This Friday is the last day to register to vote in the November elections here in Georgia. If history is our guide, then we’re likely to see low turnout for these midterm elections, but if there were recognition of the impact these elections could have on public education in our state, then perhaps a few more people might show up at the polls on November 4th.
Much of the attention in Georgia has been focused on the U.S. Senate campaigns of Michelle Nunn and David Perdue, and while that election is an important one, the two positions that could have the most immediate and tangible effect on public education are Governor and State Schools Superintendent. For the gubernatorial campaign, you’ve got Nathan Deal and Jason Carter, and for state superintendent, it’s Valarie Wilson and Richard Woods. The Georgia School Boards Association recently published the responses from these candidates (as well as the candidates for Lieutenant Governor) on a number of questions related to public education in Georgia, and you can read those responses and candidate bios here. I’d encourage you to take some time to read what they had to say.
My first reaction was that I was not overly impressed with any of the candidates’ responses to these questions. Though they differ in the level of detail they give in their answers, they all essentially say the same thing when it comes to state education funding (it’s inadequate) and they dance around the political football that the Common Core standards have become. These areas of focus and the candidates’ responses reflect a trend of how education issues are playing out in election campaigns across the country. In many of these races, there’s not a whole lot of honest, meaningful conversation about real education issues—it’s mainly vague language and political pandering, in my opinion. Of course, that’s probably more a commentary on the nature of political campaigns and what gets you elected these days then it is on the ability of any of these candidates to engage in more genuine dialogue.
I saw a glimmer of this hoped-for candor in Jason Carter’s response to a question about whether or not the QBE funding formula needed to be revised: “QBE may be due for revision, and I am not opposed to that. But it cannot be an excuse for shortchanging our education system. We have to commit to funding education at an appropriate level. Period.” And he’s right. The QBE funding formula has been in place for nearly 30 years, and plenty of elected officials—from the Governor’s office to the state legislature—of different political parties have leaned on “the funding formula” as the reason for why state education funding has declined. The reality though is that there have been too few elected officials brave enough to address the root cause of underfunding of schools—the way we prioritize education in our state budget, not just in terms of overall dollars allocated to education in general but making sure the bulk of those dollars get directed right to the classroom rather than dedicated to supporting politically-powerful bureaucracy.
Upon further reflection, I’ve realized that my initial feeling of being underwhelmed by the candidates’ responses to the GSBA questions might have more to do with the questions themselves. They’re mostly focused on the sorts of narrow issues—QBE funding, Common Core, vouchers—that lend themselves to pat answers designed to appeal widely. As an educator, parent, and voter, here’s the question I’m most interested in hearing answers about from these candidates: In your role, what are three specific ways you will work to support students, teachers, and parents in having high-quality schools? What they say to that would greatly influence who gets my vote next month.