Education

Georgia Teacher Advocates Face Two Fights Next Year

December 21st, 2015

Georgia’s teacher advocacy groups are gearing up for two big fights next year.

The first fight is over the reform of how schools get money from the state.

That plan will likely come from Gov. Nathan Deal and would need to go through the state legislature.

Educators are worried Deal’s plan, which likely will include merit-based pay, would make it harder to attract and keep teachers.

The second fight: a plan that, if approved by voters, would allow the state to take over chronically low-performing schools.

Kent McGuire of the Southern Education Foundation, a research group that wants more money invested in public schools, says one way for advocacy groups to defeat that referendum would be to show voters that teacher turnover is high, and that teachers are underpaid and lack resources.

“We would like to make sure that citizens across the state are sufficiently well-informed … that they can again come to a sensible judgment about what’s in the interest of their own kids,” McGuire said.