Alisha Thomas Morgan
Age: 35
Occupation: member of the Georgia House of Representatives
Political experience: member of the House since 2003
Education: BA (2003) in sociology and drama, Spelman College
Family: daughter (Lailah)
The job: State Superintendent of Schools
Who selects the state superintendent? In Georgia, the state superintendent of schools is an elected position, with the term expiring every four years. It is a partisan position, meaning voters in the November general election will choose a Republican or Democrat.
What does he or she do? Like local superintendents, the state superintendent is tasked with enforcing all the rules and regulations approved by the State Board of Education. For example, the new Common Core standards were approved by the state board, not the superintendent (although current Superintendent John Barge supports them). He can come up with his own ideas and submit them to the state board for approval, but ultimately it's his job to make sure school districts are following the rules, and to revoke state funding if it's spent inappropriately.
What are the qualifications? The superintendent doesn't have to be an educator but is required to have a four-year college degree.
How many employees does the superintendent oversee? Technically, the superintendent only hires five senior positions in the Department of Education without the approval of the state board, but the superintendent does have a say in how the department, which has about 600 positions, is organized and functions. He also oversees a $9.6 billion state and federal k-12 budget (most of which flows to school systems), and he has the power to suspend a county school superintendent for bad behavior.
How much does the job pay? Barge, the current superintendent, earns about $127,500 a year.
How are members of the state Board of Education selected? The State Board of Education is made up of 14 members (one from each congressional district) appointed by the governor for a seven-year term.
Alisha Thomas Morgan is accustomed to winning elections.
At age 23, she ran for and won a seat in the Georgia House of Representatives. The Spelman College graduate then won re-election race after re-election race, five in all, stamping herself as a star in her Democratic Party. Now, Morgan is seeking to become Georgia school superintendent.
But there are rocks in Morgan’s path to statewide office. Her opponent in the July 22 runoff, former City Schools of Decatur school board chairwoman Valarie Wilson, got more votes than Morgan in the May 20 primary. And much of the party apparatus — elected officials and their backers, unions, teacher groups — is supporting Wilson.
Morgan’s central argument for election is that state superintendent is a political job best done by someone with good relationships with legislators who determine how much money school districts get each year. Many of those who serve with Morgan in the Legislature, however, are backing her opponent.
“I love Alisha to death,” said state Rep. Walter Mosby, an Atlanta Democrat who was part of the House’s 2003 freshman class that included Morgan. “I think Valarie is a better choice.”
Morgan, 35, has raised eyebrows – and the considerable ire – of some in her party by supporting school-choice options like charter schools. The Austell Democrat raised more than $30,000 from school-choice people and groups for the primary.
Two years ago, she supported a proposed amendment to Georgia’s constitution, which clarifies the state’s authority to create charter schools. A largely Republican coalition of politicians and groups portrayed it as a way to make sure parents in struggling traditional public schools had alternatives. Democrats said the amendment was misleading, unnecessary and opened the door to yet more state funding diverted from traditional public schools.
Rather than stay on the sidelines as a nasty battle raged, Morgan joined the fight, making speeches and holding press conferences where she denounced the performance of the state’s public school system as inadequate.
The amendment passed with a solid majority of support. But that may turn out to be a Pyrrhic victory for Morgan.
Many of her fellow Democrats say they don’t believe traditional public education is helped by giving parents more ways to pull their children out of it. And they are wary of school-choice groups like StudentsFirst, which has endorsed Morgan.
“I don’t have the level of trust in those systems and those entities that she has that they will lead to answers,” Mosby said.
State Rep. Simone Bell, an Atlanta Democratic who has served in the House with Morgan since 2009, is managing Wilson’s campaign. Liz Flowers, the executive director of the Georgia Senate Democratic Caucus, is handling Wilson’s press relations.
Another Democrat backing Wilson, state Sen. Vincent Fort, D-Atlanta, has asked for the return of previous campaign donations he made to Morgan. Last week, Fort took to Facebook to rip her, listing reasons “no Democrat should vote for Alisha Thomas Morgan.”
Fort’s poking, and the view that she has abandoned her party’s principles, has occasionally gotten under Morgan’s skin. During a recent candidate forum, when a questioner told her “many in the black community feel your agenda has changed,” she shot back: “If some people tell lies long enough, then some people will believe them.”
For the most part, though, Morgan is smiling and serene, reminding voters of her dozen years in elected office.
“You know me,” she says at campaign forums. “You know my heart.”
Morgan also reminds voters that she has skin in the education game: Her daughter, Lailah, is an elementary school student.
While her support for school-choice options has drawn political heat, Morgan has not taken a single step away from the kitchen.
In an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, she said she supports a program that provides a state tax credit for those who donate money used for private school tuition scholarships. Many Democrats have criticized the program as a sort of voucher system that deprives the state of revenue that might be spent on traditional public schools.
“What is in the best interest of the child?” Morgan said. “In my mind, if these scholarships are providing an excellent education for these students, why would we take that away from them? It hasn’t touched the Department of Education’s budget one bit.”
Morgan also differs from Wilson and others in her party who argue that public education would improve in Georgia with more state funding.
“Public education is working for a lot of kids,” Morgan said. “Public education is broken for a lot of kids. I don’t think money is the reason. I think adults are the cause because we argue about tax-credit scholarships. We argue about where money is going. We have some good examples that, if you just throw more money at the problem, it’s not going to fix it.”
Morgan then noted the comparatively high level of per-pupil spending in Atlanta Public Schools and its low graduation rate.
“You can’t tell me that money is the issue,” Morgan said. “It’s just not.”
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