Go figure: 'Public ed. is the gov't. If you're conservative or Tea Party, you have an issue with big gov't and thus with your local public schools.'

Let's hope this too will pass (it probably won't, so at least let's hope it does not spread too rapidly in Georgia with Gov. Deal's commitment to charter schools at the expense of public education dollars).

Jim Galloway writes in the AJC's Political Insider:

The past 30 years have seen the creation of a long list of litmus tests for Republicans.

A license to practice as an orthodox conservative in Georgia now mandates opposition to abortion and gay marriage, a firm belief in tax cuts as the driver of economic growth, and an antipathy toward federal regulation.

But days ago, the Cherokee County GOP nominated still another test. It passed a resolution that demanded four county school board members reconsider their opposition to the local funding of charter schools or “renounce their affiliation with the Republican Party.”

School choice, the local party declared, is no longer a negotiable issue.

Pay attention to this. This clash between the philosophical and the practical could be headed the way of your school board very soon. And it will have many of you wondering whether you truly are the conservative you think you are.

This is what Mike Chapman, a Canton businessman, would tell you. He’s been active in the local Chamber of Commerce, served on the board of the area technical college and — for the past 10 years — occupied a seat on the all-GOP Cherokee County Board of Education.

Chapman considers himself the picture of a civic-minded, cut-don’t-tax Republican. At least he did until, with three of his colleagues, he was read out of his party. “As a conservative, where do I go when the Republican Party has left the building?” Chapman said. “Locally, I mean. I’m not talking about anywhere else.”

In June, after heated debate and a 4-3 vote, the school board rejected the academy a third time.

“As a party, we came down on the side of freedom,” said Brian Laurens, the first vice president of the Cherokee GOP.

“One of the things you have to realize, whether you like it or not, is that public education is the government. And if you’re conservative, or you’re tea party, and you have an issue with big government — therefore you have an issue with your local public schools.”