Today is Day 31 of the legislative session and the Senate Education and Youth Committee met to hear testimony on Rep. Kevin Tanner's struggling schools' legislation HB 338. Superintendent Richard Woods delivered extended remarks outlining his department's suggested revisions to the legislation, many of which would transfer governing authority over the Chief Turnaround Officer (CTO) from the State Board of Education to the Department of Education, which he leads. The committee posed several questions to Supt. Woods concerning the placement of the proposed turnaround officer in the Department of Education. One question centered on how the DOE turnaround division would work collaboratively with the CTO. Supt. Woods answered that the CTO would have access to the department's expertise, events and resources. Answering another question regarding how many schools were currently not being directly served by the DOE because of funding and/or capacity contraints, Supt. Woods placed the number at 77. One final inquiry asked the Supt. for his definition of a low performing school. He defined them as ---- schools currently under performance contracts either with their Local and/or the State Board of Education,
- schools that are on the GOSA failing schools list.
Following Supt. Woods testimony, Chairman Tippins allowed speakers and community members to offer comments on the bill. In addition to GAE, GFT, PAGE, the School Board Association, the State Board of Education and Public Education Matters provided remarks.
President Sid Chapman delivered the following commentary.
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We are pleased that legislative leadership has prioritized addressing the needs of struggling schools in Georgia. We appreciate the changes made to the bill in the House. While we do not support or oppose HB 338, we do see it is a starting point to work on many of the issues affecting some of our schools. We appreciate having an opportunity to make the following recommendations.- GAE has significant concerns regarding one individual outside the scope of the Superintendent of Education having significant control and decision making authority over interventions related to struggling public schools. We recommend and support having the CTO under the Superintendent of Education.
- We are also concerned about funding for the Chief Turnaround Officer, Turnaround Coaches and intervention implementations. The current bill does not include a source of funding for this amplified approach to improving struggling schools.
- Lastly, it is also our recommendation that the interventions be implemented in a tiered multi-year process meaning that interventions which include:
• The transition to a charter school,
• Removal of personnel or
• Takeover by a nonprofit entity
would NOT occur in the first two years of the new intervention. We recommend that these options be implemented after five years which is the timeframe for current flexibility and charter contracts.
Chairman Tippins and committee members, GAE sincerely looks forward to continuing to work with you and the education community to work on increasing the success of our students and schools.
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The bill is expected to be voted on in committee on Monday, March 20, as Chairman Tippins stated that he wanted to get the bill before the full Senate chamber sooner than later.
