MARIETTA - Retired educator and former state Rep. Roger Hines, of Acworth, said he wants Georgia students to move up from the bottom in national education rankings. He entered the race for state superintendent this week to challenge Superintendent Kathy Cox in the Republican primary election in July.

Hines, 65, joins retired educator Dr. Beth Farokhi, a Democrat, as the second Cobb resident to run for state superintendent in 2010. Educator Richard Woods, a Republican from Irwin County in south Georgia, is also challenging Cox. Cox is running for re-election to a third term.

Hines, who has been traveling across the state the past two months, said he is running because the state is on the wrong path regarding education and said he can provide the needed leadership to get it back on track. He said he would give Cox's performance as superintendent a grade of "C-minus" or "D-plus."

"Our state hovers at 46 in the nation in just about every area of educational measurement, and it has done so for the last eight years and maybe a little further," he said. "The state (education) department has become a data management center rather than a vibrant, idea generating place for teaching and learning."

One problem with education in Georgia is over-testing, Hines said. He mentioned the End of Course Test as the most unnecessary test for students.

"Teachers are weary and they're not weary from budgetary restraints or teaching," he said. "They're weary from the stuff that keeps them from teaching, and all the testing is one of them."

If elected, Hines said he wants to focus on curriculum instruction and math. Every course taught should achieve the purpose of enriching lives, he said. The arrangement of math should be fixed so students study courses such as algebra, geometry and trigonometry each year in succession, instead of a little at a time, he said.

Hines added that writing needs to be stressed in every curriculum area. He said he would also develop a guest teacher program to bring professionals into the classroom to teach for about three days on a volunteer basis.

"I want us to place in front of students people from all walks of life, because I believe in what you may call real life education," he said.

Hines said he supports school districts becoming charter school systems, as Marietta City Schools has done. And he said he's a fan of non-traditional schools, such as Oakwood Open Campus High School in Marietta. He said he wants to establish more of them.

"I'm talking about open campuses, like colleges, where students are not in the football scene and can go on and get their diplomas," he said.

Hines said he wants to attract the best teachers to Georgia schools and make sure more of them have classroom experience before they teach. But salary increases are not in the near future.

Cuts in the state budget and the lagging economy are major challenges for the next state superintendent, Hines readily acknowledged. However, he said his experience as a former state legislator gives him an advantage over other candidates.

"I know I have a good relationship with those folks down there," Hines said. "I'd just have to use every power and persuasion I have to tell them that schools have got to be funded."

Hines served in the General Assembly from 2001 to 2004, before losing to U.S. Rep. Tom Price (R-Roswell) in the 2004 GOP primary for the 6th Congressional District seat. He taught high school and college English for 42 years. He taught at Wheeler, North Cobb and Oakwood high schools.

Hines earned bachelor's and master's degrees in English from the University of Southern Mississippi. He has been married 42 years to Nancy and they have four grown children and seven grandchildren.