A look at states with "local control" of K-12 education in their constitutions and what that may mean for charter school "authorization," that is, the process of reviewing applications and approving the opening of charters.
As the funding and oversight of charter schools debates heat up, the question of who---states or local school districts---can authorize charters has come up again, this time before the Supreme Court of Georgia in Gwinnett County School Dist. v. Cox. In its May 16, 2011 ruling, written by Chief Justice Carol Hunstein, the court held that local districts---not the State---have exclusive control over charter authorization in Georgia. The state argued that charters are "special schools," as defined in Georgia, but the court explained in detail why that is not the case.
Similarly back in December 2008, Judge Edward T. Barfield of the Florida First District Court of Appeal authored that court's ruling in Duval County Sch. Bd. v. State Bd. of Educ., declaring that the state could not create a parallel system for chartering schools because local districts have exclusive control. In both cases, a statute creating a state commission to authorize charters was deemed unconstitutional and invalidated.
The common thread in these cases is Florida and Georgia's respective state constitutiona