Recovery School District

As we all know, the DeKalb County School District remains at the bottom of the barrel for CRCT scores and graduation rates.  The Georgia Department of Education’s motto may as well be “We Subsidize Failure”.
Gov. Nathan Deal, however, asked the legislators recently to consider a system that allows the state to take over struggling schools saying, “We’re continuing to put money into school systems that continue to fail. That is not the end result that we want.” Deal met with Gov. Bobby Jindal on Wednesday (Sept 10) to discuss Louisiana’s statewide Recovery School District.
In 2003, Louisiana voters passed a constitutional amendment to allow for a statewide school district. After Hurricane Katrina, the state took over New Orleans’ lowest performing schools. Subsequently, the Orleans Parish school district shot from the bottom to the top and is the 2nd highest performing district in the state.
The DeKalb school district is not unlike Orleans Parish with its very high and very low performing schools. I’m interested to see where Gov. Deal and the legislature go with the Recovery School District.
Resources
A plan to expand charter schools gains traction in Georgia
Times-Picayune-Ga Gov looks to La for education policy inspiration
CRCT Scores
Graduation Rates
Peach Pundit – Governor Deal and the Recovery School District