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Friday, March 23, 2007
How A $3 Million Education Initiative Cost Only $30,000
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Remember all those high-profile election-year education initiatives Gov. Sonny Perdue pushed through the state Legislature last year? Turns out they weren’t as expensive as the governor, who’s now serving his second term, had anticipated.
Take the High Performance Principals program, which was supposed to fix failing schools by luring star administrators to undesirable campuses with $15,000 renewable salary bonuses.
The governor set aside $3 million in the state budget to start the program and touted it in his State of the State address. When the legislation passed, Perdue traveled to Roswell High School to sign the bill in front of 2,500 students, faculty and staff.
Then, after state education officials identified more than 100 worthy principals to mobilize and spread across the state, Perdue invited each and every one to the governor’s mansion for a special meet-and-greet.
So how many of those educators actually took the offer to move to a low-performing school? According to AJC education reporter Kristina Torres, just two — including one who said he was planning to move to his new campus anyway.
Now, before you start thinking this was just some failed political ploy, consider this: Perdue has set aside $2.25 million to recruit more high-performance principals next school year.
