Drew has a longer school day and year, requires uniforms and has a heavy emphasis on reading. Other parents feel exactly as I do. They are afraid for their children's future. McCuen and Maloney are among the hundreds of Georgia educators and parents eager to see more choices in public education. The charter school concept was adopted by the Legislature to give parents alternatives to traditional neighborhood public schools.
Charters are public schools that operate free of local rules and regulations.
Once open, they can be closed if they do not improve academic achievement. But Georgia is resisting the national trend to give parents and educators the opportunity to experiment with charter schools. The state has only five charter schools operating independent of school districts. To our dismay, school boards are giving excuses to block charters. Opponents even try to confuse the issue and wrongly portray them as private schools.