Hundreds of students and parents from charter schools rallied at the state capitol Friday.

They wanted to show support for the charter system which is facing a lawsuit from local school boards.

The students heard from Republican State Representative Jan Jones who told them the charter school movement is growing.

“We’ve only begun," she told students from the podium. "There are 121 charter schools in Georgia with 60 thousand students all across Georgia.”

Jones authored the law which created the Charter School Commission. It can give state tax dollars directly to charter schools cutting out the local school board.

Five school systems, including Gwinnett, Dekalb and Atlanta Public schools, are suing the sate saying the commission is unconstitutional. They argue that authorizing new schools is not a state function. Jones says they're wrong.

"Unfortunately we have school board members who want to solely decide where students should go," she says. "I think it’s about power and control."

Jones says should the school boards win the lawsuit, she’ll introduce legislation to change the state constitution.

Tags: Georgia, students, public schools, lawsuit, charter schools, capitol, GPB Education