Georgia state School Superintendent Richard Woods is calling on Gov. Brian Kemp and lawmakers to give teachers a $3,000 raise next year.
Woods, a Republican elected statewide, made the proposal Thursday in an opinion column that he co-authored with 2024 Georgia Teacher of the Year Christy Todd, a music technology teacher at Rising Starr Middle School in suburban Atlanta’s Fayette County.
“The most important thing we can do to improve the quality of K-12 education in our state is to recruit our best and brightest to become teachers – and make it viable for them to stay,” the pair wrote.
HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION RATE IN GEORGIA HITS RECORD HIGH IN 2023
GEORGIA GOV. BRIAN KEMP ELECTED TO LEAD 16-STATE BODY TO IMPROVE EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH
Garrison Douglas, a spokesperson for Kemp, declined comment, noting the governor would release his next budget proposal in January.
Woods also called for lawmakers to rewrite the state’s school funding formula to provide more money for pupil transportation and to give districts extra money for students in poverty. Education advocates have long complained that the amount that the state pays for buses and fuel falls far short of costs. Democrats, in particular, have said Georgia should recognize that students in poverty have extra needs that cost more. Georgia’s formula does seek to give more state aid to districts that have low property wealth.
The state Department of Education couldn’t provide an immediate estimate of how much a pay raise would cost, but based on past pay raises, it could be between $400 million and $500 million. A report from the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement says Georgia schools employed almost 150,000 people with teaching, administrative or support personnel certificates in the 2021-2022 school year.
One factor in favor of teacher pay raises is that 2024 is an election year for all 180 state House members and 56 state senators. Those important players in the state budget process may want to deliver for a…
Read the full article here
