Rep. Dunahoo is married to a retired public school teacher, Elaine Dunahoo who has taught in the Hall County school system for 28 years, and is committed to maximizing local control of education. In addition, 5 family members of 8 are teachers in Georgia. Emory has taken up a stand against propaganda being taught in our schools that border on anti-American values.
Last year in 2021, Emory questioned the state board of Regents about topics being taught in our secondary schools and set of a fire storm of public awareness about definitions of racism, equity, priviledge, oppression, and justice. Currently, topics being taught in K-12 are being examined and a variety of material available has been found to be very liberal and against the moral values our country was founded on. Public schools are currently taking on the role of parenting students without parental permission on many topics. Emory is standing for traditional values and morals to be taught in our schools reflecting education not indoctrination.
An opponent of excessive standardized testing, Dunahoo believes in the basics of a quality education and training a skilled workforce to enhance Georgia’s ability to attract new businesses and jobs. With Covid, we have seen reduced testing for students and that may continue for the near future. The legislature fully funded QBE for the first times in 2018,2019. Currently with a reduced projected tax budget and a Covid crisis on our hands; the state was forced to cut school funding but avoided furloughs of staff and teachers. Education still receives the largest slice of the budget pie with a $10.6 billion dollars (almost 50% of the entire budget) an increase of $707 million over the prior year even with present budget cuts. While education is a very worthy cause, legislators are striving to balance the budget and money not received simply cannot be spent in any area. State agencies are tightening their belts and have to be good stewards of funds provided by the state under the current conditions in which the state must operate. Rep. Dunahoo was honored to support the state budget that increased education funding and teacher salaries by more than $500M since his first year in the Legislature. A college education should be attainable by all and there are scholarships, work programs, and the Hope in place for this. However, the government provides 13 years of free education and college degrees cannot be “free”; nothing of real value is free. Someone must pay for it, whether it is education or freedom itself. Free tuition is already available in Georgia colleges and technical schools for students who EARN it. This should be a motivator for students to perform at their best in school where mediocrity has become a big problem for teachers and schools.