School choice law won’t apply in Gwinnett, Forsyth

Public school choice will be limited for some parents in Gwinnett and Forsyth counties this fall. At a special meeting this morning, the Georgia Board of Education unanimously agreed to let school districts in the two counties bypass a new state law.

The law gives parents the power to cross neighborhood lines and pick their children’s schools.

“We need to get out of the business of trying to micro-manage school systems in this state,” said Kathy Cox, Georgia Schools superintendent. “I think these two counties already have a good, thoughtful transfer policy in place. It would be a big disruption to make them change what they are doing.”

The school choice law, which goes into effect on July 1 for most Georgia schools, requires that campuses open the door to all students, regardless of their history, if there is room to accommodate them. Students get to stay at their new schools until they complete their education.

Gwinnett and Forsyth counties, however, will be able to continue handling transfers their way.

Forsyth gives top priority to teachers, who get to pick their own kids’ schools as a perk.

Gwinnett Schools reserves the right to refuse transfer requests for discipline, attendance and other factors. Gwinnett students also have to re-apply annually to stay at transfer schools.

School officials in those districts, however, said their processes go beyond the state law. For example, they allow students to transfer to new campuses, something HB 251 does not.

Officials with the Georgia NAACP urged the state to protect the school choice transfer rights of parents and deny the waivers for Gwinnett and Forsyth counties. They point out that neither held public hearings locally so parents could weigh in before the state vote.

“It appears to us as though Gwinnett and Forsyth want to retain the right to deny student enrollment based on race and special education status to manage subgroup sizes for reporting in their contracts,” said Jennifer Falk, education chair for the Georgia NAACP. She sent her objection to the state DOE early this week.

Gwinnett and Forsyth have the equivalent of VIP cards in Georgia education. The school districts are the first in Georgia to enter into special student performance contracts with the state. Known as IE2 contracts, they afford the schools flexibility to opt out of Georgia education mandates if they can show greater results in classrooms and have more accountability for student improvement.

The purpose of the new state school choice law was to allow students to move to any school for any reason. Dana Tofig, a spokesperson for the state Department of Education, said administrators from Gwinnett and Forsyth told the state that would make it difficult for them to live up to their contracts and reach accountability goals.

Both districts received five-year waivers from the law, the length of their contracts.

“This is really what IE2 is supposed to be about,” Cox said. “It is supposed to give systems flexibility … so they don’t have to jump through hoops.”