Submitted by the office of the governor

ATLANTA – Gov. Sonny Perdue today announced the appointment of a working group tasked with investigating innovative ways to create long-term, comprehensive education reform to make Georgia more globally competitive.

This working group, chaired by Charles Knapp and Dean Alford, will build off the work of the Investing in Educational Excellence (IE2) Task Force and review a provocative national report called Tough Choices or Tough Times to determine how Georgia might reform its education policies and practices to cause needed change for its educational system.

“I believe the experts serving on this group fully understand the urgency of the challenges we face in education in Georgia,” said Perdue. “I am confident that they will create a blueprint for change that will facilitate higher achievement, thereby increasing Georgia’s economic competitiveness through our most valuable resource – our children.”

The working group will meet for the first time on July 17 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Empire Room of the West Twin Tower in Atlanta to focus specifically on several areas of education policy reform:

• Moving students to postsecondary-level work as soon as they demonstrate the necessary ability;

• Enhancing the quality of preschool education opportunities;

• Improving P-12 teacher quality;

• Creating high performance school systems (in collaboration with the State Board of Education);

• Improving the academic performance of underachieving students;

• Further enhancing and supporting a world-class P-12 curriculum; and

• Ensuring the efficient use of the financial resources Georgia devotes to education.

Perdue has charged the group to identify the policy changes that should be put into place quickly in order to make Georgia’s educational system more competitive in the next 15 years. He has asked them to work swiftly and submit recommendations to him in time for consideration for possible legislation in the 2009 session of the General Assembly.

Those chosen to serve on this working group include: