ATLANTA – Georgia’s interim state schools superintendent took office Thursday, facing one of the worst fiscal crises in state history and with Georgia pursuing $400 million in competitive federal grants.
Brad Bryant, a former member of the state Board of Education, is replacing Kathy Cox as she leaves to head a national education nonprofit in Washington, D.C. Bryant will fill in the last six months of her term and plans to run as an independent candidate in the superintendent’s race this fall.
He said in an interview with The Associated Press after he was sworn in that his job will be to make more progress on the work Cox began in improving the state’s graduation rate and toughening curricula in each subject.
“I do not see this as coming in and putting out fires Kathy created,” said Bryant, who was one of Cox’s longtime supporters on the state school board. “I see this as moving in and continuing the work Kathy started.”
He said he also wants to reach out to the business and nonprofit community in Georgia to help bring in private money to alleviate some of the pain from $3 billion in state cuts for education over the last two years. Districts are facing thousands of layoffs, teacher furloughs and program cuts.
The state has lifted class size caps through 2013, giving the state’s 180 school districts the leeway to decide how large each class should be. Parents have expressed concerns that districts will make classes too large for teachers to be effective, but Bryant said he isn’t concerned.
“I trust our local districts enough that I do not think they’re going to abuse that,” Bryant said.