Teacher vote at center of race

Roy Barnes’ mea culpa tour has lasted more than a year as he begs forgiveness from teachers who helped oust him from the governor’s mansion in 2002.

He’s made TV commercials, posted videos online and spoken to educators around the state, asking for another chance as he seeks to become governor again.

“I apologize,” one of his campaign videos starts out. “I should have slowed down, and I should have reached consensus better and listened better. I think it was the greatest failure of my administration.”

There’s a reason he’s making such a fuss. Georgia has more than 125,000 teachers. Throw in retired educators and hundreds of thousands of family members and friends they could influence, and they make a formidable constituency that could have a big impact on elections.

It’s a group that has been frustrated and angry about pay cuts, furloughs, layoffs and program cuts.

But can any one candidate capitalize on that mood?

Republicans may struggle to win teacher votes because of years of spending cutbacks. Democrats have made big promises to educators, but teachers have heard promises before and are skeptical.

And there’s no incumbent to boot out of office, since Gov. Sonny Perdue is in the final year of his last term.

Tina Harwell, a teacher at Northwest Laurens Elementary School in Dudley, said what teachers want is pretty simple.

“We want somebody in there that is going to stick up for us.”

Candidates have been courting teachers like Harwell for more than a year.

House Minority Leader DuBose Porter (D-Dublin), whom Harwell is backing, has been an unwavering critic of state budget cuts to education. He’s promised to restore the funding.

Another Democratic hopeful, Attorney General Thurbert Baker, last week came out with a proposal to create a Georgia Lottery Bingo game to fund a massive infusion of cash into classrooms. The games would pay for more than 2,700 new teachers a year and big pay raises for educators.

Former Adjutant General David Poythress, another Democratic candidate, has promised teachers that they would be treated as cherished professionals if he’s elected.

Republican candidates may have a tougher time winning teachers over. In addition to presiding over recession-induced budget cuts, some of the leading candidates support school vouchers. Former state Senate leader Eric Johnson has made them a top priority to help parents pay for private schools. Public education groups fear vouchers would siphon money away from public schools.

But that doesn’t mean Republicans aren’t making an effort. John Oxendine, the Republican frontrunner, has a 2-minute video on his Web site assuring teachers that he opposed the furloughs and pay cuts.

“We need to stand up and thank teachers every day for what they do,” Oxendine says.

Another Republican, Nathan Deal, put out a release last week vowing to be honest with teachers.

“Democrats promising teachers a Baker in every kitchen and a Roy’s Royce in every driveway aren’t shooting straight with our teachers,” he said.

It’s difficult to quantify the power of the teacher vote. If every teacher in the state had voted in the last gubernatorial primary, they would have accounted for more than 10 percent of the votes cast. And that’s not counting retired teachers and family members.

Kennesaw State University political scientist Kerwin Swint said Georgia educators don’t vote as uniformly as they might in states with strong teachers’ unions.

“They try [in Georgia]. They get out mailers, they make phone calls and they endorse candidates,” Swint said. “It can sway some races, it is an important vote, but it’s not like a bloc of union votes.”

Teachers tended to lean toward Democrats, Swint said, but that changed in 2002. The largest state teacher group that endorses candidates, the Georgia Association of Educators, made big news that year by not endorsing Barnes. It didn’t endorse Perdue either. In 2006 the group backed Democrat Mark Taylor over Perdue, who won re-election.

GAE isn’t endorsing anyone in the primaries this year. While the Democrats sought the endorsement, only one major GOP candidate, Deal, met with the group.

Barnes’ relationship with teachers is being closely watched this year because of what happened in 2002.

Barnes had the support of many teachers when he won office in 1998 — including the GAE —but a lot of educators felt like he turned on them once he became governor.

He pushed pay raises and higher education spending. But he also initiated a two-year education reform program that left many teachers feeling like he blamed them for low test scores, low graduation rates and other failings. Many said they thought he was arrogant, didn’t listen to their suggestions and didn’t treat them with respect.

While they weren’t the only reason Barnes lost his re-election bid in 2002 to Perdue, teachers were credited with playing a major role.

Many became quickly disenchanted with Perdue. Once in office, he dismantled most of Barnes’ reform plan. But, in part because of two recessions during his tenure, he also made annual “austerity cuts” in the education budget.

Teachers accustomed to annual cost-of-living raises stopped getting them. Those who worked to earn national board certification lost the 10 percent stipends they had received for their extra effort. Scholarships that helped teachers pay to get master’s degrees were eliminated. Local school systems began cutting staff and teachers were forced to take days off without pay.

Gail Tillery, a North Forsyth County High School literature teacher who twice voted for Perdue, said, “Mr. Barnes made us really, really angry. But he did not lay off teachers in droves, he did not furlough us, he did not take away money from our most accomplished teachers. This administration did all of those things.”

Barnes has latched onto that theme. When asked recently about getting teachers back on his side, Barnes responded with one of his trademark wisecracks: “I put Governor Perdue in charge of getting the teachers back for me, and he’s done a wonderful job.”

In one TV ad, he says, “I won’t furlough teachers. I won’t cut the school year in order to pay for special interest tax breaks. I will make smaller classes. I will increase teachers’ pay. I will make education number one.” The question is, do teachers believe him?

Ken Russell, a veteran social studies teacher who will be working at Cartersville High School this year, said some teachers and retired educators remain angry with Barnes.

“There are lots of frustrations with the slate [of candidates],” he said.

“The thing that concerns us is we just don’t feel like we’ve been treated as professionals. We feel like we have been used as scapegoats and used as a quick fix for budget problems. We don’t feel like there has been a true concerted effort to do what’s right for the kids of Georgia.”

Lori Moran, a teacher at Whitewater Middle School in Fayetteville, wrote in an e-mail, “The teachers looked toward Perdue, who promised us the moon. We got cheese. I am very dubious of Barnes and his sudden support of teachers. It sounds like the same ole, same ole.”

But David Schutten, president of the Organization of DeKalb Educators, said he’s backing Barnes. Schutten said Barnes has the ability to win the general election over the Republican nominee.

“There are some people who are still angry at Roy,” he said. “Other people realize we might have been better off with Roy than with Sonny and some of the things that Republicans have done.”

Many teachers have no memory of the Barnes years.

Professional Standards Commission figures show more than one-fourth of all Georgia teachers have joined the profession since Barnes left office. About half of teachers either were new to the job when Barnes was governor or have started since then.

“You’re going to have some who say, ‘Roy Who?’ ” said Tim Callahan of the Professional Association of Georgia Educators.

He said teachers have been more concerned about immediate issues — layoffs, furloughs, etc. — than about who might be the next governor.

“They’ve been abused for the last eight years. It’s through that lens that they’re going to look at all the candidates.”

Matt Towery, a former Republican lawmaker who runs the political online media and polling firm InsiderAdvantage, doubts that teachers will be the deciding factor in the race. At least not in the July 20 primaries.

“They may get active, but they don’t seem to be active in any one direction,” Towery said. “I think they are going to split in 20 different directions.

“I just don’t think they are going to hold a big grudge against him [Barnes]. After what they’ve been through the last eight years, I think the last thing they have to worry about is Roy Barnes.”