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A major part of Gov. Sonny Perdue's election-year education agenda received final passage Thursday, but not without attacks from Democrats who charged that forcing school systems to spend 65 percent of funding in classrooms was misguided.

"This bill ... places the governor in the role of education czar, a dictator to local school boards," Senate Minority Leader Robert Brown (D-Macon) said. "There's no body of research that supports this as a way of improving education."

As with previous votes on the "Classrooms First for Georgia Act," the final vote, which took place in the Senate, was along party lines: 33 Republicans for, 19 Democrats against.

Perdue, who has aimed a series of budget and legislative initiatives at teachers in advance of his re-election bid, was pleased.

"Making classroom spending a priority and providing our hardworking teachers with more classroom resources will give our students the best opportunity to reach their fullest potential," he said in a statement.

With passage of the bill, Georgia becomes the fourth state in the past year to adopt the so-called 65 percent solution, a policy promoted nationally by a GOP political consultant from Arizona and his group, First Class Education.

"The reason why this is becoming so popular around the country is we're spending more dollars every year on education," said Tim Mooney, the group's director. "Now we need to make sure those dollars reach our classrooms, our teachers and our students."

Both Secretary of State Cathy Cox and Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor, who are vying for the Democratic bid for governor, were critical of Senate Bill 390, the first part of Perdue's education agenda to pass the Legislature.

"Our educators and teachers and principals and superintendents are the ones who know best how to educate our children, and they're raising serious questions," Cox campaign spokesman Peter Jackson said. "As far as appropriating as much money for education, that's something that Cathy Cox absolutely supports. The question is will this bill do that?"

After the Senate took its final vote, Taylor said, "We've been ambushed."

Perdue and his supporters contend that spending at least 65 percent on teachers and textbooks will lift performance in a state known for high dropout rates and low SAT scores.

"Consistently, in those school systems that spend more than 65 percent in the classroom, those test scores go up," said Sen. Ronnie Chance (R-Tyrone), the bill's sponsor. "That's what this bill is about."

But many educators have railed against the measure, saying it will do nothing for student achievement and could harm support services such as media centers and guidance programs, which are not included in the bill's definition of classroom spending.

"This legislation ... is a politically expedient public relations ploy," said Frank Petruzielo, the superintendent of Cherokee County schools. "It will sound good to the public. It will sound like an easy, no-cost fix to public education. But it will not in any data-driven way present the opportunity ... for improving education."

Few superintendents know exactly how the rule, which begins in the 2007-08 school year, will affect their systems. Neither the governor's office nor the state Department of Education could say how many of Georgia's 181 school systems currently spend 65 percent on teachers, paraprofessionals and classroom supplies.

According to the latest data available from the National Center for Education Statistics, Georgia spent 63.3 percent on instruction in the 2002-03 school year. Slightly more than a third of the state's school systems spent at least 65 percent that year, including the majority in metro Atlanta.

But that was before several years of cuts to the state's education funding formula — now facing a legal challenge from systems that say Georgia doesn't provide enough money to educate every child adequately.

"This is masking the real problem," Tim Callahan, spokesman for the Professional Association of Georgia Educators, said of the 65 percent rule. "The real problem isn't allocation of funds. The real problem is a billion dollars in cuts in the last three years and an antiquated funding mechanism, which is being held together by duct tape."

A new Standard & Poor's analysis of the 65 percent policy, released earlier this week, also called into question the mandate's educational value. The review of spending and test scores in 25 states, including Georgia, found no evidence that directing a certain percentage of money to teaching would boost learning.

"We truly just don't understand what's driving it," said Paula Gault, the superintendent of Forsyth County schools, who worries that her school nursing and guidance programs may suffer under the mandate. "But this will work against us."

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