Georgia Charter School Battle Turns Nasty

Amendment would bypass local boards to ease establishing independent schools

Proponents of the November charter school amendment have protested state School Superintendent John Barge's public stand against the amendment on the DOE web site, which led the state Department of Education to take down a 29-point position paper highlighting the reasons. A link to that paper was on the Georgia Department of Education's home page.

Today, Attorney General Sam Olens notified Barge to alert local school boards that they "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 do this directly or indirectly through associations to which they may belong."