TEACHERS, PARENTS CHALLENGE DEAL’S SCHOOL TAKEOVER PLAN AHEAD OF HOUSE COMMITTEE VOTE
(APN) ATLANTA — The House Education Committee will soon decide whether to advance Gov. Nathan Deal’s controversial proposal to allow the state to take over and privatize struggling schools.
At a hearing on Wednesday March 18, 2015, State Representatives and members of the public expressed both deep concern and some enthusiasm over the proposal, which, as Atlanta Progressive News previously reported, calls for the creation of a statewide Opportunity School District (OSD).
The OSD would take the place of local school boards in managing “failing” schools. The Governor would have the power to appoint the OSD superintendent.
“I’m concerned with what kind of experience will be needed for that so-called Superintendent who answers only to the Governor,” State Rep. Tommy Benton (R-Jefferson) said during the hearing.
“We get all bent out of shape when the federal government tells us what to do, and now we’re trying to do that to the local systems,” Rep. Benton said.
Benton has received over three hundred emails from constituents who oppose the OSD plan, saying it represented “one more poke in the eye for public education,” he said.
The OSD is based on a model pioneered in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and touted by an education reform movement comprised largely of wealthy foundations, venture capitalists, charter schools, and education technology companies.
A constitutional amendment would be required in order to make the OSD a reality in Georgia. To that end, SR 287 proposes to put the question to voters on the 2016 ballot.
Currently the ballot language reads: Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended to allow the state to intervene in chronically failing public schools in order to improve student performance?
But the ballot language is incredibly simplistic compared to that of SB 133, the enabling legislation that actually outlines how the OSD would work.
At the hearing, State Rep. Christian Coomer (R-Cartersville) and Erin Hames, Gov. Deal’s Deputy Chief of Staff, gave an overview of the current version of SB 133.
Under the plan, schools would be eligible for takeover if they scored an F rating three years in a row. The Georgia Department of Education currently uses a rating system called the College and Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI), which launched as a pilot in 2013 and has undergone changes since then.
However, the CCRPI uses number, not letter grades. It also uses stars to indicate a school’s “climate.” The legislation does not specify what number grade, or number of stars, constitutes an F when determining whether a school qualifies for OSD takeover.
According to the Governor’s office, 139 Georgia schools are failing and eligible for takeover.
SB 133 stipulates that the OSD would take over no more than 20 schools per year and would have no more than 100 schools under its jurisdiction at one time.
Schools would remain in the OSD for a minimum of five years and a maximum of ten years, unless they managed to Teachers, Parents Challenge Deal’s School Takeover Plan Ahead of House Committee Vote | Atlanta Progressive News: