Charter School Advocate and Mom Will Vote No

North Fulton mother says she found local control was critical after finding problems while her son attended Fulton Science Academy.

  Georgia is in the midst of an intense debate over a proposed charter school amendment that will be on the ballot in November. Whatever your position, you need to read my story. The polls predict this amendment will pass with flying colors, thanks to a misleading ballot question and a majority of funding from outside the state. If this amendment passes, politics and corporations will shape our schools. Groups with multi-faceted objectives are lining up to grab their market share. If a state controlled charter school comes to town, you will have no recourse if there is a problem. Why Local Control is Critical The problems I encountered at Fulton Science Academy were not anticipated by our local and state board of education or by educators …

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Foreign Investments Fuel a Boom in Charter Schools

Wealthy foreigners can in effect buy U.S. immigration visas for themselves and their families by investing at least $500,000 in certain development projects.

Investment advisor Greg Wing has established The Education Fund of America. It connects international investors with charter schools. According to the fund's website: The Education Fund of America is passionate about financing schools that help children move from indifferent to INSPIRED. It is more than just a slogan for us, it drives our school funding decisions. We are committed to helping our EB-5 investor families have a fulfilling experience with EB-5 knowing that they are also helping America's children - in the process. "The demand is massive - massive - on the school side," Wing told a reporter for Reuters. "On the investor side, it's massive, too." He is currently arranging EB-5 funding--which gives foreigners visas for investing …

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Former Georgia Charter Commission Members Speak Out

There are strong opinions on both sides of the Charter School debate. This is the opinion of seven former members of the Georgia Charter School Commission.

What is best for Georgia students? That is the question that should always be front and center when discussing education reform. One-third of Georgia students do not graduate high school, so our education system clearly needs to be improved—for the benefit of our children, our families, our communities, and our economic future. Too often debates about education reform are centered on money and power. We wish to re-focus the debate toward what is best for students.  On Nov. 6, Georgians will vote on a constitutional amendment that would allow parents and other community members to start public charter schools—and to have the decision whether to allow these schools to open made by an independent and neutral observer. Charter schools are …

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Moms Talk

Won't Back Down

Film pulls trigger on education reform.

Imagine discovering that an over-worked teacher locked your crying child in a storage closet at school as punishment for not following the rules. Scenes like this are getting the Hollywood treatment in the 20th Century Fox film "Won't Back Down," to be released in theatres on September 28. The movie touches on parent trigger laws, a takeover movement that grants frustrated parents the right to petition for sweeping changes in low-performing schools. The law is designed so that if 51% of parents in a failing school agree, they will be given the power to replace teachers, change curriculum, close schools, or convert to a charter school. Charters are publicly financed, independent schools that receive waivers from public school districts in …

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Edward

10:55 am on Monday, September 17, 2012

@AM...it's always the teachers fault seems like a bit of a scape goat to me, for the parents out there that use the school system as a form of day care, a way to get the kids out of the house, find a place to hide those bad kids while the work to keep the lights on. Let's face some real facts here folks, kids in school today are not the same as they were 30 years ago. Today kids spit, curse, yell…   more ›

Charter Schools: Are They Good for Gwinnett?

Let us know your opinion on this controversial issue.

  After striking down commissioned charter schools as unconstitutional last May, supporters have introduced a bill to allow the state to create charter schools. Just yesterday the Georgia House passed legislation favoring charter schools. Resolution 1162 passed 123-48 and now moves to the Senate. There are five charter schools currently operating in Gwinnett County, including  Ivy Preparatory Academy in Peachtree Corners, which attracts Duluth students. Those favoring the speciality schools, which are open to the public, say there is a need especially for those students who struggle in a traditional school environment. Those who oppose maintain that the use of state funds to pay for charter schools would mean less money for public schools…

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Ivy Prep to Pursue State Charter Application

After being denied a five-year charter petition by GCPS, the Peachtree Corners all-girls school will seek a State Charter Special School with the state.

  The room was filled to capacity Monday night as Ivy Preparatory Academy's founder and executive director Nina Gilbert explained the school's next move after being denied a five-year charter with Gwinnett County Public Schools. Gilbert announced that Ivy Preparatory Academy, founded in 2008, will seek a State Charter Special School with the state of Georgia. "We will now seek state approval, and look forward to working closely with the Georgia Department of Education to ensure that our instructional program is not disrupted, and that none of our scholars are displaced," announced Gilbert in a statement posted on the school's website. "We have always known that this outcome was possible, and we stand prepared to transition to a State …

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School Board Renews New Life Academy Contract

New Life Academy of Excellence has campuses in Norcross and Duluth.

The Gwinnett County Board of Education voted to renew the contract of New Life Academy of Excellence, a charter school with campuses in Duluth and Norcross, through June 2017. The renewal contract will now be sent on to the Georgia Department of Education for approval. The current contract was set to expire on June 30, 2012.  The application was submitted to the school board Oct. 20. In petitioning for renewal, the school met all of the requirements of the Georgia Charter School Act, according to GCPS. Howerver, the board attached two contingencies to their recommendation, GCPS spokesman Jorge Quintana reported. The board asked that the school submit a plan and timetable for accelerated math options for 7th and 8th graders and that it …

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Ivy Prep Expanding With Two Schools in DeKalb

State Board of Education approves petitions for k-12 all-boys and k-12 all-girls schools.

The State Board of Education Monday approved Ivy Preparatory Academy's petition to open two new charter schools. The approval allows the all-girls school, located in Gwinnett County, to expand to DeKalb County. In a special called meeting the board approved petitions for a k-12 all-boys school and a k-12 all-girls school, submitted by Nina Gilbert, founder and head of Ivy Preparatory Academy in Peachtree Corners. The schools are tentatively scheduled to open as K-6 schools Sept. 6. Negotiations are on-going to house both schools in te former Peachtree Hope Charter School building located at 1807 Memorial Drive. Ivy Prep's Gwinnett school will continue to operate as a Gwinnett County Public Charter School and receive funding from the county…

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Ivy Preparatory Academy May Open DeKalb Campus

State Board of Education to meet Monday to decide on recommending a Special State Charter for the DeKalb-based school.

It's been a roller coaster ride for head of school Nina Gilbert since the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that Ivy Preparatory Academy, an all-girls charter school in Peachtree Corners, could no longer operate as a commissioned charter school. Ivy Prep's future was finally decided this month when the school's board accepted Gwinnett County Public School's offer to operate as a Gwinnett Charter school. That was the good news, the not so good news was that the funding per student was cut substantially from what it received as a commissioned charter school. And there would be no funding from the Gwinnett school system for nearly half of its students. The school currently enrolls some 480 students of which 190 live in DeKalb County. Under the …

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Ivy Preparatory Academy Joins Gwinnett's Public School System

The Peachtree Corners charter school will be one of five charter schools to operate in 2011-12 as part of the Gwinnett County Public School system.

Gwinnett County Public Schools recently announced that Ivy Preparatory Academy, a former commissioned charter school located in Peachtree Corners, will join GCPS's four other charter schools that operate as part of the county's public school system. Ivy Prep, an all-girls school with some 480 students had been operating as one of 16 Georgia Charter Commissioned Schools since opening in the fall of 2008. However, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled on May 16 of this year that the Georgia Charter Schools Commission did not have the authority to establish schools and direct local monies to fund commission-approved schools. The Gwinnett County school board had offered a charter school contract to Nina Gilbert, Head of School for Ivy Prep, on June …

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