HAHIRA —
The Lowndes County Board of Education stated at a work session Monday night at Hahira Middle School that they will be adopting a resolution in support of quality public education and in objection to the Charter School Amendment.
“We talked one on one as well as with the city board,” said Lowndes County Schools Superintendent Wes Taylor.
In light of the Charter School Amendment's inclusion on November’s ballot, school boards around the state have decided to adopt resolutions that represent their objection to the Charter School Amendment.
“All school systems in our RESA are doing the same thing,” said Taylor.
The Regional Education Service Agency (RESA) that includes Lowndes County Schools and Valdosta City Schools also includes all school systems in the Coastal Plains, the Okefenokee and systems in the South Georgia Region.
According to Taylor, at the local RESA meeting Thursday, Sept. 6, all the systems agreed to draft a resolution.
The resolution that will be adopted by the LCBOE will be jointly adopted by the Valdosta Board of Education and will include signatures from both Taylor and Superintendent of Valdosta City Schools Dr. Bill Cason as well as all 16 members of both boards of education.
In synopsis, the resolution states that both the LCBOE and the VBOE believe that “without quality public education, there can be no substance to the promise of equality and freedom, no possibility of developing and realizing individual capacities, no possibility of children overcoming disadvantages, or of every student having the opportunity to receive a first-class education.”
The resolution further states that without public education there will be a divide between the educated and the uneducated and the rich and the poor.
“The lack of support for public education by those advocating for school vouchers, state-approved charter schools, and other programs that allow public school funds to be redirected to private schools and for-profit charter schools serves to deepen the inequalities and the promise of opportunity,” the resolution states.
The LCBOE and the VBOE both believe that the Georgia Supreme Court ruled correctly in declaring it unconstitutional for an appointed state commission to approve charter schools over the objection of local boards.
“The Lowndes County and Valdosta City Boards of Education request that the Governor and State Legislators commit their support to adequately fund a first-class K-12 public education for students in Lowndes County and Valdosta City and across the state of Georgia,” the resolution states.
The resolution explicitly states that the boards are asking voters to not support the Constitutional Amendment relative to state charter schools.
The presentation of the resolution comes just one week before a session that will take place at Moultrie Tech’s Tifton Campus on Sept. 18 at 7 p.m. that will discuss the amendment. The session is one of six across the state that RESA aided in the formation of.
Many educators, administrators and local school boards across the state are rallying support for the objection of the Charter School Amendment.
If the amendment were to pass, it would give the state Legislature the right to create special schools known as charter schools, usurping the authority of local school boards.
The LCBOE will meet for their regular session meeting at the Central Office on Monday, Sept. 17 at 6 p.m.
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