Charter schools fight pension proposal
By The Associated Press
Updated 3:06 pm, Friday, December 27, 2013
ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia charter schools are fighting a proposal that would require the independent public schools to contribute money toward pension debt for the traditional public education system.
The idea may have a hard time in the Georgia General Assembly, where many lawmakers support charter schools as publicly financed alternatives to traditional schools. But The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports (http://bit.ly/1btJN8G ) that charter backers want to make sure they kill the bill after lawmakers convene Jan. 13.
Georgia Charter Schools Association executive Tony Roberts notes that charter school teachers won't ever receive public pension benefits. So, he argues, charters shouldn't have to reserve part of their budgets for the retirement system.
"It's so important to stop an additional takeaway for those pensions because it could move a good deal of those charter schools toward closure," Roberts said. "Their teachers never got any advantage from it whatsoever, and now they're being asked to help shoulder the