The Atlanta Public Schools scandal will deeply hamper the city’s efforts to attract new businesses and jobs, perhaps for years, business and company site selection experts say.
Quality of the local school system is a top factor in company location decisions, especially among large corporations with employee bases that are substantially made up of families.
If the district’s problems are handled well — i.e. local and state leaders have a plan to resolve the issues quickly and bring credibility to the system — the impact could be short term, the experts said.
But if the problem, in which 178 APS teachers and principals have been accused of cheating on state standardized tests, is drawn out with lawsuits and ugly public battles, the scandal could permanently impede growth.
“All things being equal, this one scandal will make a difference on whether a company will move or not,” said Ed McCallum, senior principal of the Greenville, S.C.-based site selection firm McCallum Sweeney Consulting.
“This doesn’t mean they won’t consider Atlanta,” he said, “but they will read about this and take a much harder look at the city than they might have before.”
Leaders said they will emphasize to potential relocation candidates what they see as a swift response to the problem.
They stress the change in leadership — the appointment of APS interim Superintendent Erroll Davis to replace retiring district head Beverly Hall — as an example of direct efforts to deal with the situation. Also important, they said, was the recent firing of four area superintendents.
“We think it speaks well that the state took action in a pretty deplorable situation,” said Alison Tyrer, a spokeswoman for the Georgia Department of Economic Development, the state’s main business relocation recruiter.
She said the department has not had any conversations with companies concerned about the APS scandal.
Tyrer’s boss, Economic Development Commissioner Chris Cummiskey, said: “K-12 education has been a challenge for this state, and the situation at Atlanta Public Schools is abhorrent, but the aggressive response that is being put in place will turn this challenge for the state into an advantage in the long run.”
Chris Clark, president and chief executive officer of the Georgia Chamber, said leaders of Georgia companies who have discussed the scandal with him support the actions the state and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed have taken. But they will continue to watch.
“We have got to deal with this quickly and show that we have a plan,” he said, comparing the level of scrutiny to that of the business community’s interest in the state’s water battles with Alabama and Florida.
Atlanta in particular has struggled over the past few years as companies have located outside the city limits, especially in the northern suburbs. Instead of going downtown, the job growth of late has been with companies such as NCR Corp., which moved to Gwinnett County from Ohio, and in the numerous technology firms that now call Alpharetta home.
“The city of Atlanta faces much stiffer competition than it did a decade ago,” said Ron Starner, general manager of Site Selection magazine, an industry periodical.
That’s important because school systems in the northern suburbs — some of which are nationally recognized — are generally considered stronger, which allows the metro area to stay competitive in drawing companies, Starner said. That, however, bypasses the city of Atlanta.
Scott Taylor, president of the real estate firm Carter, thinks the scandal’s impact will be short-lived because the severity of it will not allow city, state or business leaders to ignore the problem.
“People may not like the truth, but they always want to know the truth,” he said. “It’s going to be a challenge, and there will be bumps in the road. But you’ve got to be transparent, and you have to address the challenges. And more importantly, you have to talk about the opportunities, and I think they are there.”
Central Atlanta Progress President A.J. Robinson agreed.
“We need to hold those accountable accountable, and we need to move on,” he said. “We will recover from all these things that have taken place. The school system will get better, and the sooner that happens I’m confident we will restore credibility to the system and that will be good for everyone.”
About the Author
