Deal Announces Reform Plan for Under Performing Schools

Governor Nathan Deal has announced a new plan to seek reforms to rescue failing schools in Georgia.

Deal made the announcement Wednesday after meeting with Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal.

The Governor noted that since Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana implemented sweeping reforms to rescue New Orleans’ schools. And it has worked.

Some of those reforms have resulted in New Orleans posting the largest and fastest improvement in test scores ever produced in an urban public school system, according to a recent NPR report.

Over the past nine years, New Orleans schools have gone from an F to a C.

And Recovery School District students from grades 3-8 who scored at least a “basic” on the state accountability test rose from 37-percent in 2009 to 57-percent in 2014.

Deal said he will work with Jindal, legislators and stakeholders next year to study Louisiana’s successful program to rescue students in continually low-performing schools.