Fulton County Taxpayer's Foundation Challenges APS Leadership

By Rose Scott

Atlanta, GA – Officials with the Fulton County Tax Payers Foundation are not happy with the investigation into possible cheating on last year's Criterion-Referenced Competency Test.
They believe more that more than 12 Atlanta Public schools were involved.
WABE's Rose Scott has more:

On the average Atlanta Public Schools receive more than 4-hundred million dollars a year in property taxes from Fulton County.
Barbara Payne believes tax payers are getting poor results and are in the dark about suspected wrong doings throughout the school district:

((it just seems like a impenetrable fortress no accountability except through Dr. Hall and her staff))

Payne is the executive director of the Fulton County Tax Payers Foundation.
She argues the numbers just don't add up regarding the CRCT cheating investigation:

((12 schools seems like a very small amount compared to the amount of schools in APS and when you couple that with the 2-hundred thousand plus erasures then, either it was all going on in those 12 schools or we're not getting all the information and of course we feel it's the latter))

Payne says the foundation has been flooded with calls, anonymous tips regarding cheating saying teachers are pressured to produce high test scores.
So, she's baffled why Superintendent Dr. Beverly Hall's has been reluctant to address the matter publicly.

((the taxpayers of Fulton County have been disrespected long enough we are owed more than just an explanation we are owed change and reform))

An APS spokesperson says no comments will be made during the investigation.
How much leverage or influence the taxpayer's foundation actually has is somewhat unclear.
Decory Aarons covers property tax issues and public schools for the publication Education Week:

((certainly they can talk to school board members or the state legislature if they feel the district's policy is not accountable or transparent...they can lobby state lawmakers to change those))

The findings of the investigation are expected to be released Wednesday June 16th.