ATLANTA – State Representative Rebecca Mitchell (D-Snellville) recently introduced House Bills 518 and 519, legislation which would end the use of the Georgia Department of Education’s strategic waivers by local school systems to opt out of class size, certifications, state teacher salary schedules, health and physical education, duty-free lunch and personnel termination laws. Rep. Mitchell’s legislative package would also block local school systems from releasing control of their nonperforming schools to for-profit entities.
“When the Georgia Department of Education’s strategic waivers were first implemented, they were designed to give our local school systems some minor flexibility with unfunded state mandates in times of economic depression,” said Rep. Mitchell. “Since then, the system has exponentially expanded to allow schools to simply opt out of state education laws whenever they choose to do so to reduce costs, with laws ranging from classroom rules to teacher employment being exemptible. Georgians deserve to have schools that won’t flaunt class size restrictions, duty-free lunch policies and physical education requirements, and teachers deserve to be paid for their time and effort.”
House Bill 518 would extend the state’s current ban on waivers for civil rights statutes, physical safety of schools, conflicting interest transactions and the prevention of unlawful conduct to also include bans on waivers for health and physical education, class size, categorical allotment, certification, salary schedule, duty-free lunch and the termination or suspension of teachers, administrators and school personnel.
Additionally, House Bill 519 would update current state law regarding the loss of governance for nonperforming schools in Georgia to limit a school’s conversion only to another school system, a nonprofit entity or an independent public charter system.
For more information on HB 518, please click here.
For more information on HB 519, please click here.
Representative Rebecca Mitchell represents the citizens of District 106, which includes portions of the cities of Snellville, Grayson, Loganville, Lawrenceville, and unincorporated Lilburn in Gwinnett County. She was first elected to the House Representatives in 2020 and currently serves on the Agriculture and Consumer Affairs, Human Relations and Aging and State Planning and Community Affairs committees.
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