Issue Position: Education

Issue Position

If you know me, you know education is important to my family and me. Go back and read "About Rick" on my website and see what it did for my Dad, and you'll understand me better. We are all aware that our children and adults must have access to quality education if they are going to be able to master those skills and knowledge they need to compete and excel in our ever-changing world.

I know that one of the most important economic development tools for Georgia and the families we serve is an educated workforce. I respect and appreciate that this opportunity would not be possible without the hard work of teachers and parents. We must be committed to providing the resources and learning environment to make this happen.

We have many excellent Pre-K--12 schools, technical colleges, colleges, and universities, with trained, dedicated teachers, and hard-working administrators. Our state needs to reduce paperwork and allow teachers to teach.

We have been through some very difficult economic times in our State. We have been able to put money back into the budget for schools during the past few years after some very lean times. My hope is that our economy will continue improve. We have been successful in fully funding QBE funding for the first time since its inception in 1982 in our 2019 budget and will do it again in the 2020 budget.

When decisions need to be made, you can count on Rick to do what is best for our students. Let's all work to be Pro-Education. Some steps that we can take to get there:

* Local control is important. Recognize that all counties are not the same and that their needs and problems are diverse. What is good for downtown Savannah or Atlanta may not be what's needed in Fairmount, Spring Place, or Tate.
* Continue to give our elected School Boards more responsibility to spend our dollars directly for the classroom by reducing overhead and controlling cost and bureaucracy. Ensure an open relationship with a community in meeting their needs.
* Invest in technology and education and Virtual education to put our young people and adults in a position to succeed. It's a benefit to all of us to build a great educational system in the 11th District.
* Support the efforts of schools to maintain an effective level of discipline to maintain the best educational environment for our youth.
* Protect home-school parents' rights to choose this honorable method of educating their children.

Ever since I have been in the House, I have requested to be on committees that impact education. I was on K-12 Education Appropriations for a few years and am now on the Higher Education policy committee and am the Chairman of one of the most important committees in the House: Education. You can expect that I will always be involved in education while I am in the House.

Our Republican majority, and We, as Georgians, have prioritized K-12 and Higher Education students and teachers by:

* Fully funding student funding formula statewide in budget last session for first time since formula implemented 33 years ago (QBE: Quality Basic Education formula). We will do it again in 2020.
* Working with Governor Kemp for all of us to give teachers a $3000 raise in 2019 and will work again to make another $2000 in 2020. This is the largest raise in our State history.
* Increasing education funding per student every year since Great Recession to highest level per capita, inflation-adjusted, in state history.
* Having the highest graduation rate ever at 80%. When Gov. Perdue took office in 2003, graduation rate stood at 67%.
* Making dual enrollment sustainable this year. We know that our popular dual enrollment for high school students leads to more students graduating and moving more quickly through technical college and four-year degree programs.
* Providing students with more educational options by offering high quality online courses that can be accessed by any student in Georgia.
* Funding $2 billion in total teacher/professor retirement in final budget this session, which is $360 million more than originally budgeted, to maintain actuarially sound pensions for teachers/professors. Georgia is committed to teachers through one of best pension programs in nation.

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