During the last session Brooks Coleman carried Sonny Perdue's water on HB 1209 or the Investment in Educational Excellence (IE2).

The 5 areas covered under HB 1209, which authorizes IE2 are very broad...
-Class size requirements
-Expenditure controls and categorical allotment requirements
-Certification requirements
-Salary schedule requirements
-Any other requirements or provisions of this chapter as identified by the local school system and approved by the state board except as provided. The final plan for each school is posted on the Gwinnett School site.


State House Representative from District 100, Brian Thomas (D-Lilburn) has been one of very few outspoken opponents of this bill. Brian wrote an editorial in the AJC expressing his concerns about this legislation back in March 2008.

Under this approach, every school would be required to develop a strategic plan that would contain higher performance goals than it would normally have set. These goals must be higher than current goals because the contract with the DOE entails a requirement of higher achievement. The need to identify higher-than-normal goals applies to all schools within the district, from those that are not meeting AYP, or annual yearly progress under No Child Left Behind, to those that are currently excelling in student achievement.

Brian has gone toe-to-toe with School board members and the 'CEO' of the school system, Alvin Wilbanks about this program. Thanks Brian!

Until about 3 weeks ago, nobody in the public had not heard anything else about this bill. That is when the The Gwinnett BOE announced they would hold only ONE public hearing concerning the program before sending the contract off the Georgie DOE for final approval in January 2009. Why only one hearing and why have it in Suwanee at 6:30 on a Thursday night rather than having multiple hearings in Lawrenceville, Norcross, Duluth, Snellville and Lilburn? When asked by the AJC why only one public input session was scheduled, the spokesperson stated “...that is all that is required by law.“ NICE.

District 4 board member Dr. McClure (R) commented to one parent the morning of the meeting that he did not expect many people to attend. A packed room of 650+ showed up that night. The public comments session was limited to 30 minutes with no Q & A session. Since then the Gwinnett BOE has held 2 meetings to vote on the progress of the contract. Once on a Wednesday at 9am and the last one was this past Saturday at 7:30am. No public comments were allowed at either meeting.

There may be some good ideas in here but why is the largest school system in the state going to be the first one to try this....except for the fact that Coleman represents a district in Gwinnett.