While local school superintendents seem to be sitting out the fight against Gov. Nathan Deal’s proposed constitutional amendment for an Opportunity School District, more school boards are declaring their opposition, including Cherokee County last week and Clayton on Tuesday.
Will board resistance matter?
School board opposition did not prevent passage of the charter school amendment in 2012. That amendment empowered an appointed state commission to approve charter schools over the objections of local boards of education. It passed with 58 percent of the vote.
Patterned after state districts in Tennessee and New Orleans, the OSD will appear on the Nov. 8 ballot as its creation requires a change in the state constitution. Voters won’t know they will be granting sweeping new powers to take away schools from local control and place them under state jurisdiction as the ballot language is vague, only asking if the state should intervene in failing schools.
A few of the districts that have opposed the OSD are at risk of losing schools, including Bibb, Chatham and Richmond counties. But others, including Cherokee, Fayette, Henry and Troup counties, are not in any danger now. They oppose the OSD as an overreach of state control and a step toward privatization.
Interestingly, three metro Atlanta systems that could lose schools — by virtue of geographic proximity — have not passed resolutions against state takeover. Deal’s OSD is closest in design to Tennessee’s Achievement School District, which focused its initial takeover on schools in Memphis to ease coordination and maximizing of resources.
To read more, go to the AJC Get Schooled blog.
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