Past and present Senate candidates from Georgia: on Education


Jim Barksdale: Invest in education without "Opportunity School Districts"

When elected, Jim will never forget that he was elected by Georgians to represent Georgia in the U.S. Senate. In the U.S. Senate, Jim will focus on making investments in education and infrastructure that we know will help put people back to work, train our workforce, grow our economy and increase the quality of life in Georgia for all of our citizens. Jim is opposed to the so-called "Opportunity School Districts" that will harm Georgia's educators and children.
Source: 2016 Georgia Senate campaign website JimBarksdale.com Aug 8, 2016

Amanda Swafford: Dismantle the Department of Education

It is time to dismantle the Department of Education and restore the responsibility of education to our local communities and Boards of Education. A centralized Department of Education results in a one-size fits all approach that may or may not be appropriate for different regions in the country. National standards have done precious little to actually improve education. Therefore, the closer our education decisions are made to home, the better we are able to compete and improve the quality of education. And parents who home school or choose alternative education opportunities should not be penalized by not having access to all taxpayer funded educational facilities and services.
Source: 2014 Georgia Senate campaign website, AmandaSwafford.net Sep 30, 2014

Paul Broun: Oppose nationwide Common Core standards

Question topic: What in the nature of mankind caused America's Founders to carefully define, separate, and limit powers within the Constitution?

Broun: As witnessed firsthand from the English Monarchy, our Founding Fathers recognized the danger of one person holding too much power, and so they established 3 different branches of government and a system of checks and balances to protect our nation from any potential abuse of power. This system was devised to prevent corruption within the government and to ensure our individual liberties and freedoms would not be lost.

Source: Faith2Action iVoterGuide on 2014 Georgia Senate race Jul 2, 2014

Paul Broun: Big Bang & evolution: "lies straight from the pit of hell"

The candidate causing the biggest headache [in the Republican primary] is Paul Broun, a four-term GOP congressman who opposes abortion without exception, thinks the Big Bang and evolution are "lies straight from the pit of hell," (gravity waves be damned), and likened President Obama to Hitler and Karl Marx before he was even inaugurated.

Broun, nicknamed "Dr. No" for his constant ideological votes against House leadership, conceded to MSNBC that, "certainly all our Republicans are conservative to one degree or another."

Democrats are hoping Broun will stay competitive enough to push everyone to the right, but his candidacy could also have a freeing effect: if his rivals assume that Broun has a lock on the most conservative primary voters, they might turn their attention to winning moderate Republicans, many of whom are concentrated in the Atlanta suburbs.

Source: MSNBC on 2014 Georgia Republican primary Senate race Mar 26, 2014

Derrick Grayson: Common Core gets government further entrenched in education

Grayson sees the need for a big fix in Common Core, the reviled federal education package that has conservatives everywhere steaming from the ears. "Common Core is a way to get the government further entrenched in our education by making it a requirement for all institutional programs," he states. "Everybody's not going to college, but that's the premise of Common Core."

Ticking off a list of failed education policies, from President Jimmy Carter's implementation of the Department of Education to President George W. Bush's defunct No Child Left Behind, Grayson argues that inner-city black schools have been hit the hardest and that the quality of all schools are next on the federal government's chopping block. "Who still enjoys decent schools in this country? People who are home-schooled, people that are in private schools, and those in religious schools. Common Core will affect all of them, and then you will start to see the same trend that took place in many of the black schools."

Source: CommDigiNews.com on 2016 Georgia Senate race Mar 24, 2014

Rand Knight: Raise teacher salaries; build more schools

We have a plan to teach children that does not look at test scores only but also teaching children how to think critically and on the fly. We’ve got start funding the technology to bring our schools into the 21st century. We’ve got to raise teacher salaries and start building more schools and colleges and not just prisons. The long term vision of American competitiveness must begin with the priorities of the future. Our teachers know how to teach and we can’t evaluate them based on a test score.
Source: Georgia 2008 Democratic Senate Primary Debate Jun 30, 2008

  • The above quotations are from Winners and Losers
    Senate candidates from Georgia.
  • Click here for definitions & background information on Education.
  • Click here for other issues (main summary page).
Candidates and political leaders on Education:

Retired Senate as of Jan. 2015:
GA:Chambliss(R)
IA:Harkin(D)
MI:Levin(D)
MT:Baucus(D)
NE:Johanns(R)
OK:Coburn(R)
SD:Johnson(D)
WV:Rockefeller(D)

Resigned from 113th House:
AL-1:Jo Bonner(R)
FL-19:Trey Radel(R)
LA-5:Rod Alexander(R)
MA-5:Ed Markey(D)
MO-9:Jo Ann Emerson(R)
NC-12:Melvin Watt(D)
SC-1:Tim Scott(R) 		Retired House to run for Senate or Governor:
AR-4:Tom Cotton(R)
GA-1:Jack Kingston(R)
GA-10:Paul Broun(R)
GA-11:Phil Gingrey(R)
HI-1:Colleen Hanabusa(D)
IA-1:Bruce Braley(D)
LA-6:Bill Cassidy(R)
ME-2:Mike Michaud(D)
MI-14:Gary Peters(D)
MT-0:Steve Daines(R)
OK-5:James Lankford(R)
PA-13:Allyson Schwartz(D)
TX-36:Steve Stockman(R)
WV-2:Shelley Capito(R) 		Retired House as of Jan. 2015:
AL-6:Spencer Bachus(R)
AR-2:Tim Griffin(R)
CA-11:George Miller(D)
CA-25:Howard McKeon(R)
CA-33:Henry Waxman(D)
CA-45:John Campbell(R)
IA-3:Tom Latham(R)
MN-6:Michele Bachmann(R)
NC-6:Howard Coble(R)
NC-7:Mike McIntyre(D)
NJ-3:Jon Runyan(R)
NY-4:Carolyn McCarthy(D)
NY-21:Bill Owens(D)
PA-6:Jim Gerlach(R)
UT-4:Jim Matheson(D)
VA-8:Jim Moran(D)
VA-10:Frank Wolf(R)
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Page last updated: Feb 22, 2019