The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is reporting today that the Georgia Supreme Court won't reconsider its 4-3 decision last month declaring the Georgia Charter Schools Commission unconstitutional. The commission, the court ruled, empowered the state to approve charter schools over the objections of local school boards. Chief Justice Carol W. Hunstein said that only locally elected boards of education were empowered under Georgia's Constitution to open and finance public schools. 

The request for reconsideration came from Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens, a move that even charter school advocates called a "Hail Mary."

One of the more alarming developments out of Monday's Georgia Supreme Court ruling disbanding that state's charter school commission is the near-celebration among the court's majority of the 1877 state constitutional provision that guided the justices. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice Carol Hunstein establishes that Georgia citizens have repeatedly memorialized constitutional language "granting local boards of education the exclusive right to ... maintain ... the exclusive control over general K-12 education." But Hunstein laughably notes that the preservation of "the now 134-year-old status quo" is secured.

It's one thing to recognize the good intentions of the 19th-century constitutional framers who empowered the "level of government closest and most responsive to the taxpayers and parents of the children being educated." It's quite another to insulate the status quo from any attempt at public innovation and to glorify the result. Reasonable people can disgree on the effectiveness and proper regulation of charter schools, but is Hunstein telling us that no publicly funded educational innovation or enterprise is permissible unless first engineered and christened by the local school board? (more…)

UPDATE: From the AJC's Get Schooled blog: The state Supreme Court just issued an order extending the term of court as to this case “until further order of the Court.” The court gave no indication on how much longer the case may take.

From today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Charter schools are awaiting a state Supreme Court opinion this week that will decide whether they are allowed to continue operating. The schools are standing their ground and beginning to make back-up plans so they can keep educating students in their care.

Mark Peevy, executive director of the Georgia Charter Schools Commission, said he has been in talks with state officials and school operators about what to expect if the legal battle over local control of public education dissolves the commission. The state commission is facing a constitutional challenge filed by seven metro Atlanta school districts who say it illegally approves and funds charter schools.

The commission has approved 17 schools -- nine of which serve students and anticipate a combined enrollment of more than 15,000 students in the fall.