John Barge: Education was his way out

John Barge found that school offered an escape from his troubled home life and meager circumstances.

At 9, he was cutting lawns and putting the income toward bare necessities for his family – clothes, shoes and groceries.

Breakfast might be popcorn. Dinner, French fries. Sandwiched between was the free lunch that his school served to children from low-income families.

“I did well in school because I enjoyed being there, and I knew if I continued doing well, I could go to college. So I decided early on education was going to be my ticket,” said Barge, a newcomer to politics who just became Georgia’s 21st state school superintendent.

The 44-year-old Smyrna native and Kingston resident takes charge at the Georgia Department of Education as some local school districts struggle to make payroll and all are on edge waiting for the governor and lawmakers to settle on state budgets that could mean big cuts.

At the same time, the pressure’s on to boost student achievement and to parlay a $400 million federal Race to the Top grant into positive and lasting results.

Barge wasn’t initially keen on Georgia applying for the grant, saying it could open the door to federal intrusion in a state issue. Yet he’s the one likely to be judged by its success or failure, said Bettye Raye, superintendent of schools in Social Circle and vice chair of Barge’s transition team.

“Yes, he will have a deputy over that, but I can tell you from sitting in my seat, if it doesn’t go well, he’ll be the one they are looking at.”

Teachers’ groups are waiting to see how he responds to a number of issues, from complaints about the new tougher math curriculum to the emphasis on standardized testing.

“He is coming in at a tough time,” said Calvine Rollins, president of the Georgia Association of Educators. “But I’d like to go on the record as saying he is up to the task."

Barge comes to the job with 20 years of experience in education, including five as a classroom teacher, five as an assistant principal and one as a principal, all in the Rome area.

He dedicated his Ph.D. dissertation to his mother, whom he credits with raising five boys in tough circumstances and calls his "best teacher."

"What she taught me was about life and the way she lived her life," Barge said.

He said his father was an alcoholic who left the family for a year, without a word, when he was in elementary school. His father died at 46 when Barge was 18.

Barge's mother, Norma Watts, said her youngest son is "a sweetheart" who "always did well in school, won awards and made me proud."

He was drawing a regular paycheck by 15, first at a Dairy Queen and then at a Smyrna sporting goods store.

"If he could make a buck, he would," his mother said.

He also loved baseball and was so anxious to play that, at 7, he passed himself off as 8 to meet the age requirement, Mrs. Watts said.

She said her husband would show up at John's football and baseball games drunk.

"But he took care of us. The Lord provides," Mrs. Watts said. "I really hate that John has the memories of childhood that he does. I was thinking maybe I had screened the boys from it."

Barge finished high school in the top 5 percent of his class when he was 17. Scholarship offers were waiting from seven colleges, including Berry College in Rome, which recognized him in 2005 as distinguished alumni of the year.

After college, he thought he'd turn his experience on his high school and college yearbook staffs into a career with a yearbook company. But after a year, he opted to go into education.

"My faith had a tremendous piece to play in that," Barge said. "I felt called to work with kids -- to help them understand it doesn’t matter where you come from, what you’ve been through, what color you are or what hand you are dealt, it’s what you do with it. Education can be the great equalizer."

His three advanced degrees were obtained by going to school at night, working in the day. He and his wife, Loraine, were married about a year when they took on raising a brother's two children for about five years. They went on have one daughter, Emma, now 14.

After teaching for a few years, Barge said he decided he could expand his sphere of influence by going into school administration. He spent a year at the state Department of Education, but most recently worked in Bartow County public schools as director of secondary education.

His boss there, Superintendent John F. Harper, said Barge believes in "the importance of good classroom instruction and understands that this is the level at which academic improvement must happen.

"His personality supports his ability to be able to work well with all those he serves.  I view him as a servant leader," Harper said.