School board members could be out under bill

By Nancy Badertscher

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The Georgia House threw its support Monday behind legislation that would give the governor the power to remove problem members of local school boards.

The bill was introduced last year in response to the controversy that followed the Clayton County school district losing its accreditation. Another school system in Warren County, near Augusta, also has been put on notice that its accreditation is likely to be yanked.

Losing accreditation can limit a student’s college options, said Rep. Jim Cole (R-Forsyth), one of the governor’s floor leaders. It also can hurt the state in its efforts to recruit new businesses, Cole said.

The bill passed the House 137-33 and now goes back to the Senate. The measure requires that local school boards develop an ethics policy and, in cases where problems arise, gives the governor the power to remove board members, based on a recommendation by the state Board of Education.

“This bill is not about power or about a governor wanting more power,” said Cole, who brought the bill to the House floor.

He compared it to a fire wall — “not something the governor wants to use, but that he might have to use.”

The recent accreditation problems have brought unwelcome national publicity to Georgia, Cole said. “In 40-plus years, only two school systems have lost accreditation, and they came from the same state.”

Rep. Fran Millar (R-Dunwoody), vice chairman of the House Education Committee, said the business community was behind the bill.

“We don’t want the reputation as the only state in the nation with these kind of problems,” Millar said. “We want to be able to say we’ve dealt with this.”

The bill would prohibit any local school board member from using or attempting to use his office to get special privileges, advantages or jobs for him or an immediate family member. It gives the local school board the right, upon a two-thirds vote, to investigate any potential conflict of interest by one of its members.

In cases where a local school system or school is threatened with the loss of accreditation, the bill states that the state school board will conduct a hearing and can recommend that the governor suspend all eligible school board members and appoint temporary replacement members.