Among the many education-related ballot proposals this election is Amendment 1 in Georgia. The proposed constitutional amendment would reauthorize an independent board to approve charter schools. Currently, school districts are able to regulate charters, thereby limiting their competition.
EAGnews.org reported on some of the dirty tactics being employed by the education establishment:
In some areas, school employees are reportedly using taxpayer funds and work time to campaign against Amendment 1, possibly violating state law.
“I had a lady come to me … who substitute teaches who said when she walked in to teach the GAE was serving donuts and telling teachers to vote no and to tell their students to vote no,” [Georgia Americans for Prosperity director Virginia] Galloway said.
Opponents also “had an hour-long training session at the Georgia School Boards Association, which is a taxpayer funded training session … on how to defeat the amendment,” she said.
Reports involving students are even more troubling.
Kelly Cadman, vice president of school services for the Georgia Charter Schools Association, said public school teachers have recruited students to deliver campaign signs opposing Amendment 1 during class time.
“A teacher at Brighten (charter school) called me tonight to let me know that her son, who is in the IB program at the local high school, was sent on an errand … by one of his teachers,” Cadman wrote in a recent email to fellow education reformers. “The errand (during his language arts class time) was to deliver several Vote No yard signs to other teachers.
“He didn’t find out what the signs were about (didn’t know what Amendment 1 was) until he got to the last teacher and she told him – the kid was aghast, as he knows this impacts his mom,” Cadman wrote. “Obviously, his mom (the charter school teacher) is furious.”
Can you imagine the hell a Tea Party-minded teacher would catch if she did a similar thing? But union-minded teachers don’t give it a second thought, and schools ignore the bald-faced politicking activist teachers engage in on a routine basis.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member