Gov. Nathan Deal's Education Reform Commission has signed off on a broad overhaul of schooling in Georgia, including the way billions of state dollars are distributed to local districts.
The group is recommending the most comprehensive overhaul of education in recent memory, covering everything from teacher pay to tax-supported private school scholarships and how the state divvies up more than $8 billion to 180 school districts.
Perhaps the most far-reaching, funding, would add a quarter billion dollars to the education budget, while cutting the strings that dictate how schools spend the money. The commission also wrote proposals for early childhood learning, school flexibility, teacher pay and parental choice. Most will be subject to debate by state leaders.
“This will go to the governor and then it will go to the General Assembly, and there will be, I’m sure, robust discussions at both levels,” commission chair Charles Knapp said of the funding proposal.
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