Charter School Versus Teachers Union

Weigh these two statements and decide which one sounds more sincere to you.

School board chairman Dan Seckinger said the lawsuit was in the “best interest” of the students and taxpayers of Gwinnett.

Or this one.

Student Deja Holbert said Ivy Prep has proved that it has high academic standards and it outperforms other schools in the state. Holbert said stereotypes would have her “pregnant and a dropout between the ages of 15 and 17” but at Ivy Prep she is Ivy League-bound.

“At the school I was zoned to go to, the test scores were 79 percent for math, 88 percent for language arts, and 80 percent for writing. At Ivy Prep it was 91 percent for writing, 96 percent for language arts and 98 percent for writing,” she said.

Ivy Prep also stands as a good example of why it isn't all about the money either. For a couple of years they have been getting by on a shoestring budget with their teachers being paid on the 2006 pay scale, using computers they bought for $20 at surplus auctions, and limited funds from the state. Back in August the state changed their designation which then made it mandatory for the county to share its education budget with the school, which meant an infusion of about a million dollars.

It is this sharing of the budget which prompted the lawsuit. In a nutshell this is the issue. The state approved the schools but the counties, there is another charter school in the same situation, Statesboro’s Charter Conservatory for Liberal Arts & Technology in which these schools are located did not.

There is a very important constitutional issue at the heart of this, that being at what level is control of the school boards actually held.

For me the results speak for themselves, and while the constitutional question is important, the bigger lesson here is that our government school system is woefully inadequate and this example lays that bare, so win or lose, hopefully it will open some eyes and cause parents to put more pressure on local school boards to approve these charter schools.

While the Gwinnett school board is putting their face on this lawsuit, don't be fooled. It was at the instigation of the teachers union, but the union doesn't have the standing to allow it to bring the case.