Bartow School Board Rep Announces Run for State School Superintendent

Bartow County School Board board District 3 representative Matt Shultz this morning announced he will run for State School Superintendent at the Bartow County Republican Party meeting.  

Shultz, a lifelong conservative and businessman in the pharmaceutical industry, is seeking to fill the open seat vacated by John Barge, a former Bartow Schools administrator who wants to be Georgia next governor. 

Since Shultz's election to the Bartow County School Board in 2004, he has consistently fought for transparency, lower taxes, higher standards and more educational opportunity, according to his announcement.

“I’m running to increase performance, decrease costs, and provide more opportunity in education,” Shultz said in the release.   

He has an opinion on the new Common Core standards , too: 

“Common Core has polarized groups on both sides of this issue and I think the best way for Georgia to move forward is to move back in the direction of our own Georgia Performance Standards,” he said.

Shultz is a former teacher and a former Marine and was stationed in Japan, California and North Carolina.  

He has served as the executive director for the Cartersville Downtown Development Authority. In this role, Shultz focused on economic development, historic preservation and small business recruitment. Throughout the last 11 years, Shultz has been working the pharmaceutical sales industry working with physicians to improve patient care.  

Shultz also served on the board of directors for Keep Bartow Beautiful and the Convention & Visitors Bureau. He is a former member of the Cartersville Exchange Club. 

Shultz served on his church’s Pastor Advisory Committee has led church small groups in their home. He traveled to Zambia in 2005 where he had the opportunity to work on a number of projects including assisting at the local village school. 

Shultz and his wife, Stephanie, have three children. The family attends CrossPoint City Church in Cartersville.  

Both Matt and Stephanie are certified teachers; both have masters-level degrees in Education.  

Stephanie still works as an educational consultant and trains teachers across the country.

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