Courtney English for Atlanta City Council President

Notable Accomplishments

  • Raised APS’ graduation rate from 51% to 71%
  • Brought administrative spending down from 7.2% to 4.1%.
  • Increased classroom spending to 64%
  • Reduced the size of central office
  • Increased Teacher and Principal autonomy
  • Launched a CRCT remediation plan to help EVERY student who was impacted by the cheating scandal (100% of the 2016 cohort graduated on time)
  • Uncovered and cleaned up years of administrative mismanagement—including a widespread cheating scandal
  • Led the board to unanimously adopt a $23.5 million turnaround plan designed to improve education in our lowest performing schools.
  • Recruited a world-class superintendent
  • Led the campaign to ensure an additional $546 million for school construction, renovations and IT upgrades.
  • Negotiated a new contract Between APS, the City of Atlanta and the Atlanta Beltline. Protecting a $3 billion economic development project and, most importantly, guaranteeing $100 million in new revenue for Atlanta’s students.
  • Coached the BEST Academy Middle School Football Team to 4 playoff appearances, a division championship and a trip to the Georgia Dome.

Since becoming Chairman, APS has also…

  • Has raised almost $42 million dollars
  • Partnered with Achieve Atlanta on a $20 million effort to remove the academic and financial barriers for APS students to attend college
  • Created the APS Scholars program at Georgia Tech. Under this unique partnership, EVERY VALEDICTORIAN and SALUDATORIAN from APS receives a FULL RIDE to attend Georgia Tech.
  • Launched new APS School Resource officer program to prevent kids from dropping out of school and into the prison pipeline