If Gov. Nathan Deal wanted an enthusiastic backdrop when he signed his Opportunity School District legislation, he should have held it at the Morehouse College education forum led by former NBA star and Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson and his wife and former Washington, D.C., schools chancellor Michelle Rhee.
Both Johnson and Rhee touted the potential of the law, which, if approved in a referendum next year, will create a statewide school district that can take over chronically failing schools, hire new management and remake them as charter schools. Deal modeled his proposal after state districts in New Orleans and Tennessee, which have produced modest improvements thus far in student achievement.
“This legislation is groundbreaking,’’ said Johnson, who acted as master of ceremonies at last week’s Morehouse forum while his more controversial wife Rhee confined her role to panelist.
Deal signed the legislation at the Gold Dome, a more sedate setting than the Morehouse stage where a fiery speech by former CNN pundit Roland Martin lent a revival feel to the event.
“Too many of us are apologizing for standing up for kids,” said Martin, blasting critics of black leaders who backed Deal’s plan. “We’re putting unions and civil rights group in front of kids … (that) believe there is only one way to educate kids. Public schools, charter schools, online, homeschooling … I don’t care what way a child gets educated, as long as they get educated.”
The forum was sponsored by Johnson’s education advocacy group Stand Up and Rhee’s StudentsFirst. In kicking off the discussion, Morehouse President John S. Wilson said, “This is a power couple if I have ever seen one or known one.”
Rhee told the 100 people in the audience Deal’s Opportunity District represented a chance for them to transform their communities. She advised them to identify the failing schools eligible for takeover, study successful reform models — including the charter schools her husband founded in Sacramento, St. Hope Public Schools — and then present their plan to overhaul schools.
“It is doable,” she told the crowd. “You don’t need more to do this than who is in here right now.”
In what ought to be considered a warning shot for APS Superintendent Meria Carstarphen, Rhee and Johnson cited the five elementary schools, two middle schools and one high school in Atlanta’s Carver cluster as candidates ripe for takeover.
Flashing slides of the schools’ enrollments and failing grades from the state Department of Education, Johnson said a takeover would help 4,690 APS students. “This is manageable,” he said, “Eight principals, 15 teachers at each school. This is not an unattainable goal, and the Opportunity School District gives you an opportunity to do that.”
Cataloging the under-achievement of African-American students nationwide, Johnson said, “If we get where we need to be in Atlanta, if APS becomes one of best in the country, they aren’t going to be able to say our kids can’t learn.”
No one mentioned the extensive reforms already under way in the Carver cluster under Carstarphen, and whether ditching them to start anew with different plan would help or hurt, although we can assume the question crossed the minds of APS school board chair Courtney English and board member Matt Westmoreland, both of whom were at the Morehouse forum.
One school board member did raise questions.
When Johnson asked black elected officials in the audience to stand and then come forward to show their “unanimous support for the Opportunity District,” Clayton County school board member Jessie Goree demurred at leaving her seat to join the others. As a teacher, she explained she has doubts about state takeovers.
“Where’s the plan?” she asked Johnson. “Nobody has shown me the plan for these schools.”
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