In recent months, several charter schools around the state have been involved in high-profile fights with their school boards over whether or not their charters should be renewed.

In 2011, sixteen charter schools came up for renewal. Local school boards rejected renewals for three of them. Another three chose to give up their charter.

Angela Palm, director of policy and legislative services at the Georgia School Boards Association, says that it’s relatively rare for a local school board to reject the renewal of a charter.

"I think that it is a strong testament to the authorizing in the beginning," Palm says. "If the charter schools are meeting the standards they said they would meet, they’re operating responsible financially; then I would say that the board did a good job in the beginning in looking at it and deciding that this was a viable option."

A new report from the Center for Education Reform found that nationally, 15 percent of charter schools opened since 1992 have since shut down. In Georgia, the report says roughly 7 percent of charters have closed.