Kathy Cox (American politician)
Kathy Cox (born August 10, 1964) is a former superintendent of public schools for the U.S. state of Georgia, and is a Republican. A high school teacher by occupation, Cox also served two terms, from 1998 to 2002, in the Georgia House of Representatives, representing Peachtree City, Georgia, prior to her election as superintendent in 2002. Cox sought re-election in 2006, defeating Democratic challenger Denise Majette (a former U.S. representative), earning almost 60 percent of the vote.
Kathy Cox | |
|---|---|
| Member of the Georgia House of Representatives from the 105th district | |
| In office January 3, 1999 – January 3, 2003 | |
| Preceded by | Dan Lakly |
| Succeeded by | David E. Lucas, Sr. |
| Georgia Superintendent of Schools | |
| In office January 13, 2003 – June 30, 2010 | |
| Governor | Sonny Perdue |
| Preceded by | Linda Schrenko |
| Succeeded by | Brad Bryant |
| Personal details | |
| Born | August 10, 1964 Plainfield, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Occupation | Educator, politician |
Cox is not related to Cathy Cox, a Democrat who was Georgia's elected secretary of state from 1999 until 2007. The similarity in names became the subject of mostly humorous news stories in 2002, when Kathy Cox's defeated opponent, Barbara Christmas, complained that she had lost because of voter confusion between the two Coxes.
On September 5, 2008, Cox made history for an American television game show Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? to win the $1,000,000 top prize (and the first to win according to the sequence in which the shows were broadcast). Cox was given the final question: "Who was the longest reigning British monarch?", in which she correctly answered Queen Victoria. Cox intended to donate all her winnings to three schools in Georgia: Georgia Academy for the Blind in Macon, Atlanta Area School for the Deaf in Clarkston, and Georgia School for the Deaf in Cave Spring. All three schools are under the auspices of the Georgia Board of Education. These plans were affected by her personal bankruptcy in late 2008.
In May 2010, she announced her resignation effective July 1, 2010 in order to take a position as CEO of a new non-profit U.S. Education Delivery Institute in Washington D.C. She will no longer seek a third term in office. Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue appointed Brad Bryant as the interim State School Superintendent until a replacement (John Barge, a Republican) was elected in November 2010.
In 2018, Cox resumed her teaching career, teaching U.S. History at Eagle's Landing High School in Henry County, Georgia.