The Georgia Legislature has been a hot bed for corruption for years with very little reform to truly address any of the systemic problems that have plagued this institution.  Instead of cleaning up there own mess they have opted in concert with Governor Perdue to do the more politically expedient and go after local school boards.

As a result of the loss of accreditation for Clayton County schools the legislature is considering sweeping changes to school board service.   Here are some of the details of SB 84:

SB 84 contains provisions by which local board members can be removed from office for certain ethical or conflict of interest violations or if the system looses accreditation; sets training requirements for board members, and attempts to define the role of board members and superintendents.

As a school board member, I can tell you that all of these things are already in place. When schools systems  fail there is shared responsibility between the central office, the board and the voters. Clayton County was the first to lose its accreditation and there are only a couple at risk this year.  The vast majority of systems perform well and do not need this intervention from the state.

This change is more about politicians wanting to stand up in front of crowds and brag about “change” with no real impact to how the legislators do their job. Every year we are forced to listen to these people bloviate  about that which they really do not understand.

Maybe our legislators should actually try and start representing the people who elected them instead of grandstanding in a quest for more political power.  Local control and smaller government is not always pretty but it is supposed to be what the Republican party stands for.

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