Georgia lawmakers this year will push legislation to make the state’s top school official appointed rather than elected.
Rep. Mike Dudgeon, R-Johns Creek, said he will file legislation that would change Georgia’s current system where state Board of Education members are selected by the governor and the state school superintendent is elected. The board sets education policy while the superintendent carries it out.
Details are still in the works, but an idea is to let the governor appoint the state school chief while state school board members would be selected by caucuses of lawmakers. The change would take a constitutional amendment, which requires two-thirds majority votes in both chambers, so Dudgeon will need bipartisan support for his proposal. The earliest the amendment could go before voters is 2016.
Dudgeon said 38 states appoint the superintendent, and he thinks that is a better approach since the position is more administrative and less responsible for shaping policy.
“Your state superintendent runs the state department of education, which is the single largest spender of money of any department in the state,” he said. “Normally we don’t elect people to be administrators, we elect policy leaders.”
Georgia’s elected superintendent sets the agenda for monthly board meetings, but any action must be approved by the majority of the 13-member board. The superintendent doesn’t vote and has no veto power, and his department’s budget is proposed by the governor and approved by the Georgia Legislature. Those lawmakers can also write bills that affect education policy.
House minority leader Stacey Abrams, D-Atlanta, said she’s open to the idea, which could bring more Democrats to the state school board. But she is reserving judgment until she sees the specifics.
“I wouldn’t say I am completely persuaded, but I think it is worthy of consideration,” she said.
In the 1980s, two separate attempts to change the elected position failed,according to the Georgia School Boards Association. State Superintendent Richard Woods, who takes office Monday, said he opposes the idea.
“I believe in a representative form of government,” he said. “I like my job. If you reduce liberty, perhaps we’re not as great a society as we should be. I think the less appointments we have the better off we are.”
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