Bill Allowing State Takeover Of Failing Schools Advances

At the meeting, Rep. Christian Coomer, R-Cartersville, addressed critics who argue the governor is overstepping his authority. He emphasized state intervention would be limited.  

“We only want to intervene where there’s no progress at the local school and there’s no visible change at the local management level,” said Coomer. 

The Senate passed the bill earlier this month, mostly along party lines. Two Republicans ─ Mike Crane and Marty Harbin ─ voted no. 

The state would be able to take over as many as 20 schools per year and manage up to 100 at any one time. The schools would form a new district led by an appointee of the governor.  

A Republican committee member expressed concern about giving any governor so much power. He worried about the potential size of the new school district.

“I wonder about the scale of it? While we like this governor, we might not like the next governor, ” said Dave Belton, R-Buckhead. “A hundred schools is almost five percent of the schools in Georgia.”

Coomer responded that the cap was set at 100 to make sure any struggling school would know they could be taken over. He suggested a school’s concern about state intervention would encourage them to improve.  

“If we only (intervene with) one school a year or two schools a year then we’re not going to have the proper opportunity for incentives to those school boards around the state who really aren’t going to be doing this on their own without an appropriate incentive,” said Coomer.

The committee ultimately approved the bill with the school cap unchanged.  

The full House could vote on the bill as early as Wednesday.