Education

Candidates Face Off in Education Forum

September 16th, 2014

The Professional Association of Georgia Educators held a candidate forum Monday. Democratic and Republican nominees for governor and state schools superintendent talked about education.It wasn’t a debate, but there were some fireworks. Republican Gov. Nathan Deal and his Democratic opponent state Sen. Jason Carter sparred over education spending.

Hear the broadcast version of this story.

Carter accused Deal of implementing “Draconian” budget cuts. He said that forced some districts to shorten their calendars.

“It is an incredibly important thing that we keep our school districts at 180 days, and the bottom line is, the reason that we’ve cut those days is because we have a shell game in Atlanta with respect to the budget,” Carter said. “It’s because we do not ever require the politicians there to stand up and say, ‘Yes, I am properly funding our school system.’”

Deal shot back. He said he increased education spending and let districts decide about calendars and furloughs.

“It is not a shell game, folks,” Deal said. “It is a budget that is deliberated in the depth. It is deliberated to the point that people who want to know what’s in the budget have every opportunity to know what’s in the budget.”

Carter has proposed creating a separate education budget so schools will be funded first. Deal questioned the feasibility of the plan.

The candidates for state schools superintendent were up next. They turned away from budgeting and covered teacher evaluations, charter schools, and one of Georgia’s biggest issues, testing.

The state will roll out new tests this year for students in grades 3-12. Republican candidate Richard Woods supports a two-year moratorium on the exams, called Georgia Milestones. He said students shouldn’t take one high-stakes test at the end of the year.

“We need to move that to a more diagnostic approach and allow teachers to take shorter increments and measurements during the course of the year, what I would say would be more in line with a doctor’s physical, so you can measure what’s going on across the board,” he said.

Democratic candidate Valarie Wilson said, if elected, she’ll consult teachers on how to consolidate testing.

“The first thing we need to do is do an inventory of all of the tests: ‘What tests support your instruction in your classrooms and what tests could we do without?’” Wilson said.

Both candidates said kids are tested too much. This is the second time Woods and Wilson have faced each other publicly since becoming their parties’ nominees. It was the first time for Deal and Carter.