Category Archives: Georgia

Walton Family Foundation granted $1.05 million towards GA charter schools in 2011

The total amount of Walton family affiliate money backing the Georgia charter school referendum is far larger than Alice Walton’s $250,000.

In the Walton Family Foundation’s list of 2011 Education Reform Grants, there are two Georgia organizations:

Georgia Charter Schools Association Inc. 700,000
Georgia Family Education and Research Council, Inc. 350,000

GCSA has made the news quite a bit lately, and its name makes its purpose pretty clear. According to the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA), GCSA is a NACSA member. You remember NACSA, the organization that Zaid Jilani discovered was an ALEC member, and that bailed out of ALEC two days later. That was in May 2012, after the Georgia legislature passed the bill putting the charter school referendum on the ballot.

Georgia Family Education and Research Council, Inc. (GFERC) is slightly less obvious. According Continue reading →

Video Playlist @ LCC 2012-09-11

After briefly discussing or at least hearing items at the previous morning's Work Session, the Lowndes County Commission voted on them at its Regular Session of Tuesday 11 September 2012.

Here's the agenda, and the copy below has links to the corresponding videos or previous blog posts. Here's a video playlist.

  1. Call to Order
  2. Invocation
  3. Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag
  4. Minutes for Approval
    1. Work Session — August 13, 2012
    2. Regular Session — August 14, 2012
  5. Resolutions
    1. Adopt Resolution Appointing an Open Records Officer
    2. Resolution Regarding Review & Approval of Minutes of Executive Sessions
    3. Adopt Resolution accepting infrastructure for Glen Laurel Subdivision Phase II
    4. Adopt Resolution accepting infrastructure for Crestwood Subdivision Phase IV
  6. Appointment — Keep Lowndes/Valdosta Beautiful
  7. Public Hearings
    1. REZ-2012-12 Parker Place, 4842 Parker Place Rd., 0070 015; 3.4 ac., 3 lots, E-A to R-1, well/septic
    2. REZ-2012-14 Harris, 6926 Jones Dr., 0139 023, 6.8 ac., 1 lot, E-A to R-A, well/septic
    3. TXT-2012-01 — Primary Intent: Appendix A Land Disturbance & Clean Version of ULDC
    4. Public Hearing Renaming Sandy Creek Drive (CR #1118)
    5. Beer License — Lin's Hibachi — 1078 Lakes Blvd.
  8. For Consideration
    1. Letter of Understanding — Bond Refunding
    2. USGS Funding Agreement for HWY 122 Stream Gauge
    3. Section 5311 Rural Transportation Program Operating Contracts
    4. Declaration of Surplus Vehicles
    5. Brown Bag Ordinance
  9. Bid – Rescue Pumper for Lowndes County Fire Rescue
  10. Reports-County Manager
  11. Citizens Wishing to be Heard Please State Name And Address

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For-profits are chomping at the bit to take Georgians for a ride. —Karen Noll

Received yesterday on Outside money fueling charter school amendment referendum. -jsq

For-profits are chomping at the bit to take Georgians for a ride. It is expected, as per, John Barge, Superintendent of Georgia schools, that the charter school commission that this amendment would allow can cost us $430million in 5 years. This amendment has absolutely NOTHING to do with school achievement and everything to do with shareholders and profits. Vote NO on amendment #1 and vote NO to higher taxes and vote NO to bigger government, OH and vote NO to lining the pockets of millionaires with our tax dollars!!

-Karen Noll

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Class action lawsuit against second largest donor to GA charter school referendum

K12 Inc. of Virginia has a class action lawsuit against it, as well as allegations of lack of effectiveness of its courses. K12 is the second biggest contributor to the Georgia charter school referendum which would privatize Georgia’s public schools. Shades of CCA desperately offering 48 states to privatize their prisons! And we know there’s a connection: ALEC helps push both private prisons and privatization of public schools. We didn’t fall for ALEC’s privatized prisons: let’s not fall for ALEC’s privatized schools.

Emma Brown wrote for the Washington Post 31 January 2012, Shareholder lawsuit accuses K12 Inc. of misleading investors,

A shareholder in Virginia-based K12 Inc. has filed a lawsuit against K12 Inc. CEO and Founder Ronald J. Packard, named in class action lawsuit the virtual-schools operator in federal court, alleging that the firm violated securities law by making false statements to investors about students’ poor performance on standardized tests.

The class-action complaint, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, also accuses K12 of boosting its enrollment and revenues through “deceptive recruiting” practices.

Herndon-based K12 is the country’s largest operator of full-time public virtual schools, a growing sector in which students as young as five learn at home via computer.

The lawsuit comes after a spate of national news stories — including in The Washington Post — raised questions about the effectiveness of virtual schools, K12’s in particular. The firm’s stock has since plummeted.

There’s more in the article, and in the actual Harry T. Hawks, K12 Inc. executive vice president and chief financial officer, named in class action lawsuit Class action suit against K12 Inc. Named in the suit are Ronald J. Packard (K12 Inc’s CEO and Founder) and Harry T. Hawks, executive vice president and chief financial officer, both pictured here.

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Outside money fueling charter school amendment referendum

Why does Alice Walton want, to the tune of $250,000, for Atlanta to be able to force charter schools on local areas that don't want them?

Wayne Washington wrote for the AJC 14 September 2012, Outside money pours into Georgia for charter amendment fight,

Out-of-state money is fueling the campaign of a group trying to convince Georgia voters to change the state constitution so more charter schools can be approved.

Families for Better Public Schools has raised $486,750, campaign disclosure forms show. About 96 percent of that money has come from donors outside of Georgia.

Donors include Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton, politically well-connected law firms and for-profit companies that are operating charter schools in Georgia.

Here's the Georgia campaign finance report for Families for Better Public Schools, which shows Alice Walton of Bentonville AR in for $250,000, K12 Inc. of Herndon VA in for $100,000, Charter Schools USA of Ft. Lauderdale FL in for $50,000, also J.C. Huizenga and National Heritage Academies, both of Grand Rapids MI, each in for $25,000. That's $450,000 from those five biggest donors, all out of state.

What about opposition money; where's it coming from?

A coalition of groups opposing the amendment, Vote Smart, has raised $80,951, mostly from traditional school officials like teachers, principals and superintendents who say more charter schools and more state money for them would threaten the funding of already cash-strapped traditional public schools.

So we have big out-of-state money funding demolishing our public schools, and public school people spending some of what little money they have defending them. I know which side I choose. Which side are you on?

Do we want to turn our public schools into private corporate fiefdoms? If not, vote No on the charter school amendment in November.

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Q: Why are so many states pushing charter schools now? A: ALEC

Michigan, Massachusetts, and New Jersey, plus Georgia. Why are so many states attempting pro or con charter school referendums this year? Because many states have a push for charter schools, especially Louisiana. Where’s that coming from, at the same time in so many states? ALEC, that’s where.

Ed Anderson wrote for The Times-Picayune 12 January 2011, Gov. Bobby Jindal says charter school proposal is based on Florida initiative,

Jindal said his proposal will be fashioned on a Florida law known as “Charter-Schools-in-the-Workplace Initiative” which also has been introduced in 14 other states.

Excuse me? Which “also has been introduced in 14 other states”? Then it’s not just a Florida law, is it? And who introduced it?

Mattreichel wrote for FireDogLake 5 April 2012, Jindal Puts Louisiana’s Schools Up for Sale: ALEC’s Education Reforms Rammed Through

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Louisiana, the poster child for private school privatization

The poster child for charter school privatization is Louisiana. It started in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, but the man-made education disaster has spread to the whole state.

Mattreichel wrote for FireDogLake 5 April 2012, Jindal Puts Louisiana’s Schools Up for Sale: ALEC’s Education Reforms Rammed Through

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has wasted no time this legislative session in pushing wide-reaching education reforms designed to expand the charter school footprint, while opening the door to vouchers and tying teacher tenure to student test results. In the early hours of the morning on March 23rd, after a marathon session, the Louisiana State House passed two bills that form the core of a wide-reaching education reform agenda designed to expand the charter school footprint, while opening the door to vouchers and tying teacher tenure to student test results. Governor Bobby Jindal wasted no time in pushing these reforms through in the first weeks of the legislative session, and the urgency with which he has advanced this agenda has infuriated teachers and left even some charter-school advocates alarmed. “The governor’s expression of urgency for these bills is specious at best. [They] did not have to be passed under cover of darkness,” says Louisiana Federation of Teachers (LFT) president Steve Monaghan. Even Senator Mary Landrieu, a Democrat who has been an avid charter school advocate, criticized the Governor’s haste: “I am by no means naïve, and know full well the Administration’s political advantage of pushing legislation through with as little debate as possible.” With these bills, Louisiana is set to join Florida, Ohio and Minnesota amongst the states that have enacted the most far-reaching of these school reforms. This marks the latest wave in a concerted nation-wide effort by right-wing advocacy organizations and their corporate supporters to ravage the public sector.

While “reform” usually has connotations of “making better”, in this case, “better” means more profit for private school companies, not better education for students.

Why would Louisiana’s legislators vote for something so counterproductive for education?

Continue reading →

JC Cunningham against the charter school amendment and for HD 175

JC Cunningham, running for Georgia House District 175 against incumbent Amy Carter, spells out his opposition to the charter school amendment. -jsq

Video by George Boston Rhynes for bostongbr on YouTube.

Actually, it's even worse than JC indicates, because because HB 797 specifies more money per pupil for charter than for public schools, and the difference has to be made up out of local sales or property taxes.

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Southern Company: let’s do the renewable energy study for Georgia

Mark Z. Jacobson's study shows offshore wind is plentiful from Virginia to Maine Let's do the study for Georgia! Southern Company brags about its private R&D:

Research & Development (since the 1960s)

  • Awarded more than $1.3 billion to conduct more than $3.8 billion of research and development.
  • Qualified for $412 million of investment tax credits for a 21st century coal plant being built in Mississippi.

OK, SO, let's see you do the study to show what we can really do with conservation, efficiency, wind, sun, and less natural gas than we have now. Sure, in the Georgia Bight we do have to contend with hurricanes. But a "great, big company" like SO should be able to focus its vaunted private R&D on that problem and solve it.

Maybe SO doesn't want to do that because the result might show there is no need for any coal plants, nor new natural gas plants, nor any nuclear plants, which would mean Georgia Power would have to give up its nuclear-funding rate-hike stealth tax and SO would have to give up its $8.3 billion loan guarantee. Hey, we might even need to change the 1973 Georgia Electric Territorial Act, and that might damage Georgia Power's guaranteed profit! Nevermind that Georgia Power and SO might make more profit if they got out in front on solar and wind power and a smart grid.

If SO won't do it, how about we elect some Public Service Commissioners and legislators who will? For jobs, energy independence, and profit, oh, and clean air and plenty of water!

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Charter school referendum in New Jersey?

Here’s another potential charter school referendum that BallotPedia doesn’t seem to have caught yet, in New Jersey.

John Mooney wrote for NJ Spotlight 3 February 2012, Assembly Committee Votes to Put Charters Under Local Control: Bill calls for local referendum on any school that wants to be granted a charter in a NJ district,

The Assembly education committee yesterday moved a bill that would give local voters the right to approve new charters in their home districts. If passed by both houses, the law would make New Jersey only the third state to require charter schools to face a local referendum.

First proposed last year, the new bill has been toughened for the new session. Amendments filed with the bill would make those referendums retroactive for as many as 30 urban and suburban schools awaiting their final charters.

The votes would come after the state’s preliminary approval, but often as much as a year can lapse before the final charter is granted and a school can open.

NJ bill A1877 seems to have gotten stuck in the NJ state Senate Education Committee back in May. It has 21 sponsors, starting with Patrick Diegnan (D-Middlesex), shown in the picture above.

Related bill A2147 got as far as a second reading in the Assembly in February.

Charter schools in Georgia already have to be approved by local school boards. Let’s not give up that local control. Vote No on the charter school referendum in November.

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