An educational forum on charter schools Tuesday night turned into a virtual rally against a proposed constitutional amendment to allow a state board to approve charter schools over local school boards' objections.

State Sen. Frank Ginn, R-Danielsville, surprised many in the audience of about 100 at the Clarke Central High School auditorium when he said he intends to vote against the amendment at the ballot box, even though he voted to put it on the Nov. 6 ballot. Ginn said he believed voters should decide the issue.

State Rep. Keith Heard, D-Athens, and Clarke County Board of Education members Vernon Payne and Denise Spangler also oppose the amendment, arguing that it will take funding and local control away from elected school boards, putting it in the hands of for-profit school management corporations and a board appointed by the governor and leaders of the state House and Senate. "It's going to create a caste system, and it's going to create private schools at public school prices," Spangler said.

Heard said he believes the amendment is aimed at resegregating schools. It became an issue in the legislature after the Greene County school board rejected a request by wealthy, white Lake Oconee residents to create a charter school, he said.

Rep.-elect Regina Quick, R-Athens, said she hasn't decided how she'll vote, and Clarke County School Superintendent Philip Lanoue also took no position. But the panel as a whole had a clear anti-amendment bent, and the audience applauded criticisms of the amendment. Outside the auditorium, local Democrats distributed anti-amendment literature, but no one was campaigning in favor of the amendment. "The information has all been one-sided," said Jim Geiser, a charter school proponent who runs an internship program at the University of Georgia. "This isn't a forum. It's a political rally against the amendment." Geiser was allowed to join the panel halfway through and argued that the status quo in education isn't working. Organizers said they had intended the panel to be more balanced.

State Attorney General Sam Olens recently warned state School Superintendent John Barge not to use taxpayer funds to campaign against the amendment, and a group of Georgia residents is suing all 180 school districts for the same reason. But CCSD spokeswoman Anisa Sullivan Jimenez said the forum didn't run afoul of the law because it was sponsored by the Clarke County Parent-Teacher Organization, a private entity.