Governor Perdue Highlights Public-Private Partnerships in Education

Atlanta - Governor Sonny Perdue today stressed the importance of public-private partnerships that promote educational excellence for Georgia's students. In a visit to Nancy Creek Theme School, Governor Perdue highlighted public partnerships with private sector companies that benefit education in this state, including Lexmark International's donation of printers and art software and the Wireless Classroom Project.

"Public-private partnerships are important to the success of education in this state," said Governor Sonny Perdue. "Private sector companies through their generosity can supplement the efforts of the state to provide the best education possible for our students. I want to challenge more companies to invest in our children's future."

Governor Perdue also previewed one of his legislative proposals for the upcoming General Assembly - making permanent the education flexibility passed during the 2003 legislative session. SB 249 provided school districts with more flexibility in the key area of funding, but it only extended that flexibility for one year.

"Local teachers, administrators, and parents know the needs of their students better than anyone. We must make flexibility a permanent component of our education policy to empower our local school systems to make the right decisions for their students."

Lexmark International, Inc. is donating to every public elementary, middle, and high school in the state one printer with art software and teaching materials. Georgia has 2,003 public schools according the Georgia Department of Education making Lexmark's contribution worth approximately $290,000 to the state.

Donations of equipment and services from The Coca-Cola Company and Siemens are making it possible to add two new schools to the Wireless Classroom Project this fall. A total of 10 schools are now taking part in the project. The two newly participating schools are Metter (Candler County) Middle School and Turner County Middle School. Both schools began distributing laptop computers to teachers and students at the beginning of the 2003-2004 school year. PLATO Learning was selected in 2001 to manage the project and install a wireless computer network at each participating school.