Commenters on the AJC Get Schooled blog discussed whether Georgians ought to consider amending the state constitution to let cities break away from county school districts and form their own, smaller systems. Here is a sampling of responses:
AnyTime: Gwinnett, the largest district in Georgia, is doing great. They've received many national accolades, developed their own more demanding form of accountability for students and teachers, and are trying numerous innovative ideas, changing with the times. The biggest contributor to their success has been their leadership solidarity. Too often, this is what is lacking — superintendent "musical chairs," untrained principals (and those who are successful being moved to a district position after 2-3 years), lack of local control, etc. The idea of smaller districts can easily be met by a larger district by simply giving more control to regional superintendents (assuming they are effective), high school clusters and, especially, local schools that may better know what the school needs than the district. Release more funds to the schools to spend on what is needed, and tailor a school to the community. Simply saying smaller districts is the answer is ludicrous.
Cere: This legislation doesn't mandate smaller districts; it simply opens the door for communities that would choose to run their own school districts. If communities are pleased with the way their Gwinnett County schools are run, then certainly they can choose not to make a change. However, Gwinnett's good school system should not be a reason to hog tie communities in DeKalb County.
Mandel: For all of the posters who like to point out they attended a northern, Midwestern or New England small school district and it was the greatest thing in the world, go back. Take your children with you so that they can experience how great life can be. But I guess that if it was so great, you would still be there.
LD: As has been pointed out by many, Gwinnett accounts for approximately 1o percent of Georgia's public school population, and also is one of the most effective districts. And there is a such a thing as "too small." I spoke to the superintendent of one small, rural system. Through his enrollment, he only earns state funding for five teachers for his high school. With only five teachers, students in that system do not have many options for Advanced Placement, career, technical and agricultural education or electives.
Dunwoody: DeKalb is broken. My wife's best friend recently moved here from Nashville. She and her husband are physicians, the kind of people you want to be your new neighbors. They loved Dunwoody, they wanted to buy a house down the street. We steered them to East Cobb. Why? Schools.
Pro: So why not have those large systems operate as individual high school clusters? They can share some economies of scale at the central level for some functions that make sense, but push everything else down to the level of the cluster (resources, staffing selections, decision-making authority). Likewise, why can't smaller rural systems form regional collaboratives to share some administrative and support functions?
