Education Committee Pushing Ahead with EAA Bill

The House Education Committee took seven hours of testimony on Tuesday, mostly in opposition to a proposal that would codify the Education Achievement Authority (EAA) as a statewide school district and give the new entity sweeping powers. Despite the opposition, the stage is set for the committee to vote on the bill as soon as next week.

As written, the bill would create a statewide superdistrict with authority well beyond turning around the state's lowest performing schools. Under the legislation, the EAA would have sweeping powers to:

• Take over control of districts in the lowest 5% statewide (Priority Schools), even if the schools were making progress toward improvement.
• Authorize so-called new forms of charter schools anywhere in the state, regardless of the performance of the local district.
• Force local districts to sell or lease their unused buildings, even over the objections of taxpayers and voters in the community.

MASSP opposes this legislation in its current form and we are asking members to engage with their lawmakers and tell them not to rush through hasty, dangerous legislation that is going to harm students, schools, and communities. Voice your concerns by clicking here to access an alert put together by MASA. In less than 5 minutes you can edit a sample letter and send it to all of your local lawmakers.

This legislation is interlinked with the so-called New Forms of Schools legislation (HB 5923) and the Oxford Foundation rewrite of the School Aid Act. MASSP has developed a summary of these interlinked proposals and the other issues involved in the Oxford Foundation efforts. This document also includes some brief talking points you can use in discussing this proposal in your building and community. That document (which you can also use as a handout if you need it) is available by clicking here.