Most local school districts haven’t exactly been racing to declare their intention to become charter, IE2 or status quo school systems, and now -- maybe -- they won’t have to.
The Legislature passed a law in 2008 giving school systems five years to remain a status quo system or take one of the other two options, which promise greater flexibility from state requirements in exchange for academic improvement.
But three years later, only a handful of the state's 180 school systems -- including Forsyth, Fulton and Gwinnett -- have made any headway. Now a bill moving through the General Assembly would give still-on-the-fence districts more time by pushing back their June 2013 deadline.
House Education Committee Chairman Brooks Coleman, R-Duluth, is sponsoring House Bill 172, which would give the systems until June 2015.
Coleman said some school systems have been reluctant to make a choice because of "the massive paperwork" required to become an IE2 or charter system.
They have also had other priorities, he said.
"They were just waiting to get everything together and to get a little breathing room, having to downgrade staffs and just survive the budget crunch. So that hasn't been tops on their radar," Coleman said.
The deadline extension would give the school systems time to see what happens with a legislative study of how the state funds public education, as well as with Georgia's Race to the Top initiative, Coleman said. Both might have a bearing on local school systems' decisions, as well as on their options, he said.
"We may want to allow some other things," Coleman said.
State School Superintendent John Barge is backing the bill.
"He is supportive of HB 172 because districts are still struggling with a shortage of revenue, plus the fact that the Legislature has convened a ... study committee that may bring changes to the way we fund education," state Education Department spokesman Matt Cardoza said.
Sen. Fran Millar, R-Dunwoody, chairman of the Senate Committee on Education and Youth, said he is not sure there's any urgency to pass the bill in this year's session, now in its final days.
"I don't know what the big rush is," Millar said. "Right now, it's good through 2013."
The bill has passed the House and is in the Senate.
In Fulton County, the school board has voted to move forward with a charter school petition.
"The board is excited about pursuing the development of a draft charter petition, so I would not expect us to change course due to passage of this bill," Fulton board President Linda Schultz said. "However, we always welcome more flexibility, especially if we decide to delay our final petition past this November."
The 2008 bill "got the conversation started by opening a pathway for obtaining more flexibility from state laws and rules," Schultz said.
"The board wanted to explore this flexibility, regardless of the deadline," she said.
Georgia currently has eight charter school systems -- Floyd, Putnam, Warren and White counties and Cartersville, Decatur City, Gainesville and Marietta --
and an additional seven -- Banks, Barrow, Dawson, Gordon and Morgan counties and Calhoun City and Dublin City -- are in the pipeline for state approval.
If Fulton's application is submitted and approved, it would become the state's largest charter system.
Forsyth and Gwinnett are the state's only IE2 systems, but Rabun County in North Georgia has applied to become the third, according to the state Department of Education.
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