Do City School Districts Perform Better?

Do City School Districts Perform Better?
With recent efforts to form new cities, talk of city/independent school districts and autonomous charter clusters, I decided to review the data on city districts in Georgia. My latest blog details my review and observations of the 21 city school districts in our state relative to the performance and demographics of the state as a whole and the county districts. Do city districts perform better than county districts? Read the blog to find out!

What are Georgia's children taught about The Bill of Rights?
On July 4th I wrote a blog about the current elementary school social studies curriculum for Georgia. In grades k-5, The Bill of Rights is only mentioned twice (once in 4th and once in 5th grades) but in 3rd grade children are taught about individuals who "expanded" rights before they have ever been informed about what rights are and how they are enshrined in The Constitution. Read my blog and you'll learn more about what we are teaching our children right now about social studies (why can't we call it history?) and see the "9 important people" our children study in 3rd grade. Are these "9 people" the important people you believe your children should study in third grade? Leave a comment on my blog and let me know your thoughts.

Will the administration soon be unilaterally changing school attendance zone lines?
Is the DeKalb Board going to allow the Superintendent to change attendance zones without Board approval? It appears that the DeKalb BOE is prepared to do exactly that. At the last board meeting, a policy was put forth that allows the Superintendent to adjust an attendance zone up to 1/8th of a mile and affecting 5 or less students. Click here to see the proposed adjustment to Policy AD. You can also go to the Fact Checker website to see the portion of the last board meeting that discussed this policy. My concern about this policy change is that it gives broad authority to disrupt families and children with NO impact on aggregate enrollment at schools. The administration is telling us that this policy will only help them fix a technical glitch in the mapping software they have used since 2011. My fear is that this policy could be used to punish or reward people by changing their attendance areas. Additionally, how often can the policy be invoked to shift the attendance lines? Once per day, per week, per year,....? As Milton Friedman stated, "Concentrated power is not rendered harmless by the good intentions of those who created it." I do not support giving more power to the bureaucratic class; particularly when that power may so easily be misused.

What's going on in Atlanta Public Schools?
There's a new blog that I've been following about all things APS: Financial-Deconstruction.com

The site is written by a financial professional with over 30 years of experience as a CFO and COO. Go read the site to see light shed on the APS budget and charter application denials.

We need you!
If you or your company is looking to invest in Georgia's future, please consider serving on a Charter School Board. I am developing a Board Bank of interested citizens who want to be a part of the next generation of school board governance. We need citizens that can provide various skills and experience to Georgia's charter schools. Drop me a line if you or your company is interested in helping Georgia's charter schools and improving the educational lives of our children. You can email me at nancyjester@gmail.com or njester@gacharters.org

--Nancy