Celebrating 50 Years of PAGE: Supporting Georgia’s Educators

The most effective help often comes from people who know your world firsthand. Craig Harper, executive director of the Professional Association of Georgia Educators (PAGE), joins us to share how a Georgia-grown, educator-led association supports 91,000+ members with advocacy, coaching, grants, and professional learning—while keeping dues low and dollars local. From the earliest days in 1975 to a milestone 50th anniversary, PAGE’s story is about choice, stability, and staying power for educators who want practical support and a strong voice at the Capitol.

We dig into the origin of PAGE as an independent alternative focused on Georgia’s classrooms, and how that choice still pays off: a visible presence at State Board and agency meetings, a respected daily Capitol report used statewide, and a legislative team that testifies with data and member input. Craig highlights how surveys, focus groups, and on-the-ground listening shape policy positions on compensation, benefits, safety and security, and workload. Beyond advocacy, PAGE invests directly in people: $100K in classroom grants, $30K in scholarships for para-pros, aspiring teachers, and advanced degrees, and the annual STAR program celebrating top seniors and the educators who shaped them.

One of the most powerful tools we discuss is PAGE Coaching—confidential, one-on-one support for relational and cultural challenges that might otherwise drive good educators from the field. Hundreds have already used coaching to navigate conflict, clarify expectations, and choose to stay. We also talk about statewide representation on PAGE’s board, collaboration with GAEL, GSBA, and GSSA, and why membership is a smart move for teachers and leaders alike. If you care about teacher retention, burnout solutions, school safety, and meaningful education policy in Georgia, this conversation offers clear takeaways and practical next steps.

If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a colleague, and leave a quick review telling us which PAGE service you found most valuable. Your feedback helps more Georgia educators find the support they deserve.

Transcript

Setting The Table: Gale Meets PAGE

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome to Gale Unscripted, where leadership meets learning and real conversations drive real impact. I'm Ben Wiggins, Executive Director of Gale. Join us as we go beyond the headlines with Georgia's top education leaders. Let's elevate the conversation. But tell them a little bit about yourself.

SPEAKER_02 0:49

All right, thank you, Ben, for inviting me to talk to you all today. So I'm Craig Harper. I'm the executive director for the Professional Association of Georgia Educators. And I've been in this role for about eight years and with Paige for the last decade. Prior to that, I was in administration with Dalton Public Schools for about 23 years. Many of those years were in uh administrative role in the central office, primarily with human resources, but also uh most all of the other administrative functions other than uh finance and and school nutrition. Um so uh did a lot with uh hiring, teacher pipeline, recruitment, certification, all of the things that you would you would do with uh employing and and keeping people uh happy and satisfied with what they were doing, as well as safety and security, social workers, uh counselors, uh part of my time there, technology, and uh just a wide range of administrative uh work, which has translated really well for the work that I do with Paige.

SPEAKER_00 1:46

Awesome. Yeah, human resources in a school district is uh is a phenomenal um uh task. Uh it's very critical. Uh I always said, you know, that's the lifeblood of the school district, you know, hiring, recruiting, and retaining teachers uh with all of the personnel issues um that go on in schools, uh in school districts uh and a lot of communities. It's the largest employer. So uh that that probably did translate very well for you to go from HR right into Page.

SPEAKER_02 2:17

It did because so much of what Page does is represent our members uh and challenges that they're facing, or supporting them with professional learning to help them grow and develop their career, and then uh a lot of the advocacy that we do at the legislative uh at the Capitol under the Gold Dome. Uh so policy, uh the regulations, laws, compensation benefits, all of those things uh certainly are things that we're concerned about uh for our members uh at Page, and it's something I was quite familiar with.

SPEAKER_00 2:47

Awesome. Well, tell our members, just in case they don't know, who do you serve at Page?

SPEAKER_02 2:52

So we're fortunate at Page to uh represent all educators that work in uh education in Georgia. Uh primarily that's public education, but we also do have members even in uh some charter schools and private school situations, but the vast majority of our membership, which is over uh 91,000 members, uh, are uh in public education, K-12 education, uh, pre-K as well if it's in a if it's in a public setting. Uh and about 75% of those are teachers, they're clear classroom or support roles. But we also support administrators, we support school nutrition, bus drivers, uh, school resource officers if they're employed by the district, nurses. So it's really anybody that works for a school district and is paid through a school district. Um we're not able to cover those that are third party, uh, which does happen now with some outsourcing. But the majority of our members are are working in schools and classrooms across the state of Georgia in every school system uh that we have city, county, uh, and special services.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

Yeah. And am I remembering correctly, Paige, if I'm a student teacher, I can also join Page as well, correct?

SPEAKER_02 4:00

Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up because we also have uh even high school members. So if if you are involved in education uh and for high schools for future Georgia educators, uh and that coverage is uh really if they go in and do uh student, there's a form of student teaching they do as the education as a pathway, so that's available for them. Um and then for college students who are going to be going into schools and doing their student teaching, we cover them and it's uh a very affordable rate of only$15 a year. And then if they are a member while they're in college, they get a they get half off uh in their first year uh as a professional member, whether that's support or uh or professional uh membership. So so we have high school all the way through, uh even retirees uh who may choose to continue to support Page and and education in general, and they want to see us be successful and have the resources to do of what all the things that we do, then uh we do have retired members as well. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 5:01

I was a member of Page my entire career in education, both as a teacher, of course, uh then as an assistant principal, eleven years as a principal, and then as a superintendent. So I think that's important uh just to make sure our guild members understand that even though they're in educational leadership, Page is certainly an option for them as far as membership.

SPEAKER_02 5:22

Absolutely. So it's uh Page is of course an independent association, so it's uh we're we're state, the focused only in the state of Georgia as an independent association. All of our our dues and all of our efforts are focused here in Georgia, which we think is really important. And that that's also what allows us to uh maintain our dues at a at a very low level. Um so we haven't raised our rates in over 13 years. Um so that's been pretty amazing. Uh so it's still a for a professional member, whether you're an administrator or uh classroom teacher, it's$175 a year. That's less than$15 a month. And for support personnel like Para Pro administrative support, it's$87.50, which is half of that$175. So uh it's quite affordable for people and it's a it's a valuable resource to have available to you when things come up that that you might need our services for.

Why PAGE Was Founded: A Different Choice

SPEAKER_00 6:15

Absolutely. Well, I know this year is an important year for Page. You're celebrating the 50th anniversary this year. So talk to us a little bit about um why Page was founded and what you're looking for in the future.

SPEAKER_02 6:28

Absolutely. We are really excited about our 50th anniversary year. So we uh became officially chartered with chartered with the state of Georgia on May the 16th of 1975. So we just crossed that actual uh 50th anniversary date, and we were founded um because there were some things going on with uh uh other state association that was nationally affiliated. And uh up until that time in the mid-70s, uh you could be a member of a local organization, but not necessarily the national. And they were trying to um unify all those dues uh which was gonna uh increase the cost. And there were also some things going on just in the educational culture at that time, uh, with uh pot potential for strikes and some other things. And so there were a group of educators that really wanted to focus on what classroom teachers needed that would maintain education during uh you know, throughout the year for students without any kind of threat for uh any kind of walkouts or other kind of action like that. And they also felt like uh people needed an alternative, they needed a choice uh that where could they could focus mostly on Georgia and not a lot of national political issues. So um that was the basis for the founding. And a lot of people thought that wouldn't work and that it wouldn't ever go anywhere. And here we are 50 years later, uh continuing to grow and and as a strong association that we feel like is the is the strongest in the state of Georgia that offers the most services and obviously at a at a very economical rate.

SPEAKER_00 8:04

Yeah. Speaking of services, uh, could you talk to us a little bit about the scope of those services, your programs and initiatives?

SPEAKER_02 8:10

Yeah, absolutely. So uh of course the thing we're most often, like any educator association is mostly known for, is that we're available for for individual advocacy related to employment issues or other things that might affect somebody's employment. Uh and the other major thing that we do is advocacy, uh not just in the legislative uh arena, which all although that's a major part of it, and I'll I'll talk some more about that in a minute. So besides the legislative, we also uh represent educators' interests at all of the agency meetings. So uh when you think about the scope of everything that touches education, that's a that's a pretty large task. So you've got the State Board of Education, you've got the Department of Education, you've got TRS, you've got State Health, uh GOSA, and you know the list goes on and on. And sometimes there's there's just uh ad hoc groups that get started, uh whether that's literacy uh or other special interest groups. So we represent and have people present at all of those meetings if we can. Um safety and security has become another big issue. So we attend that state conference and and are involved in a lot of that as well.

SPEAKER_00 9:20

Yeah, you page is everywhere. I mean, if I go to a state board meeting, there's page representation there. Uh at the Capitol, of course, you've got three people that are there every day. Uh and I think it's important for our members to know that Margaret and Robert and Josh do a phenomenal job uh on behalf of all the educators out there, and they work so extremely well with us at Gale, with Georgia School Board Association, the Superintendents Association. But you all do a fantastic job. And you have a daily report from the Capitol uh that is very, very impressive and very thorough and really speaks to everything that's going on to the at the Capitol.

Legislative Muscle And Daily Capitol Reports

SPEAKER_02 10:00

Yep. And I I appreciate you recognizing that that legislative group that we have because it is an extremely uh strong group of people. Um a couple of them have been doing it for for well over ten years. Uh so our director of legislative services, Margaret Chicarelli, uh is the leader of that group, and then Josh Stevens has been with us for a good long time. Um and he had a background actually in uh policy around safety and security kind of issues, which have been really critical the last couple of years to have his uh expertise and involvement with that. And then our newest member is Rob Acock, uh, and he's just done a phenomenal job. And that capital report that we do on a daily basis uh is used not by we make that available to anybody. And so that is used not just by our members but other affiliate organizations like Gale and GSSA and GSPA. And we are fortunate and privileged to also have great relationships with you all, and so we feel like there's uh an additional uh uh influence and and uh important uh work that happens because all of us working together really compounds that influence down at the Capitol. And uh we've been fortunate for many years now to have the page day on Capitol Hill, it's what we call it, but you all are also a major uh uh contributor and sponsor of that with us and your members participate uh at a really high level, and so the that cooperative work just makes all our work better.

SPEAKER_00 11:22

Yeah, it's always impressive when any of your people, those three, Margaret, Rob, or Josh, get up and and speak at a committee uh hearing, uh they always lead off with, I'm with Paige, and we represent over 90,000 educators. And I just think that speaks volumes to those representatives and senators sitting up there in the seats listening to their testimony.

SPEAKER_02 11:47

And there is so much work, as you know, that goes on behind the scenes that even our members would never be aware of because they are constantly in touch with and communicating with those legislators, with department heads and those agencies, and and they're providing advice and guidance and counsel to uh individual legislators or committees that are asking for uh additional information. And because our members are so good about sharing with us what their concerns are through our surveys and through focus groups and so the other other kind of communication uh methods that we have with our members, that we're able to give very informed opinions and guidance to our policymakers. And so that's an important part of our work.

SPEAKER_00 12:26

That's awesome. I know as a young administrator, I've I had the opportunity to participate in quite a few Page professional learning opportunities. There was the Principals Leaders Network and the High School Resign Initiative, and uh, I know I was just blown away at the support that all of the Page employees gave in the Page organization to us young administrators and our teacher leadership team. So I I'm I've always been appreciative of that, and uh it really expanded my network across the state, learning how to steal good ideas from great people.

Professional Learning, Grants, And STAR

SPEAKER_02 13:01

So there are a lot of a lot of services that I didn't even talk about yet, and professional learning is another one of those that we think has been critical for our members over the years, and and we actually have one of those aspiring leaders' groups today. Well, they just mentioned professional learning, but we also have some other uh programs and support that we do uh with scholarships and grants. Uh for the last several years we've done about uh$100,000 in grants for uh educated$500 grants to individuals. We have also uh we got about$30,000 that we do each year in scholarships for people to continue their education. And some of those are for para pros that want to become teachers, some are for high school students. The majority are for people that are going to continue uh with master's or higher level degrees in areas that will help them be even better educators. And though those grants are the Page Foundation, uh which is operated for for quite a few years. We also have the STAR program, which uh recognizes the top high school senior, and they get to recognize uh an educator who had the most influence on their life. And so we have that state banquet every year in April, and uh we're thrilled again this year that we were able to uh recognize students there. And it's always it's always fun seeing who they pick as that teacher that's most influential. Often it is a high school teacher because it's most recent. Uh but it's always fun when somebody picks their kindergarten teacher, uh, which we had to happen this year, or or an elementary teacher, or a gifted teacher, or um might even been special ed if they needed some services as they were coming through. Uh so it's always uh a lot of fun to recognize those teachers because uh often it's a surprise to them and it's a career highlight for them. So we get to recognize excellent students, but also they get to recognize the excellent teaching. So STAR has been a big part of what we do every year as well.

SPEAKER_00 14:53

Yeah, the STAR program was always one of my uh favorite things as a principal and superintendent, uh, both locally seeing those students come and recognize their teachers and tell the stories. And I agree with you. Uh a lot of times you do see the high school teacher, and it's usually an advanced placement teacher, but every now and then uh you'll see an elementary teacher selected or even a middle school teacher of someone that's just been really influential and impactful of their life. But I really love that. When you were mentioning scholarships, I just flash back to the uh late 90s and remembered that I received a page scholarship when I was working on my six-year program. So that's that's fantastic. Well, tell us where you see Page heading into this year and into the future. You're celebrating your 50th year, but where do you see the Page organization moving forward?

Coaching To Combat Burnout

SPEAKER_02 15:45

Well, I think I think our our past is pretty indicative of where our future is from a solid uh foundation of the services that we offer, but we also are looking for ways that we can expand the kinds of services we offer people. And one of those things that we've done over the last couple of years is uh the page coaching program, which is one-on-one confidential coaching on things. So w so many of the calls that we realized that we were getting in our in our legal department weren't really legal issues. It was really just uh relationship issues. It was um trying to get along with others or try to understand things related to uh just directions they were given. Uh so we we developed this program to help those people enhance what they were able to do by by moving through those challenges. And we've had uh well over uh I think it's close to 500 educators now served by the page coaching program. And in in a number of instances, we've had them report to us they're staying in the profession because they got that level of support. And that was really our goal as we started that is uh to address the things that weren't legal concerns but that would affect their ability to stay in or feel like they could stay in education. As you all know um from your members as well, there's a lot of uh burnout and other other kind of stressful, overwhelming situations that people face that that cause them to think about uh changing careers. And we want people to get through those struggles and those challenges and rise above that. And so we've been pretty proud of what we've been able to do with coaching. Um and safety and security has, as we all know, has be become a bigger and bigger issue. And so we are constantly looking for ways that we can uh provide additional benefits or additional services or expand our professional learning or to uh listen more and more to our members about the kinds of support that they need and then figure out a way for us to do that. So um we we started to address needs that weren't being met by other associations or that weren't available, and we've continued to do that throughout our throughout our history and we'll continue to do that going forward.

Statewide Representation And Board

SPEAKER_00 17:58

That's phenomenal. I think that's what sets Paige apart is some of the learning uh opportunities and the professional growth opportunities uh that your organization offers to teachers. I know your page has been very instrumental in getting uh information and surveys back from teachers that was played a critical part in the burnout survey uh that was a few years ago. And I know y'all do that every year. You're you're talking to your teachers, you're getting input, and I think that's very important for our Gale members as administrators and educational leaders is to get that information so that they can hear firsthand from the teachers that are in the classrooms uh of what they really, really love and enjoy about teaching, and maybe what some of the struggles are or hurdles so administrators can work to move some of those obstacles.

SPEAKER_02 18:47

So y'all y'all do a fantastic job. Well, thank you for that. Thank you for recognizing that work. And we've just closed out this uh most recent survey, and so our legislative team and support group is uh analyzing that and we'll we'll develop uh a report from that. And again, that's something that we don't just hold within our membership. It's something that we share with our our agency heads, with our legislators, with the with the groups like Gale and GSSA and GSBA. We want that information to be as wide to be shared as widely as possible because it helps all of us do a better job of supporting our members and education in Georgia to really understand what's happening in classrooms and happening in school districts, and then develop solutions or develop enhancements or supports that will just help educators do better to be more satisfied in the classroom to do the best job possible for our students. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 19:36

And I know you have representation all over the state of Georgia. You've got districts, you've got a board of directors. Is there anything you want to just say about that very quickly, just so our Gale audience members know that there is representation all over the state?

SPEAKER_02 19:50

We do have a board that's got uh 20 educators uh represented on that board, and they come from all the different districts that we have uh for our membership service areas around the state. Um we just had elections and just had uh welcomed three new uh board members that came on this month and uh recognized three that had offered many years of service that uh were retiring. Uh but we do have representation from all over the state. They bring all their perspectives uh and they give us a lot of guidance and advice on on what we're doing and affirmation when there's when that's possible, and suggestions for things that we can do better that they hear from from their districts when necessary as well. Good.

Partnership, Membership, And Closing

SPEAKER_00 20:30

Well, Paige has been a fantastic partner with Gail for decades, and we are extremely appreciative of that. I think it's uh ironic we just finished our 50th uh anniversary not too long ago, and now Paige is right there. I think that speaks to the longevity and the consistency in public education, and I just want you to know how much we appreciate you at Gail and the partnership that we've had with Paige and and will continue to have.

SPEAKER_02 20:55

Well, thank you, Ben. I appreciate that. And likewise, from uh the Page perspective, uh Gail's been a wonderful partner, and many of your members are our members, and and vice versa, and so it's a it's a great relationship.

SPEAKER_00 21:06

Good. As we get ready to close out, I would just encourage all of our Gale members, even as educational leaders, you too can join a professional organization, and Page does a fantastic job. I always felt like it was our responsibility as uh building or district leaders to make sure that our staff knew that there were options for professional organizations and to encourage them very strongly uh to join those. Uh, you've heard from Craig here today. Paige offers an incredible menu of options for their members. Uh so I would encourage you to look at that for your staff. And uh we look forward to a long continued career with Paige. Is there anything else you would like to add, Craig, before we sign off today?

SPEAKER_02 21:50

We would welcome any Georgia educator to join our association, and we would be proud to serve you.

SPEAKER_00 21:55

Awesome. Thank you, Gail members, for another episode of Gail Unscripted.