MELISSA TABB: Charter school students shortchanged in funding

Like many families across Georgia, ours relies upon the public education system to give our three children the opportunities in education they need and deserve to succeed in life. But just like many other counties across Georgia, our traditional public school system is struggling under the heavy burden of mandates that make it hard for administration and teachers to focus on the most important part of their job, which is successfully educating children.

This is why we were so excited when Pataula Charter Academy opened. Now, six years later, we have seen firsthand how autonomy and innovative approaches to education are allowing charter schools to make great strides toward giving our children the skills they need to become successful adults. Unfortunately, we have also seen firsthand the effects of the fact that charter schools are treated inequitably by Georgia’s current education funding formula.

As parents, we only want the best for our children. As taxpayers, we think it is wrong that that our children are being shortchanged.

Our elected leaders would have had the opportunity to correct this disparity with HB 430 and the original provisions that provided funding equity, but those provisions were removed before even having a hearing. That means that for at least another year, our state government will treat some public school students as “less than” other public school students, simply because their parents had the temerity to think they deserved an excellent education.

We are pleading for General Assembly to restore this important provision to House Bill 430 before they adjourn this year so that all public schools, charter or traditional, are treated equally and every student in Georgia gets the opportunity they deserve.

MELISSA TABB

Cuthbert