Deal’s young hotshots: Erin Hames lands a key role
Erin Hames will now advise Gov.-elect Nathan Deal.
When the AJC met two weeks ago with the Department of Education leadership team about Race to the Top, Erin Hames led the discussion, which was interesting as incoming school chief John Barge was not keeping her at the agency.
Hames had joined DOE earlier this year to help oversee RTTT after serving as Gov. Sonny Perdue’s policy director.
At the meeting, current school chief Brad Bryant, who is staying at DOE as legal counsel, said he hoped DOE could find a spot for Hames because of her critical role in crafting and winning Georgia’s $400 million RTTT grant.
For the record, I thought it was crazy to let Hames go as she is the state’s authority on RTTT, and it seemed counterproductive and costly to send all that background and knowledge out the door. She also knows all the players in Washington, which is important as this four-year grant will require ongoing contact with the U.S. DOE and Arne Duncan.
But Hames, a teacher-turned-attorney, has landed an even better spot. My AJC colleague James Salzer is reporting that Hames is becoming a deputy chief of staff for policy for Gov.-elect Nathan Deal. I would assume that she will be the governor’s eyes and ears on RTTT.
I like that Deal is surrounding himself with hardworking, young, bright people, including my former AJC colleague Brian Robinson, who was also named a top deputy. (By the way, as much as I admire Hames and Robinson for their smarts and their hard work this year, I’ve annoyed both of them with my reporting and expect that will continue.)
I still think that their boss has a vague and spotty plan for school reform. And again, while I respect Nathan Deal for being upfront about the deeper cuts coming to schools, Georgia will only fall further behind if we don’t recognize that education is not a luxury but a necessity if the state hopes to thrive in this new information era.
–By Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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96 comments Add your comment
Dome Watcher
December 26th, 2010
11:26 pm
Speaking of Dean Alford, another one of Sonny’s pets, did you know he wants to have RTTT run by the Governor’s Office of Planing and Budget (OPB), in other words the Governor’s office. Of course his fiancee is the head of OPB and now Deal has hired Hames. Does anyone see a pattern developing here?
Joe
December 26th, 2010
11:33 pm
@ Dome Watcher….The whole bunch are enaged in a conspiracy. Alford is enaged to Dugolenski. Dugolenski and Alford associate with Sonny’s school board appointees trying to help Hames and McCartney who got huge salaries to go to RTTT. Then, you go all the other Sonny kids engaged in quid pro quo to make sure they get their important (though not qualiifiedI jobs and nice big pay days. All this while Deal says we have to downsize. Want to take a guess how small the Governor’s Office payroll will be OR how many Governor’s flunkies will be paid by another agencies payroll ti hide the truth. The entire lot is corrupt and not capable of surviving on real talent and contributions.
teacher
December 27th, 2010
8:49 am
Maureen, your new definition of buy-in is weak at best. Of course the systems which applied for the grant money had a large buy-in.
An American Patriot
December 27th, 2010
8:53 am
@ Maureen – Georgia will only fall further behind if we don’t recognize that education is not a luxury but a necessity if the state hopes to thrive in this new information era.
Maureen, please expound on this sentence. It’s my opinion that “education” in our great State of Georgia has never been treated as a “Luxury” and always as a “requirement”. Me thinks you’re pointing your finger in the wrong direction when you point at our state leaders…..you should be calling out all of the worthless parents and the ineffective Public School Systems administrators (and I use that word loosely in some areas) that are at the root of the problem. We have some great public school systems in Georgia that are models of efficiency in education…..how ’bout doing a positive story sometime about these…..who knows, it might give some inspiration to those that have screwed it up royally. Welcome back
Maureen Downey
December 27th, 2010
9:02 am
@Teacher, It is not my definition. I was asked how we won without full state involvement. The state of Georgia submitted an application that had the full cooperation of the signed districts. They are the ones who will put the teacher effectiveness measures outlined in our RTTT application into action. The number of students represented by those districts was clearly enough for the US DOE.
Maureen
Peter Smagorinsky
December 27th, 2010
9:09 am
Enter your comments here
catlady
December 27th, 2010
9:10 am
Knowing some of the people in those districts, I think you should qualify your statement to say, “the full cooperation of the superintendents of the signed districts.” The buy-in they are trumpeting here in Ga for RTTT is on the part of CENTRAL OFFICE STAFF, not the “boots on the ground.”
Let’s face it, you can define “up” as “down” if you want someone to win. That is what happened here. There is NOT massive buy-in here in Georgia. If you can’t win with the rules, CHANGE THE RULES.
Anyone want to start a pool on how much money will actually have a direct impact on students in these districts? 10%? 5%? This will be shown to be fraudulent on the same level as Reading First, in the end.
Maureen Downey
December 27th, 2010
9:10 am
@An American Patriot, I think Georgia is still behind other states in recognizing the singular importance of education to the state’s well-being and future.
Here are two quick supports:
We were the only state in the country to close down schools during the gas crisis a few years back. Gov. Perdue decreed that we should shut schools and idle school buses for two days to save gas. I went to a national conference not long after that and reporters from other parts of the country asked me how our governor could do that without being mobbed by angry parents. Reporters from the northeast, in particular, said they could never imagine their governors shutting down all the schools to cope with a gasoline shortage because parents there would have rebelled.
Second, if you look at budget cuts over the last five years across all states, you will see that Georgia has taken a bigger bite out of education than many other states.
Maureen
Maureen Downey
December 27th, 2010
9:14 am
@catlady, I am sure that there are rank and file employees in those districts who aren’t happy, but the school boards – who are the elected voices of the communities — and the CEOs/superintendents agreed.
Maureen
Peter Smagorinsky
December 27th, 2010
9:14 am
Oops, sorry, I shot a blank there.
After years of having people with NO teaching experience running education, I’ll confess that I’m relieved to see that Ms. Hames at least has 3 years in the classroom.
But I’m really writing to post a link to a column that I sincerely hope that Ms. Hames and Governor Deal read: http://nasspblogs.org/principaldifference/2010/12/pisa_its_poverty_not_stupid_1.html. The column breaks statistics down in order to factor in poverty variables, and once again that it’s clear that our economic system creates winners and losers. And no, I’m not a Marxist. I’m only noting that in the society that we’ve created, people inevitably live in poverty, and impoverished students’ test scores reflect their conditions more than they reflect their achievement levels. This is more a commentary on the effects of capitalism than on whether or not it’s the best economic system; I agree with Churchill’s view that it’s the worst system imaginable, except for all the others.
Maureen Downey
December 27th, 2010
9:21 am
@Peter, That is a great piece, and I would urge all of you to click on the link in Peter’s post to read it. This is the granular analysis that we used to always get from the late Gerald Bracey, who found that the U.S. fared very well in international comparisons once you adjusted for poverty.
Maureen
Teacher For Life
December 27th, 2010
9:25 am
If you leave teaching after 3 years, then you couldn’t handle it. Real simple. A real teacher stays in the trenches in good times and bad. They don’t listen to naysayers and people who pit young against old. You love the profession, you love the students and you do your best. Remember this, an older teacher was a younger teacher at one time.
Is a young fresh out of college reporter better than a seasoned 5-10 plus years? I don’t know.
A really young nurse tried to start an IV in me a few weeks ago. My blood was gushing all over the place as she called for help. Who came to the rescue? The older, seasoned nurse. “Hold her hand up.”
But, we live in the land of bash older educators. Do older people make any discoveries? Do our brains atrophy at 41? I wonder.
Not all older teachers complain about education. Most of us do what we’ve always done, we teach. And after all of the three to fivers have left for greener pastures, we’ll still be teaching because we know and have mastered the simple rules of teaching:
1. Let the student know who is in charge.
2. Respect all children.
3. Create an environment in the classroom conducive to learning.
4. Get to know each child and their learning style.
5. Know your subject.
6. Be prepared to teach each class as if it meets for twice as long as it does.
7. Make the student a stakeholder in their education.
8. Ignore useless administrators; garner peer feedback.
9. Call parents often with progress reports.
10. Keep learning.
An American Patriot
December 27th, 2010
9:56 am
The State of Georgia is responsible for the education of our children until they (children) get to that “age where they can decide for themselves whether school is really in their best interests”. That being said, parents have an obligation too and that obligation should be to ensure that their school age children get to school and that they provide a home environment that encourages their children’s education. Elementary and High School education in Georgia is “Not a Luxury”…,”It is a Requirement”. Busing kids to their schools “is a Luxury” that the State of Georgia can no longer afford. This should be the responsibility of the parents who brought that child into this world. If you require busing for your child, you should pay your pro rata share of the cost of that service. This one change would balance our school systems budget. I know, it’s very hard to change that “entitlement mentality”; however, in order for our state to survive and not go into bankruptcy, we’ve got to adopt measures that may not be the most popular thing to do.
Mikey D
December 27th, 2010
10:01 am
Again, Maureen… “Buy in” from superintendents and school boards is laughable without serious buy in from the teachers, students, and parents as well. The teachers in these districts had little or no input about signing on to this monstrosity. And yet they are going to have it rammed down their throats with new responsibilities to take on, less money at the end of the day, and half the federal funds going to pay for new administrative positions. How anyone could be pleased that Georgia was saddled with this disaster is beyond me.
Dekalbite
December 27th, 2010
10:56 am
I agree that federal funds are not worth the aggravation. Most of the money ends up funding administrative positions which in turn ALWAYS causes more paperwork on the part of the teachers. The result is a drain on classroom planning and instructional time. I would have no problem with this if the federal government required that 75% of the money goes directly into the classroom. But the decision makers themselves are not in classrooms so the end result will be payments to non-teaching staff at the federal, state and local level. At the end of the day, we will have lined the pockets of non-teaching staff and have no improvement in student achievement. Sorry to be so pessimistic, but I started teaching in 1971 and have done teaching and non-teaching support jobs all over the county I worked for so I have been on both ends for 40 years.
An American Patriot
December 27th, 2010
12:59 pm
You know folks, we can argue about this thing forever and it’s never gonna be any better than it is right now until we rid our state of all these “Professional Idiots” and get some “teaching type folks and business people” with some common sense to straighten out the mess……also, we’ve got to stop taking money from the federal bureaucracy……they’re ruining our educational systems.
d
December 27th, 2010
1:51 pm
Well, let’s look at DeKalb’s “buy in.” We have a real estate/lawyer as the chair of the BOE, I’m gonna slug you as our soon to be former vice chair, grumpy old man in charge of the budget and his apprentice, despite having an education background suddenly came to see the necessity of the overbearing central office when he took office and the former superintendent who is now facing criminal racketeering charges. The CFO and director of HR wouldn’t know the truth if it bit them in the rear. I’m sorry, I don’t like the fact that there was no buy in from the educators and that Duncan overlooked that on the rubric. It doesn’t say 26 out of 181 districts that represent 40% of your student population. It clearly required the signature of the teachers’ union or professional organization. Frankly, I would hope DeKalb goes the way of the Jones’s and follows their lead and says thanks but no thanks. TEM is should renamed SEM for Student Effectiveness Measures, because frankly that’s what it is measuring. How well can students bubble in a Scantron? Students don’t care – well that must be the teachers’ faults. It doesn’t matter that students are coming to school hungry, cold, not wearing clothing appropriate for the weather, or some who just don’t care. I see students for 90 minutes a day – and that’s likely to decrease to 50 in the next year or two. I do the best I can, but at some point we have to totally reexamine how we evaluate the hard working educators in this state. Let educators do come up with the plan. Frankly, and I’ve mentioned this before, could you imagine the ABA or AMA’s reactions if people who aren’t lawyers or doctors come in and try to tell them how to do their job in the same manner that we have people trying to tell educators how to do our jobs? That’s like me trying to tell Sonny Perdue how to neuter a dog. He has the education and knows how to do it, but I don’t. I might as well try and see how it turns out.
another comment
December 27th, 2010
2:52 pm
I am currently visiting the relatives in upstate New York, where the public school district provides free bussing to the Catholic School. They realize that those parents pay school taxes too, and they are getting a deal paying only for the bus service. I in fact rode the bus from one school district to another to get dropped off at the Catholic School. We had to drive through town anyways. Of course, I had to ride on the high school bus as a 1st-6th grader to get to the Catholic School, but it didn’t matter to anyone because it was free and met the start and end times of school.
RBN
December 27th, 2010
5:41 pm
Maureen the buy-in by stakeholders in Georgia is absurd. Duncan does not understand “Right to Beg” states, which complicates the relationship with the NEA, a vital part of any 2012 re-election for Obama. The fact that 26 superintedants were all that was required to provide “stakeholder” cover sets up the problems to come. Dade County announced that they will spend the vast majority of their funding (almost $1 million over 4 years) to hire two administrators to monitor student achievement and teacher evaluations. If this is racing to the top while many teachers lost ten days pay and class sizes rise to no apparent ceiling, then God help us.
Tennessee by contrast had a governor, a very conservative Democrat, who sat down with the TEA to plan out how the money would be used. So far the plans in Hamilton County look much more promising.
Please check other plans of the 26 to see how many more administrators will be hired with this money while teachers in Georgia suffer and days of instr5uction are cut.
justjanny
December 27th, 2010
7:55 pm
So, will Erin Hames keep her $130,000.00+ salary to be the spy for the Gold dome? Maybe the plan is to ensure that John Barge will be unsuccessful because he had the balls to eliminate a few worthless employees sucking off the taxpayer dollar. Why don’t we just build a bonfire and throw in a bunch of tax payer dollars? What a travesty!!
Mikey D
December 27th, 2010
8:12 pm
@justjanny
You can bet that she will continue to draw an obscene salary while the teachers of this state continue to see furloughs and outright cuts to our pay. It’s very interesting that two politicians who have no educational experience whatsoever (sonny and bad-deal) seem so high on this woman, while the one person in the equation who actually knows something about education (John Barge) gave her a pinkslip. Something smells very fishy. But after 8 years of sonny days, what else is new?
Dome Watcher
December 27th, 2010
9:16 pm
When Hames was working for Sonny she was very mouthy about the bloated salaries at DOE but it sure didn’t stop her from demanding one of those bloated salaries when she went to work there.
Tony
December 27th, 2010
9:19 pm
Erin Hames does NOT need to serve as a policy advisor for education. When it comes to priorities for public education funding, she remains ideologically rooted in the republican mantras – charter schools, merit pay, and testing.
Her lack of experience speaks loud and clear.
By the way – RTTT was written by a team of people sponsored by the Gates Foundation. Not OSA, not Sonny, not Hames, not even Cox.
Ridiculous
December 27th, 2010
10:23 pm
Erin Hames wrote/organized the RTTT application?! If she says this often and loud enough does it become the truth? Please check your sources on how this 400M dollar grant actually actually made it to Georgia.
just wondering
December 27th, 2010
10:44 pm
Is anyone gong to be satisfied with X years of teaching experience, no matter what X is? Teaching experiences is far, far, overestimated – particularly for a political position.
Mikey D
December 27th, 2010
11:15 pm
@just wondering
I would have much more respect for an education advisor with 15+ years in the classroom. I’m sorry that you believe that experience is “overestimated”, but I don’t understand how someone with 3 years of teaching experience could possibly be considered an expert. This woman is a first-rate political climber, no doubt. But she should not be surprised that actual educators doing the actual work of educating children view her as somewhat less than qualified for the position (and salary) that she has claimed.
just wondering
December 27th, 2010
11:45 pm
A teacher with 25 years of teaching experiences seeing only her own classroom will be far less effective as a political advisor as someone with 0 year of teaching experiences but with 15 years of visiting and talking with classroom teachers and administrators. No question about it.
Mikey D
December 27th, 2010
11:54 pm
You’re assuming that she has been out visiting and talking with teachers. Highly doubtful. She’s a sham and a leech making a fortune with very little to offer.
Mikey D
December 27th, 2010
11:54 pm
25 > 3
Mikey D
December 28th, 2010
12:01 am
@just wondering
I suppose that you also believe that an embedded reporter in Afghanistan or Iraq knows more about the dangers of war than the soldiers because he/she has visited and talked with lots of soldiers? Your logic is flawed.
just wondering
December 28th, 2010
7:03 am
You would hope that generals and civilian leaders who see the big picture have a much better sense of military strategies and judgments.
You say I’m assuming something, but so are you. What’s the difference?
just wondering
December 28th, 2010
7:03 am
1^25=1
Teacher for Life
December 28th, 2010
7:21 am
How utterly classless of you to assume that a 25 year veteran teacher has only seen the inside of their classroom? He who knows not and knows not that he knows not is a fool…shun him.
Teacher for Life
December 28th, 2010
7:23 am
Excuse me…and clueless.
HS Math Teacher
December 28th, 2010
9:58 am
I don’t know how she’ll fare in her new job, but I will tell you without hesitation, she’s a LOOKER.
just wondering
December 28th, 2010
10:19 am
Being knowledgeable about education to be an effective political advisor is not the same thing as being an effective teacher – which, by the way, the number of years does not necessarily equates to, either.
@ Teacher for Life
I have never said all teachers who taught 25 years would never see outside of their classrooms. On the other hand, not all teachers with 25 years experiences have really seen classrooms other than theirs. Just as we cannot assume this person is clueless and unqualified because she taught only for 3 years, we cannot assume someone else who taught more could be an effective advisr. All I am saying is that years of classroom teaching experiences isn’t a major factor for a political position.
Mikey D
December 28th, 2010
10:57 am
If you are advising a governor and helping to set educational policy, you should have a very good idea what you’re talking about. After 3 years in the classroom, I was still a novice and I knew far less than I needed to know. Now, 16 years into my career, I know much more because I have seen and done so much more. There is NO WAY that someone with 3 years’ experience can possibly be considered an expert in education.
Late to the Party
December 28th, 2010
11:11 am
But at least she’s perky! Much like the undergraduates I taught for the last 20 years at University of Georgia. I am impressed with the RTTT accomplishment – that shows political savvy, however, not educational policy acumen.
TopSchool
December 28th, 2010
11:20 am
And where does Erin Hames live? North or South of Buckhead?
On the Northside of Atlanta we refer to a teacher with the new husband, new house and 2.2 children on the way…as a dear “Little Debbie Snack Cake”
One bite, a few paychecks to decorate the house, and put two Chinese Ming vases on either side of the fireplace mantle …and they are out the door.
Only to return when their marriage falls apart and they set up an “Estate Sale” on the Northside. Down south we call it a “Garage Sale”. … When the fairy tale marriage turns ugly all the pretties and finery are sold for pennies to the antique dealers on Cheshire Bridge Road.
And this is what makes Atlanta’s finest YOUNG TEACHERS.
I don’t know this young lady…but please don’t tell me she’s another “Debbie Snack Cake”
Sad…I sat through enough meetings watching them cut duck boarders for bulletin boards and make ginger bread houses from milk cartons in their classrooms ( an activity for the little miss homemaker to do in her newly decorated kitchen ) Besides the fact this is THE SAME EDUCATION WE WERE GIVEN IN 1960—-In 2010 we are still allowing this in our classrooms and evaluating it as superior education experiences for our young children.
Many of these young teachers are playing school. As a seasoned teacher, I can observe for about 20 minutes and figure out if they are actually teaching or playing school.
Not knowing the details about all of Ms. Hames history…but reading some of what has been posted…I will not be surprised if this is just another created job for the connected.
TopSchool
December 28th, 2010
11:20 am
“Reorganization Money” Diverted to REICH’s daughter on APS PAYROLL
http://www.youtube.com/user/TopSchoolAtlanta#p/u/38/tHyr95P7JF0
Reich hires immediate family members to benefit from the additional money she has acquired as a result of “thinking out of the box”. ( another play on Reich’s Rhetoric..Reorganization Plan, AKA-3 Year Plan, Miscellaneous Pay, One Time Payment???? Too many names to juggle!)
TopSchool
December 28th, 2010
11:21 am
Another “Who knows Who” in the circle of Buckhead Atlanta…
TopSchool
December 28th, 2010
11:25 am
Sonny Perdue’s investigation opens suspicion of criminal activity in APS. Those involved in fraud are asked to step forward and tell what they know.
I think those involved MIGHT JUST BE deep rooted in the HIGH SOCIETY SECTION of JEZEBEL MAGAZINE.
Governor Perdue’s office takes ACTION with APS
http://www.youtube.com/user/TopSchoolAtlanta#p/u/4/7ykbZYUIHRk
http://www.TopPublicSchoolCorruptionAtlanta.com
Shamus
December 28th, 2010
12:06 pm
I, too, am late to the party. In principle, I agree with “just wondering” that the years in classrooms alone does not qualify or disqualify someone to be an effective policy advisor for a governor. I am amazed to see so much negativity toward this appointment only based on the fact that she taught for 3 years. It sounds like teachers are just creating excuses for things to come – a very typical task avoidance strategy.
TopSchool
December 28th, 2010
1:41 pm
Duck Borders …I think I’ve created a new word!
TopSchool
December 28th, 2010
6:56 pm
@I love teaching. I hate what it is becoming. You aren’t one of those teachers that takes so much pride in the amount of work they take home…
It is called lack of organizational skills or student overload…
You are really exposing the flaws in your ability to handle the classroom.
Snap…
Please dont waist yur time profreading my wirk. I lik to misspell the werds just so it wil drive you crazee.
Lamar
December 31st, 2010
8:04 am
Forty-two years ago, I was a young ‘hot-shot’ teacher. Taught in a correctional faciltiy, tough inner-city middle school (TOTY), psychiatric facility …just looking for challenges and settings where I could make a difference. I had that kind of confidence. Took twelve years to feel burned out before I had to step away and evaluate what I was going to do with my career. Erin Hames figured it out in 3. Good for her. But, from this older …and, maybe, wiser former hot shot’s POV, it is not what is learned about education that makes a person of any stripe a good teacher. Not at all. It is what we learn about people (not just the children but their parents, too), ourselves and the community in which we serve. And, this much I fear I have learned about the community in which I serve …the RTTT money we expect to receive will not have a positive REAL impact on the education of a single child here but it will make things look better statistically. And ever since the US became consciously afraid that the rest of the world might someday catch up to US, statistical comparisons have become the way we identify our successes and failures. Good luck, Erin Hames. Let’s do lunch in 30 years and take a non-statistical read on the quality of human life data driven education has created.