Money is usually the mother’s milk of politics, but it didn’t mean diddly in the Georgia school superintendent’s primary Tuesday night.
The best-funded candidate in the entire race, Republican businessman T. Fitz Johnson, fizzled, finishing sixth in a field of nine GOP candidates. State Rep. Alisha Thomas Morgan, the Austell Democrat who received more than $30,000 in contributions from school choice supporters, came in second behind Valarie Wilson, the former City Schools of Decatur school board member who had the backing of traditional public education forces.
Morgan raised twice as much money as Wilson through March, according to campaign finance reports.
Meanwhile, Mike Buck, the chief academic officer for the state Department of Education, finished first on the Republican side despite being vastly out-spent. He’ll face longtime Irwin County educator Richard L. Woods, whose fundraising prowess also paled in comparison to that of Johnson. Woods was an unsuccessful candidate for state superintendent four years ago.
Education experience, not a fat campaign war chest, appeared to matter most of all Tuesday night. Three of the four candidates in the runoff can point to direct experience in the classroom or on a school board.
The one candidate who can’t make such a claim, Morgan, is pointing instead to her willingness to challenge what she has described as the failed status quo of public education.
Her runoff against Wilson promises to be divisive for the Democratic Party, with some Democrats backing Morgan as an experienced legislator who is ready for the jump to statewide office and others opposing her as a political heretic who embraces Republican principals that would harm public education.
The candidates’ post-primary statements were a preview of their plan of attack in the runoff.
“Our schools are under attack by status quo traditionalists who have no genuine interest in making our public education system work for all children,” Morgan said. “Defending the status quo means being unconcerned that almost 30 percent of our students are not graduating from high school. Defending the status quo means being content with the alarming number of our third-graders who are not reading on grade level. Anyone who had any hope for seeing our children succeed would be interested in trying innovative ideas to fix our system, because what we’ve been doing just hasn’t been working.”
Wilson intimated that Morgan’s support for school choice options like charter schools opens the door to private company management — and private company profits — in public education. While charter schools are public schools, many are overseen by for-profit organizations.
“This contest is now a clear choice between protecting public education and providing an excellent education for all Georgia families, or gutting public education for corporate profit,” Wilson said. “This will be an election, not an auction. Massive money poured into this race by groups committed to privatizing our public schools must not prevail over Georgia students and their futures.”
The Democratic runoff will provide plenty of political heat, but they won’t exactly be playing pattycake on the GOP side.
Most of the candidates who oppose the national set of academic standards called Common Core were swept aside Tuesday night. But Woods will bring his opposition to them to the runoff against Buck, who supports the standards.
“This will continue to be a major issue in the runoff,” Woods said. “Mr. Buck made it clear during the televised debate that he fully supports Common Core and did not express any concerns with the standards, whereas a central part of my campaign platform is “Common Sense Over Common Core.” I raised concerns about Common Core when I ran in 2010. My position remains unchanged.”
Buck said he won’t run away from his support for Common Core.
“I am humbled and grateful for those who voted and helped Team Buck move on to the runoff,” he said. “I look forward to continuing to share my message of character, credentials, and commitment. Our schools need a leader with all three of these qualities, so I ask for voters to consider these when voting in July.”
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