Q: Is the person whose last name is Deal on the lottery board related to Gov. Nathan Deal?
—Pat Cornick, Atlanta
A: Simeon Deal is chair of the Georgia Lottery Corp.'s board of directors. He is the governor's cousin, Tandi Reddick, communications director for the Georgia Lottery, told Q&A on the News in an email.
Simeon Deal was appointed to the board in November 2011.
According to the bio included in the appointment announcement, he is a senior project manager with Harland Financial Solutions in Atlanta with more than 30 years of experience in the banking and financial software services industries. He and his family reside in Acworth.
Q: Is cursive taught in Georgia schools?
—Bill Roach, McDonough
A: Cursive writing is included in third and fourth grade ELA (English language arts) standards, a Georgia Department of Education spokesman told Q&A on the News.
In July 2012, handwriting standards that require students to be proficient in cursive were incorporated into the state’s curricula.
A cursive handwriting instruction document provided by the state in 2016 for third and fourth grade teachers notes that classroom instructional plans for how and when to teach cursive writing are developed by local schools or school districts.
“Local districts are free to develop or choose the program that best meets the needs of its students,” the document states.
Fast Copy News Service wrote this column. Do you have a question? We’ll try to get the answer. Call 404-222-2002 or email q&a@ajc.com (include name, phone and city).
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