Election 2016: On November 8, vote "yes" on Opportunity School District

When voters go to the polls on November 8, they will be asked to approve four constitutional amendments.  At the top of the list is the so-called Opportunity School District (OSD) referendum.  Governor Nathan Deal backed the resolution, and enabling legislation, in 2015 to help students struggling in chronically failing schools.

The amendment on the ballot reads as such:

Question 1: "Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended to allow the state to intervene in chronically failing public schools in order to improve student performance?"

Voting "yes" would allow for the creation of the Opportunity School District and would present greatly improved opportunities for many Georgia students.  Every child in Georgia deserves a quality education and taxpayer resources allocated to schools should produce positive outcomes for students and families.

A few specifics about OSD include the following facts:

• According to the legislation, persistently failing schools are defined as those scoring below 60 on the Georgia Department of Education’s accountability measure, the College and Career Performance Index, for three consecutive years.
• The OSD would take in no more than 20 schools per year, meaning it would govern no more than 100 at any given time.
• Schools would stay in the district for no less than 5 years but no more than 10 years, and would then return to local control.

Approximately, 68,000 students in six percent of schools (127 of 2089 schools in the state) would qualify due to having an "F", meaning they have scored below the 60 for the past three consecutive years. The soonest that OSD would intervene in any eligible school would be the 2017-2018 school year.

For more detail about OSD, please read more here opags-pc-ga-016-yes-on-1-flyer-b8 and visit www.gaopportunity.org.