In pushing for the power to take over failing Georgia schools, Gov. Nathan Deal cites the benefits of freeing schools from district reins and giving the leaders in the buildings more control.
If school-based control and flexibility matter, why doesn’t Deal push to make every school autonomous?
That is the question that dogs school reform efforts not only in Georgia, but everywhere. Flexibility seems easier to talk about than to grant — at least in education.
Everyone seems to agree schools would benefit if liberated from onerous regulations. Democratic and Republican governors have maintained principals should control class sizes, budgets, schedules, hiring and teacher evaluation. Deal argues his Opportunity School District — which voters will be asked to approve in November — will return decision-making to the schoolhouse level where leaders can act with urgency, agility and specificity to the needs of their students.
To read more about why flexibility is often more rhetoric than reality in education, go to the AJC Get Schooled blog.
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