Wednesday, November 13, 2002
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Wednesday, November 13, 2002 |
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Fayette's Cox wins education's top office By MONROE ROARK
Kathy Cox remembers very well the feeling of excitement and anticipation she felt that autumn day in the late 1980s when she first walked into a classroom at Fayette County High School, site of her first teaching job. She has that same feeling now. "It's just a bigger classroom," she said. "About 1.4 million students." In January, Cox will begin a four-year term as Georgia school superintendent, overseeing a department which works with about 180 different school districts in the state. The Georgia Department of Education's budget, over $6 billion this year, is the largest budget of any state agency. And by the way, she becomes the second Cox, also a woman, to hold statewide elective office. The other is Cathy Cox, the Democrat secretary of state who was also on the ballot this month for a second term, but that's Cathy with a "C." The Fayette Republican is Kathy with a "K." Cox has come a long way from the day she first decided to run for the seat, succeeding fellow Republican Linda Schrenko. A very long way she estimates that she has put some 50,000 miles on her car in the past year crisscrossing the state. All of those miles paid off last week when she got more than a million votes in her race against Democrat Barbara Christmas, a member of the state's Board of Education. Having that many people touch the screen next to her name is "humbling," she admitted, noting that when she ran for a second term to the Georgia House of Representatives in 2000, she got about 19,000 votes running unopposed. Cox's long climb picked up speed in August, when she trounced state Sen. Mitchell Kaye in the primary with 73 percent of the vote. She had spent only $90,000 on her campaign up to that point, which made her primary win in a statewide race even more impressive. While many people saw her as a decided underdog in her quest for superintendent, she also had a unique combination of qualifications, with 15 years in the classroom as a teacher and four years at the Capitol as a legislator. She was one of only four teachers in the 180-member General Assembly during the most recent term. It was Schrenko, who lost in this year's gubernatorial primary, who first encouraged her to make a run for superintendent, one day in February of 2001 in Schrenko's office. Cox's husband, John, was behind her from that day, she said, but she was not so sure herself. A rough legislative session had nearly convinced her to forget about it, but she said that when she returned to the classroom in the fall of 2001, the low morale she saw made her change her mind. "I've always thought if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem," she said. "I wanted to be part of the solution." With redistricting about to make her old House district almost unrecognizable, she decided to go for it. Her win was not nearly as surprising as what happened at the top of the ticket. While she maintains that she was confident in a GOP win for the Governor's Mansion, she admits that she had to be prepared for the possibility of spending four years working with Roy Barnes. That is no longer a consideration. "Everything for me changed when Sonny won," she said. Barnes was repeatedly accused of heavy-handedness on a variety of issues, from his education reform agenda to the proposed Northern Arc. The Georgia Association of Educators, which broke from its tradition of endorsing Democrats by picking Cox, further surprised political experts by refusing to endorse anyone in the governor's race. One issue that Cox is certain had no bearing on Barnes' defeat is the changing of the Georgia flag. "It that were the case, [lieutenant governor] Mark Taylor and I would have both lost," she said. "The flag crowd campaigned against three people: Roy Barnes, Mark Taylor, and me." Cox is convinced that Georgia's teachers are more responsible than any other group for putting a Republican in the governor's chair for the first time in 130 years. Now she believes just as strongly that Perdue will let her do her job running the state's education system, and with some support from the General Assembly, local control of public education in Georgia can become a reality. There is still some uncertainty regarding what the state Board of Education will look like, but its members are traditionally political appointments, and Perdue can be reasonably expected to ask for some or all of them to resign, Cox said. Since the primary, the Georgia Republican Party has done an unprecedented job of working together as a team, Cox said. "I think it's first for the GOP." The most visible evidence of that came the day before the election, when the entire ticket flew around the state for a series of last-minute appearances in Augusta, Columbus and Macon. The crowds were huge at every stop, Cox said. "The GOP is really energized." Cox and Perdue made their first school visit together, at Cedar Grove Middle School in DeKalb County, two days after the election. She plans to make plenty more school visits in the next four years, since that is actually the only constitutional requirement of her office. An important aspect of the superintendent's job is to get people excited and enthusiastic enough to get things done, Cox said. "I think the voters showed some optimism for Georgia schools, that we can do a lot better. You can never give up on a kid." It was that kind of commitment that she saw when she first came to Fayette County High School. She has also taught at Sandy Creek and McIntosh, taking a leave of absence for a couple of months each winter after winning her House seat. Fayette's schools have become among the best in the state, she said, by doing what needs to be done for the best interests of the students. When the county's writing labs were obviously contributing to greatly increased test scores and the state still cut funding for them, the county chose to fill in the gaps with its own funds. She has two other reasons for her interest in Fayette schools. Twelve-year-old John is a seventh-grader at Booth Middle School, while Alex, 8, is in the third grade at Huddleston Elementary. The entire Cox family played an important role in this campaign, as the superintendent-elect's husband and sons stood in for her at a number of appearances this summer. John and Kathy also were able to make a few stops together from time to time, and the two spent the rest of the time as a tag team, keeping the home life going as usual while Kathy spent countless hours on the road across Georgia. Actually, her extensive travels may save the family some money in the long run. John, a builder, has been working on the family's new home for the past few months, and they plan to move in February. "He did a smart thing, building it while I was gone so much," she said with a laugh. "I didn't have much of a chance to pick things that would make it more expensive." The best part of the campaign, she said, was the people who supported her and helped her from one Georgia town to the next. "I met the nicest, most wonderful people, who made an incredible commitment to someone they didn't know personally," she said. "It's rewarding to know my vision for Georgia schools appeals to people. "I want parents across the state to feel as good when they leave their children's open house as I did at mine."
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