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Snow Cuts School Choice Rally Short, But Doesn’t Dampen Support

January 29th, 2014

It’s National School Choice Week. Advocates for expanding choice in Georgia held a rally at the State Capitol Tuesday. The snow cut the program short, but several still showed up.

Danielle LeSure was a little bummed when the snow sent people home. LeSure is the director of education policy for the Georgia Center for Opportunity. She was hoping the rally would increase awareness about school choice in Georgia.

“I wanted our eighth graders who are participating to learn about Georgia’s history, because that will be on their CRCT, through our scavenger hunt so that was supposed to happen too, but we got snowed out, that’s O.K.,” she said.

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Georgia has a handful of school choice options. They include magnet schools, vouchers for students with special needs, charter schools, and a tax credit program that funds scholarships to private schools.

Charter schools have been an attractive choice for some parents, like Shirley Taylor. Her three children attend Wesley International Academy in Fulton County.

“We love the International Baccalaureate of the school, it’s very diverse, and we love that they offer Mandarin Chinese,” Taylor said. “Those are all the aspects that drew us to the school. We love the fact that it goes from Kindergarten through 8th grade.”

Charter schools are public schools. They operate on a charter, which typically gives them more flexibility than traditional public schools. Jade Dodd is an eighth grader at Ivy Prep charter school in Gwinnett County. She said the all-girls school is rigorous.

“It may be tough, but then the teachers, they have homework help,” she said. “They help us. They like to know what’s going on in our lives and be interested and that helps us connect with them better.”

Andrew Lewis is the executive vice president of the Georgia Charter Schools Association. He acknowledged charter schools are just one piece of the school choice movement:

“What may be the right setting for one child may not be for another,” he said. So it is about empowering parents with those high-quality options in their children’s lives.”

Some advocates would like to see Georgia increase its school choice options. Whether lawmakers will tackle that this legislative session remains to be seen.