John Barge is both Georgia's top education official and a candidate for governor. He is a conservative Republican running against an incumbent GOP governor.
It makes for interesting drama, including this open letter to Gov. Nathan Deal and the Legislature that Barge just issued. Barge speaks a lot to the increasing frustration of rural districts, a voting bloc he is clearly targeting in his campaign.
I asked the governor for a comment to this Barge statement. His spokesman said: "Gov. Deal has increased education spending every year that he has served in office, even as he cut government spending in almost all other agencies. He’s prioritized schools and our children through extremely difficult budget times. As our economy and state revenues continue to grow, Gov. Deal will continue to emphasize education spending, and he will address that in his State of the State address and in his budget, which will become public next week."
By John Barge
Over the last few weeks I have spent time visiting schools in rural Georgia and what I have seen
Is cold weather reason enough to cancel school? My kids are home today from City Schools of Decatur. Today’s school cancelations were blamed on the threat of snow and ice, which did not materialize for most of the metro areas. Despite the cold, I saw many kids roaming downtown Decatur ...
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