We recently told you about Rep. Terri Collins, R-Decatur, and her attempt to get more money from local school systems for charter schools. Several weeks ago, Collins wanted to bring her bill up for a vote, but a reading of the tea leaves indicated that it did not have enough support to pass.
So she tried again on April 22, and once again crashed and burned. Except for this time, she could not muster enough support to even bring the bill to the house for a full vote.
Because the Legislature has yet to enact budgets, they have to first pass a Budget Isolation Resolution to bring up a non-budget bill. This is called a BIR. The vote on Collins’ charter BIR was 60-36, so it failed.
At some point, Collins, and her pro-charter allies, need to face reality and begin communicating with the education community.
However, for reasons I’ve never understood, some legislators believe that just because they went to school once upon a time they know all there is to know about running schools. This makes as much sense as me thinking that because I’ve had major surgery at UAB, I could operate on you.
For more background on this issue, here is the piece I wrote on April 6.
