DALTON, Ga. — Whitfield and Murray county voters echoed those of others across the state by appearing to defeat a state constitutional amendment which would have given control of chronically failing schools to a state agency.

Opponents of the Opportunity School District — Amendment 1 on the ballot — had warned of a loss of local control of education, and it was a message which local voters took to heart. Some locals who voted against the amendment feared a state takeover of local systems.

“It is not a distrust of state governments, it is a distrust of unknown and different forms of government,” said Omar Garza after voting at Dalton City Hall on Tuesday. “It is not the local people that I know here, it is somewhere else. We can hold the local people accountable here, but it would be the state. I don’t think people elsewhere should have that sort of influence on our schools.”

With 143 of 159 counties reporting at 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, Georgia voters had rejected the constitutional amendment by a margin of 59.81 percent to 40.19 percent. Locally, 61.71 percent (18,042) of the 29,237 votes were cast against the amendment in Whitfield County with 38.29 percent (11,195) for the measure. In Murray County, 63.23 percent (7,493) voted against the amendment with 36.77 percent (4,357) in favor.

The amendment, which was supported heavily by state leaders and spearheaded by Gov. Nathan Deal, was opposed by educational groups, which poured more than $4 million into advertising opposing the amendment, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution. Had it passed, the proposal would have allowed the governor to appoint a special agency with the power to take control of chronically failing schools from local school boards.

Ashley Reed, who was a public school teacher for Dalton Public Schools and Whitfield County Schools before retiring from teaching, said local school boards should be held accountable by their constituents and not by the state.

“I don’t think the state needs to be involved in the schools like that,” Reed said. “If you allow that to happen, that allows them to get their hand too far into the cookie jar, and that shouldn’t be. I think that the counties and the superintendents should have control over schools and not the states. It opens a door that shouldn’t be opened.”

Reed said she understood the effort to take over chronically failing schools, but she said it opened a door for more power to be placed in the hand of the state.

“It is meant for the state to go into failing systems and fix those, but if they put their hand into the cookie jar too much, it will affect schools systems that are functioning just fine,” she said. “We elect a school board and they understand the wants and the needs and the money and we can hold them accountable. If you get the state involved, teachers won’t have as much of a say and you will lose good teachers who are already losing passion anyway.”

James Davis said he voted to give more control to the state because schools that are failing need to change.

“I believe that the government is failing our school systems, and I think the states need to have more control over them,” Davis said after voting in Dawnville. “I think the state can do a better job with those failing school systems than what the local governments are doing right now.”

But many who opposed the amendment said it was exactly the removal of local control that led to the amendment’s defeat.

“I believe the schools should be held in the hands of the local community,” Garza said. “I don’t think that the states should be meddling in the schools. I feel like it could be a way for people to influence areas that are not theirs to influence.”