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Better Georgia

Firing racist school superintendent Jeremy Spencer

Jeremy Spencer used to work for Georgia’s Department of Education. But after racially charged Facebook posts he made came to light, Better Georgia supporters put pressure on the state superintendent to fire him and it worked. In 2016, it came to light that Spencer held some extremely bigoted beliefs. His Facebook was littered with posts that demean Muslims, imply that non-white students are not able to achieve academic success at the same level as white

Education

Superintendent Woods is looking for alternatives to state testing

Standardized testing provides neither fair nor helpful evaluation feedback. It requires the ability to answer superficial questions quickly, which prioritizes rote memorization and knee-jerk thinking rather than deep or creative thinking. Instead of holding schools accountable for being places where students learn how to think and and analyze the world around them, standardized testing rewards schools where students are taught to take tests. Georgia’s annual tests, the Georgia Milestones, are also completely unhelpful to the

Casey Cagle

Whistleblower lawsuit over charter school lobbyist’s involvement in Ga. DOE

A whistle blower at the Georgia Department of Education is alleging that the Department inappropriately allowed a legislator-turned-lobbyist for the charter school industry to shape policy for federal dollars intended to help low-income students. In a lawsuit filed in March and first reported on in April, former Ga. DOE employee Margo DeLaune states that a lobbyist was allowed to illegally decide how federal Title I funds would be used, thanks to pressure from the office

School Takeover 2.0 on the Better Georgia Podcast
Education

Deal resorts to insults and intimidation over school takeover, again

After being publicly questioned about his new education plan by the state superintendent, Georgia’s highest elected education official, Deal has once again resorted to insults and intimidation. Deal’s new education plan includes the new role of “Chief Turnaround Officer” (READ: “Education Czar”), who would report to the state Board of Education. The state BOE is appointed by the governor, putting the Chief Turnaround Officer in the governor’s chain of command. State Superintendent Richard Woods recently

Education

Support local control? Only when it’s a guise for anti-trans policy.

It must be nice to be able to have opinions that are politically convenient to whatever problematic, self-serving agenda you want to promote. Take local control of school districts, for example. State School Superintendent Richard Woods doesn’t think local control is very important, until it’s a convenient platform to shield his transphobic views. Underfund our schools, setting them up to fail, then privatize and corporatize as many of them as you can justify? Pfft, local control

Better Georgia

Superintendent Richard Woods fires Jeremy Spencer

Because of your action, Superintendent Richard Woods backed off of his original statement that it would take two weeks to investigate. Instead, he did the right thing by taking swift action and letting Georgians know that hate speech will not be tolerated.

Together, we made Richard Woods feel the pressure on this important issue and take immediate action.