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Education

Ga. Politicians have failed our vulnerable students

In a speech about education earlier this year to the Georgia Education Leadership Institute, Gov. Nathan Deal euphemistically talked about “students who come from difficult backgrounds,” meaning low-income students, particularly low-income students of color, as well as other marginalized students. Talking about the ways race, class and other factors impact student achievement is really important. Unfortunately, when Deal talks about wanting to improve things for “students who come from difficult backgrounds,” he’s not talking about

Georgia 2016

Three reasons Georgia’s school takeover has failure written all over it

Gary Henry, a Vanderbilt professor who has studied school takeover attempts in Tennessee, Louisiana and North Carolina, examined the legislation for Deal’s so-called “Opportunity School District” and believes it has failure written all over it. Charter schools need good teachers but often don’t attract them. Successful teachers want to work in schools that are humane, supportive and dynamic. Charter schools, especially privately-run ones, are unfortunately known for their terrible treatment of teachers: long hours, anti-union sentiments,

School Takeover

Deal encourages silence on school takeover

Last week, Deal publicly vocalized his appreciation for the silence of school superintendents that disagree with him about Opportunity School District. He stood in front of a group of district leaders and expressed his gratitude that they haven’t spoke up about his attempt to take over failing schools. “They’ve all been pretty good,” he said. “They’ve kept their mouths shut even though they may not agree with it.” If there was still any question that

Education

New TV ad challenges Georgia school takeover

Just this morning, a coalition of parents, teachers and communities launched the first anti-Opportunity School District TV ad campaign in an effort to educate voters on the truth about the school takeover amendment. Too few Georgia voters know that the cost of Amendment 1 will be huge. In fact, hardly anyone has realized yet that the school takeover amendment would allow the state government to skim up to 3 percent “for administrative operations.” Watch the ad

Education

Deception

Georgia schools are in danger of being taken over if Gov. Deal gets his way. Gov. Deal and his politicians don’t want you to read the fine print about Amendment 1 because his so-called “Opportunity School District” is yet another political power grab that would hurt Georgia’s public school students and teachers. The takeover would silence parents and communities who understand their children’s educational needs best. A takeover would allow a political appointee — loyal

Podcast Ep. 17: School Takeover

On today’s show, Bryan and Brandon are talking about the consequences of Governor Deal’s school takeover ballot measure. What does the measure mean for students, teachers and parents? Where did this model come from? Has it been successful elsewhere? The preamble of this measure sounds ideal, but the fine print is where it gets dangerous. You can Subscribe and Listen to the podcast on iTunes, and be sure to leave us a rating and review! “If a voter sees