Gov. Nathan Deal on Wednesday afternoon unveiled his proposal to create an Opportunity School District that will allow the state to temporarily take over failing schools.
The proposed constitutional amendment, authored by Senate floor leader Butch Miller, R-Gainesville, would allow the OSD to take in up to 20 schools per year, and no more than 100 at a time, according to a the governor’s announcement. Schools would stay in the district for at least five years, but no more than 10.
The proposal defines failing schools as those scoring below 60 on the Georgia Department of Education’s accountability measure for three consecutive years.
The governor’s announcement said he will seek to put the amendment on the 2016 ballot and that the OSD would begin for the 2017 school year.
Miller introduced the measure following a joint House-Senate education committee hearing in which education officials from Louisiana and Tennessee discussed their recovery school district operations.
House Education Committee Chairman Brooks Coleman, R-Duluth, said he supports the governor’s proposal. “It gives us a way to go in there and intervene and have these children succeed.”
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