Trammel points to state ranking as reason for superintendent run

Randell Trammell visited Dublin last Thursday, taking part in a meet-and-greet at Fairfield Inn & Suites to talk about his campaign to be the next Georgia school superintendent. But this was not his first trip to the area.

Trammell, who makes his home with his wife and three children in Cartersville, is seeking to unseat current state School Superintendent Richard Woods in the May 19 Republican primary. He joins Mesha Mainor and Bubba Longgrear as others seeking this seat on the Republican ticket. 

“It is too important not to run,” said Trammell, who added that he has had fun traveling and meeting people in approximately 90 counties so far. “The big reason I’m running is I have three kids in public schools and my wife is a teacher. 

“I saw some alarming statistics that showed Georgia is No. 38 in the nation for education. And right now, 70 percent of our third- and fourth-graders can’t read on grade level. That is terrifying, particularly when you take that number of third grade readers and that level of proficiency and we predict the number of prison beds we will need in the future. That tells me that we either need to get serious about teaching students how to read and life skills or we’ve got to get serious about building prisons and that’s not the Georgia I want.”

Education is economic development, he said. A school system that is failing for five to 10 years will be in trouble because industries will leave that area. Good education will bring in industries and businesses.

“For the 12th year in a row, Georgia has been named as the No. 1 state in the nation to do business,” Trammell said. “If these students in this 38th-ranking school system grow up, do you think we’re going to keep this No. 1 status for long. We’ve got to have a competitive product that we are producing from our students and make sure they are ready for the 21st century and they have the job and interactive skills.”

Trammell is well aware of the challenges happening at Dublin City Schools. He added there are seven other school systems on the critical list.

“I think the challenge for Dublin is that it got so far down the track before any alarms were raised,” Trammell said. “People are angry, sad and afraid here in the community. I saw that as I talked to people. … It is a challenge. Fortunately you are in a county that has two school systems and so it is not a complete failure in terms that there is nowhere to go. There are some tough conversations being had and more that will be had. It’s not an enviable position to be in.”

Trammell recently attended a prayer service held for the Dublin schools. He sat in the back and wanted to be there to listen.

“People are looking for folks to blame,” Trammell said. “There was probably some oversight locally, but that blame also belongs to the state Department of Education because an audit had not been turned in since 2021. The state Department of Education – superintendent – has the responsibility of accountability and that duty was shirked.”  

Wood has been in his position for 12 years and is seeking a fourth term, but what he has done is not quite “good enough” for Trammell.

“I want to have strong standards, succeeding schools, and I want our students to be competitive with anybody else in the world,” Trammell said. “I know it will be challenging. The state school superintendent helps control the state budget with 54 percent of the state revenue. I would suggest that outside of governor, the state school superintendent position is the most critical in this upcoming election because what happens during those four years sets the trajectory of what is to come.” 

This is the first time Trammell, who is the president and CEO for the Center of Civic Engagement – a non-profit that focuses on civic education for K-12th grades – is running for a political office. He said it is important to make sure the basics are being taught. He is also concerned with discipline and safety in the school buildings.

“We need to make sure our teachers and students are safe, not only from external threats, but there are distractions and challenges within that we need to address as well,” Trammell said. “We’ve got to make sure we have a good teacher pipeline and we are keeping our teachers. The teacher retirement system recently shared a statistic that 52 to 54 percent of teachers quit the profession in their first three years. We have to get them in and keep them. 

“We’ve got to make sure they are supported,” he added. “Teachers want support in the classrooms, and they want those distraction and discipline issues out of the classroom. They want to be able to have planning time and go to the restroom. Teachers are there to teach, students are there to learn and anything that gets in the way of that is wrong and can’t be tolerated. Why would we put one student’s education above 25? We need to isolate and if there are problems there – social, emotional or whatever – we need to take care of that child but not at the expense of the rest of the children in the classroom.”

Trammell met with retired educators at lunch before meeting for a lesson session for teachers and talking with GOP members in town on Nov. 20. 

“I hope to do more lessoning and asking questions than giving any great wisdom,” he said. “I think that our teachers need to be seen and heard. They probably need to be apologized to, but most of all, they need to hear that someone sees what they’re going through and that we sympathize and empathize with them. I am running to be an education reformer. I think where we are right now at No. 38 in the nation is going to require more than just a few tweaks to the system. The status quo has to go. We’ve got to see and invest in what is working. If it’s not working, we’ve got to have honest conversations and we need to see where our baseline is and own them and move on from there.”