Schools

Charter Schools to Rally Tuesday in Protest of Georgia Supreme Court's Ruling

Georgia Supreme Court ruling on Monday struck down the act that created state-commissioned charter schools.

The Georgia Charter Schools Association plans a 10:30 a.m. rally Tuesday at the state capitol to protest the Georgia Supreme Court ruling on Monday that struck down the act that created state-commissioned charter schools.

The 4-3 vote, will only affect 16 schools according to the association, even though there are some 160 charter schools in the state. However, the organization states in a release on the GCSA website that "the success of all those students and thousands of others in Charter Commission schools is threatened by this ruling."

Charter schools in southwest Atlanta include Atlanta Heights Charter School,  3712 Martin Luther King Jr. Dr., and Atlanta Preparatory Academy, 569 Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. and 1722 Harbin Rd. 

Find out what's happening in Cascadewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

In the court case, seven local school districts -- Gwinnett, Bulloch, Candler, DeKalb, Atlanta, Griffin-Spalding and Henry -- sued former state Superintendent Kathy Cox, the Department of Education, the Charter Schools Commission, and three charter schools approved by the commission.

In May, 2010, a trial court ruled in favor of the charter schools and today's opinion reverses that decision.

Find out what's happening in Cascadewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"Because our constitution embodies the fundamental principle of exclusive local control of general primary and secondary (K-12) public education, and the Act clearly and palpably violates ... by authorizing a state commission to establish competing state-created general K-12 schools under the guise of being "special schools," we reverse," the Supreme Court of Georgia opinion states.

Justice David Nahmias cast the dissenting opinion, calling the majority's reasoning, "Illogical," and its conclusion "overbroad."

Tuesday's rally will feature a number of speakers, including GCSA President/CEO Tony Roberts. Participants will gather on the Washington Street side of the capitol.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

More from Cascade