Lately, Gov. Sonny Perdue has been much in the news, whether on the necessary but heavy-handed CRCT investigation or doing a victory lap about winning a Race to the Top federal funding grant.
While the money is sorely needed, reading the state’s 200-page RTTT application, one is struck by the overly rosy depiction of education achievements over the past eight years and an equally rosy prediction about how quickly complex items like a student information system and a statewide evaluation system can be developed and implemented.
With less than 50 business days before the next governor and next state school superintendent open up and staff their transition offices, our current leadership team isn’t going to get much done before handing the ball off to the new leaders.
Depending upon who those new leaders are, RTTT could get a rude or lukewarm reception. Time will tell and right now, with more questions than answers, the phrase “Be careful what you wish for” comes to mind.
And let’s be clear — $400 million over four years isn’t going to mitigate the damage that has been done to public education during the Perdue administration.
The sad news is that the educational legacy of this governor is going to be one of going backwards.
We’ve shortened our school year, furloughed teachers, increased class size, cut enrichment programs, decimated professional learning for teachers and done a number of other things to set our public k-12 education system back by decades.
And no — it isn’t simply because of the current economic crisis. Education was already on its financial knees before the economic tsunami hit us.
In addition to giving us the phrase “Sonny Money,” the $100 gift cards for teachers, this governor also gave us the phrase “austerity cuts.” These were made to the education budget in good economic years and bad throughout his two terms and now have reached a cumulative total in excess of $3 billion in austerity cuts.
Pretty austere — just ask your local school superintendent.
While the administration will tell you they increased education spending, what increased was funds for more students (we were growing at a rate of 30,000 students per year until recently), more teachers for those students and increases on the state salary schedule. Funds in most other categories have been cut or overrun by inflation during the past decades.
He also gave us Investing in Education Excellence or IE2. When he announced this initiative, he said it was to update our ancient funding formula, the QBE, for the 21st century.
Can you imagine running your household on a budget developed in 1985? That’s how the state funds our schools and it shortchanges local systems about $1 billion each year. At the 11th hour the IE2 group quietly folded its tents and snuck out of town.
But not before leaving us another buzzword — “flexibility.” In a colossal “bait and switch,” the governor’s task force got the Legislature to ratify flexible use of existing funds rather than update the formula.
A lot of folks who should have known better sold their souls on the altar of flexibility. Local superintendents across the state are finding it difficult to pay their power bills or purchase textbooks, computers or school buses with flexibility.
Sonny money, austerity cuts, flexibility. No, I don’t think this governor’s education legacy is going to be Race to the Top, though I’m sure he would like it to be.
Allene Magill is executive director of the Professional Association of Georgia Educators.
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