Former Education Secretary Urges Business Community to Spearhead Education Reform

(From L-R) Former Education Secretary Rod Paige, CEG
Director Jerri Nims Rooker, and Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal.

ATLANTA - Former Education Secretary Rod Paige yesterday joined local and national education experts at an event which engaged business leaders in expanding educational options for Peach State families, highlighting the importance of improving education for Georgia’s economic future.

The event, titled “ROI: Education is Your Business,” was sponsored by the American Federation for Children, the Center for an Educated Georgia at Georgia Family Council, the Georgia Charter Schools Association, and the Georgia Chamber of Commerce. It featured remarks by Governor Nathan Deal and a strategy session hosted by and featuring prominent business leaders discussing education reform.

Paige urged attendees, which included several state legislators, to make education a primary focus of the Georgia business community. He cited lagging achievement statistics and a growing gap among demographic groups as hurdles to recruiting businesses and an educated, skilled workforce.

“No society can long survive, no culture can long flourish, no economy can long prosper, when it leaves behind as many children to poverty and ignorance as we are doing now in this great country," Paige said. "We simply must muster up the courage to face the brutal fact that how our education system is working is not working.”

Focusing on education in Georgia, Paige said the state’s large achievement gap between blacks and whites was equivalent to two grade levels.

"It is even below the national graduation rate," he said. "And like the rest of our nation, there is a 25-point difference between the performance of our African-American students and their Anglo peers. We have a problem.”

Paige, who served as Secretary of Education during President George W. Bush’s first term, said that that the keys to increasing Georgia’s economic standing are changing what does not work in our current public education system and allowing educational innovation through expanded education options for those who need them  most.