Ga Conservatives in Action: Kudos to John Barge

Georgia Conservatives in Action applauds Dr. John Barge for pulling out of the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) testing consortium and appreciates Governor Nathan Deal for standing with him in this decision.

In addition, we agree that Dr. Barge is right to delay the new teacher evaluation system,which will not only be tied to statewide merit pay but also affect whether teachers are rehired. Such an unproven system on an unsustainable timeline should not be a mandate of a federal grant. In fact, Georgia should have never signed on to any Race to the Top grant commitments and turned over “enforcement” to the federal government.

Although the latest AJC headline emphasized that Georgia schools may lose $10 million in Race to the Top funds, the fact is that Georgia has to spend the money first before it can ever draw down federal funds. Therefore, Georgia really does not lose one dime by stopping the federally-dictated compensation system as described in the approved grant application. Georgia wisely has not spent the money and therefore does not need the reimbursement.

The bigger message Georgians ought to consider in all this is how federal grants of paltry sums have a strange way of controlling this state’s educational system, despite the fact that Georgia taxpayers pay approximately $13 billion each year for K-12 education. It is insulting for state taxpayers to lose their voice in education policy because our former Executive Branch officials signed onto a federal grant. In fact, it is insulting for our state leaders to be told by federal DOE employees what they must do to abide by the terms of a federal grant, a grant that purports to have the force of law when it was not even sanctioned by Congress in the first place. With due haste, Georgia needs to exit all its Race to the Top commitments and regain our citizens’ sovereignty over education.

Kay Godwin and Pat Tippett
Georgia Conservatives in Action