GAE announces 2010 statewide general election endorsements

The 43,000-member Georgia Association of Educators (GAE) today released its list of endorsements for Georgia’s statewide November general elections. Newly-elected GAE President Calvine Rollins says her organization’s recommendations were once again based on candidate interviews and profiles that indicated their willingness to work for the betterment of Georgia’s public education system. “These are challenging times for our public schools and they will need strong and creative leadership particularly in the governor’s and superintendent’s offices,” said Rollins. “Our process of candidate interviews and questionnaires helps our leadership come to the best possible recommendation, based on our priorities, on who will be a true friend to our public schools and the children who depend on them for their education.”

In Georgia’s gubernatorial race GAE is supporting former Governor Roy Barnes. Barnes, while still facing some backlash from his previous administration, now has the benefit of hindsight in what is truly needed to help our public schools and its students. Rollins said, “Barnes is the best choice to be able to come in and hit the ground running with respect to creating and implementing plans to address concerns such as class size, making high stakes testing more diagnostic rather than punitive, fully funding and staffing our public schools, making them safe for teaching and learning, opposing destructive ideas such as vouchers that would drain critically needed funding from our public schools, and including practitioners and utilizing their front line expertise in decisions that affect our public schools.”

In the state’s superintendent’s race, GAE is putting its weight behind Joe Martin. “We feel that Martin truly is going to work for the 1.75 million children who go to Georgia’s public schools,” said Rollins.“He feels strongly that lower class sizes are critical to providing the best possible teaching and learning environment and that our state has both a moral and constitutional obligation to fully fund our public schools, which he has proven through his five year legal challenge to do so. He believes in providing whatever resources are needed to keep our schools and children safe. And we feel his support of the dedicated men and women who work on frontlines with our children is genuine."

The complete GAE statewide office endorsement list is as follows:

Governor – Roy Barnes

Lt. Governor – Carol Porter

State Superintendent of Schools – Joe Martin

Secretary of State – Georganna Sinkfield

Labor Commissioner – Darryl Hicks

Insurance Commissioner – Mary Squires

Attorney General – Ken Hodges