Mike Buck
Age: 54
Occupation: chief academic officer, Georgia Department of Education
Political experience: none
Family: married (Joy); two daughters (Anna and Christina) and a son (Dylan)
The job: State Superintendent of Schools
Who selects the state superintendent? In Georgia, the state superintendent of schools is an elected position, with the term expiring every four years. It is a partisan position, meaning voters in the November general election will choose a Republican or Democrat.
What does he or she do? Like local superintendents, the state superintendent is tasked with enforcing all the rules and regulations approved by the State Board of Education. For example, the new Common Core standards were approved by the state board, not the superintendent (although current Superintendent John Barge supports them). He can come up with his own ideas and submit them to the state board for approval, but ultimately it's his job to make sure school districts are following the rules, and to revoke state funding if it's spent inappropriately.
What are the qualifications? The superintendent doesn't have to be an educator but is required to have a four-year college degree.
How many employees does the superintendent oversee? Technically, the superintendent only hires five senior positions in the Department of Education without the approval of the state board, but the superintendent does have a say in how the department, which has about 600 positions, is organized and functions. He also oversees a $9.6 billion state and federal k-12 budget (most of which flows to school systems), and he has the power to suspend a county school superintendent for bad behavior.
How much does the job pay? Barge, the current superintendent, earns about $127,500 a year.
How are members of the state Board of Education selected? The State Board of Education is made up of 14 members (one from each congressional district) appointed by the governor for a seven-year term.
Mike Buck depicts himself as a businessman’s bureaucrat, a career educator who goosed Georgia’s graduation rates by collaborating with industry to change classroom standards.
But in many ways Buck, a Republican, is running a campaign that flies in the face of the conservative playbook: He wants to spend more money, not less, on public employees; he embraces the Common Core standards that have attracted growing opposition, especially from the tea party; and he thinks the people at the Georgia Department of Education — some refer to them derogatorily as "educrats" — are worth the tax dollars they cost.
“What I have seen is a group of dedicated individuals doing their best,” he said at a recent debate against GOP challenger Richard L. Woods.
The two survived a crowded May primary election and are heading for a runoff July 22.
Buck, 54, has been an educator for more than three decades, starting as a physical education teacher and athletic coach in Oglethorpe County and then Columbia County, where he rose to principal. He got a doctorate and moved on to Rome City Schools as a principal and, ultimately, assistant superintendent. In that role he hired John Barge, who then won election as state superintendent and, in 2011, hired Buck as Georgia’s chief academic officer.
Despite that relationship, Buck does not list an endorsement from Barge on his campaign Website. When asked about this, Buck told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he hadn't asked Barge for one. "He was in the midst of his own campaign," Buck explained.
Buck won’t say it, but Barge could be a political liability. Barge ran what many viewed as a quixotic, and ultimately unsuccessful, campaign for governor against incumbent and fellow Republican Nathan Deal. That chilled relations between the education department and the governor’s office, and observers say the ill will could infect a Buck administration.
“It’s hard to see, if he is elected, that that relationship would improve,” said Nancy Jester, a Dunwoody Republican who was bumped from the superintendent’s race in the May primary.
Buck acknowledges this. “We have to build bridges with the governor’s office,” he said at that debate with Woods, which was televised by Georgia Public Broadcasting on Sunday.
Buck supporters say he is a collaborator, though. “I think he can work with the governor and the Legislature,” said state Rep. Brooks Coleman, a Republican from Duluth. Buck has a “vision” for improving schools and can “rally the troops” behind it, said Coleman, a former teacher and school administrator who chairs the House education committee.
Buck's vision includes continued collaboration with business and industry to align curriculum with jobs and to recruit companies. He oversaw the establishment of Georgia's college and career readiness program, which requires high school students to pick an academic "pathway" toward a career or college. He said it's given bored students a reason to remain in school. The state's graduation rate, low by national standards, has been ticking up.
He also wants more money for education. The state superintendent does not control the budget, but Buck said he said he would lobby for a larger share of tax revenue to hire more teachers and school police, and to boost pay. “I need to forge relationships,” Buck said, “so that we start viewing education as an investment, not an expense.”
His opponent, Woods, is also a former educator, and they are on the same side on some issues, such as charter schools (neither supported the 2012 state constitutional amendment for charter schools). But Woods opposes much much of what Buck has helped to implement, including Common Core, which conservatives are increasingly turning against.
That’s a potential vulnerability for Buck, said Republican political campaign consultant Todd Rehm. But the Republican Party hasn’t been all that engaged in the race, Rehm said, so PTA e-mail networks and local superintendents’ opinions may count for more.
Since neither candidate raised more than $27,000 as of June, a pittance for a statewide race, the election will be shaped by regular folk, said Rehm, editor of GaPundit.com. "But the grassroots are roots that grow in the educational yard and not in the Republican Party yard." And Buck has been playing in the educational yard, meeting with school leaders around the state while his boss was busy with his run for governor.
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