“Say it isn’t so.”  The State Charter School Commission ruled on the 16 applications it received from charter school organizations, and only approved one.  Sorry, but it is so.

During the last Georgia legislative session, the Republican House and Senate amended the Georgia Constitution that resurrected the State Charter Schools Commission, which had been ruled unconstitutional by the Georgia Supreme Court.

The Georgia bill, which was passed by the Georgia Legislature and signed by the Governor is based on a “model” bill written by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a right leaning partisan group.

The State Charter Schools Commission is a state-level charter school authority with the commission to approve charter schools in any district in the state, without approval by local school officials.

When the bill passed, and when the commissioners were appointed by the Georgia Republican leadership, the Georgia Charter Schools Association and independent charter management groups were drooling and could foresee a new raft of charters being approved by the appointed commission.

But that did not happen!

The State Charter School Commission approved only 1 out of 16 applicants, as seen in Figure 1.  As seen in the chart, 16 applications were received by the State Charter School Commission.  Note that one withdrew, four were not eligible, and one was approved by the local school district, which meant the State Commission did not have to act on it.

In effect, only one charter school was approved, and seven were denied.

Figure 1. State Charter School Commission Report on Charter School Applications for 2014 – 2015 School Year

According to an article in the AJC, some charter advocates were “irked” by the results, and thought that the commission should be nicer to charter advocates by approving more than just one.

Of course, you know that I am opposed to charters, and have written extensively here about charters, and why they should not be used as a reform strategy in place of public schools. You can read here the facts to support my position.

What is your opinion? Do you think the State Commission was too rigid with the applicants? Do you think they did their job, or are being overly critical of charters?