Politics & Government

Where They Stand: The Candidates on K-12 Education

Patch asked House District 113 candidates to share their views on several key issues ahead of the June 21 special election.

To help voters choose among the four candidates for the 113th District House seat representing Oconee and parts of Clarke County, Patch asked candidates to respond to questions on the , K-12 education, , , and . These are their unedited responses on K-12 education.  Election Day is June 21, and runs through June 17.

Question 1: What should be the goal of public education in Georgia?

To efficiently and effectively prepare our young citizens as they move beyond K-12 education - whether that next step is post-secondary education, the military or the job market.

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: To best prepare our students for the challenges of the 21st century in as many ways as possible.

: Every student who graduates from public high schools in Georgia should be work ready and/or ready for further education.  In other words, we need to make a public high school diploma the sign of competence.  Because Georgia ranks among the states with the poorest education, we must change this status.  We can do better.  We must bring respect back to teachers and the teaching profession, offering them better working conditions and less red tape.  We must reform the curriculum our students receive to reflect what they will need after high school and offer them realistic support for their goals of doing other than college studies after high school or be work ready when they graduate from high school.  Our colleges must also become more rigorous in their instruction and curriculum, thinking about what skills our students must have to compete in the job market and as entrepreneurs.  In other words, our public education, from kindergarten through college, including technical schools, must offer our students and our State the opportunity and the challenge to be the best.  Then Georgia will attract more businesses and more jobs. 

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: We all know we need to increase high school graduation rate, decrease drop out rate, and increase post-secondary enrollment rate, strengthen teacher quality, recruitment, and retention, improve workforce readiness skills, develop strong education leaders, improve test scores and make policies that ensure maximum academic and financial accountability.

Question 2: What’s your opinion of the present level of state support for public education in Georgia? If it’s not perfect, how would you change it?

: While the level of State support for K-12 education has dropped statewide in recent years, this has occurred during an unprecedented downturn in the State's overall economy and amid drastic reductions in inflows into the State's coffers. As a component of State spending, public education still consumes the largest portion of the State budget. In my discussions with members of the General Assembly, I have not found a single instance where a legislator is pleased with the cuts endured by the K-12 system. Governor Deal has stated publicly that he is anxious to return State funding back to reasonable and traditional levels.  As a Representative, I will welcome the opportunity to revisit and hopefully restore K-12 funding levels as the economy improves.

: The State of Georgia has cut to the bone, and we cannot sacrifice our future for a few more cuts to education. We need to improve our education system and results in test scores and have better preparation for our students. We need to allow our local systems to be more hands on with the schools in their districts without bureaucrats in Atlanta or Washington telling them what to teach and how to teach it.

: I am confident that, with few exceptions, Georgia is funding its schools adequately.  However, teacher furloughs, lack of science labs, and other needs indicate a failure to appropriate money for the basics.  Perhaps we have too much administration cost.  It contributes to the actual education of students very little, but costs a great deal.  Re-prioritizing the money that the state spends will be a key to improving the quality of students.  We must get back to the basics so that students can confidently develop their skills further after high school. Changing priorities also means that we need to focus on technical education, even in high school. A liberal arts education is not necessary for everyone, yet our schools teach to that goal. Helping students be the best they can be is what we must do.  Some students are not interested in college, and public education should target them for careers that they want.

: Let's look at a state program called Graduation Coaches. The coaches have been placed in HS and Middle S. to help increase the high school graduation rate of our students. Have these coaches been effective? What data does the state have to show the positive impact this program has on the graduation rate in Georgia? If the program is not effective then it would be better to replace the coaches with a teacher to help keep down class sizes.

Up until 2009 the State of Georgia provided scholarships for teachers to apply for the National Board Certification process. Statistical data proves these NBPT teachers were having great success improving test scores and more. Why did we abandon this nationally successful program?
 
The list is long. I will need more than the 300 words we were allowed to use in our answers today. We need to look a whole lot closer at the level of state support for public education and make the necessary changes to improve our State school system.

Question 3: If state funding for K-12 education continues to shrink, how should schools in the 113th District adjust?

: Local boards of education are best equipped and prepared to determine how to adjust to reduced funding levels.  What response is best suited for one school system, or even one school, will vary between systems and individual schools throughout our area.  The last thing we need is for Atlanta to tell a school system, "You are receiving less State funding, and here's how you need to adjust to that reduced level of funding".

: We have great schools in the 113th, and I will make it one of my top priorities to prevent further cuts in education at the state level. It would be far too easy to give some flip response of "they can just make do with what the state mandates" but I strongly support Georgia's teachers, schools, and students. What may be the right solutions for schools in Oconee County may not be correct solutions for schools in Clarke, Oglethorpe or Morgan counties. So more local control would be my prescription for shrinking state budgets, but only after fighting hard to keep that funding in place.

: Obviously, local jurisdictions cannot just continue to increase taxes to make up for state funding.  However, they can increase efficiencies by reducing nonessentials, including trimming administration wherever possible and even curriculum as they focus on the basics.  Individuals are having to do with less; the schools, to some extent, will have to do likewise.  But again, this statement does not mean that students will suffer; actually, this time of financial challenges may offer us an opportunity to achieve more in education.

We need creative thinking in this area. There are already business-school partnerships, and we can increase these.  Businesses need qualified employees; they have a self interest in funding certain programs, equipment, and teachers.  School systems and individual schools can appeal to community charities and other organizations with strong commitments to education.  The Rotary Club, chambers of commerce, and others come to mind.  These groups can raise money, awareness, and even volunteers to come into our public schools with assistance of various kinds. And many folks are often seeking meaningful work to do after retirement.  Schools could use their help in doing teaching and non-teaching tasks, freeing up skilled teachers and other personnel to do what only they can do.

Education is everyone's business. With local leadership, more participation can lighten the financial burden of the local schools.

: We must not allow state funding for k-12 education to shrink. To grow Georgia, we must first do whatever is necessary to improve our system of education. Our local school boards have worked miracles adjusting their budgets to state cuts.


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