Gov. Nathan Deal's proposal addressing struggling schools won't improve education quality better than what can be done in-house, DeKalb County school board members said Monday before approving a statement urging that residents reject Deal's plan.

Local control and community involvement are the best medicine for improving academic achievement, said the statement read aloud during the meeting by board chairman Melvin Johnson.

But Deal says school district leaders have had years to address the growing concerns. He’s lost patience with them, saying they’ve allowed failure to fester for generations, with mostly poor and minority children as victims.

Deal’s Opportunity School District, if voters in November approve a constitutional amendment authorizing it, could take schools from several districts across the state into one reform district.

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These kits are being distributed to public schools across Georgia to help students who suffer an opioid overdose. (Courtesy of Georgia Department of Education)

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Former Fulton County election worker Ruby Freeman talks to her daughter, Wandrea ArShaye "Shaye" Moss, a former Georgia election worker, after she testified before the U.S. House Select Committee at its fourth hearing on its Jan. 6 investigation on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, June 21, 2022. (Yuri Gripas/Abaca Press/TNS)

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