The paper provides a brief description of school construction projects to be undertaken by the counties. For example, Coweta County intends to build six schools and a performing arts center and to install a system-wide computer network with the funds. The revenue also will be targeted to system-wide school repairs. Fulton County expects to build 17 schools or their equivalent in capacity. A change to Ga.'s state constitution, which occurred in November, allowed the school systems to seek school funds through increases in the sales tax, writes the paper.
Current policy permits schools to tap only property taxes, bond referendums and state funding.
According to the paper, a group of parents was attempting to resurrect a segregation-era law that permitted the state to grant tuition vouchers to parents who wanted to send their offspring to private schools. Lawyers from the federal department's civil rights division are examining copies of the district's academic and financial problems, documents that detail why the state diminished the powers of the local school board, and other information that led to the installation of a state-appointed administrator to manage the schools. Justice Department officials have interpreted that law to apply to state takeovers of school districts because locally elected trustees lose power when the state comes in to run the district, reports the paper. However, that provision of the Voting Rights Act only applies to certain states and counties, not including Los Angeles County, according to a Justice Department spokeswoman. Texas education leaders are challenging the Justice Department's intervention in state takeovers of local school districts, notes the paper.