Will GA Adopt '65 Percent Solution’?

Georgia one step closer to approving measure; Missouri mulling over similar proposal

By Debra Lau Whelan -- School Library Journal, 3/1/2006

It looks like supporters of the “65 percent solution” are gaining ground. Georgia may become the fourth state to adopt the controversial education measure, which would force school districts to spend 65 cents of every dollar “in the classroom.” But the plan excludes school librarians and library services as providers of direct classroom instruction, lumping media specialists with food service, transportation, and building maintenance staff.

After a lengthy debate, Georgia senators recently voted 32–18 in favor of Governor Sonny Perdue’s “65 percent solution” proposal. Although Republican Senator Ronnie Chance, a sponsor of the bill, stressed the importance of media specialists and media centers, he didn’t advocate altering the definition of direct classroom expenditures to include school librarians, says Melissa Johnston, a media specialist in Cumming, GA, and a regional director of the American Association of School Librarians (AASL). AASL recently endorsed a resolution calling on the National Center for Education Statistics to classify school librarians as instructional staff. Now, the Georgia House must vote on the bill.

Meanwhile, Missouri lawmakers have introduced a “66.6 percent solution,” which would include school librarians and guidance counselors as classroom instruction. But educators statewide aren’t buying it. “It’s still unacceptable,” says Leila Medley of the Missouri National Education Association. “They’re trying to do away with local control by saying that the state knows better than a local school district how to spend its money.”

The Washington, DC-based group First Class Education has been promoting the “65 percent solution” plan, and so far Texas, Kansas, and Louisiana have adopted similar measures.