Who is Kathy Cox

On Friday, September 5, 2008, the season premiere of Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader aired, and ironically enough, the show's first ever million dollar winner achieved the feat on this show. It was Georgia State Schools Superintendent Kathy Cox, and she had come on the show intending to donate all of her winnings to the school system.

She answered the $500,000 dollar question correctly, and entered into the rare territory of contestants who had made it to the Million Dollar Question. If she walked away, she would have $500,000 to give to the Georgia Department of Education and lots of great publicity. If she went for the million and got the question wrong, she would have to settle for a meager $25,000. Recognizing that most people would have been happy if she had walked away, Kathy Cox couldn't do that. In order to leave with the $500,000, she would have to "drop out of school" and admit that she wasn't smarter than a fifth grader. She told the host and the millions of people watching that she is trying to keep students from dropping out of school, so she couldn't drop out. She also said that she has been telling students for years to "go for it", so she would lead by example and 'go for it', encouraging the students of Georgia to go for their diplomas. With that, she heard and correctly answered the Million Dollar Question, becoming the first ever million dollar winner on the show and donating $1,000,000 to three schools: Georgia Academy for the Blind in Macon; Atlanta Area School for the Deaf in Clarkston and Georgia School for the Deaf in Cave Spring.

Read the story here.