New plan for poor schools advances in Legislature
After failing to persuade Georgia voters last year to let the state take over lowperforming schools, lawmakers are proposing what they describe as a “collaborative” alternative to avoid another bruising battle.
Where Amendment 1 would have empowered an appointee of the governor to seize “chronically failing” schools and local tax dollars, this new legislation relies on school districts’ consent to state intervention.
Local control of schools was the main theme of the campaign against the constitutional amendment, which was rejected in November. The campaign took on a racial tone, too, as black civil rights leaders accused Gov. Nathan Deal and state leaders of trying to turn over schools to for-profit operators.
House Bill 338, the new plan, would still allow schools to be removed from district control and placed under different management, including other school districts or charter managers, but it explicitly states that only nonprofits would be involved.
Its chief author, Rep. Kevin Tanner, R-Dawsonville, said school improvement will require teamwork and community agreement. He has tried to build consensus, even meeting with Democratic lawmakers and incorporating their requested amendments, though he noted he didn’t need their votes to get the bill through the GOPcontrolled House.
Deal indicated after the referendum’s defeat he wasn’t going to drop the issue, but Tanner said this bill is not the governor’s. All the cosponsors are ranking Republicans, and with the GOP also controlling the Senate, it has a good chance of becoming law.
The defeated referendum for an Opportunity School District, or OSD, would have established an office for a second state superintendent, who, unlike the current elected one, would have answered to the governor. The new legislation establishes a “chief turnaround officer,” who would be part of the state Department of Education overseen by the elected state superintendent. However, the turnaround chief would answer to the state education board, which is appointed by the governor.
Tanner wants bipartisan support, and agreed to amend his bill Thursday to say school districts won’t lose control over schools as long as officials follow all the steps in a turnaround plan drawn up with the turnaround chief. But he would not grant Democrats’ request to have that chief report to the state superintendent instead of the governor’s school board. Georgia’s superintendent, Richard Woods, also lobbied to have the new official report to him.
Criticism has mostly been muted, with most of the OSD opponents deciding to work quietly with Tanner to sand off elements of the bill they did not like. But some outside the process haven’t been holding back. Louis Elrod, who led the antiOSD campaign, called HB 338 “the governor’s new proposal” and said it is like Amendment 1 “with only minor window dressing.”