It’s been more than two years since a policy fight over a bill that created Georgia’s existing school voucher program severely damaged Mesha Mainor’s working relationship with state Democratic Party leaders, who vehemently oppose voucher programs, believing they pull too much money out of revenue-starved public schools.
Now the former Democratic state House member, who joined the Republican Party in 2023 before losing her seat a year later to progressive educator Bryce Berry, is running to become the next superintendent of Georgia schools.
Prior to her party switch, Mainor gained grassroots support from Black voters in her West Atlanta district due to her advocacy on issues including preventing idling trains from blocking roads in Hunter Hills, and building a noise barrier along a stretch of Interstate 20 that runs through Mosley Park.
While the overwhelming majority of Black Georgians vote Democrat, Mainor said they should consider voting for her in this race because, as the Black mother of a daughter who attends public school in metro Atlanta, she shares Black voters’ concerns for ensuring their children receive a quality K-12 education.
Read More: Georgia School Voucher Law Sparks Debate on Education Funding
“Even though I am a proponent of parental rights and parental voice, I’m also a proponent of making sure that the schools are exceptional,” Mainor told Capital B Atlanta during a Monday phone interview. “My goal as the next Georgia state school superintendent is to make sure that there’s exceptional programs in every school and every child’s need is being met. And if there is a parent that does not want to go to that school, I also support options.”
Mainor is running in a growing field of declared candidates vying to unseat incumbent State Superintendent Richard Woods, a Republican, who is seeking reelection in 2026.
Other GOP challengers include Candler County Schools Superintendent Fred “Bubba” Longgrear, entrepreneur Nelva Lee, and Georgia Center for Civic Engagement founder Randell Trammell. There are no declared Democrats in the race right now. The general election is more than a year away.
Standardized test scores for Georgia schools, released in August, showed overall improvement by public school students across the state. But Mainor said school performance has declined on Woods’ watch, beginning in 2014.
Georgia schools ranked 38th nationally in the latest analysis released by Wallet Hub in July.
“Under his leadership, we dropped 10 points, according to the National Report Card, in reading literacy for eighth grade, and five points in math for eighth grade,” Mainor said. “We have poor literacy rates, and at the end of the day, the person at the top is in charge. And I’m willing to improve the current system that we have.”
Read More: Black Lawmakers Pushing for Increase in Funds for Poor K-12 Students
Mainor’s plan for improving schools includes creating a PASS system, an acronym that stands for increasing Parental involvement, boosting Accountability, maximizing student Success and customer Service.
Her strategy to achieve these goals includes promoting career and technical programs across Georgia to better prepare students for high-demand careers and pushing for better testing and performance measures to improve accountability.
She criticized Woods’ pandemic-era push to reduce standardized testing in Georgia schools.
“The current incumbent is trying to do away with testing and measurements,” Mainor said. “There’s no way for us to know exactly what a child needs unless we’re measuring performance, so accountability systems in place [are] a must.”
The school voucher program Mainor helped create last year received fewer sign-ups than expected during its inaugural run.
An estimated 8,500 of the more than 15,000 students who applied for the Promise Scholarship program were approved last year, according to The Augusta Chronicle, which noted that half the recipients were Black and a third were white.
Roughly two-thirds of Georgia voters surveyed last year by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution said they oppose using public funds to pay for students to attend private schools, but Mainor said she’s still in favor of the Promise Scholarship.
Some Black parents who live in underperforming public school districts have used the state’s school voucher program to help pay for homeschooling or for their kids to attend charter and private schools.
“I still support the program, because those parents that have signed up for it, now they have an option that they did not have before,” Mainor said. “At the end of the day, it’s giving parents an option.”
