Amendment 1 is questionable

Published 8:00 am Saturday, October 22, 2016

Among the decisions facing Georgia voters on Election Day is a proposed amendment impacting local schools. Gov. Nathan Deal’s Opportunity School District proposal asks voters to decide whether the state should intervene in reforming “chronically failing” public schools.

Most all of us agree that improving public school education is vital to the overall success of Georgia’s future. Continuing to do nothing at all to reform a system where children often fall through the cracks isn’t the right answer, either.

That doesn’t mean that this amendment is the answer.

But is government intervention of this magnitude the way to go when there are no guarantees of the outcome? Can we honestly say that we’ve exhausted all other efforts to support schools locally without bringing in state control? After all, no one on the state level knows and understands the local community better than the locals themselves. But if locals haven’t fully harnessed that power by going all in — supporting local education with our time, our resources, our presence, our focus and our full efforts — then we haven’t adequately done our jobs and government intervention isn’t the answer.

The Amendment 1 proposal is modeled after other state plans that have been enacted in Louisiana and Tennessee, both with varying results.

Opponents argue the amendment is an attempt at a state power grab that will strip away local control, although local dollars will still be used. Those in favor of the measure contend that it’s an end of the road option to fix what’s ailing schools that are chronically unsuccessful.

While none of us know the true scope of bureaucracy and red tape that this amendment would produce if it becomes law, we do know from past experiences that government involvement often leads to bureaucratic bottleneck. There’s also the politics of it all to consider — would having a governor-appointed school czar could mean too much authority in the hands of one appointed person. And, while we know that Gov. Deal will be the person making these appointments for the next two years, none of us know under whose authority it will move to next after his term expires. Who holds these appointees accountable?

There are a lot of variables to consider.

We all know that our children desperately need a quality education in order to succeed in life, and we need local schools to have the necessary resources available to see to it that the right environment is in place for kids to succeed academically. But in whose hands does that responsibility fall? Who carries that weight?

The truth of the matter is — it’s ultimately all of us. No amendment, no legislation, no school grading formula can replace stakeholders’ role and responsibility in our public schools. We are all stakeholders and we have to fully grasp the importance of that in order for all schools and our children to succeed. We can’t bristle at the idea of state control when we don’t fully grasp the power we possess locally.

We all have to be willing to except that heavy responsibility. If we want our schools to remain under local control then we have to be willing to show up and support them. The biggest failure in our schools is that we, as community stakeholders, aren’t doing that.

While Amendment 1 isn’t the ideal answer, doing nothing at all must no longer be an option. It’s time to go back to the drawing board and find a solution. Otherwise we have all failed our children.