School Board Candidates Get Educated at Forum
By Julie Hubbard, The Macon Telegraph, Ga.
Jun. 27–As many as 300 new school board members will likely be elected to seats across Georgia in the July primary and November general elections, said Sis Henry, Georgia School Boards Association executive director.
Most of those candidates are “lay people” with no background in education other than once attending a public school, Henry said.
The school boards group and the Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education stopped in Macon on Monday to give school board and legislative candidates an education policy 101, an effort to impart nonpartisan education research and data as the candidates make platforms and campaign.
The stop in Macon was the seventh in a series of 11 forums for candidates across the state.
“It’s important these leaders understand early on school finance, policy, school law, role and responsibility and board ethics,” Henry said. “Some will get elected, and some not, but hopefully what they get is accurate information so when they are out there (campaigning) and making promises, some of what they say, they can deliver.”
Since pre-K programs, K-12 and secondary education make up 56 percent, or $18 billion, of the state’s budget for 2007, “generally all candidates are interested in education,” Henry said.
Experts discussed the economics of education, governance, accountability and the state’s education work force and held a session just for school board candidates.
About 16 legislative and school board candidates from the midstate attended Monday.
Tony Sellier was intrigued to see how much of the state budget is earmarked for education and how funding is distributed to systems on a student enrollment formula. Sellier, a Crawford County farmer, is running as a Republican for the District 136 House of Representatives seat, vacated by Rep. Robert Ray, D-Fort Valley.
“Some don’t understand the depth and ramifications of education. This has brought it together for me,” Sellier said.
Kay Whitley, a retired Peach County Schools finance director, is running for the at-large Peach County Board of Education seat and said she wanted to learn other aspects of education rather than finances, an area she’s already familiar with.
She wanted to study more of the state accountability and testing issues, she said.
“As a school board member, you have to have expertise in all areas, not just finance,” Whitley said.
Becky Burgess, 29, a Republican running for House District 137 who attended Monday, said she wasn’t aware of the state’s teacher attrition rate: 34 percent of teachers leave the profession within their first five years. Presenters said teacher attrition costs the state $82 million a year.
Steve Dolinger, president of Georgia Partnership, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that helps shape policy and education reform, said Monday issues with education are complex now with federal No Child Left Behind laws, funding formulas and student demographics.
“This is our effort to go across the state of Georgia to help anyone running for office, House, Senate or school board, to better understand the issues with education as they get their platforms together and start their campaigns,” he said.
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Copyright (c) 2006, The Macon Telegraph, Ga.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
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