Measure To Curb Consolidation Advances in Georgia

The Georgia House has approved a bill that would give opponents of consolidation greater say in the fate of their small schools.

The measure would create procedures for parents and community members to protest a school beard's decision to merge small schools to create larger ones, and would set a July 1 deadline rooter which state incentive monies would no longer be available to encourage such unions.

The House's approval of the bill "sends a pretty strong message that we're changing... away from the 'bigger is better' mentality," said the bill's sponsor, Representative Charles Thomas, whose own high-school alma mater has been threatened with...