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Nancy’s Plan

Reality Check
The first step is to acknowledge that, while we can point to some successes, our state suffers with the stigma of poor academic performance. We score in the lowest quintile (bottom 20%), in graduation rates. Every state bordering Georgia has a higher rate of graduation. (Click here to see the data.) At the same time our aggregate expenditures on education are in the top ten. (Click here to see the census data on education expenditures.) This is not acceptable.

The talk about accountability often centers on test score and teachers. While there are important metrics to measure in the classroom, we should not concentrate the burden solely there. The executive leadership in districts across our state must also be held accountable for their results with student achievement and financial management. After all, they hire their staff, develop the budget, provide the resources and implement their programs. We need to adopt best practices for measuring district success and accrediting our schools, as is common in other states. (Click here to see how Virginia accredits its schools.) Georgians deserve a quality assurance measurement that is based on outputs not inputs. Georgians should expect their Department of Education to grade the performance of districts in such a way to encourage and reward innovation that produces results and discourage superfluous programs and ideas that show no results.

Less bureaucracy, more classroom
We must combat bureaucracy bloat. We have spent too much money on functions that do not improve the educational lives of our children. We cannot continue to play “budget bucket bingo” and categorize staff in such a way as to avoid caps designed to limit spending outside of the schoolhouse. Georgia has seen a 41% increase in students from 1992 through 2009. During this time, we had a 72% increase in administrators and non-teaching staff. (Click here to read more about this issue.) The concentration of spending in excess of student growth outside the classroom has hurt our teachers, our students and the taxpayers. We must trim bureaucracies and cap administration and non-teaching growth at or below the growth rate of enrollment.

Simplify funding, Improve Disclosure
We must simplify funding, attach it to the child, and improve transparency and disclosure to the citizens of Georgia.

• I want to work with other elected officials in our state to develop and implement a simpler funding method that accrues to each pupil. Our current system is byzantine and requires excessive administrative time to utilize. It is fraught with the potential for errors and manipulation and not easily audited.
• The Georgia Department of Education’s financial data by district is not current. The most recent financial data available is for the 2010-2011 fiscal year. The spending categories are used inconsistently throughout our state and result in inadequate disclosure regarding expenditures. Our state must do better in disclosing timely spending information to citizens. These disclosures should be thorough, timely and easy to read.
• We must enforce spending accountability. We need to invest in success and not buy more failure.

Make Education Relevant
As Lee Iaccoca said, “Passing civilization along from one generation to the next ought to be the highest honor and the highest responsibility anyone could have.” Indeed, education is the “on ramp” to a prosperous and enjoyable life. So many children are deprived of a vision they can see as relevant and achievable; affording them the comforts and happiness associated with a middleclass life. Every child’s vision doesn’t necessarily lead to a 4-year degree but it should lead to work and careers that are satisfying and fruitful. In fact, we now see jobs that require some specialized training have higher average salaries than many requiring a 4-year degree. We must do more than talk about “career readiness” or set up disparate programs. Our graduation rates are telling us that we are doing a poor job making education relevant for many students. If a student who is not college bound can be shown a relevant and achievable skill, they will take the on-ramp. It’s our job to rebuild that ramp.