Georgia educators who got bonuses tied to falsified standardized test scores will have to return that money to their school districts if a bill passed by the House of Representatives Tuesday becomes law.
"This just affects the bonus," said Rep. Billy Mitchell, D-Stone Mountain, who introduced the legislation, H.B. 692. "This does not affect any due process rights."
Mitchell's legislation passed by a 140-2 vote and must be approved by the Senate and signed by Gov. Nathan Deal before becoming law.
Investigations last year found standardized test cheating in Georgia schools, much of it in Atlanta Public Schools and in Dougherty County Schools, where teachers were alleged to have helped students on achievement tests.
Reports said cheating in Atlanta Public Schools involved 180 educators and took place in 44 schools. Sixty educators resigned or retired last year. Two more teachers recently opted to resign after APS presented an option to resign or be fired to the remaining 120 educators on the payroll. In Dougherty, 49 educators were involved in testing misconduct and 18 confessed to cheating.
Educators from some of the implicated APS schools received about $500,000 in bonuses through the district's payout program, according to records obtained from APS. Former Atlanta Superintendent Beverly Hall received more than $580,000 in bonuses above her annual pay in the 12 years she worked for the district, based on academic goals laid out in her contract.
Hall has not repaid the money, nor has the district asked her to, said Hall's successor at APS, Erroll Davis.
Cynthia Briscoe Brown, parent of two APS children and co-president of North Atlanta Parents for Public Schools, said the idea of passing legislation to demand that ill-gotten bonuses be returned is a good one. Current law on fraud, she said, would already call for the repayment of money gained through fraud.
"I think there is ample law in Georgia to make that clear," said Briscoe Brown, a Buckhead attorney.
Mitchell said on the House floor that he pushed for the legislation because "conceivably, under current law, (educators) could lose their jobs and still keep the bonuses."
Calvine Rollins, president of the Georgia Association of Educators, said she is not opposed to the legislation.
"If teachers obtained bonuses because of falsified test scores, we believe the bonus should be refunded if the teacher is convicted of falsification," she said.
Verdaillia Turner, president of the Georgia Federation of Teachers, said the federation also has no quibble with Mitchell's legislation, though she criticized the General Assembly for being far more zealous in pursuing cheating educators than corporate leaders whose misdeeds cost the public more money.
Staff writer Jaime Sarrio contributed to this story.
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