\n\n \nAs\nJim Galloway wrote yesterday for the AJC in\n\nSam Olens orders local school boards to stay out of charter school fight<\/a>,\n<\/p>\n \nThat means organizations like the Georgia School Boards Association,\nand perhaps, the Georgia School Superintendents Association, would\nbe barred from speaking out against the proposed constitutional\namendment.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \nAnd would that include organizations like PAGE,\nwhich produced\nthe slides<\/a>\nthat\n\na local middle school teacher used last week?<\/a>\nWhat about that teacher, or\n\nDr. Troy Davis, speaking a few weeks earlier<\/a>,\nboth on their own time?\n<\/p>\n \nOlens’ letter would apply to what\n\nthe VDT said was in the VBOE and LCBOE joint resolution<\/a>,\nat least the part about “The resolution explicitly states that the boards\nare asking voters to not support the Constitutional Amendment relative\nto state charter schools.”\n<\/p>\n \nBut what does Olens mean, duly elected local school boards don’t\nhave authority to express opinions about educational matters\nthat would directly affect the people who elected them?\n<\/p>\n \nWhy has Sam Olens suddenly gotten religion about this now,\nafter he was silent last year when both VBOE and LCBOE adopted\n\nresolutions against the school “unification” referendum?<\/a>\nWhere was he when both boards of education hosted numerous\nforums opposing consolidation?<\/a>\n<\/p>\n \nWill he next be telling the Valdosta City Council it can’t\n\npass a resolution opposing a referendum?<\/a>\nWhat exactly is the difference between that elected body and\nan elected school board as far as expressing such an opinion?\nAnd all of those resolutions were non-binding opinions.\n<\/p>\n \nWill Sam Olens next be telling the VDT it can’t\neditorialize against the charter school amendment?<\/a>\n<\/p>\n \nHow desperate are the pushers of the charter school amendment?\n<\/p>\n\n\n \n\n \nMaybe they know that T-SPLOST,\nalso with massive funding,\n\nalso with a biased preamble like the charter school referendum<\/a>,\nand\n\npushed by many of the same people<\/a>,\n\nlost in a landslide.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n \nWhere was he when\n\nnumerous local elected officials spoke out against T-SPLOST?<\/a>\n<\/p>\n \nWhere, for that matter, was Olens when the\n\n“Constitutional Amendments Publication Board…comprised of the\nGovernor, Speaker (of the House) and Lt. Governor”<\/a>\nspent tax-paid time writing\n\nthat biased preamble<\/a>\nto the charter school referendum,\n\neerily echoing<\/a> school privatization Parent Trigger jargon?\n<\/p>\n \n\n \nThe people of Georgia already wised up to private prisons;\neven\n\nthe one proposed for Lowndes County<\/a> has been cancelled.\n\nIt’s many of the same organizations pushing school privatization<\/a>\n(hi, ALEC!)\nand for the same reason: private profit at public expense.\n<\/p>\n \n\n \nI think the privatization pushers are running scared.\n<\/p>\n \nVote No on the charter school referendum in November.\n<\/p>\n \n-jsq\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pushers of the charter school amendment must be desperate! Blurring the line between public officials and private citizens, state Attorney General Sam Olens wrote: Local school boards do not have the legal authority to expend funds or other resources to advocate or oppose the ratification of a constitutional amendment by the voters. They may not […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[140,40,15,49,8,2,72,20,1105,1177,54,1106,133],"tags":[8744,1097,1584,8717,1636,8705,8721,8701,8699,8730,8702,8710,8815,12,7,1620,1297,1583,1096,8822,1635,6,1619,8726,8816,8742],"class_list":["post-447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alec","category-community","category-education","category-elections","category-georgia","category-government","category-incarceration","category-law","category-lcboe","category-t-splost","category-valdosta-city-council","category-vboe","category-vdt","tag-alec","tag-attorney-general","tag-charter-school-referendum","tag-community","tag-consolidation","tag-education","tag-elections","tag-georgia","tag-government","tag-incarceration","tag-lake","tag-law","tag-lcboe","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-lowndes-county-board-of-education","tag-private-prison","tag-private-profit","tag-sam-olens","tag-t-splost","tag-unification","tag-valdosta","tag-valdosta-board-of-education","tag-valdosta-city-council","tag-vboe","tag-vdt"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-7d","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"\/blog\/images\/6a0120a58214e4970b017ee3f2833b970d-pi.jpg\")
<\/a>\nLocal school boards do not have the legal authority to expend funds\nor other resources to advocate or oppose the ratification of a\nconstitutional amendment by the voters. They may not do this\ndirectly or indirectly through associations to which they may\nbelong….\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n
![](\"\/blog\/images\/6a0120a58214e4970b017ee3f2833e970d-pi.jpg\")
<\/a>\nMaybe they know that the school “unification” referendum,\n\nfinanced 10 to 1 in favor of passing,\nstill got voted down 4 to 1.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n![](\"\/blog\/images\/6a0120a58214e4970b017ee3f28341970d-pi.jpg\")
<\/a>\nI don’t think Olens’ letter has anything to do with legalities\nof elected officials expressing opinions.\nI think it has to do with the charter school amendment being\nmaybe the last privatization straw the people will tolerate.\n<\/p>\n![](\"\/blog\/images\/6a0120a58214e4970b017ee3f28342970d-pi.jpg\")
<\/a>\nA left-right coalition such as defeated T-SPLOST\n\nis already forming against this charter school amendment.<\/a>\nThe pushers see it’s pass this one\nor the jig is up for school privatization in Georgia.\nThat means we’re winning.\n<\/p>\n