ATLANTA — Republican voters picked two career educators Tuesday to runoff against one another for the state superintendent of schools, while Democrats rejected the career educators in choosing their own runoff contenders.
The GOP offered plenty of non-educators among its nine candidates but settled on Mike Buck, the deputy to current Superintendent John Barge who ran for governor instead of re-election, and Richard Woods, a Tifton school administrator who lost the nomination to Barge four years ago.
With 95 percent of the precincts counted, Buck drew 20 percent of the vote while Woods claimed 17. The large number of candidates almost guaranteed that no one would win a majority and avoid a runoff.
Democrats had three current teachers among their six candidates but favored two former school board members with statewide contacts. Valarie Wilson, head of a small non-profit in Atlanta, took first place with 32 percent of the vote. Denise Freeman, head of a different non-profit, took second with 19.
Wilson had won election to the Decatur City school board and served a term as president of the Georgia School Boards Association where she met colleagues and teachers across the state. The experience earned her the endorsement of the Georgia Association of Educators and informal support of many school-advocacy groups that are prohibited from making official endorsements.
Freeman, a former teacher, had served on the Lincoln County Board of Education and gained her own contacts across the state during three unsuccessful campaigns for political office, twice for Congress and once for secretary of state.
The main issue for the Democrats is ending teacher furloughs and protecting their employment.
“Every time things go wrong, we blame the classroom teacher, but it’s not the classroom teacher who sends money down from Atlanta to make sure that our schools are adequately funded,” Freeman said in a televised debate.
Wilson said at the same event, “I am extremely concerned about the new teacher evaluation system because I believe that evaluation system isn’t fair to teachers.”
For the Republicans, the main point of departure is the multi-state Common Core standards. Buck helped implement them in Georgia and supports keeping them. Woods opposed them in his first campaign and still does.
“It is not the standards that is the problem,” Buck said. “It’s the methodology in how they’re being instructed. They’re solid standards. We need to stay the course.”
Wood said, “Georgia must make sure that it controls its educational destiny.”
The winners of the two runoffs will face each other on the November general election ballot.
Follow Walter Jones on Twitter @MorrisNews and Facebook or contact him at walter.jones@morris.com.
