Dr. Jaha Howard, left, speaks to people outside of Friendship Baptist Church Wednesday. Howard is running as a Democrat to be the state's next school superintendent.

MOULTRIE, Ga. — When organizers arranged for secretary of state candidate Floyd Griffin to come to Moultrie, they didn’t realize they were going to get a “twofer.”

Dr. Jaha Howard, a Democratic candidate for state school superintendent, has been traveling with Griffin as his campaign sweeps through South Georgia. He actually arrived at Moultrie’s Friendship Baptist Church ahead of Griffin Wednesday and was working the crowd of about 35 when the latter’s tour bus arrived.

Howard, a pediatric dentist from Smyrna, focused on early literacy as a solution to many of the state’s education ills, but he said making any improvements will require a level of collaboration that doesn’t seem to exist.

“Schools are moving at one speed,” he said. “Business is moving at another speed. Churches are moving at another speed. Nonprofits are moving at another speed — and nobody’s talking to one another!”

Howard said the current office holder, Richard Woods of Ocilla, a Republican, has been in office for two terms and Georgia students’ reading skills haven’t shown noticeable improvement in that time. He said Woods needs to stand up to the governor and legislators over school issues but doesn’t.

“When the superintendent gets in these political circles, he folds like a lawn chair every time,” he said.

Howard sees the role of the state Department of Education as bringing together all the different groups trying to help children learn so that they’re all on the same page. He used the coronavirus pandemic as an example. 

In normal times, most students get at least one meal a day at school. When schools closed at the start of the pandemic, Howard said, there were many groups working to ensure the children had enough to eat. They were stymied because they didn’t know what the school systems themselves were going to do to meet the need, he said.

“The pandemic put a spotlight on all our existing challenges,” he said. “… The pandemic showed us what we look like without our makeup on.”

A key part of his platform is bringing groups together to set children on the path to reading as early as possible. He talked about pediatricians who encourage parents to read to their babies, the Head Start program and private early learning centers as all being critical to having students ready to read by the time they start public school.

“These kids are going to show up in our classrooms in five years,” he said. “Why are we going to wait five years to get started?”

Howard, a member of the Cobb County Board of Education, said schools anchor communities. As a pediatric dentist, he talked to his patients’ families. A big concern for all of them was their children’s schools. He said he saw a lot of families who loved their neighborhoods but moved away to get their children into a better school district. He said it makes more sense to remain in place and make the schools better.

“It’s time for us to be excellent,” he said.

Howard is one of four Democrats running for state school superintendent. Woods, the incumbent, is opposed by John Barge in the Republican primary. Voters will determine each party’s nominees in the May 24 primary, and those nominees will face each other in the November general election.