The Georgia Supreme Court has ruled that a state law allowing the governor to remove local school board members is constitutional.
After a private accrediting agency put the 99,000-student DeKalb County district on probation over issues of governance by the school board, Gov. Nathan Deal, a Republican, suspended six of its nine members and named replacements.
One of the suspended members sued, claiming the state’s removal statute gives the governor too much power over local school systems.
"[T]he state has a substantial interest in ensuring that those local boards function competently and in a manner that does not imperil the education or future prospects of the students enrolled in the school systems,” the high court said in its unanimous ruling late last month.
