Continuing on his education theme this week, Phil Boyum welcomed state school superintendent candidate Brian Westlake to Thursday's “Mornings unPHILtered” show., who is seeking the Democratic Party nomination for the office of State School Superintendent. Westlake earned a Bachelors degree in History and a Masters degree in sociology from Florida State University.
    After coming to Georgia, Westlake went on to earn two more degrees: a law degree from Georgia State University; and a Master of Public Administration from the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies. Westlake and his wife Emmanuelle currently live in Decatur.
    Westlake said American teachers spend up to twice as much time standing in front of their students as do teachers in other countries, where the quality of public education consistently scores higher. One of his major complaints is that school administrators and policy makers have not truly welcomed input from classroom teachers.
    He told Boyum that he believes an inordinate amount of time is spent on standardized testing, in order to meet the demands of No Child Left Behind and Adequate Yearly Progress. He said more one-on-one teacher/student interaction is needed.
    Westlake said during the past decade many of Georgia's political leaders have failed miserably to live up to an obligation to support public education. Westlake sees a number of areas in the public school systems that need improvement.
    First and foremost, he said, is ensuring that fair and reliable funding is provided for every child's education. Westlake said that in recent years state funding cuts have shifted a larger share of the burden of K-12 education funding to local school systems.
    Unfortunately, Westlake said, many systems cannot bear this added financial burden, and are forced to make cuts across the board. Making matters worse is the fact these cuts are being made as enrollment in many of these schools continues to rise.
    Westlake also believes that Georgia needs to make a substantial investment in early childhood education. Whereas Georgia was a pioneer in early childhood education with its focus on public pre-kindergarten programs in the past, that is not the case anymore.
    Also, as an educator himself, Westlake said he sees community and business leaders offer far too little in the way of technical and vocational training. Many students cannot get access to the courses they want to take, and therefore end up taking classes that they never intend to use. Some of these students, out of frustration, eventually choose to drop out.
    Finally, Westlake promises to fight to ensure that rank and file teachers are involved on a regular basis in educational policymaking decisions. As an active member of the Georgia Association of Educators, he said he would work hand-in-hand with the group.
    
     “Mornings unPHILtered” airs live Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. on statesboroherald.com and also simulcast on WWNS-AM 1240 on the radio. You also can listen anytime at BoroLive.com on statesboroherald.com