The Atlanta Journal-Constitution interviewed Richard Woods in his hometown of Tifton the morning after the election. Here are some excerpts.
Q: What’s the first order of business?
A: Right now, we're looking at the transition. We'll have a full evaluation of the department itself and we'll look at personnel. Right now, we'll meet with the governor, state school board and assemble as a team and look at setting priorities. We'll look at the process of what we can actually accomplish and what we have direct control over … It's a little bit of unknown territory for myself but we've been in contact with some folks, so I think we'll have a smooth transition."
Q: The Quality Basic Education formula is going to be a big issue. Do you have any thoughts about how you’d like to see it changed?
A: One of the things I'd like to do is get maximum flexibility for our local school systems so they can adjust. One of the things I found out with the old QBE formula is that it was more money driven. How can I get the money? But I'm afraid it did not meet the education needs. Our funding has to address student needs and student performance. At times, we really wasted a lot of money.
Q: Will that result in a lot of districts getting less money? A lot of districts won’t be happy.
A: I'm not saying cutting. I'm saying let's look at how we're allowed to spend the money, which, hopefully, will mean more efficiency."
Q: You’ve talked a lot about literacy. How does that work to improve literacy?
A: I think it involves even before a child enters the public school system, let's reach out to the parents. I've already talked to some nonprofit groups to reach out to parents to put books in the hands of kids and also making parents aware of how to teach … Maybe, instead of having social studies class, you read about social studies. That becomes part of the literacy component for those kids who need that."
Q: What’s your vision for Common Core? Will you try to get rid of it or will you tweak it?
A: "What I found out on the campaign trail is Common Core means different things to different people. Governance is an issue. Making sure that we as a state have absolute control of our education system, just because we don't want to get into anything that's rigid. Each school system in each district needs to have flexibility. The standards themselves, I want to have a thorough review of the standards. Math is something that we have got to address. That's 50 percent of our Common Core standards. There's a lot of unhappiness with that and so we'll tackle those issues … It's not something we'll rush, because we've been through too much and perhaps too fast."
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