Reform Party supports charter schools

Reform

Party supports charter schools

I am Anne Merkl and

I represent the Reform Party of Georgia.

The Reform

Party supports charter schools as they represent a way to

reform the educational system and utilize our taxpayer

dollars to the fullest extent.

Charter

schools eliminate bureaucratic overhead because decisions

are made within the schools themselves. Improving our

school system should be a number one priority for

everyone.

When one

looks at the system's latest SAT scores and the nose-dive

they have taken, it's apparent that what we are doing now

is not working.

The Georgia

Association of Educators also supports charter schools,

provided the term "local control" includes

teachers, parents, the general public and the local

school board.

When a

charter school doesn't achieve certain academic standards

and fails to meet accountability requirements, it's

dissolved. This is in direct contrast to the traditional

schools. Perhaps if we could close down those traditional

schools which do not produce, then the schools would have

no choice but to improve. Unfortunately, the way it

stands now, the worse a school becomes, the more money it

receives.

It seems

that the school board is interested in charter schools

only if it can be on the controlling or receiving end of

the funds to the school. Take your own charter school as

an example.

Unfortunately,

it leads one to think that you believe as other school

boards do that you should have full control over the

charter schools even though the intent of the law is to

allow parents an opportunity to establish the school they

envision.

Anne Merkl

Newnan