Georgia’s highest court on Monday considered the constitutionality of a law used by Gov. Nathan Deal to suspend six members of the DeKalb County school board.
In a case expected to have broad ramifications statewide, suspended school board member Eugene Walker is asking the state Supreme Court to declare the law unconstitutional.
The law, passed by the General Assembly in 2010, allows the governor to suspend school board members in districts with accreditation problems. Deal suspended the six DeKalb members on Feb. 25, after the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools placed DeKalb on probation, alleging management. SACS also threatened to strip accreditation if the board did not address the problem.
“It violates the local control by an elected school board,” Walker’s attorney, Tom Cox, told the justices. “It infringes on voters’ rights.”
But Stefan Ritter, a senior assistant state attorney general representing Deal and the state Board of Education, told the court that the General Assembly has enormous power. Unless the law is arbitrary or is found to have no rational basis, it must stand, he said.
“The statute is about protecting the schools and the children in those schools,” Ritter said.
What if the General Assembly passed a law that allowed the court’s justices to be removed if a Chamber of Commerce found the court was not issuing decisions in favor of economic development? Justice David Nahmias asked. “Why would that not pass the test in your approach?”
If such a law was challenged and the courts found there was sufficient reason for the legislature to enact the law, it would fall within the General Assembly’s authority to do so, Ritter replied. The state constitution gives the legislature great deference and authority, he said.
During the arguments, a number of justices challenged lawyers representing both sides but gave no indication how they would rule. The court must issue its decision by the end of November.
Walker filed a federal lawsuit against Deal and the Board of Education after the governor issued his executive order. The six board members are suspended with pay and several are also challenging their removal before a state administrative law judge.
Walker’s lawsuit was assigned to U.S. District Judge Richard Story, who earlier refused to prevent the replacement of the six suspended DeKalb board members.
But Story also determined that the Georgia Supreme Court had not yet addressed the constitutional challenges raised by Walker. For this reason, Story asked the court to answer two questions before he decides Walker’s challenge — does the state law violate the mandate that school systems be controlled by elected boards and does the law extend unconstitutional powers to the governor.
“A decision on these issues will have a significant impact on the public education system in Georgia,” Story said.
On Monday, Cox, Walker’s lawyer, said school board members should not be allowed to be removed due to the findings of SACS because it is “a private organization completely unaccountable to the voters.”
Justice Harold Melton asked Ritter what would happen if it is later shown that SACS acted improperly or used the wrong criteria when reaching its decision in the DeKalb school board case.
Ritter responded that it was the DeKalb school district’s decision to seek accreditation from SACS.
Cox also argued that the state law allows the suspension and removal of a school board member without the member “ever having been charged with wrongdoing, much less proven to have committed wrongdoing.”
Countered Nahmias: “You don’t think the loss of accreditation is potential wrongdoing?”
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