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<\/a>\nAll but 19 were established and agreed upon by local communities.\nThere’s a successful one in Berrien County, established by the\nBerrien County school board.\nThe process to create more is in place in every community.\nIf we wanted one in Lowndes County, all it would take would be for\none of the two school systems (Lowndes or Valdosta)\nto approve one.\n<\/p>\n\nHe suggested looking at the sources of funds for Families for Better Schools,\nwhich is backing the amendment.\nTop of the list is a Wal-Mart heir.\n(It’s\nAlice Walton<\/a>.\nDr. Davis deferred to Al Rowell for that information,\nand that’s also where I heard about Alice Walton.\nAnd as I discovered,\n\nthe Walton Family Foundation put in much more\nthan that last year.<\/a>)\nHe noted the bulk of the rest comes from for-profit school operators.\n(They include\n\nK12 Inc. of Virginia<\/a>.)\n<\/p>\n \nHe noted that the state of Georgia just passed this fiscal year\nthe third largest budget\nin the history of Georgia, $19.1 billion.\nYet the public schools have been cut $6.6 billion (apparently since 2002).\nAnd the Lowndes County school system lost nearly $8 million last year,\nand $43 million in the past 10 years.\nSo he asked:\n<\/p>\n\n\n \nMy question is that, if you want to see the public schools work,\nif you want them to work, why don’t you fully fund them,\nand then hold them accountable?\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \nHe noted that the public school funding scheme altered by HB 797\nhas never been fully funded, and in the last ten years has been\nseverely underfunded.\n<\/p>\n \nSo my question is: would you want to be evaluated,\nor would you want to be replaced by something,\nbefore you were given a full opportunity with a\ncomplete set of tools to make a difference?\nYou wouldn’t want to be fired from… digging ditches\nif they didn’t give you a shovel, right?\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \nHe explained that it’s not even as if the public school systems\nhad been asked to do the same job with less money:\nthey have been asked to do more with less.\n<\/p>\n \nSince 2008 the number of public school students has increased by\n37,438 children.\nBut because of this loss of $6.6 billion,\n4,280 teachers have lost their jobs.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \nHe said that this referendum was supposedly about parental choice, but:\n<\/p>\n \nThere’s 315 charter schools and over 500 private schools\nin the state of Georgia.\nHow much choice do you need?\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \nHe addressed the proposition that charter schools are better at educating\nchildren.\n<\/p>\n \nLet’s talk about AYP…, No Child Left Behind….\n<\/p>\n \nThen there’s the question of where the money for charter schools would\ncome from.\n<\/p>\n \n$430 million is what it will cost if this amendment passes.\nYou know how much money is in the state budget for charter schools?\n…the third largest budget in the history of Georgia?\nNone.\nDo you know where it’s going to come from?\nPublic local school systems.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \nDr. Davis spelled out that\n\ncharter schools would get more money per pupil\nthan public school students.<\/a>\nAnd in detail how\n\nthe difference would come from local taxpayers.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n \nHe emphasized that he just said the facts.\n<\/p>\n \nThe fact is that this whole thing was brought up because\na group of people were told no by the Supreme Court:\nyou can’t do that, it’s unconstitutional.\nAnd two-thirds of your House and Senate, and your governor, our governor,\nvoted and signed off on this bill for a constitutional amendment.\nTo give the people a choice, when they already have 800 choices.\n<\/p>\n \nHave you ever been to a buffet?\nDoes the plate run out after a while?\nIt does, doesn’t it?\nYou can only have so much food.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \nHe also noted who would go to charter schools:\nprobably not people who needed assisted lunches.\nSo we’d be leaving behind the neediest.\n<\/p>\n \n\n \n\n \nDr. Davis said he hadn’t followed T-SPLOST closely, and\nhe didn’t say how to vote on the charter school referendum, either.\nBut if you listened to the facts\nhe spelled out, I suspect you, like me, will\nvote No on the charter school referendum in November!\n<\/p>\n \nHere’s\n\na video playlist:<\/a>\n<\/p>\n \n\n
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<\/a>\nOther points included that\n\ncharter schools created this way\nwouldn’t have to follow any guidance.<\/a>\nOne questioner wanted to know how we could afford all this.\nI brought up ALEC.\nThe camera didn’t always follow Dr. Davis or the questioners,\nbut you can hear them pretty well.\n<\/p>\n![](\"\/blog\/images\/6a0120a58214e4970b017ee3dce903970d-pi.jpg\")
<\/a>\nOne of the questioners noted that T-SPLOST was a similar kind of plan\nfor centralization, and we just voted that down.\n<\/p>\n