Governor candidates clash on education

By Maureen Downey

For the AJC

SAVANNAH -- Appearances by Democrat and Republican gubernatorial candidates at Friday's conference of state school boards and superintendents show that voters focused on education policy face stark choices in the July primary.

From the simplest question on their first priority to thornier queries on funding, the candidates espoused dramatically different answers in back-to-back panels in front of 600 members of the Georgia School Boards Association.

While all three Democrats -- Roy Barnes, DuBose Porter and David Poythress -- oppose vouchers, their Republican counterparts -- Nathan Deal, Karen Handel and Eric Johnson -- embraced them with varying degrees of enthusiasm. (Of invited candidates who were not there, Thurbert Baker canceled at the last minute and John Oxendine had a scheduling conflict.)

Acknowledging that he was the "long-tailed cat in a roomful of rocking chairs," Johnson said that his outspoken advocacy of vouchers reflected his bedrock faith in free-market principles. Handel was more measured, calling for voucher pilot programs before the state committed fully to giving parents money to underwrite private school tuition. Deal said he voted for vouchers while in the U.S. Congress but in a limited application to the District of Columbia.

Democrats were staunchly opposed to the concept. Poythress made the strongest rebuke, saying, "I will veto anything that looks like a voucher."

At a more fundamental level, the two panels disagreed on how best to cope with the financial tsunami that has caused schools to lay off hundreds of teachers, slash the school year and eliminate programs.

Democrats maintained that eight years of Republican rule have led to a near-fatal underfunding of schools and urged dramatic action to respond to what they called a crisis, including a repeal of tax exemptions to pump more money into local systems.

Republicans were more measured, seeing the financial challenges confronting schools as a byproduct of an economic tailspin that has knocked everyone down. They offered flexibility to individual systems as an antidote rather than promises of new cash.

Barnes said there are now about 200 tax exemptions and some, like the timber land exemption, are crippling school systems. If elected, Barnes said he would seek to suspend tax exemptions for four years "to give us a jump-start and put education back where it should be." Porter vowed to immediately fire the revenue commissioner for indifference to the problem of uncollected sales tax that he says could go a long way to pay for teachers.

But none of the Republicans cited special interest tax exemptions as a contributor to the current financial crisis in schools. Nor did they mention any need to consider a wholesale repeal.

If elected, Johnson said his first education priority would be putting the state back to work.

"That solves a whole lot of problems, including the funding problem," he said. "The second priority would be to look at the funding formula and start a dialogue on vouchers and choice."

Handel and Deal both said they would not rush into any major policy changes upon election. Deal wants a commission to report back to him by July 2011 about reforms to the school funding formula.

Handel said, "I am not going to lay out my legislative agenda here today. But my pledge to you is that I will have your leadership at the table. But I can tell you one thing I won't do: I am not going to have the budget balanced on the backs of teachers and furloughs."

Democrats outlined a more urgent response. On his first day in office, Porter said he would establish the goal of every third-grader reading on grade level and would lower class sizes in the early grades to make it happen. Barnes said his first priority would be to straighten out finances, which he would do by cleaning up the exemptions and improving collections. Poythress said his first priority would be to submit a budget that fully funds education.

Democrats also expressed more concern over a recent Fulton County Superior Court ruling sanctioning a legislature-created Charter Schools Commission that can approve charter schools over the objection of local school boards and redirect local monies to charter schools.

Citing his own support of the original charter school law in Georgia, Porter said, "It has been hijacked and they are using it for a lot of bad purposes ... siphoning public money to something called a charter but is really not a charter school."

Barnes agreed, noting that when he first brought the KIPP charter schools to Georgia, only one district resisted. He said local resistance to charters has been exaggerated. Barnes said if the state wants to approve charter schools over the will of local boards, it can but it ought to pay 100 percent of the revenues to educate the students in those schools.

Handel reiterated her support of charter schools as long as they are held to the same rigor and accountability of traditional public schools. Deal echoed her sentiments, although he said that the untold success stories of Georgia are charter schools that were approved by local boards and are flourishing. Johnson said he voted for and supports the state Charter Schools Commission.

Most of the Democratic firepower was aimed at Johnson for his voucher support. But within the Democratic camp, Barnes was the target. In reference to charges that Barnes rode roughshod over teachers in his first term, Poythress said true leaders listen to people and do not dictate that, "This is what the teacher will be teaching at 9:30 on Thursday morning."

Republicans did not make any veiled references to their Democratic competitors, with the exception of Johnson's comment to the crowd that, "The team here this morning probably wanted to unionize your members and have class sizes of 10."

Both panels had their share of Bible quotes, homespun tales and mentions of parents, wives and children in the teaching field. Handel had the most heartfelt closing statement, telling the audience that it was a strong k-12 education that led to her success after she fled a troubled home situation at age 17 to make her way in the world on her own.

But it was Barnes who drew the biggest applause with his comment that cuts to education spending were returning Georgia to a time "when we let kids out in October to go home and pick cotton. Those jobs were not good then and they are non-existent now."