At his annual “State of the City” breakfast Wednesday, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed repeated his call to tackle recidivism rates in Fulton County and encouraged the audience to “shake off” the Atlanta Public Schools cheating scandal.
“As of today it’s time for us to shake off the challenges of the APS scandal and get back in the game for Atlanta students,” the mayor said to hundreds of city leaders and business elite.
The mayor said “everybody got burned” by the discovery of wide-spread cheating on standardized tests, which brought negative national attention to the city.
Reed said now is the time to look forward, noting “when we take on the challenge of public education … we take on an issue that is fundamental to the overall health of the city of Atlanta.”
Speaking at his fifth State of the City since taking office in 2010, Reed repeated a well-rehearsed speech about the need to tackle repeat offender rates and said falling crime rates can only help improve the economy. The mayor has made the recidivism problem a key component of his public speeches, particularly during his inaugural address in January when he called for county partners to convene on the issue.
“Crime is at nearly 40 year lows,” he said. “What do you think will happen if those 481 individuals who make up such a large percent of the individuals who cause the most challenges in our environment, actually receive the sentences that they deserve?”
The mayor also delivered an oft-repeated list of successes during his first term, including tackling pension reform, building reserves to more than $130 million and reaching a long-stated goal of 2,000 police officers.
And on the pair of storms that delivered Reed one of the toughest political challenges of his career, followed by a shot at redemption, the mayor told the audience not to feel badly for him.
Reed and Gov. Nathan Deal were widely criticized for their handling of a January system that saw thousands of Atlantans stuck in their cars for hours on the interstate and children trapped in schools overnight. By contrast, the political pair received praise last week for their preparation and response to an ice storm.
In a far lighter mood than he appeared during the height of the weather debacles, Reed joked that he knew the January blast would “be a bad storm when it was named Leon.”
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