WFXG Fox54 Augusta-Your News One Hour EarlierHouse Resolution 1162 raises ire of public school advocates

"This is a time where we must stand behind our local board of education and say no to House Resolution 1162," Richmond Co. PTA President Monique Braswell says at a press conference denouncing the controversial bill.

H-R 1162 is making its rounds through the Georgia House, and making waves among public education backers.

The resolution would allow state lawmakers to create a charter school without local school board approval. However, that school would still receive state funding.

Therein lies the problem for many already-cash-strapped school districts.

"We're having mandates where more money is being cut from us," says Columbia Co. Superintendent Charles Nagle. "Yet there's mandates that will reduce even that amount of money."

The bill has already been deemed unconstitutional by the Georgia Supreme Court, and last Wednesday, failed to receive the necessary two-thirds vote in the House.

However, the very next day, it was brought back up for reconsideration, and is on Wednesday's General House Calendar.

"This is not something we need to have," says Braswell. "And this is something we as parents, we as taxpayers, need to stand behind and say no."

Columbia County's Board of Education agrees, and they're doing something about it.

At Tuesday night's board meeting, members passed and signed a resolution urging legislators to vote no on H-R 1162.

Nagle says at a time when his system is in a huge deficit already, they can't afford to have even more money from the pot.

"Why take away from what we're already doing and struggling to meet the mandates as they are by creating other entities that's going to take away from what little money we're getting?" he asks.

Bill detractors say their issue isn't with charter schools. They have a problem with the lack of control over the education their district's students receive.

"I don't have a problem with charter schools," says Nagle. "But it should be left up to each system."

"They say that there's more flexibility. That it's just easier in some of those educational situations," adds Columbia Co. School Board Vice Chairman Mike Sleeper. "I'm asking them time and time again, 'Why don't you give us that flexibility?'"

Board Chairman Regina Buccafusco says the bill takes away the authority of elected officials.

"If we can't even get to discuss who's in the school, or define the status and what the curriculum's going to be like, we're not doing our mission," she says.

It's a battle line public schools have drawn and they don't seem to be backing off any time soon.