School board reform a good bet

By Phil Jacobs and John Rice


Two years ago, all we could do was watch as the Clayton County public school system lost its accreditation.

No state official — the governor, state superintendent or state Board of Education — had any legal authority to intervene. The frustration associated with this turn of events created a call to action.

In 2008, the state Board of Education asked the business community — the Metro Atlanta Chamber, the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, the Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education and AdvancED — to create a task force to study best practices in school board governance.

The Commission for School Board Excellence was formed, comprised of more than 25 business leaders, education stakeholders and political leaders from across Georgia. They conducted extensive research and interviews, and held meetings across the state. They reported their findings to the state Board of Education in September 2008.

The commission recommended additional qualifications and training for school board members, clarification of their roles and responsibilities, a statewide conflicts-of-interest policy, and allowing the state to temporarily intervene when a system is failing.

Gov. Sonny Perdue included a majority of the commission’s recommendations in Senate Bill 84. During deliberations on the bill, parents and residents testified about the loss to Clayton County when the system failed. Realtors and business owners testified that home values and commerce plummeted. They painted a picture of a county where few people wanted to reside, relocate or expand their businesses.

The bill passed the full Georgia Senate and the House Education Committee last year, but did not get to the full House for a vote. Now, this year, Georgia watches as yet another school system, Warren County, risks losing accreditation due to deficient governance practices.

While the economic consequences to a community and the state are disastrous when a school system fails, the more heartbreaking concern is for the students and educators in a failing system. Students question their ability to attend their chosen colleges, and teachers fear losing benefits.

We believe legislators got the message this year — that SB 84 is not about the adults or the power of the governor or state to intervene. It’s about the 1.2 million children in Georgia’s public schools who deserve every chance at academic success.

While Warren County’s potential loss of accreditation would leave Georgia with the dubious distinction of having the only two school systems in the nation to lose accreditation in the past 40 years, SB 84 could also position Georgia as a model state for school board governance as Mark Elgart, president and CEO of AdvancED, parent organization for the k-12 division of SACS, has stated.

We applaud the state Board of Education for having the foresight to assemble the Commission for School Board Excellence and the governor for pushing the commission’s recommendations the past two legislative sessions. And we appreciate leaders in the Legislature who had the courage to tackle this issue and push for passage of good public policy.

To paraphrase legislators who spoke on the passage of the bill, SB 84 is one of the most meaningful education reform and economic development bills of this decade.

Phil Jacobs, a partner with Pendleton Consulting Group, is former chairman of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce. John Rice, vice chairman of GE, is former chairman of the Metro Atlanta Chamber.

They are co-chairmen of the Commission for School Board Excellence.