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As parents of five children, my wife and I were excited to attend an information session for the proposed Global Outreach Academy of Excellence.
The academy would be a tuition free public charter school with a hands-on approach to learning and the kind of aim-high standards we want for our children. Our fifth-, fourth-, second- and first-graders attend Flowery Branch Elementary School, and our oldest child attends West Hall Middle School.
If approved by the Georgia Charter Schools Commission, Global Outreach will be a K-8 school open to students from five counties: Dawson, Forsyth, Fulton, Hall and Gwinnett. It would be an attractive alternative for parents want a different approach to learning than the district school. From what we saw, Global Outreach will offer more individualized instruction, with smaller classes and parents on the governing board.
Local school districts and superintendents are opposed to the proposed Global Outreach Academy and are misleading the public. They want you to think that charter schools drain money from public education. How can that be, when charter schools are public schools funded by state dollars?
The money follows the child. It is similar to students leaving the district to attend a private school; the district retains all tax dollars for students they no longer teach.
Maybe traditional public school administrators, such as Gainesville City Schools Superintendent Merrianne Dyer and Dawson County Schools Superintendent Keith Porter, who flatly oppose independent charter schools should embrace the notion of parent choice.
We believe that high quality charter schools help improve the public education system, not hinder it.
Roman & Galina Rubets
Flowery Branch