Georgia’s 100,000 teachers are a powerful block of voters who care deeply about education funding and policy, vote in droves and are never afraid to complain when they feel unappreciated or under attack.

Former Gov. Roy Barnes learned that lesson the hard way in 2002. Now, he’s launched a Web site aimed directly at teachers.

Retired teacher Vickie Carson of Atlanta says in a fundraising e-mail sent out today:

Or at least that's what can be imputed from University System of Georgia Chancellor Erroll Davis' State of the System address to the system's Board of Regents. In relevant part, Davis told the regents, according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution story paraphrasing his remarks, "that 25 percent of Georgia's first-time freshmen are unprepared for college work."

Here's what that means: Out of every 100 Georgia students that teachers, principals and other administrators certify to have successfully completed a K-12 education -- an education that, at a minimum, should have given those students the ability to move into a college classroom -- 25 students can't do college-level work.