Democrat Jason Carter picked up the endorsement of a key teachers group Wednesday as he tried to solidify support from educators in his race against Gov. Nathan Deal.
The Atlanta state senator said support from the Georgia Association of Educators will help mobilize teachers and their families to his camp as the fight over the state's 180,000 educators heats up. Deal has also been trying to curry favor with educators as November nears, including a back-to-school note praising their "noble" line of work.
Carter has sought to seize on austerity cuts to Georgia’s education funding formula that have led some districts to furlough and cut workers. He is also trying to tap into discontent among teachers and other state workers over changes to health insurance plans that have led to rising premium rates.
“The attitude toward educators over the last several years has been incredibly disappointing to me,” Carter said. “You’ve watched as the profession has been denigrated, as they’ve been left out of the political discussion.”
The governor has offered more modest education proposals, including a push to rewrite Georgia's complicated school funding formula and a pledge to grant merit pay increases to top teachers. The governor's wife, Sandra, a former public school teacher, has also visited scores of schools across the state on a campaign to promote literacy.
And at campaign stops and in his dispatch to teachers, the governor heralds a budget this year that included an increase of more than $300 million in k-12 spending.
Carter and other Democrats say spending still falls far short of what the state funding formula requires. Deal and his allies say Carter has failed to specify how he would pay for the increase beyond a state spending audit that he said would reveal a "giant amount of waste."
Deal spokesman Brian Robinson said the governor increased education spending every year he was in office, and he noted that Carter voted for each of Deal’s budget proposals “until he decided to run for governor.”
“In Governor Deal’s second term, he’ll continue to invest all we can into improving education, without resorting to gimmicks or empty promises,” Robinson said.
The GAE's endorsement of the Democrat comes as little surprise, and the governor's campaign said it counts many teacher supporters in its ranks. The GAE endorsed Democrats in the last two election cycles, though it made no endorsement during Gov. Roy Barnes re-election bid in 2002 after he engineered aggressive education reforms.
Sid Chapman, the organization’s president, said the GAE’s 42,000 members have felt marginalized under Deal’s leadership.
“Senator Carter truly wants to make public education our state’s No. 1 priority, not just say so in an occasional opportunity or in an election year, and not just for the headlines,” Chapman said. “Senator Carter believes in true change and the message and the hope of public education.”
The event, held outside Atlanta's Grady High School, also marked a preview of a more aggressive campaign role for Carter's wife, Kate, a former high school journalism teacher at the school. She leads the campaign's teacher outreach movement, but Wednesday marked the first time she talked at length in front of cameras about her husband's campaign.
“They’re going to make the difference in the election,” she said of teachers.
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