On Nov. 6, Georgia residents will have the deciding vote on whether the state will have the ultimate authority to approve charter schools.

A resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution of Georgia will be on the ballot for voters, giving them the option to restore a state commission that would issue charters to private operators.

Currently, that power is reserved for local boards of education, with the state board able to approve charters that the local boards opt out of.

The resolution would re-establish a third party — the Georgia Charter Commission — that would have the final say in whether a charter school can be established.

The commission has existed before, but was considered unconstitutional by the Georgia Supreme Court because it forced local boards to help fund charters they did not approve.

Advocates for the commission argued that local officials were dragging their feet in approving charters.

Hall County Schools currently operates 11 charters and the Gainesville City Schools is a charter system.

Both systems see charter schools as a positive, alternative choice for residents.

But on Tuesday, state Superintendent John Barge came out publicly against the amendment, saying he “cannot support the creation of a new and costly state bureaucracy that takes away local control of schools and unnecessarily duplicates the good work already being done by local districts, the Georgia Department of Education and the state Board of Education.”

He said the General Assembly plans to come up with more than $430 million in new state funds over the next five years to fund the commission and its charter schools.

“Instead, this $430 million should be used to restore the austerity cuts to students in Georgia’s traditional public schools — including those in Georgia’s locally approved charter schools,” said Barge, adding that he “fully supports the continued creation of high quality schools.”

Charter schools in Gainesville-Hall County are both locally and state funded, but are operated under the banner of the school systems.

“Superintendent Barge’s decision to take this position, in my view, means he thinks this is in the best interest of all the children in Georgia, in terms of getting equitable education during times of financial duress,” said Merrianne Dyer, Gainesville superintendent.

“He has supported the position of the people that elected him. He was elected by school boards and schoolteachers, parents, school staffs and people that care about public education in Georgia. He is an elected official fulfilling his duty to represent the people that elected him versus representing the interest of people that may donate money to his campaign. It’s a pretty bold move for him.”

Barge is a part of the Republican Party, which has supported this amendment, including the governor, Nathan Deal.

“I stand with 2/3 of the General Assembly and will uphold the promises I made when I ran for office: Parents and students should have public school options; this is true local control,” Deal’s spokesman told The Associated Press.

Deal’s office did not respond to a request for comment as of press time.

Hall County Superintendent Will Schofield said it is hard to pick a side of the debate.

“I do the best I can to stay out of political discussions and try to administrate schools,” said Schofield. “That being said, I’m torn on this issue because I’ve been a proponent of charter schools and innovation long before charter schools became cool and everybody thought they were the way to go. By the same token, I’ve stood side by side and lived through this last 10 years of cuts and cutbacks in education with my education brethren, so I’m torn on the issue.”

The county school board chairman, Nath Morris, said voters need to be informed on the subject before making a decision and, in his opinion, the decision to approve charters should be left to local boards.

“I think there’s a lot of information that people need to look into before making a decision,” said Morris. “That being said, I’m looking at it from a Hall County perspective and I know it’s a statewide perspective. We have seven charter conversion schools in Hall County that are doing our system well and giving parents options and I understand there are some other counties that don’t have that opportunity. ... But I still think it should be a local board decision.”

And local school officials are not 100 percent sure on how, if passed, the amendment will affect the systems.

“That’s one of the concerns that I have: I’m not really sure how it will affect local schools,” said Schofield. “In a place like Hall County and Gainesville, that has private schools, public schools, all kinds of different charter school options already, I don’t anticipate there will be a whole lot of change in terms of brick and mortar schools coming in and wanting to compete with what’s already here.

“I think one of the great unknowns is perhaps some of these out-of-state and virtual schools that could come in and start enroll(ing) students from anywhere.”

Dyer said some federal funding is already being pulled from the city system to help fund two commission schools: Ivy Preparatory Academy and Odyssey Charter School.

“We have no students in our zone that attend those schools and we do take exception to giving up our federal funding that’s for our students of need to two schools that were commissioned by the state without really any explanation,” said Dyer.

House Resolution 1162 will be on the Nov. 6 ballot.