Here are the legal arguments for why govenor can’t oust DeKalb school board. Are you swayed?

I’ve long held the belief that the law violates the constitution and will be overturned.

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The situation is bad all around. The board is doing a poor job, that’s for sure. They deserve to be kicked out. But the law is terrible, SACS is highly questionable, and this whole thing is a giant mess that doesn’t help anything at all.

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The State countered that the law is constitutional with due process via the SACS study and precedent, Hearing, and the process allows the unseated board members to petition the governor for reinstatement. The legal argument appears to hinge on whether the SACS study can be successfully challenged.

It doesn’t matter whether citizens and posters here are swayed one way or the other. It is first up to this judge, then whether the losing side appeals (and further appeals). Meanwhile the issue of paying for this litigation will also be fought.

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“bigbill” laid out the issues very well too, Maureen, in your last thread. Here was my response:

@ bigbill: You laid out the issues very well. I believe that there is a high threshold for taking away the will of the people. I don’t believe that the kangaroo-type group “hearing” constitutes a substantive due process hearing for each school board member whom the Governor is attempting to remove. Each member should have a right to confront the witnesses making allegations against him or her and to cross examine these witnesses. The Georgia Supreme Court allows for a thorough and sifting cross examination. Property interests are definitely at stake.

SACS’s conclusions and report about this school board have caused the chain of events to occur. Yet, SACS, in an incredible display of hubris, does not provide for any documents or testimony from which SACS allegedly drew its report, many conclusions of which are easily proven to be false. The same thing occurred in Clayton County. For example, I believe that Elgart & Gang wrote that the Kaplan Program (which the Clayton School Board had abandoned) had been working very well in the elementary school, but the program was not even used in the elementary school (or vice versa). Many of the conclusions that SACS reports are simply skewed and biased or downright and explicitly wrong. SACS shrouds its “investigations” in secret. SACS is about as transparent as a 100 year old Chero Cola bottle. Trying to “see through [this] glass darkly” is frustrating to all who have a stake in the matter. SACS needs to come out of the catacombs and into the sunshine. After all, it appears to “blackmail” the school systems into to giving it upwards to $25,000,000 or more each year. Something about its cloak of darkness is just unseemly and wrong. I have been railing against SACS for over five years now. The people need to be freed up from the threatening and menacing edicts of SACS which appears to be guided by a capricious and arbitrary leader.

I think that it is very dangerous for a democratic society to start allowing the government to circumvent the will of the people, despite how bad the people’s choices may seem to be or how emotionally charged the opponents’ arguments are about allegedly “protecting the children.” It is especially dangerous to allow an unelected and unaccountable private company to set the chains in motion for this removal.

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Here’s the difference in attorneys Ritter (representing the state) and Wilson (representing Dr. Walker). Wilson is a member of a private law firm and is paid by the billable hour, and Ritter gets an annual government service salary, just like a school teacher. Ritter’s boss’s salary is $137,791, therefore, Ritter is not paid more than this per year.

According to a letter at DeKalb School Watch, Wilson’s firm is billing the DeKalb County Schools for services in this case at the rate of $250./hr. for attorney time and $110./hr. for paralegal hourly rate.

Point is, just on the fiscal conservation, sequestration, government structure and all of that, how is the state being represented by a staff paid attorney, and the school board, or Mr. Walker, is represented by a private law firm with prices for services that are very different than using salaried counsel under the government system? As a cost measure, does not DeKalb County Schools have staff attorney in the same manner that the state does? Mr. Ritter’s boss’s salary for a year is about $138,000. 1 year = 50 weeks x 40 hours = 2000 hours. Sure Mr. Ritter’s salary does not exceed his boss at $138k per year, per 2000 hours of service.

Do citizens have a running total of the billable hours so far accrued by Mr. Willson’s firm in this case, to be paid by DeKalb County schools?

For example,
500 hours attorney time @ $250./hour = $125,000.
250 hours paralegal @ $110./hour = @27,500.

Is there more than one attorney in Mr. Wilson’s firm working on this case?

Attorney’s fees seem unusual in that they are open-ended. If you build a building, you know how much it costs. If you buy 1k lunches, or 1k books, or a loaf of bread and a gallon of milk, you know how much is costs. This is not the same with private firm attorney fees, at there is no “known” to the number of hours consumed and billed. It is a highly unusual situation, whereas there is much control over legal cost by using salaried government staff attorney. Purely for reasons of fiscal prudence, should not the DeKalb school board concern be using government staff attorney?

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If local control is so paramount, why are we still cow towing to the feds with RT3, CCC, and the funds that they provide.
Can’t have it both ways, folks. Either the schools and school systems don’t take the money and do things their own way, or they feed from the federal trough and dance on the strings that are tied to them.

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Just to put in perspective his arguments, this is how Maureen Downey described the poster above in her 2/21/2013 blog: “longtime and vocal critic John Trotter, head of MACE and a frequent commenter on this blog where he has been quite open in his disdain for SACS”.

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Dr. Trotter, I guess you forgot the part about the French sending their Navy to save you from the British. Without them, you’d be paying taxes to the Queen today. The French also gave you the Statue of Liberty as a present. The built it and shipped to you over the ocean for you to assemble. The French also built your electric rail cars in Atlanta, called “Marta.”

Ah, but the Brits gave you Tony Blair. “England prevails!” All of that. That place is dirty, the people rude, the beds are short, and they’ve got no food.

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Smart comment JD, on point. Thank you. But I thought the 2010 law is now a part of the state constitution.

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If three of the members have no college degree, and Dr. Walker has a .phd from Duke, imagine the power he has over these other members?

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I probably have it mixed up. The 2010 law is part of the Georgia Code, state law, but not a part of the state constitution.
Therefore, the hierarchy is
1. constitution
2. state law
3. governor
4. school board
?

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@ Private: No, I didn’t forget any of this. I know my history pretty well. But, what does this have to do with the price of rice in Bangkok? I am not British. I like the Brits. They have become our major ally, especially since we threw off the yoke of tyranny from the likes of King George III. I appreciate the French finally (yes, finally) showing up at Yorktown and helping us corner Cornwallis. I also appreciate the beautiful statute that they gave us. I think that we have more than paid them back for this.

My father, who, by the way, died and was buried this week, had a best friend growing up, and his best friend joined the U. S. Army. My father joined the U. S. Navy, and his ship was blown up by a Japanese Kamikaze plane, although he survived. (By the way, he requested only the American flag over his casket and taps to be played at the grave site.) But, his best friend, Private Johnny Rhodes, was killed in the Battle of the Bulge in January of 1945. He named me after Johnny Rhodes, and I have the flag that was draped over his grave as well has his Bible and other things.

My father and Johnny Rhodes and the rest of the Greatest Generation did not fight their hearts out and many give their lives so that SACS and other oligarchical groups could supplant the will of the People of the United States. Oligarchs and gnostic-types love to take away the People’s right to vote. You might note, Private Citizen, that our way of governing also does not permit titles of nobility. Even on our voting ballots, everyone is equal. You cannot put “Dr.” or “Rev.” or “Col.” in front of your name on the ballot. Yes, we are not Brits. And, we certainly are not French. We are Americans, and we are guaranteed by the U. S. Constitution, as interpreted by the U. S. Supreme Court, “one man, one vote.”

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1. I think the argument against SACS is specious. The SBOE doesn’t have to recommend removal. SACS is merely a trigger for the review.
2. The state is responsible for education and provides most of the funding. They clearly have an interest in seeing the districts stay accredited.

But where I think this law falls is on the due process. And the “process” they used reminded me of the way the Dekalb board works. They keep changing the meeting time and rules after already having made the decision and then have a hearing for show. The law really has very little process or specificity. Even though the board members can re-apply, there’s no criteria. Its all in the hands of the governor. And the accusations have no backup. SACS doesn’t even keep interview notes. There’s no names.

I don’t like the reference as a “gift” to Dekalb on the new board members. Its a “gift” that our right to vote isn’t taken away on people who weren’t even responsible. It also goes to the integrity of the process and the law if they are giving “gifts” in interpreting it.

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I mean, seriously; we are arguing about the constitutionality of removing the board, then we need to consider the constitution, which is tiny. I would be willing to bet that the new car bill on how to pay tax for a car is bigger than the constitution. Again: either we untether ourselves from all of the nonsense and go straight constitution, or we dance…

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I view comments from the head of a teachers’ union with a grain of salt. This is on John Trotter’s MACE website: “Yes, MACE is a Teacher’s Union!”

And this article written by him:

“Too Many Pimps, Sluts, & B*itches Running Our Public Schools!”

Credibility dismissed.

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If this Law and its action taken by this Governor is justified, then what is to prohibit the support and repeal of the second Amendment of Gun owners, which allow for the MURDER of Millions of Americans every year. Then why not have the Governor to outlaw gun ownership of its citizens because so many thousands of Georgians and her children are killed by them year in and year out.

I can hear the HOWLS now! that is an different issue many would say. But its okay for the Governor to nullify my vote of a school board member that I and my community voted for.

What is GOOD for the GOOSE, is not good for the GANDER, it seems!

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These board members were elected by the voters of Dekalb County. Governor Deal has absolutely no right to remove them. In my opinion, SACS is operating in the dark, is a bully and applies double standards to majority black school systems. I think that some of these board members should voluntarily step down, INCLUDIND NANCY JESTER, but the governor has no right to violate the constitutional rights of Dekalb County voters by removing them.

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concerned citizen posted “Would like to see the article by Dr. Trotter, Can anyone provide a link?”

That article is about 2/3rds the way down his basic website.

http://www.theteachersadvocate.com/

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-A teacher with a backpack.

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Dr. Trotter has done some schooling, now…

Based on his nutty books, I used to think John Taylor Gatto was some weird out-there basic guy, and then I saw his YouTube video and he treats his subject matter in the same way as a Yale full professor (same accent), and he knows more about the history of U. S. education than anyone I have ever seen or read anywhere. By a distance.

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“Wilson also blasted SACS for the misinformation in its report, including the contention that DeKalb could not account for $12 million in textbooks and that many schools lacked Internet. DeKalb, he said, “has been beat up pretty badly on wrong facts from SACS.”

Were these facts brought before the SBOE or are we to take the word of a DeKalb administrator that the textbook funds are just fine? Was any concrete proof offered by DeKalb County administrators beyond saying we have the facts to prove their case. Taxpayers and parents certainly have no access to see how money is spent.

I question the wireless connectivity statement Ms. Tyson made because BOE members have been saying openly in BOE meetings that all schools do not have wireless access and therefore they need to put these cell towers on school property. You can’t have it both ways – is there access or not? Ms. Tyson said SACS was wrong, but the BOE members defending their cellphone tower leases have been saying no.

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Mr. Wilson hit the nail directly on the head.

Local school boards are indeed constitutional entities whose members serve at the will of the local electorate. The authority to remove elected officials over performance issues lies with voters, not the General Assembly.

I expect the Court will strike down this entire code section.

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So the state does not have a Constitutional obligation to provide every student with an adequate education? The Constitution says otherwise. The question becomes what is an adequate education? How does the state define that word adequate so that it is fair and equal for ALL students? The Constitution does not define what is “adequate”. Therefore it would be left up to the state to set that definition for this is a state Consitution, not a local one. IMO – the state defined an an inadequate education for students as one where the school system that oversees and directly responsible for that education must satisfy certain criteria. That criteria is defined by the state to be accreditation by SACS. Does anyone argue that there should be NO definition of what constitutes an adequate education in Georgia? It appears that many who post on this blog do not think there should be criteria met for students that ensure an adequate education. The only body that can decide what constitutes an adequate education in Georgia for ALL children in the state is the Legislature.

Having no standards for the state educational system that states “The provision of an adequate public education for the citizens shall be a primary obligation of the State of Georgia” would seem to be an affront the the Georgia Constitution.

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Vernon Jones understands all too well the phenomenon of black voters choosing an unqualified, easily corruptible race-baiting fool for office. Was he there, I wonder, as an expert consultant?

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The board members should have resigned. This situation is a calamity and now the blame is going to shift to a bi-partisan group of legislators who tried to hold school systems accountable. This is not a democrat or republican issue now – we saw a bi-partisan group support the governor’s decision. I hope that the national ed reform think tanks shine a BRIGHT light on DCSS and use it as an example of how outdated our public education system truly is.

I still don’t believe the arguments have merit. How many lawsuits are in the public domain challenging SACS? Why did it happen AFTER a failing school district faces the extraordinary step of having its board members removed? Where have voters been wronged? These “replacements” would only be temporary until the next board election. Why is the NAACP using the race card when both black and white board members were suspended, and no replacements have even been named yet? Why is the blame being shifted from the school system to the state, when the school system is failing the children under nearly every quantifiable measure?

If the judge rules for Walker & Co., this will be yet another example of how monopoly power continues to destroy public education.

I find this entire situation nauseating and disgusting. The children of Dekalb, and across the state of Georgia for that matter, deserve far better than the learning they’re currently getting. Keep voting for the status quo, because that’s what all of you are advocating. Look yourself in the mirror instead of deflecting blame on folks who are trying build more accountability into the system. Without accountability, there will be no mechanism for change. Remember that.

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John Trotter posted “Mr. Centrist (you really sound more like Mr. Rightest)”.

The right won’t have me. I have been a union member, am mildly pro-choice, a secular humanist, and have no problem with a “fairness” Buffet rule for another tax bracket and higher capital gains on those making over $ million/year.

But I do have a problem with a public union organizer who has a chip on his shoulder for all of management and readily admits he will “aggressively” fight them.

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School-board-member selection methods may warrant re-thinking. USG Regents aren’t popularly elected, they are appointed by the governor. This model is found across America for tertiary public education. The highest-education-level institutions utilizing democratic election for board members were (and are) junior colleges, which were primarily post-high school vocational schools, and “bridge-to-university” schools for kids who had deficiencies leaving high school (that made direct matriculation to university “too difficult” a proposition).

How many people here believe that USG’s governance would be improved by popular election of Regents?

The reasons Regents are appointed are that the general populace isn’t sufficiently knowledgeable about higher-education matters to competently select representatives in an unbiased, non-politically-charged manner, and the Governor’s appointments have done a commendable job since the 19th century.

Perhaps we need to go to a system of appointing school boards. Why? In the old days, when popular election of school board members was proposed and implemented, school board candidates were selected by community leaders, to serve local community needs.

I’m not going to belabor whether or not this optimally served all families’ interests, but I must nevertheless emphasize this fact: an 8th grade education was considered sufficient for most productive roles, including farming and ranching, most industrial mid-level-management jobs, and small business ownership. College was only perceived by a small segment of the populace to be “valuable” or “essential”.

Today, economists and public-policy leaders tell us that the majority of kids should attend college. Both State and Federal governments issue a bewildering array of “standards”, “guidelines” and “regulations”, NCLB having gone so far as to establish mass-testing “performance” metrics for all of America, with contrived measures of Annual Yearly Progress.

If the goal is to send most kids to college–and see them through to graduation–it would make sense to ensure that school districts’ boards are qualified, as leaders, to reach these goals.

For example, superintendents and principals aren’t popularly elected. They’re appointed by school boards (superintendents), and the superintendents appoint principals. But if the “appointers” aren’t actually academically-knowledgeable, but are really ordinary “politicians”, how can they be expected to appoint qualified operations managers? They hire private-for-profit consultants to present them with slates of “qualified” superintendent hires, along with “best candidate” recommendations. After hiring, most last on the job for less than 3 years. Time for a new supe search. [Let's do the same thing over and over again, and expect a different result.]

This is not a sound way to govern any organization, much less an extremely complex billion-dollar-a-year one.

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I “have yet to see any real research that school boards are critical factors — either helping or hindering — academics. I am sure school boards play a role, but I wonder about the extent of that role.”

Since the Board raised class sizes to 40, cut teacher compensation to the lowest in the metro area, funded ALL science equipment and supplies at $55,000 for 100,000 students (that’s 50 cents per child per year for science equipment and supplies) while protecting the salaries and jobs for non teaching employees, you might want to ask some DeKalb students and teachers if this has had an impact on student achievement.

There’s actually some good research out there. Here is an interesting link:
http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/Main-Menu/Public-education/Eight-characteristics-of-effective-school-boards/Eight-characteristics-of-effective-school-boards.html

Meanwhile, as an analogy, ask yourself if the financail and personnel cuts the AJC owners and management have made the last decade have affected the quantity and quality of your newspaper. The AJC has grammar and spelling errors unheard of in the 1990s. The pieces are not nearly as well researched or well written as they were. I’ve been subscribing to and reading the AJC for 30 years, and there is a very big difference. Of course you can argue that the entire print industry is under siege, but what if your managers were rewarding themselves and their relatives while they continually cut the salary of the reporters and editors? Would this upgrade or degrade the quality of the AJC’s journalistic efforts?

This in essence is what really dysfunctional Boards do. They make bad financial decisions that result in less resources going to the classroom. Does anyone seriously believe an AP teacher with 40 students in his AP class is just as effective as one that has 15? Does a child behind in reading get the same individual attention if his teacher is teaching 35 students versus 25?

Management matters in all organizations. That’s why they call them managers. This Board has set allofthe the policies, procedures and practices for the students and teachers. They have approved every nickel of expenditures. Why would this not have an impact? Why would they to be held accountable?

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@Dekalbite–an excellent argument. And, Maureen, what if the AJC’s publisher and editorial page editor were both indicted on criminal charges like CLew and Pat Pope? Might you then think the AJC was in less than the very best of hands, and that its leadership did, after all, matter a lot?

You can moan about this turning racial all you want–the parents of DKSS didn’t make it a race issue. It’s Walker and his new besties from the NAACP and his new very best friend Vernon who are now getting all, like, whoa, wait a minute–how DARE you try to take from us our “right” to vote strictly along racial lines for the brothas who will turn on the money spigot for our friends and families? How dare you!

Look, white people have their own VERY long roster of voting catastrophes: any race capable of electing a Newt Gingrich or a Nancy Pelosi or a (list continues for hundreds more names; shortened here for the sake of brevity) has its own issues. But here’s the difference: I won’t vote for a fool who’s of my race just because, and solely because, he’s of my race when a better person is on the ballot. That distinguishes me from the Vernon Jones’s of the world, and from (it appears) a majority of the voters of DeKalb Co.

A racist agenda stinks no matter which race is trying to pull it off.

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I bet these parents on here would not be defending this board if they are reinstated by the court, SACS takes away their accreditation and there children are not able to get into a college.

Well folks, that is exactly what is going to happen (because I believe the law is unconstitutional) and guess whose fault it is? That is right, the voters of Dekalb county. If you (the voters) would rather keep your heads in the sand for YEARS and keep putting the same unqualified people back into office election after election then you are going to suffer the consequences of your actions. Elections have consequences and in this case the students of Dekalb county are going to be suffering the consequences of their parents actions.

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@ maureen

you’re smarter than this. you have your agenda, and that’s fine. but to claim you don’t know why race is an issue here – with the NAACP getting involved, and Gene’s lynching comments – is
at the very least disingenuous to out right hyprocritical.

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as to the arguements presented….

while sounding good on the surface, there are some major counterpoints

-elected or not, politicans to do have the right to violate the law with impunity. nor do the citizens of DeKalb have the “right” to elect people who will deliberately misuse and abuse the funds provided by the state of Georgia

-at every level of government, constitutionally approved mechanism exist to remove a elected offical who abuses the power and responsibility of their office. a corrupt school board is no different

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“my point is that objections to this law are not unique to African-American school board members. A predominantly white board in the same situation would sue”

Maybe. maybe not. In 1999, SACS put Cherokee County on probation over the actions of ONE Board member. The action of the community was to start the recall process which resulted in his resignation. Where is that sort of action in Dekalb? Do the parents just not care down there? Dekalb is MUCH worse than Cherokee ever was.

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From conversations with uber involved parents in other systems, admittedly not rural ones, I think what happens in DeKalb is far worse. It is worse because the school board intentionally hires weak superintendents to manipulate or try to manipulate. Do you see a school board member in city of Decatur demanding that someone be appointed principal of Oakhurst?

By the way, Miller County’s Board of Ed didn’t sue.

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“does anyone think if the current Dekalb Board is not reorganized DCSS will lose its accreditation? – ”

Of course it will. Leopards do not change their spots. The offending BOE members will continue to do exactly the things that got them into hot water with SACS. Do you really epect that Walker will allow the Superintendent to fire his relatives?

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@centrist

yup, sure do. SACS has put its rep on the line. even if Jesus Himself returned and fixed everything,
if the board were left in place SACS would ring it up.

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bootney farnsworth

March 2nd, 2013
5:40 pm

@centrist

yup, sure do. SACS has put its rep on the line. even if Jesus Himself returned and fixed everything,
if the board were left in place SACS would ring it up.

Yep and the children of the parents that placed this board into office election after election will have the bare the brunt of the consequences for their parents actions.

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There would have to be 4 recall movements, not one. Recall is extremely difficult in Georgia. – bet elected politicians saw to that one. More people must participate in the recall than it took to elect the politicians. By the time the recall was over, the election next summer 2014 will be here. A year is nothing to an adult, but it’s a long time in young children’s lives.

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Thanks, bootney, Mountain Man, Mary Elizabeth, Like2Hike, and others for expressing kind words about my father. He was indeed a man. My brother knocked a homerun on doing a tribute for our family. I couldn’t have delivered a tribute. Too emotional. He almost broke down himself on a couple of occasions but he kept it light and had the packed out crowd laughing big time! Of course, I was the butt of many of the jokes and family folklore. I was, to quote my brother, “naturally ornery” and received the most spankings! Rep. Darryl Jordan, like a brother to me, said to me, “John, I finally found someone who can out-talk you…your brother!” He was really good.

The crowd who came to the wake the night before was probably even much larger than the crowd for the funeral itself. @ Like2Hike, there were several old basketball players from Daddy’s YMCA basketball teams which won many, many State Championship. (He coached us in Little League baseball, Pop Warner football, and YMCA basketball when he stopped coaching high school ball and became an administrator.) If we were winning too badly, he would not let us rebound until the other team shot at least three times. If anyone knows Dan Kirkland, you know how that went over with him! He was as fierce of a competitor in basketball as I have even seen. He told me that his father was the tallest man in the SEC (also captained UGA’s team in the mid-1930s and was UGA’s first player to receiver basketball scholarship). He played in the pre-NBA professional basketball league for the Chattanooga Lookouts. But, “Little Dan” (as we called Kirkland) was a forward…the shortest forward in the SEC. Auburn won the recruiting battle over Kentucky and Georgia. By the way, Kirkland had to leave before the funeral began. He knew emotionally that he couldn’t handle the funeral. My father had that kind of impact on others. Mr. Haynes and several people associated with MACE knew my father and were at the funeral, but from all of the stories that were told, Norreese said: “Now I know where you get all of your stuff!” My reply? I have stolen it all from my father. I just embellish what I watched him do and say my entire life. His ways work.

Here’s a link to front page article on the Metro section that the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer did on my father the day after he died. One of the big shots at the newspaper told one of my family members that she wouldn’t be where she is today if Daniel D. Trotter hadn’t made her the editor of the school yearbook.

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/ledger-enquirer/obituary.aspx?n=daniel-d-trotter&pid=163338833&fhid=5117#fbLoggedOut

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While I believe that everyone should have their rights I look at 6 ADULTS that did not do the job they were elected to do and I look at 99K CHILDREN who did nothing wrong. I’m sorry but 99K CHILDREN win over the 6 ADULTS everytime.

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Dr. Trotter while most of the time I do not agree with your views I do have you and your family in my prayers. Sorry for your great loss.

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Centrist

March 2nd, 2013
6:10 pm

td posted “the children of the parents that placed this board into office election after election will have the bare the brunt of the consequences for their parents actions.”

“What about the parents (and children) who didn’t vote for these unqualified panderers? How about the homeowners’ without children who will lose property value?”

I do not see another choice at this point because I really think the law will be found unconstitutional.

According to the article these people were elected by very large majority of the votes. Part of me feels sorry for the people that did not vote this board into office but that is the prize that they will have to pay for choosing to live in a county controlled by the incompetent and for not fighting hard enough for all these years for not changing things.

It is the same price that we are all going to have to pay one day for allowing our national leaders to get out of control and electing the ones that will do our children and greandchildren the most harm. .

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I loved the story about giving lesser teams three free rebounds. What a Godly man! Give lesser men chances!John Wooden, used to preach, “If you’re ahead at half-time, play your best the whole game, and don’t give opponents a chance to get back into it and possibly beat you.” Different philosophies on playing roundball, both competitive, anyway, they went to heaven, and in arguments before God the Father and Jesus, your father may very well win.

The main problem I have with so-called “education” is, the class teaching educracy inculcates 50 minute lessons 36 weeks//year (not enough time), procrastinating on studies and assignments until “the last minute”, while coaches train students 3 hours/day, and have summer enrichment/advancement clinics, and people don’t even “get it”.

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Nothing changed my mind…only because someone has to step up…

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But there is a connection. Dr. Trotter, your dad coached Y teams. Totally after school hours. Lots of kids today do club sports. Not limited by interscholastic seasons.

Lots of kids (mostly affluent, not all) send their kids to summer school enrichment (not remedial) academic programs. More time “on the court” (or in class) generates higher proficiency.

Dr. Trotter, are you a proponent of 180-day schools? Out of 365 days available, or even with Sundays off, and 6 weeks relaxation weeks off, 250 days? I love your posts, along with Mary Elizabeth’s, but I must conclude you two are missing major student-enlightenment opportunities.

Of course I worked until MN, and on weekends, when the grad students weren’t there. My RA said, “You can’t run the ultracentrifuge. You’re only an undergrad. One of my grad students ran an load, and the Beckmann blew up.”
I should have violated his restriction. Or taken him aside, and proved to him, “You can trust me.”

Instead, “I followed rule.” All my RA had to say was, “You can try it, but don’t destroy my machinery, or youre a deadman” or “Let me watch what you want to do. I’ll stop you if you make a mistake.”

Balancing tubes, it wasn’t that hard.

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Thank you Dr. Trotter, I’ve read your blog, looks it has very thoughtful ideas. I really like removing the fed-state-district politician-dominated rulership chains from teachers. We could write a book, representing different ends of the spectrum, to enlighten enlighten some people.

i’m not into “education”. Elucidation, that I think I might be able to contribute to some kids, not to everybody. Mostly in math and science.

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Dr. John Trotter sorry for your loss . You were fortunate to have such a role model

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Z5BzmEKdKs

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While I appreciate the usual suspects’ comments on this blog, I believe most of you have thrown common sense out the window. The ship is sinking & you are arguing theories. there is a HUGE diff between hypotheticals & reality. This is why I lose patience with liberals. God save Dekalb & God bless America.

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Sorry to hear the loss of your father dr T. I lost my father when I was 3 years old here in dekalb and didn’t get to experience all the joys you have written.

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Only a select few small Cities that had school districts in the 1950’s, are the only ones in this State who actually have local control. You only have local control of your school district, when the school district is no larger than one high school and its feeder schools. The school boards should be elected and set up as volunteer boards with requirements like condo boards, do no payments ( perhaps a per diem for meetings.). Requirements can be set for those who can run, no Felony’s, must have a Bachlors degree, must be various professionals from the community.

What we really need is one high school school districts. Not these bloated 100,000 or 40,000 student school districts. They just don’t work.

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Thanks again for the many kind words. Col. Jack, I left you off unintentionally earlier. Thanks. Thanks too to catlady (note that I didn’t capitalize the “c” because you don’t! Ha!), Fred in DeKalb, Shek, and Paulo977. Paulo, I am now going to go watch the video. Thanks again, guys!

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I think that I was multi-tasking when I provided the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer link. I provided a link to my father’s obituary, not the article that the newspaper did on him the day after he died. By the way, the minister wore an Auburn tie, although he is a Dog fan, to the funeral, in honor of my father. Ha! I too am a Bulldog, but grew up a Tiger. Here is the link…

http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/2013/02/26/2399228/dennie-trotter-beloved-educator.html

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Hi Maureen,

I was hoping to get your attention about something I recently read about education in Georgia. We, along with at least 6 other states, have agreed to let big business owned by Gates and Murdoch get access to private data on our school children that is normally protected by FERPA laws. I am extremely concerned that we are selling our souls to the devils by giving them such a privilege. And for what gain? So that they can get access to information that will allow them to turn our kids into prime marketing realty to businesses who want to sell them (and/or parents) goods and services based on their test scores etc…. How is this even legal? Please to an expose and let the rest of the parents in Georgia know that their children are being exploited for the gain on big business. I want to know can I opt out and, if so, how do I do it?

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I hope that you guys will forgive me for indulging once more to talk about my father. But, he truly was the best “school man” whom I have ever known. Kind, strong, gracious, loving, humble, consistent, caring, but also wielded the “board of education” firmly. Ha! One of my close friends, as I mentioned earlier, said that “Mr. Trotter took liberty on my rear end,” but Bubba Boone said that my father straightened him out. Bubba, by the way, went on to be a star athlete (quarterback of the football team) and the homerun slugger of the baseball team which won the State, beating the old Briarcliff of DeKalb in the Championship series. Bubba was typical of many kids. On Facebook, people were giving my father great tributes and talking about how they loved and respected him and regaling about the paddlings that he administered on them. When he got very old, many 70 year old men would come up to him in restaurants and ask if he remembered them (he hardly forgot any), he would jokingly ask them to turn around and let him see their rear end! Then, he would say that he remembered them! Ha!

This was how it was when schools were well run and you had tight discipline in the schools. One lady on Facebook lovingly stated that Mr. Trotter probably paddled every male student in the school (an exaggeration). But, the kids walked the line. We all needed that strong discipline and appreciated it. I remember seeing a man well over 70 come up to Daddy in Burger King and asking, “Mr. Trotter, do you remember when you tore my behind up when I came to school without socks on one day?” He was laughing and was, quite frankly, proud that he was able to regale in a story of being disciplined/paddled and brought back in line. Today, we call the cops when the kids get out of line. Or, for lighter stuff, we send them home. Now don’t get me wrong: For big stuff, kids have to be sent home. And, if the student is endangering other students or engaging in havoc, then the Police sometimes have to be called in. So much of the penny-ante stuff could be dealt with by administering “the board of education” to the back side. It was done for hundreds of years, but now our educrats have gotten so sophisticated that they are “educated idiots” (to quote my father again). Sometimes he would say that someone was so “open-minded that all of his brains fell out.” He told the minister to tell the people not to pay any attention to the shell (his dead body) because the nut has already gone! He loved a good joke!

A few minutes ago, I looked at the Legacy website where people have left very touching condolences and memories of my father. I noted that Harold (Spec) Richardson left a tribute, saying that my father was one of the greatest guys he has ever known. They were good friends in high school. “Spec” (as everyone called him) was really too little to play football, but he was the Manager of the sports teams at Jordan Vocational High School. Spec was so good at doing the schedules for the coaches and managing the tickets sales for the game that when he graduated from Jordan, the Columbus Cardinals minor league team offered him a job. This little kid from Jordan (and one of father best friends) eventually became one of the biggest men in Major League Baseball. He became the General Manager of the Houston Astros and later of the San Francisco Giants. By the way, I don’t think that Spec Richardson ever had time to go to college. He was too busy being successful. College is not for everyone, even if you are smart as a whip like Mr. Richardson.

What does all of this have to do with DeKalb County Schools? Perhaps nothing…and perhaps a lot. How do we straighten out the DeKalb County Schools? How would Daniel D. Trotter straighten out the DeKalb County Schools? The first thing that he would do is establish discipline and order…and send forth the trumpet sound to students and parents alike that he was going to support the DeKalb County teachers. Now he expected you to do your job, and if you didn’t, you wouldn’t last too long where my father was a principal. But as he often said, all of the bells and whistles about the curriculum don’t matter “worth a hill of beans” (to use his phrase) if you don’t have discipline in place. The kids have to know that they are not in charge. This is what is wrong with our public (and note that I make a distinction between public and private) schools today; the students think (and often are) in charge. That doesn’t work. When the order collapses, then all h*ll breaks loose. This is the state of the DeKalb School System today.

Is the answer to do away with democracy in DeKalb? No, this won’t help any, and this is not the American way. This is wrong. What is right is trying to find someone (and it probably won’t be one of those gypsy superintendents) who can and is willing to get the schools back in order. He or she doesn’t have to walk down the halls with a baseball bat, but he or she has to set the tone that the kids are not in charge and that the teachers will be supported and respected. My father was a “teacher advocate” if I have ever seen one. His teachers adored him. I was rummaging through some of his old boxes a year or two ago and ran across some letters that my father’s teachers had written to him when they heard that he was retiring. They were the sweetest sentiments and thanks for his unfailing support for them through the years. Now when many principals announce their plans to retire, the teachers secretly give high fives. This is the difference in having good and effective schools and schools which are teetering on disaster at any moment.

Thanks for letting me walk down memory lane.

http://www.legacy.com/guestbooks/ledger-enquirer/guestbook.aspx?n=daniel-trotter&pid=163338833

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This reminds me of something I often heard in Constitutional Law classes in law school: “HARD CASES MAKE BAD LAW.” If there was ever an example of this rule, this is it. That is, IF this law is used at this time, in its current form, under these facts, to remove this board.

Just because in your mind the only right/ethical/moral/acceptable outcome is for this board to be removed, doesn’t mean it should happen this way, using this law.

I agree with most here that this board & its actions, taken collectively after the past several years, culminating in the current situation, this board in its current form, this board is the poster child of a dysfunctional board, in both actions & results. Taken as a whole.

But I don’t see how any elected official can be legally removed from office without any specific allegations of individual wrongdoing that would rise to the level of being removed from any other elected office, speaking primarily of Jester, Speaks & I guess Edler too (can’t say I think much of her, but I’m not aware of anything that suggests that she, by her own actions, should be removed).

On top of that the work of SACS is questionable on many levels. Not only is its criteria & process dubious at best, if there was ever a board that you should be able to build an airtight case against, it’s this one. Their unethical/incompetent behaviour has been chronicled in excruciating detail for years. What they produced certainly wouldn’t fly in criminal court. “The glove doesn’t fit” as it’s been said.

So the problem in cases like this is you get 2 possible results:

1 – the correct Consitutional one, in this case finding the law cannot be used by the Governor to remove this board. Perhaps it can be amended to pass Constitutional muster for future use, or perhaps a better case can be built against all board members. BUT this outcome is very unsatisfactory to many. As in criminal cases where a clearly guilty person is allowed to go free due to a “technicality.” The Constitution isn’t a technicality.

2 – trying to avoid such a problematic or “wrong by most appearances” result, a judge makes a ruling based on convoluted and twisted restatement of the facts to produce what is the “right” decision. The board is removed, but using a legal mechanism that will ultimately be ruled unconsitutional & perhaps overturned on appeal.

Based on what I’ve read & learned – I think we are getting #1. Legally, I think we should. If so, then what? Another question entirely.

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Chamblee Dad, I agree with your very cogent analysis. I think that some people have been thinking that I have been defending the actions of the DeKalb Board of Education. I haven’t. Anyone can read the MACE website or my personal blog and see that I have been perhaps its worst critic. But, I have said all along that I am first a Constitutionalist.

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I saw that in his statement, but that is the point. DeKalb is a metro Atlanta school system. Why would Wilson not compare our students’ gains against the gains of the other metro systems? When it comes to property values and choosing where to live in metro Atlanta, no one with school age children says they want to live in DeKalb because the scores are higher than some of the rural school systems in south Georgia. They compare the achievement scores (more often that rates of achievement) of the metro school systems.

If they cannot afford private school, most likely parents choose where to live in the metro area based on the school system achievement (and rates of achievement) which are (and always have been even before NCLB) important for parents seeking a residence in Atlanta. Many parents will make that longer commute from Gwinnett or Cherokee to ensure their child is in a good school system.

To be fair, DeKalb students in the affluent areas have some of the highest scores in the state. It is the students in the low income schools (Title 1) that have the lowest rate of achievement and also the Students with Disabilities. A student in a Title 1 school in DeKalb or a DeKalb student with a Disability has a better chance of making adequate yearly progress in other metro systems like Gwinnett or Rockdale for example than in DeKalb based on the percentage of Title 1 schools that achieve adequate yearly progress in these three systems.

Wilson is being quite disingenuous in his remarks regarding DeKalb student achievement. Yes. There were gains in all metro area school systems (and all over the state) including some gains in DeKalb, but compared to all of the other metro systems and in particular the achievement level of our Title 1 schools to other metro area school system Title 1 school systems, our rate of gains was less. It’s as if our students were walking while other metro systems have students who are jogging or running.

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People need to listen to Dr. Trotter. I’m a Republcan, anti-teaching-union guy. Sr. Trotter has good messages.

Where do we differ? I don’t think collective salaries-and-benefits is in order. I think individual teachers proving their worth is in order. Now, who are their salary-and-beneits judges? Ahh, that is THE QUESTION.

The unionists charge that private-rulers are hatcheters, the corporatists charge that unionists are feather-bedders. Pardon, me, but as far as I see it, this is a class-hate fight. In the long run the lower classes win by taking down the upper classes. The result is mostly poverty and population diminution, who cares?

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For my doctorate, they made me sleep 3 hours a night. Often less. Medical training was a torture chamber. Like when you have to arrive at 7 AM on Sunday, you take emergencies at 3 AM on Monday, and you don’t get off til 6 PM on Monday, you get 12 hours off, then you do it again, and you have to do it for week-after-week, that’s torture. Not Dachau torture, but it is hard, if you have a mind that needs sleep to think well.

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Oops. UMTC 70% for six-year graduation.

I’m different. “Okay we’re sending you to an Ivy school. You have to graduate in four years. That is where we are cutting you off.” We lied, because we subsidized graduate degrees, but still 4 years to earn B.A/ A.B’s was enough. Six years, not necessary with home education. But six years with public education thru high school, attending a flagship a public university, with only 2 out of 3 entrants graduating what kind of “education” are you delivering. At your originally “normal schools” the graduation rates are far lower.

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Can anybody crack open a gene? Can anybody crack open a giant clam, and give a Southwest Pacific Island tribe a feast? Not really. But I got to do both of these things, and the latter was, for me, more interestin than the former.

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I love Obama because he is anti-fossil fuels. Okay, he went to Florida on AF I. while his wife and daughters flew to Aspen on AF I. He is still an anti-carbon champion. ?He is saying only a few people can burn carbon freely, but most of us must reduce our carbon “footprint”. Al Gore insists on the same thing. He save a lott of energy by flying around on a Cessna Citation, using a lot less carbon fuel than presidential families riding all over the place on 747’s.

‘You have to ride buses and bikes. We don’t because we are leaders.”

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SACS did not come out of nowhere. Dekalb County agreed to the accreditation process. Now they don’t like the outcome.

I think the Dekalb School Board members should have to pay their own legal fees. Wonder how far this would go if they were using their own money.

The governor and the legislature were elected by the people also. We put those incompetents in office too. You could say the governor is carrying out the will of the people in this instance as well.

I find this whole soap opera despicable. None of these people involved from the school board to the governor to the media give a crap about the kids. They try to say the right things but their actions say otherwise. All they’re interested in is the power and the money while our kids flounder in overcrowded classrooms in decaying buildings with textbooks that are falling apart.

The sad thing is as a parent in Dekalb, there is basically nothing we can do.

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@Dr. Trotter,

I’ve taken a sabbatical from commenting on the blog for this month.

Not that I’ll be missed-at all LOL but let it be on the record, lest the SACS sycophants, Herb Garrett apologists, those suffering from Stockholm Syndrome defenders of the status quo and their opposites those who want to turn the government teat into their private gluttony the privatization advocates think I’ve beat a quick and hasty retreat (Apologies to Dr. Henson on the latter, but for every Dr. Henson there exists the possibility of someone teaching the history of cavemen on pterodactyls drawing aerial view maps of Babylon.)

Much as I love the opportunity this blog provides to move the debate forward, (now that Maureen is no longer in denial about Beverly Hall and discipline not being a “pressing issue” LOL) my better half gave me a “tough, fair and legitimate question that INDEED caused a quick and hasty retreat*

Are you getting paid, or is Maureen getting paid?

So in leaving let me add my own condolences to your father passing. I’ve read the tributes and the obit. I wonder how many teachers would not have fled teaching if they had an administrator who so understood “You can’t have good learning conditions until you have good teaching conditions”?

What does it say about a man, that he is remembered decades later as a seminal influence on one’s life, like so many have said about your father? It says it all does it not?

Didn’t your father have a piece called Ten Tenants of a Good Administrator, or something like that?

You should post it here on Get Schooled for all to see. (Maureen, you could make it a blog post; maybe it would call attention to what competent administration really is.)

Pity the Broad Academy doesn’t feature that as a central core of their training, rather than recruiting people of decidedly questionable character, and supporting them in academic genocide for their own personal gain failed “reforms”.

I didn’t know your father was on the board of directors of MACE. Isn’t it ironic, that if your average administrator was like your father, there wouldn’t even be a need for organizations like MACE?
(Of course we’d still need GAE and PAGE; someone needs to sponsor Spelling Bees, and offer weak and tepid responses to the General Assembly, after all)

Yours is quite the family indeed. Long history of fighting for justice (if the liberal apologists for bad behavior “school to prison pipeline” crowd saw how your ancestor made the ultimate sacrifice for prisoner rights, they might get off their moral high horse pretty quick. Ha!)

Again, my condolences to you and your family.

*Of course Beverly Fraud’s numerous and vociferous detractors have figured it out: Better half asked a tough, fair and legitimate question? As if! An obvious ruse to hide the real story.

Mom has said if I’m to maintain my living space in her basement, the Internet has to be turned off for a month. (Who knew double wide trailers had a basement?)

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The only legal arguement I am interested in is why should my tax money pay these ousted Board members legal bills.

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The ousted members of school board are arguing that they have a “property right” in their offices. I find that outrageous. The people of the state and Dekalb County ought to rise up and condemn such incredible arrogance. How dare these buffoons claim ownership in the jobs they performed so poorly.

Now some both on the board and in the country want to turn this into a race issue. Voter rights is just code word for invoking race as the driving issue. Of course the claim is as ridiculous as the idea that a board member owns his seat. But the willingness to use race has been a powerful political tool for a long time, especially in the black community. People who are wise and reasonable would see the intervention of the state as a godsend protecting their children and the schools.

If the racists in the county get their way in the courts, the rest of the state will let them have it. They will turn their backs on DeKalb and let the schools be what they are going to be. Dunwoody and Brookwood will get their own systems. Charter schools and homeschooling will siphon away the kids whose parents care. Voter support for school taxes will wane and the racists in south Dekalb will have won.

Good job.

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Art. 8, Sec. 5, Par. 2 of the state constitution provides that members of school boards “shall be elected as provided by law”. I don’t see any way that can be parsed to allow the Governor to appoint a school board member. Even if he can remove them, in mass or otherwise, all that can happen is the creation of a vacancy and a special election. I assume this was addressed at the hearing. After 27 years as a lawyer, I can’t conceive of “elected” being construed to mean “appointed”. We have a long history in this state of removing elected official, and unless the constitution specifically provides otherwise (which it does in some cases like executive officers), the result is a vacancy and an election.

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“I don’t see any way that can be parsed to allow the Governor to appoint a school board member. Even if he can remove them, in mass or otherwise, all that can happen is the creation of a vacancy and a special election. ”

You are reading it too narrowly. Therre are several parts of the Constitution that refer to the Governor appointing elected officials in certain circumstances- why not in this case, as the law provides. Show me where in the Constitution it FORBIDS the Governor from appointing school board members.

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This is a truly horrible situation in that you have an incredibly self indulgent and incompetent board that was freely elected by the people. The question here is do we ignore the Constitution to save the people from themselves? The problem with that is that we turn over massive power to unelected bureaucrats such as those appointees in the Department of Education and self appointed fief owners like Mark Elgart. I am of the notion that if the voters want to crap where they sleep, let them (reference the election of the phoenix Victor Hill in Clayton County). As bad as these board members’ actions appear, do we really want to give imperial powers to anyone? As for the argument that the school boards “take money from the state and feds (RTTT),” where do you think this money comes from? It comes from the very same people that elected the school board. Okay, in the case of the federal government, the Fed just prints it, but that is a different argument.

I have first-hand experience with incompetent and abusive governor appointees. Okay, the labels “incompetent” and “abusive” are my opinion. If you want to see total lack of adherence to the rule of law and bureaucrats pushing a political agenda, get some experience with the Georgia Professional Standard Commission. They have the power to ignore facts and indelibly stain educators to advance their own political agenda. Dr. Trotter, if you think Elgart is bad, you should have got some up close experience with Kathleen Mathers, former Director of GOSA. Of course, she and her cohort, Gary Walker (formerly Deputy Executive Secretary at Georgia Professional Standards Commission) have a lot of time to talk as they are both no longer in their jobs. They got great cover stories, “spending time with the family” and such. Thankfully they are gone and can no longer put innocent educators through thumb screws to prove they are not racists in going after Atlanta Public Schools’ bad actors.

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Dr. Trotter, I read the article under “Too Many Pimps, Sluts, & Bitches Running Our Public Schools!”, I agree with your assessment. I graduated from Baker High in 1966. I attended Arnold Jr. and had many friends at Daniel Jr. and Jordan High. Mr Trotter was a legend in his time. I respected him. I am sorry for your loss.

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There are a several things that bother me the most about this whole situation:

1. Use of taxpayer money for a lawsuit brought on by a group seeking personal gain.

2. This law has been in place now for 2 or 3 years and the screaming is just now starting?

3. These Board members have been on the Board for several years now knowing that accreditation was a real concern but instead did NOTHING to try to correct the issues but added to them.

4. They have been asked to step down for the good of the county, the state but most importantly for the very students they claim they are “working” for, yet refuse because they feel they are “entitled”.

It is sad to say but had the Governor been Roy Barnes, there probably would have been no lawsuit, discussion, etc. because they would tow the party line. I think this is more a vendetta to discredit Deal more than anything.

With regards to Vernon Jones, you can thank a good part of the sad state of affairs this county is in due to him.

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No, I am not swayed.
The biggest deal isn’t how we remove the turds (the BOE) out of the punchbowl (the Dekalb system). The biggest deal is getting the turds out immediately. I don’t care if one uses a net or a fishing pole.
Thurmond and the ENTIRE board need to be removed and Dekalb divided into North and South districts.

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**This super implemented a program that doesn’t work (SFA), and either supports or initiates a plan to balance the budget on the backs of the school house. **

While I’m not sure if one year is enough time to evaluate and determine the effectiveness of SFA, it should be noted that Atkinson initially presented a budget that would have minimal impact on the classroom. It did include a 2 mill increase thus the basis for very public discussions of various line items in the budget. This is what delayed the adoption of the budget. It should be noted that the previous CFO was reassigned by the time the budget process began. It is reasonable to assume why that happened.

**In the case of Dekalb County, the School Board is tying the hands of the district and the school house through the micromanaging of funds, staff, and resources.**

If you read JSW (Jester School Watch), several believe that Jester is the whistle blower and responsible for uncovering the budget shortfalls. Is it possible the other Board members knew also and chose to work to addressing it rather than public posting the shortfalls in a blog? I believe as time goes on, more will realize that Elgart has strong reservations about Jester and her ability to work with the group while not micromanaging the staff.

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“While I’m not sure if one year is enough time to evaluate and determine the effectiveness of SFA…”

Atkinson did not get teacher “buy in” or support on the implementation of SFA – something the company says is critical to the success of the program (see their website).

Atkinson did not establish quantifiably measurable objectives tied to student achievement with benchmarks published for taxpayers to see if this program was successful.

DeKalb spent upwards of $100,000,000 in the last 7 or 8 years on “America’s Choice”, another scripted learning program (Counting the $6,000,000 to $8,000,000 a year spent on the program and the additional $10,000,000 spent on non teaching Coaches and Coordinators to support the program).

A $100,000,000 expenditure that has no quantifiably measurable objectives in terms of student achievement and no benchmarks to assess the objectives is a gross misuse of educational dollars.

What do we have to show for the $100,000,000 we spent on America’s Choice – not one quantifiably measurable piece of data and $10,000,000 worth of non teaching Coaches and Coordinators we apparently are stuck with.

The Board should not have approved a program that has no quantifiably measurable objects and benchmarks established to ensure those objectives are being met. Atkinson should not have proposed a program without those in place. DeKalb’s administration (superintendents and Board of Education) keeps making the same financially imprudent decisions over and over.

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brief on-topic mini-essay in three parts:

Readers should be aware of recent discussion on the interwebs concerning an anomaly within “democracy” described by the term “pluralism,” where people who do not produce coordinate as a group and vote into office candidates who take wealth away from those who produce and gives it to those who do not produce.

There is much talk of the DeKalb situation “threatening democracy” including hyperbolic comparison to U. S. Constitution 2nd amendment rights, which is a wholly different matter. Greater point, unlike the errant 2nd amendment noise, is that an appointed board is a temporary measure. The substantial question is the tendency of elected school boards to turn dysfunctional, dependent upon the politic of the community, black, white, or otherwise. My experience is that in rural Georgia, school boards support a conflict between deeply rooted political career persons versus education professionals and creating a system of bias toward anyone who does not share the customs and manners of the local political elite. In effect, teachers are require to flatter or otherwise cater to the call of this local political caste. Anyway, a “reset” from appointed outside professionals would be productive for DeKalb County, an “open the windows and doors and airing out,” if you will.

Wishing to examine of otherwise address or reform the “SACS situation” is a different subject from DeKalb County and should not be combined, or allowed to dilute focus on interrupting the dysfunction in DeKalb County and modifying or attempting to re-set the status quo. SACS is the current accrediting agency and is performing their function in calling out an anomaly within the collective of school systems they supervise. If the state wishes to separately evaluate the mode, mission, efficacy, priorities, and methods of “SACS,” this may be for another day after the DeKalb situation is addressed. For the state to subcontract accreditation, or regulation, of schools, reminds me of a family who goes through the fast food drive through and calls it dinner, and then their kids are fat and their body chemistry trained in the direction of diabetes, and their palate conditioned for salt, sugar, and chemical flavoring. In other words, if this is a habit, the family is derelict in providing nutrition to their children, taking health responsibility as a “do it yourself” matter as a matter of basic function.

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Like it or not, there is already a process to remove elected officials and it is called recall. If you think recall takes to long, then you need to change the recall process. Otherwise, the people who want the Governor to remove these six people are trying to circumvent the will of the people who voted (most of them) back into office.

Like I said last week, if you don’t like the people voted into office then you should run for office or get someone to run who is more to your liking. Otherwise you get who you vote for and should be forced to keep them unless a crime (punishable by law) has been found or acknowledged.

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I am sure that we know many of the same people.

Aiye-yeeee!

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