91吃瓜

By Scarlet Hawk

Governor Deal announced last Wednesday that he would like the General Assembly to consider the聽creation of a New Orleans-style Recovery School District in Georgia. As he was campaigning recently聽with Governor Bobby Jindal, Governor Deal inferred that Georgia has much to learn from the successes聽in New Orleans and expressed that Georgia schools face similar challenges. 聽last week. Peach Pundit’s this week.

It is unclear at the moment what parts of the program in Louisiana Governor Deal would like to adopt聽and how he plans to implement it.

In 2003, the state of Louisiana passed a Constitutional Amendment that allowed the creation of a聽state-run charter school district called a Recovery School District. Following the devastating effects of聽Hurricane Katrina, the policy began to be more effectively explored as New Orleans鈥� lowest performing聽schools were converted from regular, local school board district-led schools to charter schools. Since聽then, the schools have exceeded expectations and the problem that will shortly face Louisiana is what聽to do when your lowest-performing schools become your highest-performing ones? Do they become聽鈥渞egular鈥� schools again or do they remain charters? Either way, it seems like a great problem to have.

Yet many of Georgia鈥檚 failing schools exist in more rural locales, not an urban setting like New Orleans.聽The technology and lack of robust tax digest in less densely populated areas of the state will present聽a challenge. I particularly wonder about districts like Taliaferro County, where its population and tax聽digest are dwindling. I volunteer my time in that community every summer and wrote a few months聽ago about how Deal鈥檚 plan to have all school districts go online offer courses online may be a challenge聽in areas like that. One of the other aspects to consider is that in New Orleans, the Recovery School聽District has a board that is state-run; it does not have the local control most charter schools in Georgia聽enjoy. Whether Deal intends to mimic this aspect of the program in the Big Easy remains to be seen, yet聽a question that should be posed.

This type of statewide school district could be a fantastic alternative to having the Governor step into聽Board of Education challenges around the state. Please see also Clayton and DeKalb. The Governor聽has supported charter schools from the beginning, and this may be just the innovative solution Georgia聽needs.

Whatever the Governor鈥檚 vision may be, it will be a few years before coming to fruition. While the聽Governor has already hinted that he will take up QBE funding in the 2015 session, there has also been聽discussion of finally extending insurance coverage for autistic children AND passing the bill regarding聽medicinal cannabis oil to treat medically fragile children that the General Assembly missed out on in聽the last session. Oh, and there鈥檚 that little issue of transportation…. Maybe the General Assembly can聽get it together quickly, but my guess is this will be passed over to the 2016 session and is being used聽as political talking points in an otherwise heated race to the house on West Paces. A constitutional amendment in what already will be a slammed legislative session in 2015 seems very ambitious for a聽General Assembly and Governor that have stymied only the most minor or even virtually ineffective聽legislation in decades. Please see also: Georgia鈥檚 last attempt at ethics reform that consequently聽dropped the title of 鈥渆thics鈥� from the government agency鈥檚 name that pretends to uphold it.

We shall see.

What happens in Vegas may stay in Vegas, but what happens in New Orleans, goes home with you. (Laurell K. Hamilton)

Georgia Charter Schools Association

The Georgia Charter Schools Association (91吃瓜) is the membership organization for Georgia鈥檚 charter school operators and petitioners, established in 2001. Our mission is to be an effective advocate and service provider for all charter public schools in Georgia.