The opposition to the Governor’s Opportunity School District is mounting but still has a long way to go. This week a law suit was filed challenging the wording on the ballot—it does not take a rocket scientist to determine that the wording is not reflective of the intent or purpose of the amendment but is the end product of a political convenience. It will be interesting to see how the law suit will fair. It also be interesting to see if the Governor attempts to hand pick the judge that will hear the case—that has happened before. Please see Maureen Downey’s article on the law suit at the end of today’s Flyer.
On Friday of last week Dr. Gary Henry of Vanderbilt’s Peabody School of Education spoke to a conference in Athens and detailed why the opportunity school effort in Tennessee failed: lack of resources and a much diminished local involvement in the “failing schools”. He gave a report which we hope to share with GAEL members later on the I-Zone effort in North Carolina where significant resources and assistance are provided to schools and districts deemed to be “failing”. The program in North Carolina appears to have been a tremendous success both for the students and for the communities identified as I-Zones. When asked as a former Georgian and knowing what he knows about the takeover effort in Tennessee if he could support the Georgia OSD he replied that he could not. More on this later.