Georgia's schools chief resigns

Kathy Cox, Georgia's sometimes controversial school superintendent, announced Monday that she is resigning her post to take a job with a national non-profit organization. Her departure after eight years in office sets the stage for a bruising election to fill the state's top education post.

Ms. Cox, a Republican widely expected to seek a third term, would have been heavily favored to win. Now, Ms. Cox will resign officially on June 30 and begin work the next day as chief executive officer of the U.S. Education Delivery Institute, a new Washington-based group that will assist states in reaching Race for the Top goals. That creates an unexpectedly wide open race for the three Democrats and two Republicans who hope to succeed her.

Gov. Sonny Perdue will appoint an interim superintendent to fill out Ms. Cox's term. He should choose wisely, selecting an individual with broad experience in education and with no ties to any of the candidates seeking to replace Ms. Cox.

Ms. Cox's tenure was marked by both positives and negatives. She presided over major improvements in Georgia's schools. She introduced a more rigorous curriculum and tougher high school graduation requirements. That drew the ire of some state residents, but both helped the state's students become better prepared for college and to enter the work force.

She also modernized the state's school's, adding online classes, establishing career academies linked to technical colleges and creating an environment in which charter schools could operate. Some achievement test scores -- especially for minority students who took the SAT-- improved while she was superintendent. Ms. Cox's record, though, was marked by almost as many lows as highs.

The lowest in her tenure came in 2004 when Ms. Cox sparked widespread debate when she wrongly ordered the word "evolution" and related content taken out of the state's science curriculum. She wisely rescinded the order, but the friction created by her politically motivated actions still lingers.

Ms. Cox also came under fire in the last two years for irregularities in scores on the state's Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests and for filing personal bankruptcy along with her husband. The filing was tied to her husband's home-building enterprise, which was hard-hit by the recession. She seemed to weather those storms, though, and remained a relatively popular figure across the state.

Ms. Cox, a former high school teacher and member of the state House of Representatives, has been a tenacious fighter for better education in Georgia, but she's presided over a system that has had billions of dollars cut from its budget as hard times hit the state. She's battled Gov. Perdue and members of her own party in the Legislature over every dollar lost. Given her record, no one can doubt Ms. Cox's passion for education or her desire to serve the state's students. Voters will be hard-pressed to find a successor with similar ardor.

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