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Whose opportunity is it?
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This fall Georgia voters will go to the polls not only to elect a new President, but also they will be asked to vote on an amendment to the Georgia constitution that would radically change public education in Georgia.

Amendment 1 is worded in a misleading and deceitful way.

The authors and proponents of the bill know that if the voter actually knew what the amendment meant they would vote NO. Why? Because if this amendment passes it will take local control away from many schools and school districts, require those districts to pay for these state schools, and allow those schools to be run by for-profit management companies under the direction of the Governors self-appointed Superintendent.

Teachers and parents would basically be silenced by this amendment.

This scheme has been tried in Louisiana, Tennessee and Michigan and has failed in all three states.

Yet in Georgia we are asking the voters to allow the Governor and state legislature to take control of these schools and create what they call a statewide Opportunity School District.

Further research into those states that have already failed at this will tell you that the only "Opportunity" being created in the Amendment 1 is the Opportunity for For-Profit Educational Management companies to make money! In Louisiana where recent legislation dissolved their "Recovery School District" the RSD system in New Orleans had the lowest ACT Scores of any district in Louisiana. In fact in one New Orleans school only 1 percent of the students scored high enough on the ACT for college entrance. That is after 10 years of being controlled by the state and for-profit management companies!

Go to any of these over 30 organizations' websites who are against this amendment to read all the reasons you should vote NO on Amendment 1: Georgia PTA, Public Education Matters Georgia, TRAGIC, Southern Education Foundation (SEF), NAACP, Pro-Georgia, Concerned Black Clergy (CBC), National Education Association (NEA), Georgia Association of Educators (GAE), Professional Association of Georgia Educators (PAGE), American Federation of Teachers, Georgia Federation of Teachers, GFDW, League of Women Voters, Georgia School Board Association (G.S.B.A.), Georgia Association of Educational Leaders (G.A.E.L.), Georgia Coalition for the People's Agenda, Georgia School Superintendents Assoc. (GSSA) Georgia StandUp, Empower Ed Georgia, Rise-up Georgia, AFL-CIO.

Keep Georgia schools local.

Terry Ryan
Dawsonville