July 14, 2004
Albany- Richard Anson knows what it's like to be an educator.
He says his teaching experience helped him during his two terms on the school board. But there's a lot of important work to be done, and he wants to keep serving.
"It's going to become increasingly important in the upcoming years that we comply with those mandates that they have and unfortunately a lot of those mandates aren't funded. They expect us to do more with less," Anson said.
Walking the streets of Dougherty County is Anson's opponent, Henry Brown. As a minister and mentor, Brown says he spends quality time in the schools and he says he hears many complaints.
"We need a person that's really concerned about fairness and equality on the board. Not to say that the others are not, but I've seen time when I didn't think they were fair," Brown said.
So he's knocking on doors and sharing his message. Brown wants the chance to help take our schools into the future.
"We just need to get control of the schools back in the hands of the classroom teacher and unless we do that, we're going to continue to have problems."
Anson wants to continue to take part in positive changes.
"In 2003, Dougherty County beat the state average when it came to making adequate yearly progress under No Child left behind and I think that's a milestone."
But as always in education, there are many miles to go.
posted at 6:36 p.m. by brannon.stewart@walb.com
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