By LEE N. HOWELL
Politically Speaking

When Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes came into office, he succeeded a governor who had a reputation as an “education” governor, but one who had been unwilling to try and overhaul the state's bloated education bureaucracy.

Gov. Barnes predecessor talked about the need to reform the state's public education system but he only managed to do a few things — like legalizing gambling in order to fund some of his proposals (which was certainly not an easy task in this buckle-on-the-Bible-Belt state).

Gov. Barnes decided it was time to do something about education, rather than just talk about it.

So, taking a leaf from the playbook of his mentor, Gov. Joe Frank Harris who pushed the committee-authored Quality Basic Education Act through the legislature, Gov. Barnes chaired an ad hoc blue ribbon panel of business, educational, and civic leaders who came up with the 41 changes recommended in his major education reform bill introduced this session.

Now, all of those proposals are not universally popular — and at least one (calling for the abolition of the so-called teacher tenure provision in current state law) has proven very controversial.

But, Gov. Barnes educational reform bill must be enacted as a whole if it is to truly solve the problems which confront our state's public schools.

However, a handful of Republicans — mostly legislators, but also including State Superintendent of Education Linda Schrenko — have apparently decided that the education reform bill introduced by Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes is nothing more than just another political football.

These reactionaries — and that is as good a word to use about people who can not come up with any original ideas of their own but only react negatively to the good ideas put forward by others — view education as nothing more than just another legislative issue to be tossed about and kicked around but not be taken seriously except as a tool to be used in their partisan political games.

Now, to be sure, all Republicans are not so callous or uncaring: Some voted against Gov. Barnes' bill because they actually had questions which they felt were still unanswered; and, the vast majority of them put politics aside and supported a bill they agreed with, even if it was the centerpiece of the Democratic governor's program for progress.

But, some narrow partisans in the Minority Party caucus did everything they could to hinder the legislation's progress as it wound its way through the legislative process and ultimately voted against it for no other reason than it had been introduced by the Democratic governor.

For instance, most conservative Republicans favored the elimination of the so-called teacher tenure law as proposed by Gov. Barnes.

Yet, during the debate on this legislation in the House, they argued forcefully in support of an amendment to include that provision in the bill.

There was also a whole slew of other amendments pushed by these Republicans, all of which went down in defeat, in an attempt to make political hay out of the education reform debate.

Most of the Republicans who promoted these amendments — like state Rep. Lynn Smith, R-Newnan — ended up voting for final passage of the massive education reform legislation.

However, some of these reactionary Republicans were so obvious in their political game playing that they voted for the amendments which they claimed were aimed at “making a good proposal better” and then they voted against final passage.

State Reps. Steve Cash, R-McDonough, Kathy Cox, R-Peachtree City, Bill Sanders, R-Griffin, Lynn Westmoreland, R-Tyrone, and John Yates, R-Griffin, fall into this latter category.

(For the record, all the Democrats who represent the citizens of the Southern Crescent, voted for the bill.)

It is a shame to realize that these people who represent some of the counties of the Southern Crescent had the opportunity to support real, comprehensive reform of the state's education system.

But, they were more interested in playing political games than in supporting the best interests of the schools and the students of the districts they supposedly represent.

[Lee N. Howell is an award-winning writer who has been observing and commenting upon politics and society in the Southern Crescent, the state, and nation for more than a quarter of a century.]

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