ATLANTA -- A lawmaker's concern that his rural high school can't compete with big-city private schools has led to the introduction of a bill to create a legislative oversight committee.
Rep. Jay Roberts, R-Ocilla, introduced House Bill 836 last week, and he said Friday that it could be a way to make competition more fair. The committee of lawmakers would oversee the private Georgia High School Association that organizes academic and athletic competitions between schools in the state and hosts championships.
The committee would have no authority to overrule any policies or decisions of the association.
"All the oversight committee is there to do is to have a forum for discussion with the Georgia High School Association, as far as bringing them in and asking questions," Roberts said. "In no shape, form or fashion do I want to run the Georgia High School Association."
But he said some form of oversight is needed because of the relationship between public schools and the association.
"When we've got tax dollars going to public schools that are participating in a private organization, I just think that we should have the ability to bring them in, talk to them about some different things," he said.
The association has no objection, according to its executive director Ralph Swearngin. It would revive a similar committee that met for four years and gave lawmakers a chance to ask questions and learn how the association's board sets policy.
He said the original committee was a useful forum but that no policies changed as a result of the dialog.
Roberts' frustration is that Class A public schools, the smallest size, come from counties with populations as tiny as 2,000 residents. But the association groups them for competition with private schools in counties as populous as 900,000 residents.
For example, Charlton County High School draws students from Charlton County's 12,000 residents and would compete on the championship level with Savannah Country Day School in Chatham County where 265,000 people live.
Roberts was part of a group that met over the summer and proposed having different championships for public and for private schools. But public uproar led the association to scrap that proposal.
"I don't think it can be resolved," Swearngin said. "What we fixed that was kind of what Rep. Roberts was talking about was not pleasing to other legislators."
Roberts bill has yet to come up for a hearing in committee, but he said he expects little opposition to it.
