Who Are the Elites Responsible for November Debacle Known as the Opportunity School District? (Amendment 1 on your Georgia Ballot)

The Opportunity School District will be voted on by the citizens of Georgia on November 8.  It is amendment 1 on the Georgia ballot.

A very small number of political elites is responsible for this debacle, and putting thousands of students and their parents, as well teachers and administrators in harm’s way. The leader of the pack is of course the Governor of Georgia, Nathan Deal.  Deal took a few legislators and the Georgia Commissioner of Education on a junket to New Orleans (on the dime of a charter group that stands to make a ton of money if the OSD passes on the ballot.).  They were wined and dined by elites in New Orleans who convinced them that the New Orleans Recovery Plan was so good, that they must carry out a similar plan in Georgia.

Unfortunately, the Georgia elites are ill-informed, and have disregarded significant research by Professor Kristen L. Buras, Georgia State University.  In one report (Review of the Louisiana Recovery School District: Lessons for the Buckeye State) which the elites should have examined.  The review of the report was published in 2012 by the National Educator Policy Center.  Buras concludes the Louisiana Recovery School District is a plan that advocates the replacement of public schools with privately operated charter networks.  The report, written by the Fordham Foundation is “thin on data and thick on claims, and be read with great caution by policymakers in Ohio and elsewhere.

The elites in Georgia did not read this report.  My belief is that reports that do not fit with their political views are not to be considered.  And indeed, if there is evidence that doesn’t support their view, there must be something wrong with the way the evidence was gathered, or the research on the issue is simply not “settled.”

The House and Senate of the Georgia General Assembly voted on separate bills, and the bills barely passed.  In fact, in the Senate it came down to strong arming two democrats who joined with all the Georgia republican senators, enabling the bill to pass by one vote (38 – 16).  Two-thirds majority was needed to pass the bill.  Who were these elites in the senate.  Connect to this page, and you can see them and read their names.

The Opportunity School District is an opportunity for these elites to tell the rest of that we don’t know a thing about working with struggling schools, the students and their parents, nor the teachers and their administrators.  They have convinced themselves, with the help of their friends in the charter school industry, that they know how to make kids do better on state mandated standardized tests.  And they know better how to work with families of color, and families that are struggling economically.

Instead of working with the State Department of Education, and coordinating efforts with local school districts, Nathan Deal barges ahead and if the amendment passes, he will appoint an Opportunity School District Czar who will work out of an office in Atlanta, and “service” a school district of 20 schools (year 1) that could range from Blue Ridge to Valdosta, and districts in between.

Such an idea pushed by these elites in Georgia is thick-headed, unintelligent, and scary.

You might read this post, and then when you go into the ballot box between now and election day, Vote No on Amendment 1.