Former Mayor Shirley Franklin: Georgia will be beat by states that invest in knowledge economy
Former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin says the state will fall behind if it does not invest in education.
I have been surprised at the opposition toward the education SPLOST on the Nov. 8 ballot in Atlanta, Fulton, DeKalb, Decatur, Gwinnett, Buford, Cherokee and Henry.
Given the stark reduction in state funds for education and the depressed housing market, schools are in desperate straits, and there would seem to be no more critical time to renew the penny sales tax for construction and capital improvements than now.
Among those who have not signed on — Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and the business community. In an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution earlier this year, Reed said the penny — which has helped build or renovate 84 city schools or other buildings in the last 15 years— instead needs to go to a regional transportation plan expected to be put to voters next year.
Reed did not want the school system to seek to renew its SPLOST because Atlanta residents will be asked three times to raise their taxes between November and July. In March, Atlantans will vote on an extension of a 1-cent sales tax to upgrade the city’s water and sewer system, and later deal with another penny tax on the transportation bill. If both were to pass, Reed warned that the city would have the state’s highest sales tax at 9 percent and would be at a competitive disadvantage.
But won’t the entire state be at a competitive disadvantage if the schools are underfunded?
Here is what another Atlanta Mayor, Shirley Franklin, says about the lack of any visible support from the business community for the education SPLOST:
The Metro and Georgia chambers have stood silently by while devastating cuts to education occurred — from pre-k all the way through higher ed. The Metro and Georgia chambers talk about a knowledge-based economy but they just do not go to bat for the public investment to make it so.
We are no different than 50 years ago when our economic development strategy consisted of building more roads (or ports) and believing they shall come. The talk has changed, just not the walk. Over the long-term, we will be beat by those states that really do invest in the knowledge economy. The data is overwhelming — higher paying jobs following higher educational attainment — and I am not just talking about four year B.A. degrees; this includes some level of post-secondary attainment, whether two or four years.
Georgia lost 31,000 jobs from September 2010-September 2011. We are a sinking ship. If it were not for Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, we would be dead in the water. Our neighboring states cannot duplicate this asset anytime soon, but this will not help the rest of Georgia, just metro Atlanta.
What would I like to see? Gov. Deal, surrounded by business leaders, announcing that over the next 10 years we will raise the average level of educational attainment in every area of the state. More high school graduates. More two-year degrees. More four-year degrees. More master’s degrees. We will put as the top priority investment the one asset that can distinguish us — our people.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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152 comments Add your comment
Fled
October 29th, 2011
8:01 am
Looks like some of us got out while the getting was good. People are understandably hurting and angry, but I think their anger is misdirected. Teachers are not your enemies, though it is in the interests of the corporate types to make you think otherwise. Actually, almost all teachers are the good guys and girls. All most of us want is to be left alone to do what we love the way we think it ought to be done.
The corporate boys are after the schools, and it looks like they will get them. You all are being manipulated by corporate interests. Love the service at Wal Mart? How about Verizon? That’s the future of your schools, unless you stop this process while you still can. I’m not optimistic, but I am sure that people will look back and wonder why they gave the schools away. You see, there’s a big fat pile of money that could be turned to corporate profits, and they want you to give it to them.
This is not to say that the school system, especially in places like Fulton, is not screwed up top to bottom. It is. Of course it is. I just don’t believe in killing the patient to cure the disease.
Had enough yet, teachers? Give up. Throw in the towel. Flee.
Attentive Parent
October 29th, 2011
8:25 am
Here’s my problem with SPLOST. A huge amount of it is going to fund technology that will continue to substitute access to knowledge via a computer for knowledge in a student’s own long term memory. I want students who know enough to be able to think analytically and recognize the nonsensical arguments regularly foisted on them.
I want kids who can read phonetically and think conceptually with lots of facts at their command because they have been taught the wonderful stories of literature and history that exist if you are a fluent reader. I do not want Skinnerian lab rats trained to respond at a visual and perceptual level to the expensive program on their computer screen. These programs may do a poor job of teaching reading but they are a revenue goldmine for the providers. SPLOST will finance even more of this expensive and troubling practices.
I do not want more of my tax dollars going to benefit technology companies practicing crony capitalism and simultaneously pushing bad ed policies that will make it that much more unlikely they need worry in the future about a more innovative, better priced product destroying their market.
I think the SPLOST allowed absurd salaries to be paid out of my property taxes to deputy supers and assistant grand poobahs to supers and directors of various disciplines who show their ignorance and arrogance each time they speak or respond to an email.
Most of us in the private sector have suffered dramatic declines in compensation in this recession and have to pay for our own high deductible health insurance and our own retirements. When tax revenues declined and the result was furlough days to continue to allow accrual for that pension, it should have been understood by public employees as a slight percentage change in their overall compensation for that year. Not a we are not getting paid for today so we will not be teaching or grading today either.
One of the things wrong with education in Georgia is the confusion of getting a degree with increasing knowledge and skills that add value. K-12 exists for the benefit of state and district employees and to produce revenue streams for the absurdly large university system. It exists for the benefit of its employees. How many of those 35 institutions essentially have no admissions standards apart from a willingness to pay? Frequently with borrowed funds.
Education is the next bubble and SPLOST kicks that reality further down the road.
Marcus Valdes
October 29th, 2011
8:26 am
More taxes always fixes the schools. It has worked so well in the past. Any parent who thinks their kids are learning at a goverent school is crazy. The only answer is to teach them yourself.
anon
October 29th, 2011
8:27 am
Maureen,
Look at the Dekalb School Watch and its post on Reforms in DCSS. There are a lot of answers there.
Maureen Downey
October 29th, 2011
8:28 am
@anon, Will do.
Maureen
oldtimer
October 29th, 2011
8:29 am
I think the problem is no one trusts the school systems to use the money well.
Good point
October 29th, 2011
8:29 am
Fled is correct. Couldn’t have said it better.
This problem is definitely state wide. Look at GA state BOE and ask how they are tied to the big business of charters (which is tied to billionaire “reformers”). The county boards are just their unsuspecting tools, who have led PTAs and parents down the path of unwittingly advocating policies which hurt their own children, communities and ultimately, the economy.
And consider this: if we allow billionaires to carpetbag our school governance, schools cease to be democratic institutions.
Very Passionate About Our Schools
October 29th, 2011
8:30 am
Until ALL the schools get what is needed out of SPLOST and not just high rent district schools, I will vote against them. Title I schools, over 50 years old, get nothing while Dunwood gets one torn down and a new one built. Put doors on the classrooms. They don’t need a new school. ALL students deserve the same quality education. Until things become fair I am urging my friends to vote NO also.
Anonmom
October 29th, 2011
8:39 am
Too much fraud and corruption… until the State and local authorities start figuring out how to better monitor what’s happening to the money –it’s a pit. There is zero transparency (e.g. an on-line check register and p-card register, and no tax returns) and minimal oversight. The funds are most decidedly not being used to directly benefit the children. There are higher and better uses for the money than how they are currently being used.
carlosgvv
October 29th, 2011
8:45 am
Of course our schools are underfunded. They will stay that way too. This is Georgia by golly and we’re not in last place for nothing. We work at it!!!!!
Good point
October 29th, 2011
8:55 am
Well said, Very Passionate
Shirley Franklin and other politicians should not be surprised when SPLOST fails to pass. Parents are not tired of funding education; they are tired of funding cronyism,”disaster” capitalism and ill-conceived privatization schemes. The word is finally getting out.
There is nothing wrong with “government” schools. 1st world countries have them; it’s what separates us from the 3rd world countries. But, there is something terribly wrong with privatization and corporate cronyism . We don’t want corporations to do to our schools EXACTLY what they did to our economy; allow poor schools to get poorer, while wealthy kids bask in luxurious non-necessities. Have you ever noticed that the fix for ‘bad’ schools never includes copying the neighboring ‘good’ public schools? Why is the answer always a quick rush to charters, vouchers and the middle-men of privatization?
To a certain extent, this has been the plan all along. Break the schools and then send a superhero in to magically save the day…all at taxpayer expense, while ignoring the true, underlying causes of underachievement.
Fulton
October 29th, 2011
9:12 am
It is not MORE taxes. It is maintaining the tax level that has been in place for the last year. Does no one on this board watch the news? School districts are desperately trying to maintain class levels. This all flows downhill. Money HAS to be spent to upgrade and maintain the buildings. Software licenses have to be kept up to date (and those are very expensive). YOUR personal information is kept on mainframe computers that are used to manage data that keeps the buses routed properly, your kids lunch status, keeping grades in order. These mainframes are under constant attack by the bad guys trying to steal your information. It takes your money to keep these mainframes up to date and properly protected. If the cost for all of this comes out of the general fund then you get less teachers and larger classroom sizes. You can’t do away with the cost of the buildings, but you can do away with people. And that is the choice you force on School Boards when you refuse to invest in you child’s education. You may not be paying for your kids to go to some fancy private school. But you still pay for kids education. So is it going to a good education with lots of attention from a decently paid teacher? Or 40 kids in a classroom with an underpaid babysitter who can’t pay their rent and is constantly trying to find another job.
Concerned Citizen
October 29th, 2011
9:20 am
I go to those meetings, and the money spent on one school is the same as the money spent on another. School employees are told over and over again to be very careful about making sure everything is fair. ALL the kids matter, but some parents simply refuse to believe that. I’ve seen the meeting where clear evidence was presented that money was divided up properly, and that group of parents refused to believe it. Stop hating. Your attempts to hurt the “rich” kids will only hurt yours.
Woody
October 29th, 2011
9:20 am
I’m really sad that this is going to be yet one more consequence of Beverly Hall’s wicked reign of terror. I frankly would not blame anyone in Atlanta for voting against the education SPLOST. But it does make me sad, because I think underfunded or corrupt educational systems are at the root of the eternal question: Why is Georgia such a poor state? But I’m not sure that more money is going to fix the problems in our schools. Better ideas, integrity, purpose, humanity, maybe. I think that those are all values that are fostered by good superintendents. If those can occur, perhaps the money will follow.
@anon from Good point
October 29th, 2011
9:34 am
A question about the RFP posted at the Dekalb Watch site: does anyone know who wrote it? In my experience, they are usually written by the organization which has their foot in the door already. That one looks like it was written by and for someone seeking to reform (aka privatize). The process is similar to a ‘push poll’ in that the answers are a foregone conclusion; the study giving the illusion of input (like when your wife games you to think it was all your idea-heh)
The blog author hopes they mean to ’shake things up”. They will. That is the process; create upheaval, manufacture panic, then re-build it in the desired format. It works here because Southerners have a fundamental distrust of government, to the point of biting off our own noses.
@Fulton is correct in that it is not ‘more’ taxes, and the issues faced by schools are complex, expensive and real. SPLOST is not my favored means of funding public schools. Many people would prefer a permanent solution that adequately funds schools without the constant patchwork of funding, grants and attacks on schools born of paranoia and anger. We are slow learners in Georgia; apparently too proud to consider copying the systems in states where schools work.
catlady
October 29th, 2011
9:40 am
People are tired of seeing their money wasted. They don’t trust their “officials” with even a penny of their money. E-scandals, 400, HOT lanes, roads to the governor’s property–all of this makes everyone wary of any push in giving more money to the elected.
Near where I live, the BOE decided to use SPLOST money to buy a fancy building for themselves. SPLOST will not pay the power bill for this building, however. Once again, the taxpayers are on the hook.
Officials should not be surprised at the consequences of their actions. I will never vote for another SPLOST, even if it is totally devoted to supporting ME, or any constitutional amendments, as we know they will result in the “common folks” paying more.
Look at our neighbors, Florida, who I think have a 9 or 10% sales tax, BUT NO INCOME TAX. And how about Tennessee?
If we need things for schools (and we do) the state needs to stop handing out tax breaks like it is candy. It should be paid for collectively.
teach ss
October 29th, 2011
10:03 am
SPLOST is not a new tax Mayor Reed; it is a continuation of the 1-cent tax we’ve had in years. And Oldtimer, schools lay out everything the money is going towards way before voting time, so no suprises.
It is very important to update technology. It is what these children will be using in the future. And new buildings are quite important to help with overcrowding – especially in Gwinnett. Citizens not voting for SPLOST are part of the link to keeping GA on the bottom of all other states that have citizen support.
If you don’t like the system, then why did you move here? Jobs and schools are the top two reasons for relocating and GA has seen its share of growth over the last 20 years. It is because of new residents that we need more classrooms, books and technology. Yet, those some move-ins don’t want to support their new state. Weird.
Shar
October 29th, 2011
10:04 am
The schools are not in desperate straits due to funding shortfalls. We are voting on the fourth SPLOST, not the first, and Atlanta spends over twice per pupil than the state average, which is close to the national average.
The schools are decaying because of the cheating, lying embezzlers who are running them, and the corrupt business people who are sucking the money out rather than getting it in the classroom where it is intended and needed. Politicians, and specifically Shirley Franklin, both enabled these criminals and did their best to cover up for them when exposure threatened. Remember her infamous letter to Arne Duncan trying to quash the AJC cheating investigation?
Parents, too, are at fault. Too many abdicate all responsibility once their child enters the school door, and taxpayer investment is wasted on students who are not supported, motivated or who disrupt the learning of others.
The arrogance of the APS administration also discourges further investment. The Board is beneath contempt, caring nothing for students or wise use of funds and utterly in the pocket of a corrupt and vicious Superintendent who has made APS a national disgrace and victimized thousands of students. The new temporary replacement has done little to punish the guilty or to stem the spending, and in fact has said that he will proceed with the projects regardless of whether the taxpayers approve the money.
None of these problems can be fixed with more money. They will only be perpetuated. The people who have profiteered from the existing rotten system are the ones who claim it is ‘all for the children’, but who cut classroom spending first, protecting the huge bureaucracy and their cronies within it, to punish any taxpayer or parent-led reform efforts.
The system cannot be fixed and does not deliver value to taxpayers, students or parents. It has not earned additional investment and until reform has been instituted from the foundations up it will not deserve a dollar of tax money, much less an additional appropriation.
In fact, Ms. Downey, I’m amazed at your surprise and disappointed by your willingness to go along with the ceaseless demands of a corrupt organization that preys on the vulnerable.
Buzz144
October 29th, 2011
10:08 am
It is never enough. Our schools have become black holes into which taxpayers pour money and in turn the schools turn out mediocre students who, upon graduating and entering college, are sent into remedial math and English classes. It is time for a voucher system whereby we can send our kids to good schools and let the inefficient schools wither and die. Power to the people.
dekalb parent
October 29th, 2011
10:09 am
Attentive Parent said it best.
Many in the DeKalb community who will be voting against SPLOST IV support more funding for public schools but want to see drastic reductions in the funding of non-school based programs and administrative staff before blindly approving more taxes. DeKalb still has no long term vision for the education of our students. Are you going to increase the size and rigor of magnet programs? Are you going to have a math/science/technology magnet like Gwinnett? How will you address the needs of the growing ELL population? How will you better use the millions of Title I dollars to increase staff and learning in the classroom? What are you going to do with the huge chunk of land on N.Druid Hills Rd?
@teach ss
October 29th, 2011
10:13 am
Most people who moved here didn’t ‘come’ here. They were relocated by companies seeking low tax rates, no tax rates and even rebates; as well as cheap, uneducated labor. They live in upscale areas where lack of money for schools is mitigated by public school “foundations” and large scale donations to academic and athletic programs. They come from areas which typically, overwhelmingly support any tax increase (they’re used to paying for the best schools, roads and libraries)
But, I defy you to find anyone who moved to Georgia “for the schools”
posterchild
October 29th, 2011
10:19 am
@teach ss, agreed and well-said regarding why people most likely move to Georgia.
Franklin's "Slick" Move
October 29th, 2011
10:22 am
Mayor Franklin’s -, cunning move trying to bring APS in through the back door (lumping them in with the others). Shame on her!
I can’t speak to other districts, but APS deserves a Big Fat NOTHING. If fact, taxpayers deserve a refund for the millions and millions that have been squandered. Much of the same APS leadership (board members & administrators) remains in place. These folks have shown no fiduciary consciousness. They care zip about your money!
I could go on and on about the litany of corruption, but I’ll just refer to the latest specter — flashed back upon us in yesterday’s AJC’s article by Jamie Sarrio which reported that Hall made over Half a Million dollars ($580,000) in bonus loot.
Would you trust APS board members to run a business – small or large? Quite simply, they are not competent. I am shocked that citizens have any faith in their governance after reading about the level of collusion around the letting of contracts and other fiscal matters that have been revealed over the past decade.
Citizens with any degree of awareness will be voting a Big FAT NO!
cobb mom of 4
October 29th, 2011
10:35 am
I can’t wait for the SPLOST (education, roads, whatever) to come on the ballot in Cobb so that I can vote NO. These SPLOSTs bring in lots of money to someone, but the pennies don’t trickle down to the classrooms or teachers. Look at the HOT mess on I85, and they want to bring it to 75 & other parts of the metro area…not if it depends on my vote. The labor commissioner wants to cut unemployment benefits instead of raising payroll taxes on businesses back to what they should have been years ago. Deal doesn’t want to allow gambling to come up for vote in Georgia…WHY NOT?
Shirley, I don’t think anyone is voting against education in general..they are finally voting against the million dollar slush funds that are not benefiting those that are paying into it. While I support education and roads, I do not worship at the altar of Corporate America and Cronyism.
Vouchers aren't the answer....
October 29th, 2011
10:39 am
Vouchers won’t fix our school system. Policies such as mandatory enrollment until sixteen, guarantees that anyone can attend school until twenty-one regardless of progress, and federal laws that prevent any real punishment of troublemakers if they are labeled as “special ed” that are handicapping education.
If you close down public schools in lieu of vouchers, those problems will just present themselves at a different type of school. However, you will still have the problems.
I’ve never understood why people think these problems will mysteriously disappear if you have vouchers.They will just be transferred to a different type of school.
Did you know that if a child is labeled with an “emotional or behavior” disorder, they can’t be suspended out of school more than nine days TOTAL per year? A disciplinary panel can remove them out of their home school but they still MUST be provided with educational services courtesy of your tax dollars. However, if you’re child is regular education, there is no limit to the amount of days they can be suspended out of school.
Did you know that you can be 18 and a FRESHMAN in high school and there is nothing the school can do about it?
Did you know that there are 16 year olds attending middle school in some schools in Georgia?
Did you know that failure in a single testing subgroup such as “Math for English Language Learners” can label an entire school as failing?
It is policies such as these that are the results of stupid laws that are handicapping our education system. Without changing these policies, a voucher system will do nothing to improve education.
Who Cares
October 29th, 2011
10:40 am
Well put…these money-grubbing teachers are already rich enough…why should they get paid more. Schools are just day care centers…why should we as citizens care about the education of our children in government schools. If you really care about your kid you will home-school or pay for a private education. Why do they need more technology? Books were good enough for 1000’s of years, now these kids need computers and ipads…I think not. Kids that go to public school will just work at walmart anyway. Save the technology for the home-school and private kids that will go somewhere in life.
Who Cares
October 29th, 2011
10:43 am
I blame teachers in all this. These selfish women entered this profession because they new they could bilk the government and get paid high salaries with fully paid medical, ridiculous pensions, 5 hour days and 6 months off a year. America is being cheated by these teachers, who are nothing more than baby-sitters for kids from lower-class families that have no future.
@Franklin's "Slick" Move from G.P.
October 29th, 2011
10:43 am
Would I trust the APS to run a business? Who cares. Let’s not forget their ties to the hallowed “business community” and the Chamber of Commerce:
http://www.peachpundit.com/2011/07/21/more-aps-cheating-scandal-fallout-should-heads-roll-at-the-chamber-of-commerce/
The bigger question is: do we trust business to run our schools?
Maybe
October 29th, 2011
11:01 am
Cut the administrators and absorb the workload at the teacher level. Half time as admin and half time as teacher.
For the school facilities. Learning can occur anywhere right? Why do we need an expensive facility to do it. Find an empty building such as an abandon grocery store, tape off a section on the floor and put the desks in there. That is your classroom. The bigger the store- the more classrooms you can have.
School lunch- most of todays little ones like to eat out. Give them that eating out look and feel. Centralize school lunch production. Start cooking in the morning and have the school bus drivers load it up in the bus and deliver it after they have dropped the little ones off at the converted grocery store. Make a production of it- every lunch is the same
For school materials- Wikipedia has a lot of information and so does the internet. Use your best assests, teachers!, to pull this material off the internet and craft it to fit their lesson plan. Hopefully, they know enough about what they are teaching to decipher fact from fiction. Put it on a projector and teach the children off that.
Books – why give these children a lot of something that they will only use a little of. For those without a computer- Print only what you want them to study. For those with one that has internet access- access it at home.
SPLOST is more tax money for an inefficient system. If you cannot survive on the funds you have- the solution is easy- cut the damn expenses!!!!!
Roberta
October 29th, 2011
11:13 am
My 2 cents worth ……. our local Georgia schools are CRAP. We transferred here, and would love to transfer back. The 2nd grader has the most un-balanced curriculum I have seen. Our poor, rural kids back home do far better in school than GA. My granddaughter spends her ENTIRE morning devoted to ‘literacy’ activities’. She has five hours a week COMBiNED for social studies and science. She loves these two subjects, ‘you just sit there and you dont have to do anything’ as she told me last week. Then, at the beginning if the year the 2nd grade teachers gave us the homework packet for the week, with about an HOUR of literacy homework a night! SERIOUSLY, you CAN integrate literacy into the other content areas. There is something called ‘too much’. There is no real ‘thinking and discovery’ activities going on in class. 2 hours a week on science ??? no wonder GA is doing so poorly. Back home, kids her age are actively studying the solar system, plus there is some science homework. But no. Here is is reading, reading, reading, and some math.
Linda Borchers
October 29th, 2011
11:17 am
Let me understand–the whole APS has been under a cheating scandal for years–the problem has been there for along time–only recently were the double dippers fired and the high schools lost there accreditation–and you want me to vote for SPOLST–Fat Chance!!
rojer
October 29th, 2011
11:19 am
I am generally in favor of sales taxes as a revenue raising tool and am buying a house specifically to put my kids in APS but im not voting for all three sales taxes. I think the sewers will get the no vote but im really just setting myself up for an outrageous water bill lest the wrath of some federal judge. Yes to APS, yes to BeltLine, No to sewers.
KatyWatts
October 29th, 2011
11:20 am
“Good Point” you are crazy. what in heavens name is the matter with privatization??? Like the government has done such a wonderful job with schools, social security and our national debt?! Private companies would do a much better job. And as far as SPLOST is concerning. My vote is heck NO!!!!
Prof
October 29th, 2011
11:23 am
@ Who Cares and Maybe.
Great senses of satire…..potential Jonathan Swifts. Though not as savage as “A Modest Proposal.”
DannyX
October 29th, 2011
11:26 am
Although I have voiced strong support for the new DeKalb superintendent I will be voting NO on the Nov SPLOST. The DeKalb School system, will have to prove they can be trusted. The last SPLOST was a disaster. Clean the place up then come back to the voters.
RGB
October 29th, 2011
11:31 am
You people who attempt to equate spending on public schools with performance or outcomes must resolve in 2012 to give it up.
The public schools in this country that spend the most often achieve the least. Government schools are monopolies and monopolies have no incentive to deliver a good product.
Also, you government workers who bash business should insist that your “departments” no longer accept tax money either from these evil businesses or from those individuals who are employed by them.
The idiot who cited Verizon as having poor customer service should note that this company has the best-ranked customer service by Consumer Reports for several years in a row. Government employees who live off the largesse of others should not bite the hand that feeds them. Like it or not–and you obviously don’t–we are your customers. Many of your customers have FLED terrible government schools by enrolling their children in private schools–while other customers home school their children.
That your former customers would double-pay just to avoid using your product should be a wake-up call. But your own greed and incompetence crowd out what should be an innate sense of responsibility which you no longer possess.
Ole Guy
October 29th, 2011
11:37 am
Who Cares, your “well-informed” reply serves as an excellent example of what happens when one receives a frontal labotomy and, out of pure habit, continues to issue opinions. Do you honestly believe people, particularly young women, enter the teaching profession because it is the road to riches? You are, unfortunately, correct in that teachers have become, essentially, babysitters for kids from families who, regardless of socioeconomic status, have no future. I do not, however, know where you get the 5-hour days from. The kids themselves may be in school for a few short hours, however, teachers themselves put in one helluva lot more time. During my abreviated tenure in the education community, I often felt I would just as well camp in the parking lot!
I do agree, however, that America is being cheated by teachers…NOT for the completely uninformed reasons you have allowed to dribble forth, but because the teacher corps has allowed itself to lapse into a 4th class labor group. Rather than assuming FULL and COMPLETE command of their profession, teachers seem to have accepted, with absolutely no retort, the social position of “whiping boy”; willing recipient of all educational ills. Like the story of Joan of Arc, they are willing to be burned at the stake…sacrificed at the altar of parental indifference and administrative ineptitude…all-the-while believing that their plight will be, somehow, relieved by “public demand”. Rather than assume ownership for their profession, and for the children they portend to truly care about, they seem to cower under the threat of displeasing their handlers, the administrators whose only true agenda lies in political appeasement and expedience.
Your extremely shallow opinion (kindest words which one can muster while in a state of sobriety) indicates the utterly mindless view which the semi-literate public can puke up. If you have any kids in the public education circus, I believe you have, through your “words of wisdom”, provided a clear picture of what’s wrong with education…STUPID PARENTS WHOSE SOLE QUALIFICATIONS FOR PARENTHOOD LIE IN THE MIDSECTION WITH ABSOLUTELY NOTHING IN THE BRAIN.
atlmom
October 29th, 2011
11:42 am
why does anyone think the schools are underfunded? what leads you to that conclusion? The problem is with the administration. The problem is having ONE administrator for EACH teacher in the system. I think that’s absurd. And some of those administrators make a fortune. It’s craziness. Redirect funds, fire lots of people, do things so that parents aren’t forced to sue the school system, run the place better. part of the problem is some federal mandates, but there’s not much the state can do about that.
But seriously, look at those bonuses that Ms. Hall got – and she wasn’t the only one getting a bonus. There is plenty of money in the school system for them to do what is needed. They just aren’t using it properly.
Ole Guy
October 29th, 2011
11:42 am
Prof, I fail to see how you can interpret this clown’s nonesense as satire.
atlmom
October 29th, 2011
11:43 am
AND – most importantly – STOP asking the voters their opinions on taxes. we send you to office to do what is needed. if you think you need to raise our taxes, then raise our taxes. DO. YOUR. JOB.
rojer
October 29th, 2011
11:43 am
Eloquent response to the trolls. Dont feed them. Youre wrong though. Was in a elementary school yesterday. No other way to described the teacher than Ghetto Queen. And thats from a lib. Not to mention the 25 or so kids in the class. There are serious problems with public education and the teachers are certainly a part of those problems.
atlmom
October 29th, 2011
11:45 am
Good point: schools shouldn’t be democratic institutions!!! (we are a republic, after all). Why do you think it should be. We the voters elect people to do their jobs. If they are not doing their jobs, fire them.
campbell635
October 29th, 2011
11:49 am
My only problem with the tax is that get keeps coming up for renewal. We are asked to approve it for one purpose and a limited time period. At the end of the approved period we are asked to continue it. At least gieve us a one year break! It never seems to end.
SeenIt
October 29th, 2011
11:53 am
@WHOCARES What rock have you been under? You are probably one of those parents who gets up late, gets your child to school late, never reads to your child, picks him up an hour after school is out ,and generally expect teachers to raise your child in addition to educating him. Right? If you had been at your kid’s school you would know the day is twice as long as 5 hours and far less than 6 months off a year. Teachers would love to able to just teach your child but spend the majority of the time disciplining children of parents who have sent their kid off to school at 5 years old and relenquished all responsibiliy to the school at that point. They are given an impossible job raising some children to grade level that are 3 years behind because they are so ADD (read:parents have no structure at home) they haven’t focused on anything in years. There has been no money for books in years, so they must buy or search for materials on the Internet. All planning and grading of papers must be done on their own time, as they have 25 kids in their “office” all day. If a parent is contacted to let them know their kid is impeding progress (disrupting) in the classroom, they are reported to higher authorities. If we want our schools to improve, parents must do some parenting. By the way, SPLOST funds do not fund teacher salaries, anyway. And if it did, remember, your get what you pay for.
Teacher
October 29th, 2011
11:56 am
Gosh, I did realize I had it so good. Let’s see last week (which is a typical week), I was at the school working with students 60 hours last week, I worked at home 12 hours, and it is Saturday and I’ve been up since 5:00 work on school work. Mind you I did have off from June 1 to August 1 this summer, but during that time I went to 4 weeks of professional develop and worked on new curriculum for a new class. I’m living the high life!!!
frustrated APS mom
October 29th, 2011
11:58 am
There are some great comments on here this morning. Shar, I loved yours. I am a mom with 2 kids in APS and I will be voting NO. We are happy with our elementary school, even though class sizes have exploded in the last 2 years. However, I am dreading next year when I have to send my oldest to a severely overcrowded middle school (Sutton) for one year while they decide what they plan to do about it by the next year when the fancy high school is built. Why won’t they just tell us what they are going to do with the 1300 + middle schoolers in the fall of 2013? What is the big secret?
APS 4th grade teacher & a Proud Cheater!
October 29th, 2011
12:15 pm
What’s all the fuss about? We need more of your moneyto continue the way we have veen operating. What else could you folks ask for, over a decade of dramatic results.
Yes, we need your tax dollars to continue to fuel the “APSMiralce!”
As always, Standing up for: Truth, Justice & the American Way.
Thank you very much,
Fighting in the Trenches
Brian
October 29th, 2011
12:21 pm
She isn’t another mayor. Another implies they is more than 1 mayor. She is a FORMER mayor. Get it right Maureen. Nobody cares what she thinks anyway. She is right up there with Bill Campbell on legacy.
Big FOOL!
October 29th, 2011
12:23 pm
Only a FOOL would the folks at APS!!!!!
Big FOOL! -correction
October 29th, 2011
12:28 pm
Only a Big, Big, FOOL would the folks at APS! We have heard all about the kick backs involving contracts for construction and technology (hardware & software). We are no FOOLS!
Chris Murphy, Atlanta, GA
October 29th, 2011
12:34 pm
Ms. Franklin forgets the big reason that APS is the mess that it is: racial politics. Ms. Franklin herself was always pretty fair on racial matters- for an Atlantan. Ignoring the elephant in the room is a service to no one.
Shar
October 29th, 2011
12:35 pm
@ Maybe and Prof: My niece and nephew go to a charter school in the Los Angeles Unified School District, which may be the only organization in the country that can make APS look acceptable. Their charter school is indeed in an old shoe store, has no outdoor space and actually does mark off class space with tape on the floor. It does no testing or pre-screening for admittance and has no ‘extra’ budget. It fights to stay under the radar of the LAUSD bureaucracy due to its politicized need to crush any school that actually performs well and thus prove that an alternative exists to the mandated curriculum and pedagogy – like APS in this respect.
The school, which is 6-12, started perhaps 6 years ago, and for the past 3 it has achieved some of the highest scores and biggest scholarship dollars in Los Angeles. The two women who founded it have kept tight control, and they insist on rigor, on behavior, on monitored study hall and on music education. The school day is extended so that every student has study hall to help with homework, every student must finish homework before they go home, and every student must study a musical instrument as well as dance, the only physical activity they can find space for.
The school is called Renaissance Arts. You can check it out here: http://www.renarts.org/
PLC
October 29th, 2011
12:50 pm
If I were in APS, I would have a hard time voting for SPLOST.
As much as I agree that Shirley Franklin encouraged some of the behavior going on there, she does have a point.
SPLOST’s true purpose is to fund future projects and go above and beyond the actual budget to prepare our schools for the future and provide students with enough classroom space and technology to increase achievement. It’s planning for growth and the future, which is needed in most of the districts. It’s how Gwinnett has managed to maintain its high standards in light of so much growth in the district.
Voting no doesn’t send a message to the boards or superintendents. It hurts your kids and community for the long run by crippling their ability to look forward.
And really, if we’re being completely honest, they’re going to get it in the long run. Either vote for SPLOST so people visiting from other counties and states can help, or wait for a millage rate increase to be imposed on only the people from the county. Your choice.
Grandad
October 29th, 2011
12:53 pm
What guarentee do we have that the SPLOST will fund what it is designed for and not a means to cut other school funding?
pskybskt
October 29th, 2011
1:14 pm
Fire at least half the PhD’s in some form of Edu BS that never see a student and don’t want to. Then we can start talking.
As a postscript – the definition of a “devasting cut in educational spending” according to the educational empire builders is – any cut in education directed taxes.
Do more with what you have. Oh by the way, why would anyone in their right mind pay more for the crap results that you produce?
DavidAtlanta
October 29th, 2011
1:21 pm
The APS has built enough pretty new buildings to last us another decade or so. They need to focus their resources on educating children and not building stadiums. VOTE NO!
Dr. Craig Spinks/ Georgians for Educational Excellence
October 29th, 2011
1:27 pm
Before the people who vote to fund any local public school system vote to spend more monies thereon, prudence dictates that these voters demand external accountings of the ways in which and the efficacies with which their monies have been, and are presently being, spent.
Rockerbabe
October 29th, 2011
1:33 pm
If Prof Franklin lived in Dekalb County, I would implore her to run for federal office against one of the repugs, like Isakson or Chambliss. She would be great!
She is right of course, but then again, that matters little to many GA. Who continue to vote GOP and wonder why they haven’t reaped the economic benefits of our “good fortune”.
Someone, please tell Kasim to leave the OWS folks alone.
APS_Out_ofTouch
October 29th, 2011
1:36 pm
It really sickens me that APS, with all the available resources within it’s district, is disfunctional and continues fail the students. I’m willing to bet that APS has more secondary schools per square mile than any school district in the south east yet, most students are out of touch and generally not interested in attending any of the schools.There are a lot of teachers in the profession for the wrong reason. I’ve heard time and time again from some of the younger professional teachers that they work in the district because APS has the “best pay”. The APS BOE needs recognize what is required to recruit, retain, train, and support educators while also eliminating the waste and nepotism. The APS needs to support and prepare the kids to aim for performance in the top percentile rather than minmum standards. APS, unclutch your arrogant fist and extend your hand in order to take advantage of the experts at Georgia Tech, Georgia State, and Emory and integrate their standards of academeic and administrative performance and execution.
bill
October 29th, 2011
1:44 pm
I will be voting against splost in gwinnett county. I am tired of “renewal” of taxes to line the pockets of politicians (see Kevin Kenerly & the rest). The worn cliche “45% will be paid by non-gwinnett”. 100% will be paid by residents who live and shop here! I know we look like idiots everytime we vote for this!
Free Ipads for the “unfortunate”….so “everyone” can be dumbed down by computers…I intend to vote against anyone advocating any tax increase. Its the spending and bad choices folks!!
Maureen Downey
October 29th, 2011
1:47 pm
@To all, I received this thoughtful comment through e-mail and I wanted to share it as I think it says a lot:
Shar
October 29th, 2011
2:03 pm
Yes, distrust of government is a huge problem – if you are the government. For the governed, it’s an awakening that hopefully can lead to new ideas and new approaches.
Having politicians ask voters/taxpayers ‘what do we need to admit is broken’ is precisely the same as asking ‘what can I get away with?’ First tell me what you have done, don’t ask me what I’ve caught you at. Then show me how you’re changing things to fix the problem and reach the objective that was set.
APS used millions and millions of SPLOST dollars to build its own Taj Mahal, as the Pryor Street offices were simply not plush enough for gangsters who were raking in as much as they did. If SPLOST were really intended to support students and future needs, it would not have been showered on administrators.
Regain my trust? As long as the same people are involved, it is impossible for me to believe that they are doing anything other than conniving at slurping from the gravy train. These folks are directly responsible for the thousands of Atlanta children who now have lost their futures. That is unforgiveable. Period.
What about the children?
October 29th, 2011
2:05 pm
There are still major facility needs in all school districts holding the E-SPLOST. One can only hope and pray that the majority of voters will look past the angry, short sighted Nay Sayers and vote Yes.
As far as DeKalb Schools Watch is concerned, fewer and fewer people in DeKalb take it seriously. Anyone can throw rocks and hide. It is far easier to tear down and rip people apart than doing the hard work of building up and helping children. The people who post on it are cowards afraid to put their real names behind their ill informed, misinformed, one sided opinions. DSW is a handful of people who just need to get a life’
Once Again
October 29th, 2011
2:22 pm
There is absolutely NO correllation between funding and performance. The best funded school district in the US, the Washington DC system, spending over $18K per student and the kids are dumb as dirt when they get out of their 12 year sentence.
Its time to face the reality that government schooling is a complete failure and is bankrupting our country, both financially and morally. A system that bases its existence on the immorality of theft, and the force of coersion, can never be truly successful.
SAY NO to SPLOST. It is time to dismantle the system, not throw more money down the rathole.
rojer
October 29th, 2011
3:00 pm
For what its worth… the SPLOST statute requires third party audits. I am absolute sure that APS complies with this. Those audits are probably available on the web and if not a simple letter will certainly get it for you.
Never a former president
October 29th, 2011
3:00 pm
@Brian I heard Andy Young speak a few months ago and he was introduced as “Ambassador” Young. And it’s always Mayor Daly even then talking about the late great. And Bill Clinton and George Bush are always referred to as President. These honorifics seem to stick for life.
Vouchers aren't the answer....
October 29th, 2011
3:16 pm
Yes. Let’s dismantle and gut public education. Let’s requires that we homeschool children or you can pay to put your own children in private school.
Those that don’t have the means to put them in private school will be forced to homeschool. Let’s take parents that are lacking an appropriate education and force them to educate their own children. Our academic outcomes will become so much better. We will have a much better educated group of young people.
You don’t want to do that? Well let’s give them vouchers supported by tax dollars then. We’ll then have private business who’s objective is to make a “profit” do it then. After all, the testing shows their educational outcomes are no better than public schools in many cases.
Let’s not forget that if there are no public schools, the problem children will be showing up in droves too. Give them a choice and allow them to send their kids to the “best schools?” The parents with problem children, severe behavorial disorders, etc, will also be guaranteed access to those best schools. Do you think that they don’t want their children to go to the best schools too?
We need to be attacking the rules and regulations that would be in place regardless of public education, vouchers, or whatever education system is in place.
Getting rid of public education is not a feasible option.
Atlanta Media Guy
October 29th, 2011
3:34 pm
DCSS(D?) has a general budget of 1.2 BILLION dollars. That’s billion with a B! The money should be for schools, not $1500 chairs or employees like Ron Ramsey that hates teachers, but loves the fact that so many of his own family and friends have high paying jobs and very little experience at pulling those jobs off. No more money until the Haliford/Crawford Lewis bunch is out at DCSS(D?) and the real mission of DCSS(D?) is implemented, educating our kids properly. Enough of the crass cronyism that is taking place in DeKalb. EduKalb is a joke, the Chamber is a joke and the one question I have is, why is everyone, who works at DCSS(D?) under Crawford Lewis and Pat Pope still working there? Seems to me the more money we pour into the system, more kids are failing. The Office of Improvement (Now called Compliance) is headed by none other than Audria Berry. Ms. Berryplease start looking for work elsewhere. You have been in charge a Title 1 program flushed with cash but those schools getting the cash are failing miserably. Plus, there are more failing schools today than when you took over that job 6 years ago. Ms. Berry you are an EPIC failure and you have wasted millions of federal funds on ridiculous programs that have shown no return on investment. Why is she still employed? Dr. Atkinson get those pink slips out, I’ll trust you are really going to change things when we see the former Haliford/Clew Crew out the door!
Another Math Teacher
October 29th, 2011
3:38 pm
Ole Guy:
“Prof, I fail to see how you can interpret this clown’s nonesense as satire.”
Who Cares is just trolling. He’s mocking the phantom numbers put forth by ‘informed’ people about how good teachers have it.
Atlanta Media Guy
October 29th, 2011
3:40 pm
Rojer, audits are NOT complicit with SPLOST funds, just look at DCSS(D?) We have not had an audit in almost 7 years and the last one performed by Ernst & Young was buried from public view by Clew himself and now Ms. Tyson has a staff that can’t find the report, but did find all the boxes that went into putting that LOST report together. We need Sunshine laws like Florida has. Every document produced by any government entity must remain on file and if requested to be viewed y the public, they MUST hand it over. My question is what was Crawford Lewis trying to hide when he buried that audit?
I hope Dr. Atkinson has a total audit on all divisions at DCSS(D?) and every page of those audits are presented to the public. If not, then Dr. Atkinson will not be trusted to change a system or district that is in dire need of total change from the bottom of the Palace staff to the top!
Beverly Fraud
October 29th, 2011
3:44 pm
If you vote for SPLOST, you teach those who run school systems that there are no tangible consequences for their actions.
Is that really the lesson you want to teach the BOE’s of DeKalb and APS?
No wonder Fled, fled. Maybe when a few million more like him flee, and they are getting Otis from Mayberry out of the drunk tank to teach, maybe then the politicians and educrats will get it.
Elizabeth
October 29th, 2011
3:49 pm
As usual, schools and teachers get no support, monetary or otherwise. But when it comes time to read the test scores, we get ALL the blame. We have “done more with less” as long as we can without it affecting education in drastic ways. I don’t always like all the other things our tax dollars pay for either, but wew can’t throw out the baby with the bath water. Just keep on under-funding education . The results will catch up with us down the road. I am so tired of argung this..
Santanickiah
October 29th, 2011
4:27 pm
If not for one incredibly impolitic slip of the tongue (the police dogs ‘n fire hoses rant) that forever ended her political career Sirley Franklin would be implementing her ideas in an official capacity, instead of lamely blogging from exile.
tar and feathers party
October 29th, 2011
4:33 pm
Only a fool would vote to give more tax dollars to the crooks…….
John
October 29th, 2011
4:45 pm
What rock did Shirley Franklin crawl out from under to give us her 2 cents? Please tell me why I should care about the opinion from someone who headed the city for years while there was exposed one scandal of corruption and and criminal behavior in the various departments by city employees regarding the Atlanta schools, another government money pit just recently exposed for being riddled with malfeasance? Please Shirley, go back under your rock and take Beverly Hall with you.
Maureen Downey
October 29th, 2011
4:52 pm
To all: A note from an AJC reporter who is working on a SPLOST story:
Truth in Moderation
October 29th, 2011
5:59 pm
What we really need more of is CITIZEN ARRESTS. If you see something, don’t just SAY something, ARREST THEM! Government workers can be criminals too!
“Citizen’s Arrest
A citizen’s arrest occurs when a non-law enforcement individual attempts to detain someone committing a crime. As with situations involving shop employees or private security guards, a citizen’s arrest can only be made if the person being detained has committed a crime in the presence of the arresting citizen.
People making a citizen’s arrest must notify appropriate law enforcement agents as soon as possible…”
http://www.robbinslaw.com/false-arrest.htm
Historical precedence….
The ’50’s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwEvysDpNm0&feature=related
The 2010’s
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/05/right-wing_extremists_take_on_local_law_enforcemen.php
Once Again
October 29th, 2011
6:46 pm
Ending all government involvement in education would not require every parent to homeschool. Tragically the failure to properly educate the masses is clearly reflected in the comments so comonly posted on this blog.
An end to government involvement and the restoration of a truly free market means that all options are on the table. First the number of school and educational options will increase exponentially. Knowing that everyone will be a potential customer rather than just 5% will encourage hundreds of teachers, principles, creative folks from the business community, etc. to explore business opportunites.
Those options will include homeschooling, charity schools, schools targeted at kids with disabilities, troublemakers, etc., coop schools between several households in a subdivision, internet based schools, and who knows what else. There has been such a destructive government monopoly on education that this one sector of the economy has seen absolutely no innovation for over 100 years (well, many stupid experiments have been tried, but nothing truly innovative and positive).
For sure the price will come down for everyone. Plenty of schools will open that will specifically set themselves up to serve lower income segments (and of course they will likely be far superior to the schools these kids attend today).
The bottom line is that the current system has no motivation to change, improve, or do a good job at educating students. But since its primary goal is to train worker bees for industry and to brainwash kids with the government approved version of economics, history, etc. and to rob them of their individuality, creativity, and independent thinking abilities. They have certainly done a great job of all of these.
MannyT
October 29th, 2011
6:52 pm
In all of this complaining about SPLOST, I have to question…do the voters hold their local school boards & politicians accountable? If you show up at school board meetings and pass out flyers, send emails, etc about things the school board has not done, it is possible to vote them out.
Let some people lose their jobs for ignoring their constituents and you get people running who support your views. When you do not share your views, it’s hard for everyone to figure out what their constituents really want from their elected officials.
Teacher man
October 29th, 2011
7:15 pm
Attentive parent is most likely not even a parent. Schools need SPLOST to buy basics since people are foreclosing right and left. Wonder how if attentive parent would like to start paying for every textbook, pen, pencil and report card schools MUST have. Teachers haven’t had a cost of living raise in four years and are blamed for EVERYTHING. PLEASE teach Johnny at home then you can witness his innocent ADD without medication fueled meltdowns and see what you do. Give me a break. Work with the teachers not against us. We are the most highly educated poorly paid workforce in the world excuse us if we need a penny on your taxes to keep the lights on! Geez.
oldtimer
October 29th, 2011
7:23 pm
To those who think there is nothing wrong with government schools…spend some time in them. Very few are well educated. Schools are designed to make good government workers…not thinkers. A few might get a wonderful world class education. Most 1st world countires do not give all equal education…the best and the brightest are moved forward, and the sorting starts by 6th grade. The schools have benn slowly made easier, text books dumded down and even incorrect anti-American text. Just look at what your kids are doing and reading…It is not pretty.
Attentive Parent
October 29th, 2011
8:58 pm
I can assure you teacher man that I am a parent. 3 kids. I taught each of them to read and if you think I know the math issue in Georgia, that is nothing relative to what I know about reading and the refusal to use effective methods.
I am not picking on SPLOST because I am mean but because I have analyzed what is going on in education and where these policies are really headed whatever the declared or actual intentions are. That’s what I do and have for decades. Analyze businesses and sectors.
The reason these school districts are so determined to get all this equipment beyond what I described in the original post is to move all school children to a common track that is largely vocational but with academic course names. That way most parents will not notice and the computer integration provides the working skills. You see the low level literacy and numeracy for most described by the federal Department of Labor’s SCANS report from about 1990 (Secretary’s Commission on Acquiring Basic Skills) is still the driving document for as much as need be known to be the desired cog that benefits politicians, bureaucrats, established businesses, and no one else.
I analyze these ideas through the relevant economics and the tragic history of comparable concepts. With me as a mom you can be assured that my own children are the least at risk. I am fighting for the parents who want the best for their children and know something is wrong . But not what it is.
I know where all this is going. I have tracked these ideas through the decades and over the oceans. There are so many wonderful teachers but they and our children and our wallets do not deserve to be victimized by every apparatchik awarded an Educational Leadership degree in return for a willingness to implement bad ideas. At our expense.
And I was born in Georgia to the obnoxious person on the previous page.
Merry
October 29th, 2011
9:07 pm
If the state would get rid of all the illegals and their anchor babies, especially deporting illegal pregnant women, the state wouldn’t need SPLOST and could educate its kids better. Totally unfair to taxpayers to keep paying for these lawbreakers, even if they are kids.
Truth in Moderation
October 29th, 2011
9:14 pm
Oops!
Should read, “are citizen’s arrests”.
Now go read the book, EATS, SHOOTS & LEAVES…. LOL!
Thomas West
October 29th, 2011
9:18 pm
The E-SPLOST tax has been around for a long while, and we continue to be in 49th place.
Truth in Moderation
October 29th, 2011
9:25 pm
@Attentive Parent
Do you believe the current globalist banking cartel is ultimately behind this takeover? Where does the money trail lead? Have you read the primary source documents in THE DELIBERATE DUMBING DOWN OF AMERICA, by Charlotte Iserbyt? They reinforce some of your assertions.
Jack
October 29th, 2011
10:16 pm
To Merry October 29th, 2011 9:07 pm:
What’s unfair Merry, is people without kids being forced to pay for your kids education. How does it feel to be a parasite? PAY FOR YOUR OWN DAMN KIDS !!!
say what?
October 29th, 2011
10:30 pm
I vote NO to the continuation of SPLOST in DeKalb. The list of schools to be rebuilt are schools that were closed in May of this year. So I do not understand having 3 empty schools in an area, then you plan to build a brand new school when your own demograohic study shows that the area’s population is in a decline. Why would a voter vote yes to such non-sense.
Further every child does not need access to an IPaD, or take home netbook, as DCSS is wanting to expand. If the schools had better computers, more computers, and the staff who could use/manage/teach the software, DCSS would be technology sound. Get rid of all of the blocks. A child did a search on shoes, and the search was blocked because “shoes” is sexual. If the software was upgraded, children and teachers would be better prepared in the schoolhouse. Every room has a promethian board, but many times teachers remain at the beginners skill level. I used Edomos (?) with my son today, what a wonderful tool. Instead of teacher printing out several copies of the takehome exam, she found those kids who have technology at home, and posted the exam online for them to access. She gave him a scantron to complete and submit on Tuesday.
We do not need MORE purchases, we need to better use what we have.
Ole Guy
October 29th, 2011
10:43 pm
Troll on!
Anonmom
October 29th, 2011
11:27 pm
DCSS parents who have been following what has been happening see that SPLOST II has resulted in major litigation, that has cost the general funds budget $20 million in attorneys fees that could have otherwise been spent in the classroom while the SPLOST dollars went on bad roof and AC repairs and for the Palace…. there is substantial mistrust in the BOE and in how the funds are being watched and spent. Let’s start with regular, outside audits, available to the public (like Florida’s sunshine laws); let’s post all transactions (checks and p-card transactions) on line, let’s get rid of all “friends and family” hires who are related to the BOE and Dr. Lewis so we can “start over” and let Dr. Atkinson propose her vision for SPLOST IV, then perhaps taxpayers may be willing to start contributing to the “fund” again and try to start trusting the system again. Perhaps by then, the civil case with Heery Mitchell, maybe, might be resolved and, maybe the criminal trial against Dr. Lewis and Pat Pope et. al. will have concluded. Until then, it’s like giving the teeenager who just wrecked the BMW another BMW.
Bill from Duluth
October 29th, 2011
11:57 pm
I am not surprised that this awful out of touch mayor is surprised that SPLOST is headed for defeat. The tax payers are tired of being plundered. I work in downtown Atlanta and the city needs to clean up its act. Almost everyday I see at least 1 broken escaltor as well as several city employees in uniform standing around the main entrance to Peachtree Center chatting among themselves ignoring what happens around them as they have a good time. Then on the way home we see stupid stop lights on on-ramps, the idiotic HOT lane, and then the Taj Mahal I85/316 intersection where millions of $$ were wasted.
godoggo
October 30th, 2011
1:09 am
Seriously Shirley ? Cuts in Education…..Why did we have cuts in education ? Maybe corruption and cronyism with city and airport contracts.
Was not the Lottery “past” years ago to Unequivocally and Unconditionally fund Pre-K, and the Hope program ?
Once elected, did you not (as all newly elected officials do to look good out of the blocks) hire or accept a FREE million dollar consulting report that highly recommended “deep employee count reductions” that overlapped and could save ATL millions of dollars ? ….and yet nothing was done !
Did you not try to clean up your mentor “Bill Campbell’s” Water contract….only to rehire another firm that was overjoyed to get there hand in the cookie jar of the “City of plunder and loot”.
And maybe if we didn’t have to reinvent the wheel, and split Atoms to Fire current incompetent Government Teachers we could afford to hire more of them…..last i knew if you lied, cheated, or stole from an employer you were fired……….without review boards, hearings, review board appeals, and hearings to look at the fairness of the appeal on the part of all the incompetent members to see if the board members rights were violated : )
Check out this list of just SOME of the taxes we Americans pay…….just SOME.
Accounts Receivable Tax
Building Permit Tax
Capital Gains Tax
CDL license Tax
Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Court Fines (indirect taxes)
Dog License Tax
Federal Income Tax
Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)
Fishing License Tax
Food License Tax
Fuel permit tax
Gasoline Tax (42 cents per gallon)
Hunting License Tax
Inheritance Tax Interest expense (tax on the money)
Inventory tax IRS Interest Charges (tax on top of tax)
IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)
Liquor Tax
Local Income Tax
Luxury Taxes
Marriage License Tax
Medicare Tax
Property Tax
Real Estate Tax
Septic Permit Tax
Service Charge Taxes
Social Security Tax
Road Usage Taxes (Truckers)
Sales Taxes
Recreational Vehicle Tax
Road Toll Booth Taxes
School Tax
State Income Tax
State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)
Telephone federal excise tax
Telephone federal universal service fee tax
Telephone federal, state and local surcharge taxes
Telephone minimum usage surcharge tax
Telephone recurring and non-recurring charges tax
Telephone state and local tax
Telephone usage charge tax
Toll Bridge Taxes
Toll Tunnel Taxes
Traffic Fines (indirect taxation)
Trailer registration tax
Utility Taxes
Vehicle License Registration Tax
Vehicle Sales Tax
Watercraft registration Tax
Well Permit Tax
Workers Compensation Tax
COMMENTS: NOT ONE of these taxes existed 100 years ago and our nation was the most prosperous in the world, had absolutely no national debt, had the largest middle class in the world and Mom stayed home to raise the kids.
What the hell happened ?
Public HS Teacher
October 30th, 2011
1:26 am
@godoggo -
I can answer that one! What happened is that the top 1% of Americans became so much more wealthy than the rest (and by Americans, I include some corporations), they have been able to buy politicans. By doing this, they have swayed the burden away from them and more onto the middle class.
Why was the FOX news station started? Who started it? It was financed and owned (still owned) by one man – one of the top 1% wealthy Americans. He clearly stated when he started the channel that he did not like the way news was reported on other channels and that his station was going to slant the news the way HE wanted….
The American banks have funded politicans so much for so many years, they have the politicans do their bidding. And, this includes “bail outs” and what ever else they want.
When you have millions and billions of dollars, I guess you can do things like this!
Public HS Teacher
October 30th, 2011
1:29 am
The Fulton SPLOST is to upgrade technology. This is a waste of money. Technology alone does not make for a good education.
Why spend money on technology that will be obsolite in 5 years? Especially when the classrooms do not even have the basics – student desks (yes, students are sitting on stools, the floor, etc.), white board markers and erasers, etc.
But they want to increase taxes and spend millions on computers? I don’t think so.
SAWB
October 30th, 2011
1:35 am
Easy to support more taxes when you have made yourself rich off those same taxes via airport vendor deals. Metro Governments (Atlanta school Board, DeKalb School Board, Gwinnett Commission, etc.) are corrupt and the less tax we pay the less they can steal.
Also, this red herring about no SPLOST resulting in less growth in the area is ridiculous. First they say, “because of growth we must raise taxes” then they say, “to maintain growth we must raise taxes” – what? Atlanta and the metro area as a whole was a better place to live thirty years ago, so it is hard to see how the growth helps the average guy. The bottom line is growth only helps politicians like Franklin and their buddies get rich.
Beverly Fraud
October 30th, 2011
4:03 am
Shirley says “I have been surprised at the opposition toward the education SPLOST…”
The two most likely explanations for her surprise are:
A) She is ignorant
B) She is lying
Knowing how she actively campaigned for Beverly Hall to remain at the APS helm AFTER the cheating scandal broke, you decide on A or B
But to explain in a way that Shirley can understand, let’s say you have a drunk family member with cirrhosis of the liver, who needs a liver transplant. And you decide to deny them the money.
Why? Because you’re heartless? No, because you KNOW they will take the money and go on yet another drinking binge. Because you know, to (to reference Maureen’s comment, so I have “documentation” I stayed on topic LOL) you KNOW that the lack of trust is sadly, WELL EARNED.
Sure, it’s going to affect the teachers disproportionately, as the central office status quo will do ANYTHING to make sure the $1000+ conference chairs, and the $80 million dollar administrative palaces remain.
But we don’t need to merely break some eggs to make this omelet called responsible government; we need to drop a scud missile on these eggs.
Education Insider
October 30th, 2011
7:17 am
In my little town half of the county schools failed to make AYP. In the city, the middle school has had 3 principals in 5 years and the high school is in its 4th year of school improvement. What did the SPLOST money go to? They landscaped the middle school grounds and put in a sprinkler system.
Our schools are massively overstaffed with curriculum coaches, math coaches, data coaches, RTI specialist, staffing specialist…none who directly teach children. Add to that football coaches who don’t teach.
The waste is breathtaking! $188K for a days work to a cheater. Reorganizing every time there is an election or a new idea. Politician who vote on education who rarely if every cross the threshold of a school. 70 retirees brought back to do who knows what. School board members’ friends and family hired because of who they know not what they can do.
Like the boy who cried wolf, eventually we stop listening. The “good old boys” got us into this mess and they expect to conduct business are usual and for us to get them out.
My vote will say…I’ll be keeping my penny.
Glad I can afford to send my children to Pvt School
October 30th, 2011
7:39 am
Wasn’t Shirley a big supporter of our old school administration, She sure got that right.
Rick in Grayson
October 30th, 2011
7:43 am
We spend at least $1 Billion/each year paying for K-12 educations for the children of illegal aliens!
Our elected officials aren’t even attempting to stem the tide of illegal aliens entering our country. They either want the votes of the children of illegals born here in the US or want to exploit illegal aliens for cheap labor.
We need to clean house of all elected officials. The ones that aren’t directly part of the problem refuse to out the one that are the problem. We need term limits and newspapers that will monitor our elected officials closely. Unfortunately, newspapers have their own bias towards our political parties and can’t tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth!
Sam
October 30th, 2011
7:44 am
Voters want to fund education. They are also going to send a message to the education establishment that change is required. We are not going to keep providing the cash when the educrats fight every competivie innovation and act like they are entitled to our money.
If the educators start being open to new ideas and if they start showing some flexibility then voters will support SPLOST and more money for schools. But more mony to prop up the same failing system is not going to win a majority of votes.
SPLOST is going to be a fight this year.
Derek
October 30th, 2011
8:00 am
we pay almost double per child for education as the schools I attended in MO, It’s not how much, it’s how it’s spent. Get rid of the waste and all of the unneeded admin positions and start teaching again! Why do we need 15 assistant principals, super’s and press liasion, TEACH
cris
October 30th, 2011
8:35 am
@Maureen…how ’bout a county that has recently passed an ESPLOST (during a special March election no less)….and the first thing the BOE did was “place” a Deputy Superintendant in charge of spending the ESPLOST funds?
Hokey
October 30th, 2011
8:39 am
Because of the HOT lanes and the school cheating scandal, no one wants to trust our money to government agencies right now. It doesn’t matter how badly needed they are. My suggestion to our elected officials right now is to bail on the transportation tax and the education tax and hope they can get the sewer tax passed. Wait for a better day to try to get the education tax passed.
North Side
October 30th, 2011
8:52 am
I think Mayor Reed is the best mayor this city has ever had. If he doesn’t the support the tax then neither do I. He truly looks out for this city. He doesn’t have the hidden agendas and family issues that the other mayors had.
Steve
October 30th, 2011
9:08 am
Come ask me for more SPLOST funds for schools when the upper management of schools havre taken a 60% pay cut.
Lee
October 30th, 2011
9:11 am
Sorry. Shirley Franklin lost all credibility in education issues when she defended Beverly Hall during the recent cheating scandal.
North Side
October 30th, 2011
9:39 am
Was Shirley the mayor that provided her own home as a safe haven for convicted felons?
@KatyWatts from G.P.
October 30th, 2011
10:24 am
Actually, the government has done very well running schools. The “schools are failing” meme is one that is bought a paid for by the business and industry idiots who come to grift.
And please don’t come back with “compared to China” unless you are planning to compare them to OUR top 9% of students.
Yes, schools are “democratic” by nature. They are part of the public trust. We elect a board who is supposed to be unswayed by business interests and billionaire foundations. Grifters and “venture” philanthropists?
As for homeschooling: I’d love to see an entire town, district, whatever, offer no public education and sample that fantasty experiment. I’m sure it would be great for home values and catering to the business interests this country has Sainted.
Beverly Fraud
October 30th, 2011
11:31 am
Saying the government has done very well in running the schools makes about as much sense as saying the government of Somalia has done a very good job marketing itself as a tourist destination for the cruise ship industry.
Ronin
October 30th, 2011
11:49 am
@Dereck: as to your comment: ” Get rid of the waste and all of the unneeded admin positions and start teaching again! Why do we need 15 assistant principals, super’s and press liasion, TEACH”
The bureaucratic mess that is public education is succeeding at what it truly is, a jobs program for adults. The State of Georgia public education systems seems to be incapable of adapting or changing to meet the needs of the customers it serves. There are too many people feeding at the education buffet that like things just the way that they are. The political fallout for politicians that sponsor reform is often met with opposition by those who feed off the education system and DO vote.
The people in education state they need more funding and more support from families. If the current system could work, it would have been fixed by now. It doesn’t take a genius to solve the problem, simply review education systems that are ranking in the top 5% and duplicate their methods. There is nt need to reinvent the wheel to improve public/government education.
Eliminate monopoly board of education control of funding by by allowing vouchers and the current bloated budgets heavy on administrative spending will cease to exist.
Beverly Fraud
October 30th, 2011
12:03 pm
How is my child going to learn if her central office administrator doesn’t have a $1200 conference chair to sit in? It’s patently ridiculous to expect a prestigious central office administrator to sit in a NORMAL chair. Such BLATANT disrespect to expect someone who gives their lives “for the children” to be treated this way.
That’s the problem in this country. People don’t value our central office administrators.
SPLOST for central office furniture upgrades. For the children, of course.
Jennifer
October 30th, 2011
1:36 pm
Here is some information on the eSPLOST for Gwinnett County. http://www.cgcaction.com
Merry
October 30th, 2011
1:57 pm
@ Jack – You are singing to the choir. I don’t believe in public education one damn bit. I educated my kid (after a disaster of political correctness for two months in kindergarten) via home school & private (thru much sacrifice on my part). In Glynn Co. now, because I am over 65 I don’t pay property taxes for the failing school system because I am old (I pay for the failing everything else). Why should all of the taxpayers pay for public education? They should not! – because, bottom line, they are not getting their money’s worth. What would help is if the parents were taxed for their kids. At the least parents should pay for books – the public should see the wretched condition of textbooks because the kids do not appreciate them, throw them around and mar them so they can’t even be read. Give them ipads? You have got to be kidding! A ready made black market starting in grade school (by future banksters I am sure).
Beverly Fraud
October 30th, 2011
3:22 pm
@Merry, that you would deny an important central office administrator the right to sit in a $1200 office chair so their back won’t hurt when they sit in a very important meeting means only one thing:
You CLEARLY do not care about the children.
Jack
October 30th, 2011
4:27 pm
@Merry – From what you have said based on my previous comment about what I said about what you said… It appears I may have been wrong in applying the parasite label to you for being one of the many who feel right in taking the money (property taxes) from people without kids to subsidize the education of other peoples kids. But it is dead on for most parents out there. They are parasites. If they have kids THEY should pay for their upkeep including their education. Also from your other comment about being over 65, in this cesspool known as Atlanta they have their hooks into you FOREVER, until the day you die, paying for the education of other peoples kids. That is why in a few years when I’m old enough to retire I will be leaving this cesspool and going elsewhere where I don’t have to carry that burden any longer and get to keep MY money. To all you public school parents, you are a bunch of parasites. PAY FOR YOUR OWN DAMN KIDS !!!
@ Beverly Fraud (3:22 pm)
October 30th, 2011
6:46 pm
Lost Priorities at APS:
Ms. Fraud you are correct that on average most of the conference chairs in district’s administrative offices are just over $1200 per unit. Please be sure to include in your future comments that conference tables in each department average $7480.
Also, it is common knowledge among those who have been involved with finances at APS, that board members and upper level administrators commonly steer construction, technology, and service contracts.
Until the aforementioned abuse of public money is ended, I cannot see anyone in his/her right mind supporting any kind of funding initiative for APS. Beverly Fraud your analogy so aptly reflects our fiasco: Why on God’s earth would one want to serve more booze to a dying alcoholic!
The Inside Scoop
3rd floor,
130 Trinity Ave.
Northside parent
October 30th, 2011
8:07 pm
It is next to impossible to address the APS Board of Education. The stipulation requiring advanced notice of intent/waiting period before being allowed to speak and that issues to be aired must be first submitted in writing, are all done to neuter public input. I asked an APS public relations receptionist why all of this way necessary and was told it was done to maintain “proper decorum”.
“Proper decorum” to me means hearing only what one wants to hear. Today’s progressive management structures value information flowing from all levels, including external appraisals. Smart merchandizing/retailing practices encourage and reward shoppers for providing feedback (e.g. complete a questionaire and qualify for a $1000.00 gift certificate). Heck, its common to see postings that ask customers to report or press a button if a restroom needs attention.
The APS board does not really want to hear about issues needing attention, especially in a public forum. The APS board has designed a process that virtually assures sanitized public input.
And now……..they have the nerve to ask for the public’s support.
We are NOT stupid!!!
Beverly Fraud
October 30th, 2011
8:34 pm
Vote for SPLOST and you’re saying “Yes we are upset…but we WILL put up with your nonsense”
Voting no for SPLOST says “We are upset…NOTICE that we ARE upset with your abuse of the public trust”
Which message do YOU want to send?
Cere
October 30th, 2011
9:01 pm
I find it interesting that politicians are up in arms when voters question handing hundreds of millions of dollars over to a school board that has failed miserably in it’s one and only true task: Educating our children. Why is it that people like the good mayor will advocate for new buildings, but not advocate for great reading and math scores? Why do politicians not feel compelled to make it Job #1 to provide a highly qualified, educated workforce to entice new business to incubate or locate in Georgia? Why are they not ripping their hair out in angst over being #49 in the US in education year after year? Glitzy buildings don’t educate students – gifted teachers do. We need to make our universities train up the best teachers in the country and then we need to pay them well so that they will stay in Georgia and teach our own children.
The leadership in DeKalb has proven that when given bags of money, they will spend their energy finding ways to divert that money to their own and their friends’ pockets. Watch any board meeting in DeKalb – over half the time is spent discussing construction contracts. Improve test scores, hire great teachers and principals and then support them in their task by paying them well, offering in-class support staff and small class sizes. When we have a functional educational system, then our construction needs will be easy to identify and voters will support those needs. The current SPLOST plan is to collect a half-billion dollars and spend it all over the county like it’s Christmas (at least it will be Christmas for well-connected, vocal groups).
Form follows function. We need to get our function – which is to educate – in order before we start planning the form (buildings). Maybe next time…
TaxWatch
October 31st, 2011
6:15 am
Mayor Franklin: ???????? APS is an ongoing disaster.
I believe in zero based budgeting: only funding that which works. Need I say more!.
Name One
October 31st, 2011
6:51 am
Here is why there’s legitimate opposition to SPLOST IV in DeKalb County:
http://dekalbschoolwatch.blogspot.com/2011/10/to-splost-or-not-to-splost.html
1) We are in the middle of a $100 million lawsuit over SPLOST II construction that has cost us $15+ million and committed us to another $19+ million in legal fees – which comes from the General Operating budget – not the SPLOST budget — thus taking directly from the money earmarked for our children’s education.
2) We have criminal charges looming and criminal trials yet to take place involving SPLOST III and our former superintendent, our former COO and others. This is bad news and will require additional resources and attention as the trial moves forward.
3) The current plan is not focused. There are projects promised in SPLOST IV that were listed as political favors for a chosen few who are very organized and very vocal. We will still have schools with great needs that will not get their needs addressed in full. Like our curriculum, the project list is vast, yet vague.
GeorgiaSPLOST.org points out the drawback of SPLOST fundraising, which I believe is what has happened consistently in DeKalb. “In practice the SPLOSTs combine many projects into one referendum. Often many of the projects do not enjoy broad community support but are included in the list as a favor to certain special interests. The voters often have to vote for five or ten projects that they oppose in order to pass the two or three that they strongly support. Another problem with current practice is that SPLOST referendums are often held concurrent with elections with low expected voter turnout and the special interests promoting the SPLOST can have a greater effect on the referendum.”
Glitzy buildings don’t educate students – gifted teachers do!!!
What??
October 31st, 2011
7:18 am
This is another reason why we don’t trust the DeKalb County School System to spend millions in SPLOST taxes. Ron Ramsey is a state senator, owns a number of businesses, and just happens to be the director of the DeKalb County School System’s Office of Internal Affairs. He gets hundreds of thousands from the state for his family’s pre-K while he’s a state senator. He owes hundreds of thousands of back taxes. He’s also the head of Internal Affairs for a school system where the former superintendent and chief operating office are under RICO indictment for criminal enterprise. We’re expected to trust high ranking administrators like him with a half-billion dollars of SPLOST taxes?
http://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-officials-past-due-1183242.html#.TnYOzBbzeb0.email
Taxes owed by the Kingdom Group, a Decatur child care business run by Doris V. Carrington-Ramsey, the wife of Sen. Ronald Ramsey, D-Lithonia, also were blamed on the economy.
The IRS filed $173,000 in liens against the center for unpaid taxes from 2007-2010. While owing the federal government, the Kingdom Group was getting money from the state for childcare services. The center received $278,122 in pre-k money from the state last year and has received about $850,000 in state money since 2006.
Sen. Ramsey lists himself as vice president and general counsel for the company, although his wife said he has not played an active role in the business since he took office in 2007.
“I am solely responsible for this tax matter which I hope to resolve in the near future,” she said, adding that lower enrollment in recent years has hurt the business. The Kingdom Group is making installment payments to the IRS to pay off the debt.
What??
October 31st, 2011
7:38 am
When will DeKalbers stop electing clowns for BOE?
Jay Cunningham
http://www.ajc.com/news/dekalb/dekalb-school-officials-record-690212.html
Gene Walker
http://www.accessnorthgeorgia.com/detail.php?n=150517
Zepora Roberts
http://blogs.ajc.com/get-schooled-blog/2010/08/09/saltzman-vs-roberts-wouldnt-be-a-fair-fight-but-the-tv-reporter-asked-a-fair-question-about-nepotism-in-dekalb-school-board/
Paul Womack
http://championnewspaper.com/news/articles/852tiff-leads-sen-jones-to-file-ethics-complaint-against-school-board-member-852.html
Sarah Copelin-Wood
http://dekalbschoolwatch.blogspot.com/2010/04/sarah-copelin-wood-look-at-her-as-why.html
Jack a Grady baby
October 31st, 2011
8:21 am
NO to SPLOST NO to transportation tax, NO to ANY tax increase at this time! Here’s an idea – grade teachers on number of conferences with parents, classroom management nomatter the size, pay for time worked – not summer off with pay. No contract with superintendents with future payouts if fired, CUT THE DAMN EXPENSES. I cannot support a school system which has no music, no art and quality literature programs. If you cut the music cut the athletics.
BEWARE!!!!!
October 31st, 2011
10:20 am
Buyers BEWARE…..your tax dollars going to APS is………your money down a RAT HOLE!!
Beverly Fraud
October 31st, 2011
11:36 am
“BEWARE!!!!” Hogwash I say. SUCH an uninformed electorate; 44 out of 56 schools engage in cheating, and then the media turns it into something “systemic and widespread”.
Inflammatory and despicable. And who suffers the most? Central office administrators. It’s terrible, just terrible.
Phineas
October 31st, 2011
1:10 pm
A vote for E-SPLOST is a vote to maintain funding for public education. A vote against it is a vote to cut funding for public education.
Former SPARK parent
October 31st, 2011
1:34 pm
+1 for Shar– you are spot on, as usual. I loved it when Shirley Franklin refused to (even now) acknowledge Bevvy Hall’s wretchedness, saying that the “mother in me” and the “daughter in me” wouldn’t allow her to pass such a judgment. Well, Shirley, tell us: does the “discredited, played-for-a-simpleton jack@ss in me” have an opinion yet?
Former SPARK parent
October 31st, 2011
1:41 pm
@Phineas: a vote “against” public education (even if I agreed with your premise, which I don’t) is not necessarily a bad thing.
Public education in Georgia is a disaster and we need to rebuild it with different rules (strict accountability and a contract with parents; freedom of movement (no one should be imprisoned by a terrible neighborhood school), etc.
If we have to starve it to death to kill it, well, at least we’ll have killed it.
Let me use another metaphor:
Public education here is not a renovation project, it’s a tear-down. Those in favor of blowing up the status quo and starting over actually have more of the public interest at heart than you do, if we’re just judging by your little do-gooder progressive potshot.
Phineas
October 31st, 2011
2:27 pm
Former SPARK Parent: I seriously doubt that someone like you who says they want to “starve” or “kill” public education has the public interest more at heart than those who support the E-SPLOST. You’re just defensive because my “little do-gooder potshot” is spot on: voting against the E-SPLOST is a vote to reduce funding for public education, period.
Do you send your children to public schools? If no, did you leave because you were “imprisoned by a terrible neighborhood school” at Springdale Park Elementary? If so, you’ve got to be kidding. That’s a great school just recently built with millions of dollars of E-SPLOST money. If you’re that cranky about Springdale Park Elementary, then you’re probably just a crank.
Former SPARK parent
October 31st, 2011
3:13 pm
Springdale Park is not a “great school.” It LOOKS great compared to most APS schools, which is the same as saying an Alabama girl is the prettiest co-ed at the Dental Neglect Fair.
Springdale Park SHOULD be on a par with Woodward Academy in most important tangible and intangible measurements. (As a SPARK parent who served on multiple committees, I visited WWA on several occasions to observe its practices). But SPARK isn’t even close.
SPARK parents are relatively affluent and many are quite engaged; their kids have many advantages; with APS per-pupil spending and parent fundraising potential, it should be able to compete with WWA.
Instead, SPARK is merely okay. It has a principal compromised by the cheating investigation (29% cheating suspected at her previous school) and whose HR missteps directly led to a major special-ed lawsuit against the district in 2009. Yolonda Brown is the hand-picked protege of Beverly Hall (Hall even chose Brown to accompany her to Phoenix to pick up that now-infamous super-of-the-year award). Brown was hired on the basis of fraudulent test scores and was pushed on the SPARK parent population (over my loud protest) by Bev Hall herself. If you don’t think an elementary school principal is the most important person in any community, you’re fooling yourself. And we don’t have the right person in that job. Just ask the many frustrated teachers in that building right now.
So–am I really a crank, or are you making the mistake of believing “pretty good” is all the parents who worked hard to buy houses here deserve for their high school-millage taxes?
SPARK is the arguably the very best APS can do given SPLOST funds and a chance to hire the best and brightest people, and yet it has not become the school the parents in this community deserve. I have no doubt I could pick 12 parents AT RANDOM on my block and together we would run SPARK better than APS has done starting tomorrow, and without the benefit of any mail-order Ph.Ds!
Schools should be run by parent boards, period. People with literal skin in the game. And parents wishing to put their children into a public school should have to sign a contract holding both parents and students accountable for student success.
When you demand nothing of parents and schoolchildren, nothing is what you get. That’s the fatal flaw in the current system, and no SPLOST is going to change that.
If you want public education to work, stop giving money to the people who are making it fail.
Aunt Jemima?
October 31st, 2011
3:38 pm
Nothing occurs in a vacuum -
Who prompted Shirley Franklin to speak to this issue? Is she the only figure with”“credibility?” Why was a “minority” person given this task? What are the true dynamics at play?
Hopefully someone can help me with possible answers?
You know: who’s pulling the strings –possibly contractors/vendors; again nothing occurs in a vacuum.
JB
October 31st, 2011
3:39 pm
If you would like for your property taxes to increase, to ensure the most extreme redistricting and lower your property value even more because of redistricting and underfunded schools, then vote against the SPLOST.
SPLOST funds can only be spent on capital projects – not operating expenses as Attentive Parent suggested in an earlier post. It is not an increase – it is maintaining an existing tax. If you spent $50K on goods, you would only be paying $500 in tax, much lower than the property tax rate because the cost is shared by all residents (whether they own property or not) and even non-residents buying goods in these counties.
@Phineas (2:27 pm)
October 31st, 2011
3:53 pm
You just don’t understand the depth of the corruption at APS. The district serves as a cash cow for board members and several slick administrators. The worst culprits are some of the board members who have been there a number of years. I can assure you they do not serve in the “best interest of children.”
The upcoming APS criminal prosecutions for the cheating and cover-up scandal merely scratch the surface of thick, steep, deep, criminality.
Call me cranky,l but I aint crazy!!!
Chuck Sheen
October 31st, 2011
4:13 pm
@former spark, in addition to your comments on the leadership, if while in the process of trying to publicly upbraid a staff member, you make mistakes in subject-verb agreement, you pretty much qualify for the term epic fail.
Phineas
October 31st, 2011
5:06 pm
Former SPARK parent: Everyone can’t afford to spend $20,000 per year per child to go to Woodward Academy. That’s why we have public schools — because most people can’t afford an elite private education. That being said, I sort of agree with you that with the neighborhood (Virginia Highland) and resources that Springdale Park has, it should be as good, or pretty close, to Woodward. But I’ll bet it probably already is pretty close. And I’ll bet it certainly is as good as many of the other private schools around Atlanta. And the same is probably true with Morningside, Mary Lin, Sara Smith, Morris Brandon, and Jackson elementary schools within the APS system. The fact that the enrollments at all of those public schools is increasing is at least some indication that many people who live in those good neighborhoods have come to the conclusion that the value at those public schools is as good or better than that at private schools.
So you’ve apparently bailed and gone to private school, and so I guess it’s not surprising that you now advocate cutting funding to public schools. Fine, but the fact is that the public schools serve the majority of those who live in the community where you live, and cutting SPLOST funding will not help public education. Springdale Park elementary school would probably not even exist with E-SPLOST — would that be better for Virginia Highland? Yes, there have been problems within APS, but Beverly Hall is gone now, and Errol Davis does seem to be trying to get things on track. Run for school board if you’re not happy with the current board. But cutting funding for public education funding will not solve any of the problems.
Former SPARK parent
October 31st, 2011
6:48 pm
So Phineas, I just spent all that time laying out for you exactly why Springdale Park has failed to live up to its promise, and making the case for replacing Yolonda Brown, and telling you how I personally visited WWA on multiple occasions, and yet you still want to “bet” that the two are “pretty close?” I was intimately involved with the school before the first brick was laid and served on multiple committees, and know exactly what the school’s problems are, and you come back at me with “I’ll bet”…?
How about you try a little harder to make a cogent argument than “I’ll bet,” okay?
Attentive Parent
October 31st, 2011
8:18 pm
JB-
Money is fungible. Everything being funded by SPLOST would not occur if it had to be financed via a millage increase. If the Dekalb or Atlanta or Fulton school district came to the voters and said we are raising all this money to buy technology and to refurb the schools for technology and there’s nothing you can do about it :here’s your tax bill they would finally manage to truly unite North and South Fulton. We might even get a unified county and metro Atl in rebellion.
Parents of all backgrounds get that computers are just a tool and in need of replacement frequently. No substitute for individual knowledge and skills. Did you know that the Association for Chief Ed Technology officers thinks tech is so important they should be running the district?
I am tired of overpaid social workers derisively demonstrating they are mental midgets and have been credentialed to destroy anything in their wake. With pensions and benefits of course. With so much of SPLOST going to tech projects designed to undermine who the kids will ever become. Of course I am troubled.
DeKalbite@Jack a Grady Baby
October 31st, 2011
10:03 pm
“pay for time worked – not summer off with pay”
FYI: Teachers are paid for days worked. All teachers used to get their pay spread over 10 months. Then the state started withholding a portion of their pay and giving it to them in the summer months. Good for the school system because they don’t have to pay it all up front. If a teacher works 5 months and then quits, he will get that portion of his pay that has been withheld during the next summer. Perhaps ou would like to go back to the old way of spreading giving teaches their pay over the 10 months they work. Be prepared to pay more in taxes though since teacher payrolls won’t be “floating” in bank collecting interest until the summer months.
AKA
November 1st, 2011
8:59 am
Shut up Shirley! I will be voting no in Atlanta to fund Splost as long as Brenda Muhummed and Emmett Johnson sit on the APS board and do nothing but rubber stamp submittals from a superintendent without questions from the likes of Beverly Hall for over a decade.
JB
November 1st, 2011
9:45 am
@Attentive Parent
Budgets are not fungible. They are segregated into operating and capital. Ask MARTA. State law requires that MARTA spend 50% of budget on operating and 50% on capital. They barely have enough money to operate, but have a surplus of funds for capital projects that they can’t build because it would increase their operating expenses. Despite this stupidity neither the Georgia Legislature, nor the Governor opted to change it and MARTA has had to cut service and increase fares to stay open.
If the SPLOST fails, there will not be enough money to fund renovations of existing schools or construction of new ones. We will most likely see redistricting to level the populations between over- and under-enrolled schools and property owners will probably have to pay more property tax.
Phineas
November 1st, 2011
10:28 am
Well said, JB.
T-SPLOST’s fate on the line next week in Fulton and DeKalb | Kyle Wingfield
November 2nd, 2011
5:04 am
[...] T-SPLOST supporters have been as forthright as Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, who has come out and said the education SPLOST should be voted down to make way for the transportation tax. Most of them seem [...]
M. Stouffer
November 2nd, 2011
5:38 pm
Former SPARK Parent – I am heartfully sorry you had a bad experience at SPARK concerning your particular circumstances, but please don’t purport to represent the entire population who appreciate our staff who along with the parents add value each and every day. Please don’t drain any more energy…Thanks!
No Thank You
November 3rd, 2011
3:31 pm
@Fulton, stop trying to deceive people into believing that SPLOST will do anything to help teachers earn a better salary. SPLOST lawsuits have cost 10s of millions of dollars and still counting… money that comes OUT of the general fund (not the SPLOST fund) that is supposed to pay the salaries. SPLOST has actually hurt our teachers and classrooms. And the construction it has funded in the past has been faulty, defective, overpriced or not completed at all.
Dekalb Tax Payer
November 3rd, 2011
4:51 pm
DCSS needs to get an educational plan together for SPLOST IV in DeKalb County.
Facilities need to support our academic goals, yet no specific academic goals or educational plan has been forthcoming in DeKalb.
Build transparency into the expenditures – for example, publish an online check register so citizens can see every check. All school in Alabama do this or are in the process of doing this for ALL school expenditures. Look at this website:
http://www.peytonwolcott.com/CheckRegisters_Alabama.html
DeKalb Schools need a year for our new superintendent to replace the personnel who mismanaged the last SPLOST III funds and create a clear educational plan with benchmarks and input from teachers and parents so that our facilities and technology dollars have the best chance of providing a good return on investment for our children. Currently, SPLOST IV plans include tearing down multimillion dollar structures that were recently built. That is a colossal waste of money and more importantly missed opportunities for our children.
I also like the fact that in 2012 we have a Presidential election. Infinitely more DeKalb voters will participate in that election. That means that the vote will be much more representative of what the citizens of DeKalb want and will dilute the special interest groups who “get out the vote” on these off election years when SPLOST typically gets put on the ballot (this year being an example). The more people who participate in an election, the more better our democratic process reflects the will of the majority.
I have never voted against a SPLOST or bond referendum for education in 40 years, but I will next Tuesday. Business as usual has resulted in the lowest percentage of DCSS Title 1 schools making AYP of any metro system (including APS), thus promulgating a dual system of education in DeKalb. Only voters can change this.
Not Buying It
November 3rd, 2011
5:06 pm
The school board must think we have a problem with our short term memory. Why the hell would I feel badly (as JB believes we should) about there not being enough money to build new schools. In DeKalb, we just went through a nightmare of school closings which was supposed to save the district tons of money. They were closed because we were led to believe they were underpopulated. Now they want us to think our schools are so overcrowded that we need to build additions or completely new schools. C’mon! If they need more space, just reopen the schools you just closed!
And to the idiot that tried to warn us about the security of our personal information kept on school mainframes that are under attack by the “bad guys,” how is wireless technology supposed to help us with that. It is a well known fact that wireless technology is less secure than wired and leads to much more security of information concerns that keeping our data on a “mainframe.” Good try, but I’m not going to buy it.
I mean, literally … I’M NOT GOING TO BUY IT! I’m going to keep my money and spend it on education – by buying books for my daughter, not wireless computers and printers for your buddies to steal so you can make the insurance claims and pocket the money instead of buying the classroom a new computer to replace the stolen one like you were supposed to!
Not Buying It
November 3rd, 2011
5:11 pm
By the way, to the point of DeKalb Tax Payer, the DeKalb school board actually spent more than $350K on the special request to have SPLOST IV take place during a specail election. If they had asked for the vote before December, it could have been scheduled. By adding it as a last minute initiative that was submitted in 2011, they wasted more of our money and likely did so just to ensure their outspoken lackie groups could impact the vote more because fewer people outside the school sysstem will vote. I also heard that every DeKalb County school employee is pressured to vote YES as a way to “help the school” and therefore “help the children.” I don’t see how tearing down a school while kids are shoved into half a building and then rebuilding it during school hours makes much sense or helps kids learn!
Not Buying It
November 3rd, 2011
5:17 pm
Dekalb Tax Payer, what do you mean about the tearing down of multi-million dollar structures that were just built? Are you kidding me? Can you provide more information? I wonder if the D.A.’s office would want to block that from happening in case those schools would be some kind of evidence that could be used in the SPLOST II construction scam lawsuit. We paid to build crappy schools. We want to tear down historical schools that were well-built and only need to be better maintained and qualify for historical school grants. And now we want to tear down what we finally finished building? That’s ridiculous!
Questioning Everything, Trusting No One
November 3rd, 2011
5:20 pm
Does anyone know what would happen to the homestead exemption repeal if we voted YES for SPLOST in 2012 instead of now? And, does anyone know if it is possible the school board could repeal the exemption even if we did vote YES to the SPLOST now? That just sounds like something they would do. If they get an idea in their collective head about some way they can get their hands on some money, they typically do not give up until they get it by any means possible.
Dekalb Tax Payer@Not Buying It
November 3rd, 2011
5:47 pm
Poor planning is not illegal or unethical – just not very smart.
Go to Maureen’s post:
“DeKalb’s Womack: SPLOST “spent on projects…not on bureaucracy.”
Here’s the link:
http://blogs.ajc.com/get-schooled-blog/2011/11/01/dekalbs-womack-splost-spent-on-projects-not-on-bureaucracy/
@Questioning Everything, Trusting No One
November 4th, 2011
4:10 pm
From Rick Callihan “Dunwoody Talk Blog”
The AJC just ran his opinion piece in the Editorial section today. He has an email address on his web page if you want to know the particulars:
http://dunwoodytalk.blogspot.com/2011/10/vote-no-on-dekalb-e-splost.html
“Will our property taxes go up if we vote ‘no’ to SPLOST? Yes, you will see a $57 increase. That $57 goes to pay for Chamblee’s rebuild and for other general fund expenses. If SPLOST passes in 2012, your taxes would be reduced by the $57. What does 1% sales tax mean to the average Dunwoody resident? That answer depends upon how much money you spend in DeKalb County. How much do you spend a month at Costco? At Wal-Mart? Are you buying a new car? $57 is one percent of $5,700. Do you spend $5,700 a year on taxable goods in DeKalb County?”