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.