote No on state-forced charter schools in November.

-jsq