Georgia Education Department to ask for summer school funds

Schools around the state are bracing for a surge in summer school students after a high rate of failure on this year's standardized math test.

That could cost money.

The Georgia Department of Education will ask the state school board for $1.4 million dollars to help with extra remediation programs this summer.

About 40 percent of eighth graders failed the math portion of the Criterion Referenced Competency Test this year, according to early estimates.

By law, 8th graders have to pass the test to advance to the 9th grade.

Schools are still trying to determine how many students will take the summer classes.

And officials are unsure if the extra dollars will be enough.

"What we've asked the school systems to do is to keep very good records on the cost of summer school this year, and then, if needed, we can try to bring forward a supplemental request to the legislature in January," said Dana Tofig, a spokesman for the Georgia Department of Education.

The CRCT is a harder test, an explanation for the high failure rate.

Students are not required to attend summer school, but the classes are supposed to help students prepare for a re-test.