SWGA Politics

State Superintendent of Schools: An Analysis

Looking at the State Superintendent of Schools race, the numbers are, quite frankly, rather embarassing right now.

Even the incumbent, Kathy Cox, has only raised just under $22,000 in the first six months of the year – and in that, she raised more than twice as much as her nearest competitor.

Some analysis:

Jeff Scott, a Democratic candidate whose day job is as a 8th grade math teacher in extreme northwest GA (Rossville Middle School in Walker County), has raised $10,500. However, $1,000 of that was from a single donation from a medical practice, and the other $9,500 was a personal loan from Scott to his campaign. Of that, he spent $7,500 of it on having his website, JeffScottForGeorgia.com built – his only expenditure so far. Scott is a former member of PAGE and a current member of GAE – and a former Chair of the Democratic Party of Walker County.

Brian Westlake, the other Democratic candidate thus far, is a high school social studies teacher at Gwinnett County’s Berkmar High School. He has raised $5,613.67 so far with no expenditures. Of the $3,880 he has raised in itemized contributions, 55% of it has come from educators of some variety, mostly co workers in Gwinnett County Schools but also including a Tift County teacher and and Irwin County teacher, as well as a psychologist at Emory University and a researcher at Morehouse College. Westlake boasts active membership in the Georgia Association of Educators (GAE), an affiliate of the National Education Association.

Beth Farokhi, the most recent Democrat to announce, has yet to file a disclosure report – but did not declare her intent to run for the office until July 1, 2009 – the day AFTER the last day on these disclosures.

Richard Woods, who is challenging Kathy Cox in the GOP primary, is the curriculum coordinator at Irwin County Elementary School in Ocilla. So far, he has raised $3,979.31 and reports $2,932.92 in cash on hand. Of the $2,074.31 in itemized contributions he has raised so far, only $724.31 of that was from those in the education field, and $400 of that was from a North Carolina teacher. Woods is the school-level representative of the Professional Association of Georgia Educators, PAGE.

Kathy Cox, the current State Superintendent of Schools, has raised $34,706.11 so far in this race, with $12,736.11 coming before January 1, 2009. She is reporting $26,268.91 in cash on hand – roughly 9x that of Woods. Troubling about Cox’s fundraising thus far is that of the $16,900 in itemized contributions reported, nearly 1/3 came from out of state entities, and another third came from entities that stand to benefit from Cox being Superintendent of Schools. $1200 of it came from current State Board of Education members, and only $525 of it came from current K-college teachers.

I haven’t even begun to look at these candidates on the issues yet, though I do hope to sit down with each of them at some point and talk teacher to teacher about their stances and report that back here on SWGAPolitics.com. (For those that don’t know, I am a currently certified teacher – my certification ends in 2011 – who spent one year in the classroom teaching both high school and middle school math before hightailing it out.)

That said, Cox’s major issues are her personal bankruptcy and the various actual issues that have occurred under her watch since 2003 – such as the switch to the Georgia Performance Standards and the various debacles over testing. Of course, she does have the power of incumbency and Woods is going to have to run an extremely tough campaign to oust her in 376 days – which right now, based on these disclosures, he isn’t doing.

Westlake and Scott appear to be much closer in competition, but thus far Westlake has been the better in actual fundraising. Both are members of the Democrat-oriented GAE, so that won’t be a factor here. For those that don’t know, Georgia has two teachers’ groups – by law, they are NOT ‘unions’. GAE tends Democrat, PAGE tends Republican. I personally was a member of PAGE both as an education major and in my teaching career.

Who will emerge as the official nominees in this race? Right now the Democrats really are too close to call, but unless something drastic happens expect Cox to be the GOP nominee. Who will be the next Superintendent of Schools? I’m also going to label that one too close to call for the moment, but the Democrats are going to need to raise more funds and not let Cox’s fundraising get away from within their reach.