Unfortunately, our current

and soon-to-be unemployed governor defined accountability as success measured

on low-level benchmark tests that do not demand anything of our students

other than the mere replication of knowledge and information. Life is

not a multiple choice test and the failure of the Barnes reforms were

clearly evident in Georgia's poor showing on the Scholastic Aptitude Test,

which demands students to think at a higher level.

Under our new educational leadership,

teachers need to be empowered to set higher standards in their classrooms

and measure those standards based on students' abilities to problem-solve,

collaborate, reason logically, write analytically, speak persuasively,

and research effectively. This is being truly accountable by infusing

our children with the skills and dispositions that they will need to succeed

in the world beyond the classroom.

I look forward to the dismantling

of the Barnes reforms and local control that empowers teachers to hold

their students truly accountable.

Tony Pattiz

Peachtree City