Morgan Receives State Charter School Association's Highest Award

State Rep. Alisha Morgan (D-Austell) received the Impact Award Thursday from the Georgia Charter School Association, the highest award given to an individual by the organization.  GCSA presented the award to Morgan at the Georgia Charter School Conference in Macon, where she was serving as a guest speaker. 

“I was completely surprised and of course humbled,” said Morgan.  “We don't do this work for the accolades, but it sure is heartwarming to be recognized with such an esteemed award by my fellow warriors in the education reform movement.”

During her speech at the conference, Morgan discussed the need for charter schools, and education in general, to put the best interests of students first and she urged participants not to make this issue a partisan debate.

“We will begin to see more gains for kids when we refocus our conversations on raising achievement, providing parents choices and taking the politics out of education,” said Morgan.

In addition to speaking today at the Georgia Charter School Conference, Morgan also presented several workshops at the National Charter School Conference in June 2011. 

In 2010, Morgan introduced House Bill 251, which was signed into law by Gov. Sonny Perdue and went into effect on May 5, 2009.  This new law allows parents to transfer their children to any public school of their choice within their public school systems. Morgan also co-sponsored HB 881 in 2008, the legislation that created the Georgia Charter School Commission to give state approval of new charter schools.

In recognition of her work for education in the General Assembly, Morgan has received numerous awards including the “Champion for Choice” award from the American Federation for Children and the “Putting Kids First” award from the Ohio Coalition. Rep. Morgan is also the national co-chair of the Parent’s Advisory Council of the National Coalition of Public School Options (NCPSO).