Georgia Lt. Governor Casey Cagle, whom this blog endorsed last year, has not wasted anytime setting a new agenda for Georgia’s public schools.

A GRADE of “A” should be awarded to Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle for his proposal to allow entire school systems to operate under the “charter” concept, which comes close to the ideal for “home rule” and is very much opposite to the way the state has most recently been talking and heading.

To her considerable credit, State Schools Superintendent Kathy Cox appeared with Cagle when he revealed his plan and threw her support to it.

It only makes sense, Mrs. Cox said, to allow schools that have achieved the various state testing standards to be given more authority on how and where they will spend money from the state. Not to mention, she might have added, how to spend the money from local taxpayers.

“The missing piece for me,” she said, “and one of the things that I think really separates our charter schools from other public schools, is the fact that the people that are responsible for the results — the principals, the teachers, the students and the parents — in charter schools … have control over the resources.”

This is, as Cagle said, “really all about local control, the ability for teachers, principals and superintendents to come together, along with board members, and … have the flexibility to design an educational curriculum around the needs of individual students as well as communities.”

GIVEN THAT charter schools are few and far between in Georgia and comparatively new (there are now 58, with 17 being high schools), tossing out a proposal to allow entire systems — city or county — to basically “opt out” of most state mandates and blaze their own trails … so long as standards are met or exceeded … is pretty revolutionary stuff.

Lt. Governor Casey Cagle is the front-runner for the Governor’s office in 2010 to succeed Governor Perdue. In part because of proposals like this one. With Governor Perdue soon to be a lame duck and Speaker Richardson hamstrung by recent ethics charges, Lt. Governor Casey Cagle has free reign to set the agenda in Georgia for the next 4 years.

And may I make a prediction. After 8 years of Hillary, God forbid, look for Governor Cagle to redeem Georgia’s tarnished reputation for producing Presidents.