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At the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, it's all education all the time

Ed reform junkies will find all sorts of eye candy over at the Atlanta-Journal Constitution today.  First, a response to an editorial we addressed yesterday.  Charles Knapp (we’re not sure, but we think he’s the former president of the University of Georgia) says this in response to the criticism of private companies involved in K-12 education:

The fact is that when it comes to creating great schools, there is no single magic ingredient.

Drew Charter School in East Lake has been assisted since its inception in 2000 by an effective private firm, Edison Schools. The success that Drew has experienced, however, is really more directly related to the fact that it enjoys the support of an entire community.

As an educator for 36 years, I’ve learned that how well you address the challenges students face outside school can affect how well they perform inside the classroom.

There’s also a shoving match between the editorial staff…

Atlanta residents have been generous to their public schools, paying their taxes at a rate that has made their teacher pay scale and their per-pupil costs among the highest in the state.

In asking for a tax increase of about 2.3 mills, Atlanta’s superintendent and school board are hoping that well of generosity hasn’t been tapped out.

If it hasn’t, it should be.

Atlanta is seeking a tax increase at the same time that school enrollment is dropping and city property values are skyrocketing. Five years ago, Atlanta had 57,000 students; now it has 50,000. A housing and retail boom is invigorating marginal neighborhoods, luring young people tired of long commutes. In the 2000 census, the city recorded the first increase in its white population in 40 years.

The school system argues that despite the booming tax digest and falling enrollment, its costs are soaring because of state funding cuts, its pension costs and rising fuel and utility bills. Without a tax hike, APS says it will face a $37 million shortfall. This year’s proposed Atlanta schools budget is $582.8 million.

The system’s plea would be more compelling if it was willing to share in the pain it wants to inflict on city taxpayers. Yet despite its supposedly desperate straits, the system is proposing a 4 percent across-the-board raise for all employees.

Without those raises, the school board says, some teachers will leave. Well, maybe some teachers ought to leave. Target raises to the good teachers who should be retained, and hope the ineffective ones get the message and leave.

…and the state Board of Education:

Atlanta Public Schools is focused on providing our students with the quality education they need and deserve to be successful in life. For the first time since 1997, this commitment to Atlanta’s children will mean a tax increase.

Despite absorbing $47 million in state "austerity" cuts since fiscal year 2003 and a shift in funding from the state to local level, APS has been a good steward of taxpayer dollars and has provided a return on the city’s investment in public education.

Meanwhile, continuing a theme of public school supporters’ guilt that we picked up on last week, one woman details her internal tug-of-war:

My daughter is my world. It’s hard to accept, but Elizabeth is turning me — a person who is pro public education — into a potential voucher supporter. If vouchers were available, I would keep Elizabeth in her private school quicker than you could snap a pole bean.

The reason I like vouchers is the same reason I hate vouchers. Unlike public schools, private schools can choose the students. If a child becomes a "problem," the parents are told, "You know, we don’t think Johnny is really suited for our environment." What if public schools are left without bright students because the bright students are getting an education elsewhere?

To me, a school with great test scores means that the kids in that school feel it’s cool to be smart. We don’t have enough of those in the Atlanta public school system.

Go read.