Deal Pushing Legislation to Help Failing Schools

Governor Nathan Deal’s Senate floor leader Butch Miller (R-Gainesville) has introduced legislation to create an Opportunity School District that will allow the state to temporarily step in to assist chronically failing schools.

Deal said in a press release this week, that while Georgia boasts of many schools that achieve academic excellence every year, there are still too many schools where students have little hope of attaining the skills they need to succeed in the workforce or in higher education.

In the governor’s proposal, persistently failing schools are defined as those scoring below 60 for three consecutive years on the Georgia Department of Education’s accountability measure, the College and Career Performance Index (CCRPI).

The Opportunity School District would take in no more than 20 schools per year, meaning it would govern no more than 100 at any given time.

Schools would stay in the district for no less than five years but no more than 10 years.

Creating the Opportunity School District requires a constitutional amendment.

The Governor plans to work this session with legislators to put the amendment on the 2016 ballot and to pass enabling legislation that will govern how the district operates.