The General Assembly gave final approval late Thursday night to a bill giving the governor the power to remove all members of the troubled Atlanta school board and cutting the DeKalb County school board from nine to seven members.
Senate Bill 79, which still has to be signed by Gov. Nathan Deal and approved by the U.S. Justice Department, sets up a two-step process by which all nine members of the Atlanta Board of Education could be removed by the governor after a hearing before the state Board of Education in July.
The bill would affect other school districts that are not fully accredited as of July 1. But its clear target was Atlanta Public Schools, which was placed on accreditation probation in January largely due to board infighting and has until September to show marked improvement.
The bill received final passage on a Senate vote of 34-12, despite pleas from some Atlanta-area legislators to give their school system time to work through its problems.
"Passing this will not help the situation. It will hurt the situation," said state Sen. Vincent Fort, D-Atlanta. "The Atlanta public school system is taking a hit a week, a couple of hits a week. This is going to make parents and teachers even more up in the air."
Sen. Horacena Tate, D-Atlanta, asked her colleagues: "Would you want people stepping into your city's business, into your board's business?
"We're asking you not to do this," Tate said.
Sen. Fran Millar, R-Dunwoody, said the bill should give the Atlanta school board the incentive to do what's required to regain accreditation.
"It is for the benefit of the children, is it not true?" he asked.
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed endorsed the bill, which would shrink the size of DeKalb's school board after January 2013.
Fort and other Atlanta-area legislators have threatened to file a federal lawsuit if the bill becomes law.
They have said the bill sets up a scenario where a school board appointed by the governor is responsible for choosing the city's next school superintendent.
They also have complained because the provisions for Atlanta and DeKalb schools first surfaced about three weeks ago as amendments to an innocuous bill dealing with the Savannah-Chatham County school district.
The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, the accrediting agency for Atlanta schools, has said the bill could affect other school systems, including those in Coffee, Randolph and Warren counties.
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