Independent School District Update By State Rep. Tom Taylor

The Dunwoody Crier published an update written by State Rep. Tom Taylor on various State House bills .  Below is an excerpt on Independent School Districts.
By: State Rep. Tom Taylor
Dunwoody Crier 
As we begin this week, the legislative session for 2015 is drawing rapidly to a close. This coming Friday, March 27, will mark Legislative Day 38 of 40, leaving the last two legislative days until next week.
Here are some of the high priority bills and resolutions that I will be working on this week:
HR-4 – This is a constitutional amendment I am sponsoring that would allow cities in Georgia to form independent school systems, something that has been prohibited by the State Constitution since 1945.
As a constitutional amendment this requires not just a majority, but a two-thirds vote in each chamber, and then passage on a statewide ballot referendum.
If passed, this would allow cities such as Dunwoody to form their own school systems, allowing much more focused local control of our education dollars and management of personnel and curriculum. This legislation was passed out of the House Education Committee on March 9.
The next step is to round up the requisite 120 House votes required for passage. As we enter the last hectic days of the session, with representatives leaving the floor for committee meetings and conference committees, I am going to hold this bill off the floor until next session and spend the next eight months talking with individual House and Senate members and hopefully tee this up in January 2016.
The delay does not hurt us; the issue cannot go on the ballot before November 2016. I do want to acknowledge the invaluable assistance of GLASS (Georgians for Local Area School Systems), co-chaired by Erika Harris and Allegra Johnson of Dunwoody.
You can learn more about Tom Taylor’s bills by continuing to read “Taylor will hold independent school district bill until 2016” at the ‘Crier.