Two other Democratic candidates—Alisha Thomas Searcy, running for state school superintendent, and Janice Laws Robinson, running for insurance commissioner—also visited Athens last week, speaking to the Athens-Clarke County Democratic Committee on Aug. 25.
Searcy, who served six terms representing Cobb County in the state House of Representatives and ran for state school superintendent in 2014 as Alisha Thomas Morgan before getting married, said she would be an advocate for teachers who would beef up school security and modernize K-12 education. “We have to stop trying to deliver a telegram education to a TikTok generation,” she said.
After losing to the current state school superintendent, Republican Richard Woods, eight years ago, Searcy became superintendent of Ivy Preparatory Academies, a chain of three all-girls charter schools in the Atlanta area. She was an outspoken advocate for charter schools and school choice in the legislature, joining with Republicans to support legislation creating a state commission to bypass local approval for charter schools and advocating for a constitutional amendment, rejected by voters, allowing the state to take over “failing” local schools as a candidate in 2014.
In response to an audience question, Searcy defended her work on behalf of charter schools, saying she supports “a healthy mix” and more options within public school districts. “For me [Ivy Prep] was a dream job, because I could get up every single day thinking about how I could serve little Black girls,” she said.
In the wake of the Uvalde school shooting, Searcy also pledged to put a school resource officer in every school, including elementary schools. That would not contribute to the school-to-prison pipeline, she contended, because the officers would be trained to deal with children.
Robinson, a small business owner and licensed insurance agent, also ran for insurance commissioner in 2018, losing to Jim Beck, who was later removed from office by Gov. Brian Kemp after being indicted on federal fraud and money-laundering charges. Kemp appointed John King to the position in 2019, and King is the Republican nominee this year.
Georgia has some of the highest auto insurance rates in the nation, Robinson said, and she pledged to challenge any rate increases that insurance companies filed for. She also said she would ensure that insurance companies are not using discriminatory algorithms to decide whether to sell someone a policy, and she would require companies to let customers opt out of reselling the data they collect.
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