It is a creation of David Chang, the James Beard Award–winning chef behind the Momofuku restaurants in New York, writer Peter Meehan, and Zero Point Zero Production—producers of the Emmy Award–winning Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations.
One week ago, the Georgia Supreme Court overturned a 2008 law which established the State Charter Schools Commission. In a 4-3 vote, the court ruled that local governments have an exclusive franchise on establishing schools, and that state sponsored charter schools did not meet the definition of “special schools”, an exception laid out by the Georgia Constitution. At issue is the share of local funds collected by counties or municipal school districts which are then contributed to the charter schools on a per-pupil basis.
The future of nine existing charter schools and an additional eight expected to open this fall’s future is now unclear, affecting an estimated enrollment of 15,000 Georgia students. The charter school defendants in the case have petitioned the court for re-consideration, and the State School Superintendent has indicated he will rush through applications for each school to receive “special school” status with the state, but this would only approve state and federal funding for each school. County funds would still be unavailable to each affected school, placing the 2011-2012 school year in immediate jeopardy.
Charter schools have gained popularity in Georgia as the arguably least controversial form of school choice. Georgia has approximately 120 charter schools in existence educating over 60,000 students. The vast majority of these schools were chartered by local school boards. The Charter Schools Commission was established to review and possibly approve charter school applications that local school districts would not approve, ensuring that school choice and limited competition was available even in reluctant school districts. It was several of these districts – Bulloch, Candler, DeKalb, Griffin-Spalding, Gwinnett, and Henry – who sued claiming that the state had no right to establish schools and appropriate local tax money to them without the consent of their respective boards of education.
The long term fix is an amendment to the Georgia Constitution, which by law cannot happen prior to 2012. Thus, schools operating under a charter from the state commission may be in limbo until the 2013-2014 school year. Any attempt at a legislative band-aid would likely still be too little too late for this school year, as the legislature is not likely to be called into a special session solely for this matter, and the special session scheduled for re-apportionment is scheduled for August 15th, after many area school systems have begun classes for the year.
The court was split around newly galvanizing ideological lines, with Carol Hunstein – Chief Justice who survived a bitter electoral challenge from conservative Mike Wiggins in 2006 – writing for the majority. Newcomer David Nahmias, appointed by Governor Sonny Perdue to replace the retiring Leah Ward Sears, wrote a dissent described as “blistering” by Brian Tyson, an attorney who writes the Supreme Court of Georgia Blog. Nahmias pulled no punches in his 75 page dissent, stating “At least the local systems are respectful of the English language; the majority, searching for a way around this problem, is not.”
Those searching for an electoral advantage to elect conservative judges to the Supreme Court of Georgia may finally have found a tangible issue to wage a campaign. It should be noted, however, that even in a conservative state as red as Georgia has become, Conservatives/Republicans have had remarkably little success in pushing social conservative judicial candidates against appointed incumbent justices, regardless how “liberal” their opinions are from the bench. Prior to the Hunstein-Wiggins campaign, an attempt to unseat Leah Ward Sears, was equally unsuccessful with Republicans pushing Grant Brantley in the non-partisan race.
Republicans have found that getting justices elected is a process that is more secretive than being elevated to a 37th level Mason. The legal community seems to be able to transcend traditional politics, and bristles at the notion of elevating a justice on the platform of social conservatism over their traditional appointment after approval of a judicial nominating committee.
With that said, the appointments of Governor Perdue and presumably Nathan Deal trend to the conservative side, and time is on the side of conservatives with respect to the court. Time is not on the side of students and parents in the charter schools case. Many schools are set to resume classes in less than 90 days, with no immediate solution or relief in sight.
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