Assistant Superintendent Ken Clouse explained the decision will likely not affect the local charter school system, only individual schools looking to obtain charter status.
"The law, as I read it and how it's been reported, is for a start-up charter school where a group of parents or business folks decide to start one and petition a local board to operate [the school]," Clouse said, "so I don't think [the decision] is going to affect those of us who are system charters."
In 2009, seven school districts filed suit against the Georgia Charter Schools commission -- a state board who began approving and funding start-up schools. It began when the Gwinnett school district filed a complaint after the Georgia Department of Education gave part of the county's state allocation funding to Ivy Preparatory Academy, a charter school approved by the state after being rejected by the local board.
Georgia's charter school law allows the state to give rejected charter petitions a second viewing and helped the state win $400 million in Race to the Top grant funds.
"What has changed with the law in the past few years is if a local board turns [those petitioning for a charter school] down, [those petitioning for a charter school] can petition the state board. This is where part of the controversy has come in and it's a question over local control and how much authority the state would have over the local board of education, and then it gets into the funding issue."
The decision by the state Supreme Court is expected by Thursday, March 21, and could affect the constitutionality of the state's 17 charter commission schools.