ATLANTA — Southern Regional Education Board members and staff members are mourning former longtime Board member and Arkansas legislator Jodie Mahony, who died on December 5 after a long battle with cancer.
The following is a statement sent to Board members and leaders in the 16 SREB states from SREB President Dave Spence:
"SREB and education have lost a true friend. The Honorable Jodie Mahony of Arkansas, a longtime state legislator and member of the Southern Regional Education Board, passed away on December 5, 2009.
Jodie was a legend among SREB’s 16 member states for his unwavering dedication to improving public education. He continually challenged Arkansas and our 15 other member states to provide better educational opportunities for students and raise academic standards. He partnered with SREB to help states improve education on many other fronts. .
Jodie had a long and distinguished history with SREB. He served on the Board for 22 years (from 1984 to 2006), and also was an active member of the SREB Legislative Advisory Council during that time. He served in leadership roles with SREB for at least 13 years: on the Executive Committee for nine years, the Finance Committee for four years, and as the Treasurer of the Board for three years. He tirelessly supported many SREB programs that promote the sharing of resources among member states and the great value of working together to accomplish what a state is unlikely to accomplish alone.
Throughout his tenure in the state Legislature, Jodie was a strong supporter of the idea that Arkansas and the other SREB states should not settle for the stereotypes that traditionally had kept Southern states from measuring themselves against higher standards. He called for the raising of academic standards and expectations that helped SREB states set the pace nationally and will continue to serve our states and region well.
He was at the table in the 1980s when SREB states began to map what are now considered modern school accountability measures. He was a person who took on — and stayed with — the difficult issues, as evidenced by his work on Arkansas’s school-finance case and the development of the state’s lottery scholarship program.
Jodie introduced more than 1,400 bills in the Arkansas General Assembly during his 34-year tenure in the House and Senate. He carried many of these bills through the halls of the Capitol and into the Chamber in a cardboard box under his arm. In Arkansas, it is easy to tie the progress in education directly to legislation he introduced. Not all of these bills were popular, but time after time he convinced educators and policy-makers to support improvements that would benefit the state he loved.
On a personal note, Jodie showed tremendous courage as he battled cancer over the past couple of years, staying active as a legislative staff member in Little Rock and continuing his advocacy for education. He seemed much more focused on that important work than on himself. As recently as last year, he served on the SREB committee that worked to develop policy recommendations for improving high school graduation rates and student achievement in the region.
I miss Jodie already, as do all of us here at SREB who worked with him over the years. His legacy for Arkansas inspires our region and the nation as we work to improve education for the people of our states."
The Southern Regional Education Board, or SREB, based in Atlanta, was created in 1948 by Southern governors and legislatures to help leaders in education and government work cooperatively to advance education and improve the social and economic life of the region. SREB has 16 member states: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. More information is available online at www.sreb.org.
