The state of education on Barge’s watch
John Barge took office in 2011 after a career as a teacher, assistant principal and principal. He also had a stint working in technical and agricultural education for the Georgia Department of Education.
So far, his tenure has seen increases in standardized test scores, a recalculation of the state’s graduation rate, a move to a national core of academic standards and the implementation of a $400 million federal education improvement grant.
Barge has been praised in education circles for arguing for increased funding for schools, but some have strongly criticized his opposition to the charter schools constitutional amendment voters approved in November.
Barge said Georgia’s graduation rate— 67 percent — is unacceptably low; but added that the state is still graduating more students today than it ever has before. Barge has touted Georgia’s status as the only state in the nation that saw improvements on the SAT, the AP, the ACT and the math, reading and science portions of the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
Georgia is adhering to new, more rigorous academic standards now shared by 45 states. Using funds from the $400 million Race to the Top federal education grant, Georgia is also implementing a new evaluation system for teachers and principals. A portion of the grant – the portion tied to the new evaluation system – has been placed on high-risk status by the U.S. Department of Education, which objected to changes Barge has made. Barge said the high-risk designation will likely be removed this year.
Rep. Brooks Coleman, the Duluth Republican who is chairman of the House Education Committee, said Barge has worked with legislators on a system to emphasize college and career readiness and on a new evaluation system for teachers and principals.
“I think he has a vision with where he wants to go,” Coleman said. “I think he’s been very inclusive. I’ve been very pleased.”
KINGSTON — Georgia’s superintendent of schools lives in a single-story, woodframe home here surrounded by five goats, two horses, two dogs and a gray cat.
A Christmas card from Gov. Nathan Deal and his wife is taped to the refrigerator.
“We pray for them,” said John Barge, seated on a couch with Loraine, his wife of 21 years, and his daughter Emma, a 17-year old junior in high school.
Barge’s home is 65 miles from the sound and political fury that is the state Capitol, where the superintendent’s star shines much less brightly today — roughly halfway through his first term in office — than it did two years ago, when he crisscrossed the state at Deal’s hip.
In more ways than one, it has been a bruising two years.
Barge said he expected heat last year when he announced his opposition to the charter schools constitutional amendment so many in his Republican Party were eager to see passed.
What he got, though, was far more than mere heat.
He sparked a raging forest fire of acrimony, contempt and political payback. The House majority whip in his party angrily questioned his honesty in a public letter. There are whispers that Barge could face a primary opponent who will have some powerful and well-connected friends. And, perhaps most ominously of all, Barge’s opposition to the charter schools amendment put him on the wrong side of Deal, a man known in political circles as having a talent for holding a grudge.
In a recent interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, however, Barge said he isn’t stewing in self-pity.
He has seen — up close and way too personal — much nastier fights with much higher stakes. Fights like Loraine’s battle with breast cancer. Fights like a follow-up bout with non-Hodgkins lymphoma.
“This is nothing,” Barge said of the political wilderness he finds himself in, “nothing we can’t handle.”
It is the quiet of his farm, Barge said, that keeps him rooted to this spot even when getting a place closer to the city could bring him more convenience.
The Barge family has lived in Kingston for the past eight years, long before John Barge got into politics after a career as a teacher and school principal.
In February of 2009, Barge, a lifelong Republican, was about to announce his entrance into politics.
He had spent his life in education, he said, and wanted to bring practical experience to the job of superintendent. Loraine, however, got a grim diagnosis from her doctor.
“Back in 2009, she was diagnosed with breast cancer,” Barge said. “I put off any type of announcement. Didn’t even consider it while we went through it.”
Loraine Barge had an aggressive form of cancer. She would undergo nine months of chemotherapy. Barge curtailed his travel to help his wife.
By December of 2009, doctors declared her cancer-free.
Two months later, John Barge joined the race for superintendent and won handily.
Not long afterward, however, Loraine’s health troubles returned.
During follow-up visits, doctors told her they were concerned about her enlarged spleen, which had to be removed in February of 2012, when she was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma, a type of blood cancer.
Now, Loraine is again on the road to recovery. “She’s getting stronger,” Barge said. “She’s an amazingly strong woman.”
A year ago, Republicans in the General Assembly backed an amendment to the state constitution that would make clear the state’s power to authorize charter schools.
At first, Barge was silent on it. As the debate heated up, he decided to take a public position.
The day he announced his opposition, he had a face-to-face meeting with Deal, who, like other amendment supporters, saw it as a way to get more charter schools, which, the thinking goes, would help improve the state’s education system.
“I wanted to give him the professional courtesy of saying, ‘Here are the reasons why I don’t agree and that I can’t support it,’” Barge said he told Deal.
Barge said he opposed the amendment because he believed it to be an unnecessary expansion of government that would be too costly at a time when school systems across the state were financially strapped.
His fellow Republicans, however, disagreed. Vocally. Angrily.
House Majority Whip Edward Lindsey, R-Atlanta, told Barge that he was “selling out the children of Georgia.”
BJ Van Gundy, second vice chairman of the Georgia GOP and a current candidate for party chairman, was even more direct in e-mails to Barge’s spokesman, Matt Cardoza, and in a follow-up email to Barge himself.
“You let him know that I couldn’t be more disappointed…in his idiocy,” Van Gundy wrote to Cardoza. “I’m sorry. Did I say disappointed. I meant PISSED!”
Van Gundy closed the email with a threat. “After November…I will be working hard to recruit someone to run against John.”
Van Gundy repeated that threat to Barge. “I’ll be doing what I can to make you toast in 2014,” Van Gundy wrote.
Reached last week, Van Gundy said he wishes he had used different language in the emails to Cardoza and Barge, which were obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution through a records request. But Van Gundy said he stands by his disappointment in Barge, whom he said told voters that he backed the creation of a charter schools commission.
“I think it was bad for him to make promises and not keep them,” Van Gundy said.
Barge said he does support charter schools but believed the process in place to authorize them was sufficient.
The charter school issue put Barge at odds with others in his party even as it earned him the respect of Democrats.
“Anybody can lead when everybody’s with you,” said state Sen. Emanuel Jones, D-Decatur, adding that the governor’s office and school choice groups were firmly behind the amendment. “John went against all of that. To me, that’s the definition of political leadership.”
Monday, during a press conference to announce a reading initiative, John Barge introduced Deal as “a champion of education.”
Their cordial interaction seemed in no way forced. Deal thanked Barge “for that kind introduction,” and later said the schools chief “is doing a great job.”
“He and I have a great working relationship,” Deal said.
In addition to the charter schools amendment, Barge and Deal clashed over who should oversee implementation of the $400 million Race to the Top federal education grant program.
Deal suggested one person for the job, but Barge hired another. Dueling letters from the men became public.
Barge said he and the governor do get along well. They have conversations from time to time on education issues and pledge to work together for the good of the state.
But Barge has heard the rumors that some in the GOP, perhaps even Deal, would back a primary opponent if Barge seeks re-election next year.
A primary opponent would likely attempt to capitalize on Barge’s acceptance of a $7,000 per year auto stipend even though it had been discontinued in 2006.
Barge said he was unaware it had been discontinued.
The State Accounting Office told Barge’s office late last month that the superintendent can’t accept the stipend, which Barge said he will no longer accept.
Even if the stipend issue is the first blow in a looming primary fight, Barge said he’s not worried about his own prospects.
He said he wants to press on with his work in Georgia.
“When you take the political turmoil and all the stuff we went through last year, yeah, you think in your mind: ‘Is this really worth it?’” Barge said. “But when I go out and visit schools and I hear teachers and I hear principals and I hear superintendents say, ‘We are so glad you’re there. We are so glad to have a superintendent who finally understands. Please keep up the good work.’ It makes having to endure some of the other stuff manageable. Doesn’t make it easy, but I can certainly stand it.”
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