Take Action: Georgia

Update: The Georgia State Assembly has voted against the Charter School Constitutional Amendment which provide many Georgia parents with more quality public school options.  This measure is so critical that they are going to have a re-vote.

Please contact your representative and ask them to vote Yes on the Charter School Constitutional Amendment.

 

Key Issues

Empowering Parents

Parent involvement is critical to student success. We must empower parents with quality information about their child’s school and teachers. We must provide them with alternatives when their child is not getting the education they deserve. Parents should have the opportunity to force persistently failing schools to change via “parent trigger” laws.

Parents should have access to quality information about both the performance of their child’s school and other schools nearby. School scorecards, showing student achievement gains and easy-to-understand letter grades, should be distributed to all parents. Parents should also have multiple, quality public school options so they can choose the best school for their child.

Parents should be notified if their child has been assigned to a teacher that consistently receives poor evaluations and should be able to request a different teacher.

Parents should have multiple quality public school options from which to choose. Public charter schools are public schools that operate outside of the district and have more freedom to implement innovative programs to meet the needs of particular students. We should support the expansion of quality public charter schools so they can serve more students.

Unfortunately, the Georgia Supreme Court said it was unconstitutional for the state to authorize community petitions to start charter schools. But the House will soon vote on a constitutional amendment to give the state that ability. That is a critical step in making sure that all parents have quality public school options available.

Last, parents should be empowered to force turnaround measures if their child’s school is repeatedly failing. Several states around the country have enacted laws, know as “parent trigger” laws, that enable parents, under a majority vote, to demand that a failing school make significant changes.

“Parent Trigger” bills have been proposed in the House and Senate that will give parents -- with children at failing schools – the right to petition to force meaningful change. If the majority of parents at a school sign the petition, the school is required to implement significant reform. The

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