Nathan Deal decides on education reform, two weeks ahead of Election Day

Georgia Republican candidate for goveor Nathan Deal, who is running for reelection, is now dangling education reform in front of the electorate, announced on Wednesday at a meeting with the state board of education in Gwinnett.

”With a broad coalition… we will be able to institute major reform in the way we pay for and the way we implement education, at least in the k-12 arena, Deal told the board at the meeting. The goveor said he’d establish a group of individuals, including teachers, parents, administrators and stakeholders, who would make recommendations on how to best proceed with funding and academic demands.

The Republican goveor is running a surprisingly difficult campaign against Democrat Jason Carter. The two have been polling neck and neck for a long time now, and recent unemployment reports, which ranked Georgia with the highest unemployment in the nation for two months in a row, together with a less than stellar debate performance are clearly sending Deal campaign into an emergency mode.

Why is he announcing a reform now, less than two weeks before the Nov. 4^th Election Day?  Why not announce it last year, and take time to explain its benefits to the voters? Did it just come to him that Georgia’s education system is failing?

Incidentally, Deal’s opponent built his campaign around the education issue. Carter has been relentless in reminding the electorate about the underfunded school system in debates, ads, and campaign rallies. The Democrat accused Deal of failing Georgia’s students and teachers with ”draconian budget cuts.

Deal’s campaign has focused on improved economy and job growth. But the last two unemployment reports stand in stark contrast with Deal’s claims of outstanding job creation (300,000 job added in the last four years). The unemployment report from September 2014 showed rate of 7.9 percent and underscored that Georgia is 215,000 jobs behind its prerecession levels. The overall unemployment rate in the country is 5.9 percent.

It’s hard to look at this education reform announcement as anything other than a desperate campaign maneuver. It’s rather unclear whether Deal has reasons to be desperate, after all Georgia is still a Republican state and Democrats have a tendency to sit out the midterms.  But Democrats have stepped up their get-out-the-vote efforts in 2014, and today’s move from the goveor shows apparent lack of confidence about his chances on Nov. 4^th.