Can we simultaneously fix and flee public schools?

Is it good for society as a whole to have quality public education? Of course.

Am I willing to subject my own kids to inadequate public schools while the politicians, teachers, and school boards squabble over how to fix the problems? Not a chance, because my duty as a parent is to provide the best education I can for MY children.

PARENTS — not government — are ultimately responsible for ensuring that their kids are well-prepared for the future, and schools are just a tool to help them meet that obligation. That’s why it’s ridiculous to expect people to feel some sort of loyalty to ‘the system’ at the expense of their own kids’ best interests.

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American public education had citizenship education as its original, central mission. We’ve strayed far from that purpose. Citizens in a democratic republic must be able to gather, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information and policy arguments. They have to be able to think critically and reflectively, and they should be committed to the core values and principles of democracy outlined in the Constitution and Bill of Rights. But the high-stakes tested pushed by conservatives and corporate “reformers” are a dumbed-down version of “learning” based more on rote memorization than critical reflection.

What is the purpose of public education? What are schools for? The core insight to these questions goes back millennia.

Education is a democratic society has a special place and purpose. Aristotle argued for a system of public education in Athens, saying that “education should be one and the same for all…public, and not private.” 

Aristotle perceived the importance of public schooling to democratic citizenship, noting that “each government has a peculiar character…the character of democracy creates democracy, and the character of oligarch creates oligarchy, and always the better the character, the better the government.” Democracy is government “of the people, by the people, for the people,” while oligarchy is government by a relatively small (and usually wealthy) group that “exercises control especially for corrupt and selfish purposes.”

Early state constitutions in the U.S., like those of Massachusetts (1780) and New Hampshire (1784), set up and stressed the importance of a system of public education. The Land Ordinance of 1785 provided for public school financing in new territories. In Virginia, Thomas Jefferson sought a publicly-funded system of schools, believing that an educated citizenry was critical to the well-being of a democratic society. In his Notes on the State of Virginia (1794), Jefferson wrote “The influence over government must be shared among all men.” Many early advocates for public schools –– Jefferson, George Washington, Horace Mann, for example –– agreed that democratic citizenship was a primary function of education.

There are those who don’t believe in the fundamental purpose of public education. Georgia House Majority Whip Edward Lindsey, R-Atlanta, surely is one. They are not interested in the developing the “democratic citizen,” one who understands and is committed to the core values and principles of democratic governance; one who is imbued with the “character of democracy.” There are, indeed, certain people and groups and special interests who’ve felt threatened by education for “the masses.”

The current corporate “reform” mania – focused on detailed “facts” and high-stakes testing – is characteristic of what be called low-level learning. It assumes that the primary purpose of public education is a minimal content competency for work and perhaps college. Business-model, corporate-style “reform” is focused on “accountability” for public schools and teachers. The “reforms” foisted on public education –– more standardized testing, charter schools, “merit” pay based on test scores, and increasingly, the call for vouchers –– have little or no research to support them. Worse, they undermine authentic education. 

The alleged goal of corporate-style education “reform” is “economic competitiveness.” All the supposed “reformers” cite it. But the U.S. already IS internationally competitive. The World Economic Forum ranks nations each year on competitiveness. The U.S. is usually in the top five (if not 1 or 2). When it drops, the WEF doesn’t cite education, but stupid economic decisions and policies. 

 For example, when the U.S. dropped from 2nd to 4th in 2010-11, four factors were cited by the WEF for the decline: (1) weak corporate auditing and reporting standards, (2) suspect corporate ethics, (3) big deficits (brought on by Wall Street’s financial implosion) and (4) unsustainable levels of debt.  
 
Last year (2011-12), major factors cited by the WEF are a “business community” and business leaders who are “critical toward public and private institutions,” a lack of trust in politicians and the political process with a lack of transparency in policy-making, and “a lack of macroeconomic stability” caused by decades of fiscal deficits, especially deficits and debt accrued over the last decade that “are likely to weigh heavily on the country’s future growth.” The WEF did NOT cite public schools as being problematic to innovation and competitiveness. 

And this year (2012-13) the WEF dropped the U.S. to 7th place, citing problems like “increasing inequality and youth unemployment” and, environmentally, “the United States is among the countries that have ratified the fewest environmental treaties.“ The WEF noted that in the U.S.,”the business community continues to be critical toward public and private institutions” and “trust in politicians is not strong.” Political dysfunction has led to “a lack of macroeconomic stability” that “continues to be the country’s greatest area of weakness.”

Too many politicians misrepresent the critical problems facing American public education. For example, even though poverty and child poverty – and their pernicious effects – have increased in the U.S., the corporate “reformers” say that if only teachers worked harder and were held “accountable,” then the effects of poverty wouldn’t matter. If only public schools were forced to be “accountable,” then American “economic competitiveness” would be restored.

President Obama and education secretary Arne Duncan must shoulder their fair share of the blame for these misrepresentations and distortions. But those seeking to dismantle public education are mostly Republicans and corporate “elites” who use fronts likeTeach for America and the Gates, Broad and Walton foundations. Congressional scholars Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein wrote recently that “the Republican Party…is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.” It is “the core of the problem” in achieving stable democratic governance.

And where public education is concerned, Republicans are the ones who try to dismantle it.

Frankly, that’s just plain unAmerican.

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Jessica- well stated!

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I attended my local public schools from 1st through 12th grades. I received an excellent education from dedicated teachers (including my own mother, a high school teacher)! When I graduated college I returned to my community and went to work in the public schools. I was a teacher and administrator for 30 years. However, I sacrificed financially to send both my children to private school and now send both my grandchildren to private schools. The school I attended in the 1950’s had Bible reading in the mornings, the pledge of Allegiance to the flag and Christmas carols at the Christmas Assembly.
Now it is all PC and multiculturalism, AR and standardized testing. Not to mention zero tolerance and metal detectors. It is the same brick building that I attended, but it is NOT the same school.

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Who has a vested interest in the status quo? Not teachers, parents, or students as far as I can tell.

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We need to reevaluate the purpose of public education. If the student wants to go to college, great.
But what if he doesn’t? There is no authentic pathway to help a student realize a different pathway. Why can’t we arrange for a student to begin auto mechanic school and graduate from High School with a basic core education AND an ASE certification and thus (gasp) be able to get a good job right out of high school.
Just because someone doesn’t go, or want to go, to college does not mean that they have somehow failed in life. College is not for everyone and everyone is not suited for college, nor will college bring satisfaction to all. And, can we please stop treating a high school diploma as if it were some kind of human right?!

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“This one-conveyor belt to college type of plan, where kids are advanced to the next level, whether they’re ready or not, is the problem, and has been for a long time.”

AMEN, brother! You have hit on one of the major issues in education, HS Math Teacher!

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@Jessica- sadly, teachers have NOT been involved in the “squabbling.” The one group who has to live with whatever garbage comes out of the Gold Dome, the one groups who knows better than any legislator, parent or even administrator what’s going on and how the most recent “reform” will (or in most cases, won’t) work in the classroom- they are NEVER at the table for the conversation. And I do not count PAGE and GAE lobbyists as “teachers.” They may represent teachers, but again, the are not in the classroom.
We saw the same thing this week with the new TSA rules about knives on planes. Pilots and flight attendants were not consulted- and the TSA director admitted it-and they are the ones who have to live with the rule. And everyone lauds them for speaking out.
But when teachers speak out about the stupid rules and regulations they are forced to comply with, or the absurd new reforms that they know won’t help their kids, or the programs that hurt public education, then they are simply “union shills” and “supporters of the status quo” who don’t care about the kids, only their jobs.

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State education funding goes to the public school where individual kids are enrolled, not where they live. The only time it didn’t work this way was during the original Charter Schools Commission’s existence, when the Commission took funding away from kids enrolled in various school systems and gave it to the schools they approved. This type of parasitic state funding is now unconstitutional, which means one thing:

Whenever you hear a state-level official mention “the money should follow the child,” they are not talking about state funding which works that way now, but are eyeballing ways to get state control of local tax revenue.

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All I’ve ever seen on this board is the blame game from teachers. To read these comments day to day, there are no bad or middlin’ teachers. You are ALL above average. It’s parents that are to blame,paper pushers (with letters behind their name) ,it’s principals that don’t like me (and make me stand on a bucket on tippy toes),it’s “high stakes” testing, it’s superintendents that get treated like rockstars,it’s parents with “snowflake” children. The list is endless.It’s never bad teachers or an archaic system that pays by seniority instead of achievement and demonstrated competence.

I saw where Alabama passed a private school tax credit reform and the governor over there signed it yesterday.I used to live there and the teachers union (AEA) positively RAN the legislature.(The AEA chief even ran for governor in 1990 and got beat).I knew immediately that if the reformers in ‘Bammy could get something like that passed,the times they are a changin’. Parent trigger is going to happen here,so you dinosaurs that have played the blame game instead of developing your classroom “A” game had better wise up real fast or get ready to work a 12 month year.

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“Can we simultaneously fix and flee public schools?”

No, we cannot. We can’t because the people that would have to carry out the reforms that will be imposed will attempt to sabotage those reforms due to their politics.Too many in the rotten system that we have now have a deeply vested interest in the status quo.They will throw sand in the gears at every turn and tell the taxpayers that these new ideas “don’t work,can’t work”. They will demagogue reasonable initiatives and try to scare parents about the motives of honest reformers so that they can protect their tenures and sinecures.They will use code words like “profit” (as if they were working for free) and ALEC,”religion” and “fringe” to scare the people that stare at a tV all day and don’t know how bad the public shools have become.

No, Maureen, reforms will have to be implemented by concerned parents,teachers and legislators working together to suppress the status quo.The taxpayers own the schools and they want them fixed.The employees just have to accept that.

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Maureen, Today’s morning topic is a an accurate description of what is actually going on with the Dekalb County School System presently. While current repairs are being made there is a planned Exedous of residents from the Northen part of the county with plans to start their own individual school systems. A reasonable person can understand and support such a decision in light of what has occurred with the Dekalb County School Board. However that issue and the many other reasons involves a deeper understanding of the perceived problems that have been part of a long held misguided belief. Reasons that are totally unrelated to the ongoing and current problems of the Administrative management of that system.

One answer that will be revealed to all of US from your statement will be seen in the end result of the resolution of the Dekalb County fiasco. Its going to be Long,Messy and Bloody! There will be no clear winners for anyone. Least of All the children. They are the ones who will be left feeling confused and disappointed. They will see the decisions that should have been made and were not, due to Territorial selfishness and Bigotry. They will also see a failure of inept and incompetent Leadership on a wide scale that will further exacerbate the problem.

My Gut feeling tells me that you cannot do both. Not sucessfully! Either one will fail miserably or the other will succeed with marginal and modest gains. However, I strongly feel and believe that the option that leaves the greater number of students at risk,of faliure. Further damges us ALL as community and as a Nation. In the end we will all PAY in increased Crime and cost of Incarceration. Then to have those same individuals released at some later date, to repeat the same Behavior. That scenario is a LOSING option and one we cannot afford long term.

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It seems that we bash all public schools equally these days.
I believe that our neighbors in the northern suburbs are not terribly unhappy with their public schools. Maybe they aren’t 100% happy with their schools—but guess what—neither are parents in private schools. It would be good if we could remember that schools with a super majority of “middle class” students are not struggling.

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Just what is a “failing school”? I really can’t tell someone what one is, because after teaching in highly impoverished areas for 16 years, I can tell you that the test scores don’t tell everything. Our kids may not score in the 99th percentile, although some do, but it’s not because teachers aren’t teaching. They come in at a disadvantage. Then they’re promoted even if they’re not ready to move on. This isn’t the teacher’s decision. This is the decision of the administration. Does this mean the school as a whole is failing? I don’t think so.

The one track mentality Georgia has is hurting all kids. Everybody is not meant to go to college. That’s not a bad thing. We will always need truck drivers, hair stylists, daycare workers, etc. Why not provide skills to those most interested in working with their hands. Heck, they make more than most teachers anyway!

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“Yes, we can fix public schools but not without money”

BULL HOCKEY! We currently spend FOUR TIMES the money we spent per student in the sixties and we have WORSE OUTCOMES (mostly) and back then,EVERY student went to school in a brick and mortar school building (instead of “portable classrooms” or whatever PC term they use nowadays). The main BASIC problems with education are not things that require vast amounts of money to fix. Attendance? Discipline? Social promotion? Fix these things first. Rethink our priorities and bring some of that SPED money back to the average student.

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“Can we simultaneously fix and flee public schools?”

Certainly we can – because fixing the public schools does not require MONEY (see above post), but just requires intestinal fortitude by ADMINISTRATORS (which is in short supply).

But we would not have the problem of parents wishing to flee the public school system if we had not allowed it to get so broken. If we had addressed discipline (who wants to go to Grady High School where students bring guns to school if they have the wherewithal to move to East Cobb and go to Walton) ? If our teachers gave grades that were accurate reflectance of the mastery of the subject (not changed or made to be changed by ADMINISTRATORS)then we would not be spending inordinate amounts of time on testing to verify the REAL mastery of the subject.

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“Anybody consider genetics? You can’t bake a cake if you don’t have the right ingredients.”

That reminds me of a line from “Driving Miss Daisy” where Miss Daisy said she used to be a teacher and she taught some of the dumbest students God put on this earth how to read.

It is not a lack of brain power that is resulting in failing education. You CANNOT teach ANY child, no matter if they have a genius IQ, if they miss 30 days of school every year. Or if they decide that sitting in the back of the room and acting up is more inline with their culture than obtaining an education.

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In the U. S. official “everyone should go to college” theme is marketing for individuals borrowing money and taking on long term debt, currently at $1 trillion dollars existent “student loans.” Perhaps many Americans do not realise how conspicuous this is, and that outside of the U. S. system, it is not happening anywhere else on the planet. It’s a notable situation when one of the main and only themes from the federal DOE is “everyone must go to college.” It also makes for a strange situation where the colleges are full, therefore, who is to attend to real quality at the colleges, where online software and to-do lists of assignments are called college courses. In many lesser colleges, courses turned into busy work, where “a syllabus is a contract,” so turn your stuff in with the “send” button on time. And I can tell you, the Get Schooled weblog is a whole lot more vibrant than any of the required “group chat sessions” required in these type college courses, where practically everyone is there to get the course credit and move on, and there is little to no intellectual interest in the topic.

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I think Jessica said it best. As a public school educator and parent I can simultaneously want the system to succeed because it is in society’s best interests and use every tool in my power to ensure that my child has the best education possible, public or otherwise.

Some may say that this is hypocritical and that is there right, but in this current climate of inequality among schools and the lack of equity as a consideration by decision makers I have a right and a responsibility to the child that I brought into the world to see that she is afforded every possible opportunity to become a successful and contributing member of the global community.

So, in that way I think it is possible to want to save public education through my work, but I have the right to protect my child from the negative influences of students whose parents may or may feel the same as I.

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“current climate of inequality among schools ”

Could you please explain what inequality exists of schools (not sutdents, or parents, or SES)? How much money is given per student at a South Deklalb school vs. at an East Cobb School? Of course, Dekalb county chooses to spend their money a lot differently – on lawsuits rather than on textooks, but that is a problem in their governance, not in the education system. They both are given EQUAL resources. They just are not given equal students and parents.

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” Then they’re promoted even if they’re not ready to move on. This isn’t the teacher’s decision. This is the decision of the administration.”

See? EVERYONE knows what the problems are, they just don’t want to do anything about them.

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@ mountain

admin types don’t post here for good reason. we’d eat them alive. their nonsense won’t translate to actual print

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“I am quite sure that, in addition to grammatical ignorance, most of our state legislators would be unable to pass the 8th grade CRCT in mathematics.”

There have been a lot of postings about teacher competence and evaluations. I have said before that teacher evaluations should be comprised of two parts: knowledge of the subject matter and how well they can communicate it to the students. The first should be relatively easy to test. We should test TEACHERS and make sure that THEY know their area of instuction – not just the basics, but mastery. If English teachers are making grammatical errors – in writing or speech – then they are part of the problem.

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@Mountain Man every district receives funds based on tax dollars. Average expenditures per pupil are different from district to district and the allocation of the funds is different among schools within the same district based on the type of students they receive (elementary school student expenditures are greater than high or middle school student expenditures. special education student expenditures are greater than general education students’).

No two schools in the same district will have the same resources. This includes staff, technology, course offerings, cafeteria expenditures, etc. This is the definition of inequality with regard to the schools themselves. I work in two alternative schools that have old books, little technology, and require more staff members that are trained to address students with social/emotional needs. Budgets have been cut so the money for these expenditures is non-existent.

Now inequality says nothing of equity. Equity would require that each school receives what it needs in order to be on a level playing field with other schools. For example, psychology tells us that a child born in a neighborhood where extreme poverty and violence are the norm will require more resources (more school counselors and social workers as an example) in order to be on a level playing field with his or her peers who do not live in the same type of neighborhood.

Simply allocating dollars, people, and physical resources like desks and computers equally is not enough to ensure that all children have an equal opportunity to succeed. Teachers cannot teach if a child is behaving in an overly aggressive manner because that is the norm for him or her outside of school. The child’s social and emotional needs must be met before he or she can even begin to process what is required academically. There are definitely people who have the resilience to overcome these types of environments but those people are most definitely the exception and not the rule. For every success story that comes out of a high poverty/high crime neighborhood there are 100 failures.

Who your parents are or are not and where you live should not doom a child to a life as a permanent member of the underclass. That being the case, I still do not think I should have to send my child to a school where these types of behaviors are prevalent and prevent her from getting all that she should from school. I recognize the problem and I work to fix it but I do not think I should be forced to subject my child to life in a system that is in disrepair.

Equality and equity must be major considerations to any major overhaul of public schools. Its in all of our best interests to see that America’s children are well educated, productive, and display socially acceptable behavior throughout their academic careers. Our economy will thrive once our schools can address some of the social/emotional needs of children because we will have fewer adults in prison and on public assistance because we will have given our children the tools they need to navigate the world as socially and academically aware citizens.

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Jessica was right on point with her comment. Also Mountain Man hits it on the head with this absurb arguement about spending enough money on students. DC spends amoung the highest in the nation per student but has some of the worst scores. So bad the POTUS would not send his own daughters to the system. That should tell you something.

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Our factory-model schools are staffed, overwhelmingly, with solid people doing what schools have always done. Sure, we have a handful of people who don’t need to be teaching our kids. Yes, we have some schools that do not deal with dangerous and disruptive kids, but those are the exceptions we should deal with. The overwhelming challenge we must address is schools still looking a lot like they did 75 years ago. The world has changed. The characteristics that provide opportunities for success in today’s global workforce are innovation and creativity. Our schools increasingly cling to a knowledge-based, top-down testing and basic proficiency model. Knowledge is doubling every 5 months and it is free. Google, Wikipedia and YouTube have made knowledge universally available and free.
As a nation, our educational efforts focus almost exclusively on fighting about what knowledge to teach and how to test it. How about some discourse examining how schools should be structured so that young people learn how to make something, build something, create something? To Dream! Where are the products, the services, the social ideas that will lead our nation forward? While I don’t have the answer, I don know they will not be found in skill/drill/memorize the curriculum of the day approach.

We love to rewrite history and harken back to a day when…”schools were good…” Students in this country have never performed anywhere near the top on measures of academic performance. 1964 was the first year we measured science and mathematics performance internationally, and the USA ranked 1second from the bottom. (as an aside, we now are in the 60-70th percentile). What we have led the world in for 150 years is “building the better mousetrap.” Americans have been the planet’s thinkers, risk takers, builders. As a father, I fear that in our race to compare ourselves to the rest of the world, we are losing what has made us so special. I want to encourage schools and teachers to unshackle the dreamer in each of our children, and stop the madness.
Let’s also celebrate the fact that our nation educates ALL students, a rare exception in the world.

Should schools improve? You bet. The question is how?

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Money IS NOT the answer. This is supposed to be a FREE public education. In actuality a lot of money is already being pumped into the state’s school systems to bolster achievement, but the answer is that something must be attached to a free public education to make it valuable. Hardly anything “free” is valued. Anything “free” that requires little to no sacrifices is of little value.

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The government run schools will never serve any interests other than those of government (and their friends). They cannot be “fixed” as they are fundamentally flawed. They are funded through force in a socialist mechanism that undermines the very parental responsibility that everyone says is essential to educational success. If parents are allowed, either through a denial of choice or through the socialization of costs, to abdicate full and complete responsibility for their children’s education, there will be no fundamental change.

The ideal way to save education in general is absolutely for every parent to flee the government system which will bring about its collapse (and the sooner the better). Following its collapse and a general desire to restore quality, if the free market is allowed to actually work, the abundance of private, cooperative, charity, business-supported, and a who knows what options will fully address the needs of parents who will once again be forced to take responsibility for their children’s education.

Government has caused this situation. The current system was not put in place to deliver quality education. It was put in place as an indoctrination vehicle for government to undermine the authority of parents and to undermine the cultural influences of Catholics and others immigrating from europe at the turn of the 20th century. It was also put in place as a vehicle to undermine the individual and entrepreneurial spirit and energies that were threatening the burgeoning corporate-capitalist machine that required mindless workers to fill its factories.

John Taylor Gatto details this sordid history in graphic details in his wonderful books on the subject. Every parent should be required to read his work as most government school supporting parents actually think that this system was put in place to insure a quality education for everyone. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Get out and don’t look back. If the system collapses, the better off america will be. Work for its collapse as the greatest beneficiaries will be those parents without the means to leave the system today.

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“I keep reading about throwing “more money” at education. Funding for education has been decreased by the federal, state, and local goverments for the past 10 years. Education in Georgia has been UNDERFUNDED for years— so where is all “more money” that I keep hearing about? If we had just enough money, we would have no furloughs and smaller class sizes– instead on 32-35 kids in a class and three, four, five plus furlough days.”

I think they are saying that the answer to solving our problems is not just to throw money at it. I have said many times that we spend four times what we spent in 1960 per student (adjusted for inflation). That is easily verified. Yes, education funding may have gone down in the last 10 years – but it had increased dramatically up until then. And yes, we should have no furloughs and smaller class sizes – but those can be easily accomplished by simply moving the money we already have out of central office and back to the teachers. We don’t need those new expensive education programs that don’t increase performance because the problem is attendance and discipline, not curriculum. We don’t need layer after layer of administrators who STILL do absolutely nothing to address attendance, discipline, or social promotion. And we need to decide how certain students deserve $30,000 per year of spending and whether it is worth it and is it consistent with the State Constitution gaurantee of an “adequate” education? (SPED students)

“so where is all “more money” that I keep hearing about”

Go ask your administrators – they have it.

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I disagree with the Governor on one point. You don’t keep investing in a broken system. More funding isn’t the answer. First, structurally reform the system, make it 21st century compliant, and then invest more dollars. For years, we have seen public education follow the same path that every monopoly in any other industry has faced: dysfunction, wasteful spending, and woeful performance, under any performance measure.We need to stop blaming funding cuts for the ills the plague our public schools. Do I need to again mention that research shows no correlation between funding and academic achievement?

You can fix and flee. That will be what happens when we see some of these alternative schooling options start to show favorable results. And that’s how disruptive innovation works.

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Truth in Moderation – I have been wondering for several years now why the government (state and federal) would be working so tirelessly to destroy our nation through the destruction of public education and the tragic perpetuation of an underclass (actually, an expansion of the underclass) by ensuring that too many of our students are, for the most part, growing up to be incapable of independent thought. It did not occur to me that the NWO advocates could be that powerful already.

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There are some wonderful posts in this thread, especially the “Democracy” post. When Republican leaders say they vigorously support public schools but then proceed to “starve” them by dramatically decreasing public school state funding, you have to wonder. Couple that with the Republican policy of diverting taxpayer funds away from public schools and into the hands of the charter school industry, their strategy becomes clearer, and true to form, as Republicans want to privatize for profit every government function they can lay their hands on from defense spending (Blackwater) to prisons (the private prison industrial complex) to public schools (charter schools and taxpayer funding for private schools).

This discussion about which road to take ought to include a focus on who profits from the charter school – school choice approach. One terrific place to look at which companies and law firms in Georgia are making fortunes on the Georgia charter school movement is the program entitled: “10th Annual Georgia Charter School Conference – Charting the Path to Success-October 4-5, 2012.” Here is the link:

http://www.georgiacharterconference.org/wp-content/uploads/Program-Final.pdf

If you read this program with an eye to observing which companies and which law firms are offering their services (no doubt for handsome fees) to set up and maintain charter schools in Georgia, you will see I believe that a veritable army of profiteers has lined up to fill their coffers with the hundreds of millions of Georgia taxpayer funds being funneled their way thanks to the efforts of legislators like Ed Lindsey. This isn’t about choosing a better path. This is about putting in place a system to enrich all the players in the charter school industry. Two examples from the Georgia Charter Schools Annual Conference Program: (1) Dougherty and Company, Minneapolis, MN “We are pioneers in financing the Charter School segment of the educational system providing cost effective financing options designed to help meet the unique educational needs of clients;” and (2) McKenna, Long and Aldridge law firm, “We are proud to have participated in the first charter school bond financing in Georgia.” You really have to read what these companies and law firms say they are selling, not to mention looking at the list of program presentations where these companies and the law firms spell out how to do it, how to set up one charter school after the other with taxpayer funds. This is what “school choice” is really about. Let’s keep and strengthen our traditional public schools. That’s the path we should choose.

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I’m a public school teacher (four years in California and fourteen years here in Georgia).

I’m well-aware of what Roy Barnes did to the educators of this state. When he pushed through reform in 2000 he said (and I quote), “It’s cute when a second grader looks up at you and says the dog ate his homework. It’s not cute when it’s coming from our teachers.”

He later (nine years?) apologized for those comments, but his “legacy” of harm is still right here. The law punishes schools, students and teachers if a third, fifth and eighth grade student fail the CRCT in reading and math (reading only in third grade). This causes much undue stress upon everyone.

Do politicians (who are not experts on education) really think that Georgia’s teachers aren’t dedicated and willing to do what it takes? Do the politicians truly believe that the teachers (who are adults, by the way), need to be treated like children through threats? We are professionals who want all kids to succeed and will work hard to do it.

Finally, Barnes says (and he doesn’t know what he’s talking about because he’s no expert on education) that the schools shape the society.

This is wrong.

Schools are a reflection of society, not the other way around.

If you are serious about fixing “schools” then look no further than social justice. Poor neighborhoods send poor kids to schools and then those kids perform poorly on the CRCT.

If you want to see how successful a public school is (I’m not talking about private or charters, because they don’t have the same level of red tape and rules), look directly at the percentage of free and reduced lunches served to students.

It will match.

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@Mary Elizabeth – I think you need to re-read what you just penned. Seriously? Have you actually looked at how much money the USPS is losing each year?? It is a dinosaur – another example of an institution that failed to correctly define the business it was in as well as sufffer from complacency and a lack of innovation. I can’t believe I just wasted finger energy to type this comment!

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I’m always a little perplexed by those who cite low hs graduation rates — 69% — as evidence that our public schools are bad. If the public schools lowered their standards significantly so as to graduate a higher percentage of students, I’m sure these same critics would howl. It seems possible to me that public schools maybe should even be given some credit for keeping certain standards in the face of falling graduation rates. It would be easy for public schools just to cave and graduate virtually everybody.

I also don’t quite understand what the critics who cite a low graduation rate would have the public schools do about that. Should they spend time and devote resources to convincing kids the value of staying in school and graduating — kids who obviously aren’t getting the message at home that education is important? It seems that these critics would rather the schools play parent and social worker, instead of educator.

Finally, these graduation rate critics are always subtly comparing public school graduation rates to private school graduation rates, and somehow suggest that the private schools are better because they graduate a higher rate of students. This comparison seems sort of silly to me because of course kids whose parents are paying $10,000 to $25,000 per year for a private school are coming from homes where education is important, and not graduating really isn’t even conceivable. So it’s not really the private school that is better, it’s just the caliber of kids and parents.

I agree a 69% graduation rate is too low. But that is more reflective of societal and cultural problems that fail to value and stress education. Don’t blame the public schools when 31% of the kids fail to show up for school, or earn F’s.

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“Have you actually looked at how much money the USPS is losing each year?? It is a dinosaur – another example of an institution that failed to correctly define the business it was in as well as sufffer from complacency and a lack of innovation.”

Living – you are pointing the finger at the wrong people. I believe that the USPS need to be run as a business and it is somewhat of a dinosaur – having lived through the advent of e-mail. But what is keeping it losing money – and operating as a true business would – is the Congressional approval required for any changes. Congress requires that the postal service provide certain levels of service and limit the price it can charge, so THEY are the ones controlling the business. Yes, the USPS needs to switch from a pension plan to a 401k plan (like just about every other private business), but they need to be able to set delivery days and/or price of stamps and other services.

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If you think that public education is not producing intelligent and thoughtful students, I challenge you to attend the Georgia High School State Literary Championships in Houston County this weekend.

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Georgia High School Association (GHSA) State Literary Championships.

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Democracy, You spent quite a bit of time trying to legitimize your novel, then you ruined it with “And where public education is concerned, Republicans are the ones who try to dismantle it. Frankly, that’s just plain unAmerican.”
Do you read local news ? Can’t you see what democrats/liberals have done to public education ? Do you not understand the reason we are on this topic is the way democrats have run Dekalb schools into the ground ? Do you not understand that the reason republicans want other options is because of what democrats have done to education ? Dunwoody is not contemplating a new system because of what republicans have done to a once strong school system. Nationally, democrats have also failed public school children. 80% of New York City public school grads need remedial education if they want to move on to higher education. Just think how uneducated the rest of them are. How American are those that fight tooth and nail to keep as many kids as possible in this system in the name of fairness ?

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Do you read local news ? Can’t you see what democrats/liberals have done to public education ?

I see a lot of propaganda – no real facts.

I see where the news (who, by the way no longer INVESTIGATE — just report), says that the school board is “squabbling”; yet they don’t show HOW the squabbling is affecting or HAS affected the children in the school system.

I don’t see any numbers in graduation rates going down because of squabbling.

I don’t see any numbers of teachers on furlough because of squabbling.

I don’t see any numbers of nurses being cut and Phys Ed being cut out of schools because of squabbling.

What i AM seeing however, is how lack of funds, (State Government), is affecting the quality of education in the state of Georgia.

If you can’t see that, then I feel sorry for you.

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Oh, I agree that public education is producing some excellent scholars. But it is also turning out students who cannot read, write, or do simple arithmetic. And they are getting the same diploma as the high performers.

That requirement did not come from the local schoolboards. That requirement came from politicians within the gold dome.

Punish them — not the schoolboard members.

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Points well taken, @Mountain Man. Salient points indeed. The culture is a combination of many factors – you point out a few constraints that destroy innovation. But the poor customer service comes from other factors besides Congressional controls.

Back to education now )

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Bad behavior is the major reason children do not get a good education. It is not their own behavior most of the time. Disruptive students are allowed to remain in classes and disrupt the learning of all. It is terrible how the actions of 1 or 2 per class is robbing the rest of the class an education. Until a students who are disruptive are removed from the regular classroom public education will continue to fail.

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@AJC I don’t think Mary Elizabeth is all that closeted. : )

This brings up a good point. You’ve seen on Facebook those funny photo-montages: “How I See Myself/How Others See Me/How My Dog Sees Me…What My Family Thinks I Do/What I Think I Do…etc.

Well, how liberals see themselves is very different from what they really are. They see themselves as champions of the underprivileged and the last bulwark against the destruction of a key public institution (traditional public schools). But what they really are is an oppressive, destructive force pitted against the very underclass they claim to want to help.

I’ve said this here before: if liberals really cared about poor black kids they’d be the first in line to raze (figuratively speaking) our existing schools and replace them with a model that holds parents, students and teachers accountable and ejects those who refuse to follow new, much harsher rules.

Shackles are shackles no matter who’s applying them and in this case it’s the liberal public-school apologists who are shackling entire generations of kids to a rusted-out model that cannot be made to work. And the most irksome part is that they walk around feeling good about what they are trying to do. Cluelessness I can forgive. But to hold back society the way they do; to actually prevent the majority of poor black kids from climbing out of the abyss by shackling them to a virulent minority –their disruptive and disinterested peers–that really is unforgivable.

Oh, yeah–the whole post office thing. USPS service in Atlanta is third-worldly. I won’t miss you, either.

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@Bootney Eaten alive? Hardly. I am an administrator who posts on here, and your intellectual capacity is not one of my concerns.

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“I am an administrator who posts on here”

OK. Georgia Coach, since you are an administrator – do you work in an urban or Title I school? Take my challenge and tell us what YOU do to address attendance, discipline, and social promotion.

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The only solution is to have the words removed from the constitution that limit the number of school districts. All School Districts should be local. They should be no more than 1-2 districts large. We should encourage local villages. Look at Master Planning success stories, Reston, Va. ect. The real shame is this area was allowed to grow with no zoning, just developer greed and suburban sprawl.

The Villages up north show how the rich, middle class and poor all live together and put their kids in the same schools. I lived like this. I was the lower middle class or poor kid. I received the benefits of the same Education as the Richest kids in town. In fact their were no private high schools within 30 miles. The only private schools were Catholic Schools which only charged $100 no matter how large your family was. ( they still charge under $3000, per family in areas up North that have great public schools).

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@Mike the teacher “If you were to cut off a public elementary school from the county, state and feds (in terms of regulation and rules) you would see them out-perform their former selves.”

Now THAT is true! We’d certainly do even better.

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“Under my direction and organization, that Reading Department became the largest secondary Reading Department in the state of Georgia.”

Yes, but how did the STUDENTS do? When you left, were 100% of the graduating students reading at the required level for graduation?

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Money is not needed! Public education is considered a free education. While not really free it is not valued because it is considered “free”. Throwing more money will not make it more valued. Parents at schools where tuition is required make sure they get their money’s worth. Their input is welcomed because they are part of the financial support of the school. In my mind the following makes sense:
1. fine parents for their child’s discipline referrals
2. charge up front for textbooks – then refund when textbooks are returned
3. let teachers pay the sub ($80) but still use earned days of leave
4. cafeteria breakfast and lunches paid for out of food stamp allotment

If you could only see the expensive clothes and tennis shoes worn by some who get “free” food at school.

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As virtually all the above anti-reform arguments come straight off the teachers’ union website, here’s a response (from Ann Coulter) on why public sector unions shouldn’t be listened to:

Government employees should never, ever be allowed to organize.

The need for a union comes down to this question: Do you have a boss who wants you to work harder for less money? In the private sector, the answer is yes. In the public sector, the answer is a big, fat NO.

Government unions have nothing in common with private sector unions because they don’t have hostile management on the other side of the bargaining table. To the contrary, the “bosses” of government employees are co-conspirators with them in bilking the taxpayers.

Far from being careful stewards of the taxpayers’ money, politicians are on the same side of the bargaining table as government employees — against the taxpayers, who aren’t allowed to be part of the negotiation. This is why the head of New York’s largest public union in the mid-’70s, Victor Gotbaum, gloated, “We have the ability to elect our own boss.”

Democratic politicians don’t think of themselves as “management.” They don’t respond to union demands for more money by saying, “Are you kidding me?” They say, “Great — get me a raise too!”

Democrats buy the votes of government workers with generous pay packages and benefits — paid for by someone else — and then expect a kickback from the unions in the form of hefty campaign donations, rent-a-mobs and questionable union political activity when they run for re-election.

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“That requirement did not come from the local schoolboards. That requirement came from politicians within the gold dome.”

Madge from Accounting – are you saying that GEORGIA LAW forces schools to give diplomas to students who have not mastered basic studies? And forces teachers to give passing grades? I would like to see a citation for that Law.

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“I’ve come to believe that genius is an exceedingly common human quality, probably natural to most of us… I began to wonder, reluctantly, whether it was possible that being in school itself was what was dumbing them down. Was it possible I had been hired not to enlarge children’s power, but to diminish it? That seemed crazy on the face of it, but slowly I began to realize that the bells and the confinement, the crazy sequences, the age-segregation, the lack of privacy, the constant surveillance, and all the rest of national curriculum of schooling were designed exactly as if someone had set out to *prevent* children from learning how to think and act, to coax them into addiction and dependent behavior.”

– John Taylor Gatto
Former NY State Teacher of the Year

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@Mary Elizabeth – I am not a right wing elitist – you do not know me. I am an expert in organizational behavior and disruptive innovation theory. It sounds like you are an accomplished teacher, which I applaud. But I have studied organizations and how they navigate the “life cycle.” Education has a life cycle to, and it is failing to adapt to a rapidly changing world.

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@ living in an outdated ed system, 2:40 pm

Please read my 2:52 pm post, and you will see that public education can be very innovative and effective in adjusting to today’s “rapidly changing world.” Moreover, having been an educational leader and teacher for most of my 35 years in public education, I do not share your contention that “the life cycle” of public education is over.

However, I do agree that public education needs to be improved. That is why I continue to post on this blog and why I have developed a personal blog, “MaryElizabethSings,” part of which is focused upon sharing ways in which public education can be improved, especially in today’s “rapidly changing world.”

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@duh “Education has been in a rapid decline since 1964″ I’m assuming that you are referring to the 1962 decisions prayer in school decisions by the USSC – Engel v. Vitale & Abington v. Schempp?

If so, hard to argue with someone who has God on his side. Next you’ll be telling me teaching evolution, plate techtonics (sea salt on mouyntain tops? how can that be?), standard particle physics (including Higgs Boson), 4.5 Billion year old earth, & 13.7 Billion year old earth (based on big bang theory) are other reasons our schools are bad & our civilization doomed to eternal damnation?

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Mary Elizabeth – I do believe that you were an excellent teacher and educational leader. I am curious to how you would (did) solve the problems I constantly blog about. For example: how did you handle attendance issues? How did you handle discipline issues? I think you and I have sparred repeatedly over the socil promotion issue, but I remain confused about how you handle it: you say that students should be grouped by ability (retained if necessary?) but then you never specifically state that students should be retained if they fail to master the curriculum.

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Madge from Accounting – are you saying that GEORGIA LAW forces schools to give diplomas to students who have not mastered basic studies? And forces teachers to give passing grades? I would like to see a citation for that Law

Google No Child Left Behind.

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“Government schooling is the most radical adventure in history. It kills the family by monopolizing the best times of childhood and by teaching disrespect for home and parents….”

– John Taylor Gatto

“Who besides a degraded rabble would voluntarily present itself to be graded and classified like meat? No wonder school is compulsory.”

- John Taylor Gatto

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Growth and mastery come only to those who vigorously self-direct. Initiating, creating, doing, reflecting, freely associating, enjoying privacy—these are precisely what the structures of schooling are set up to prevent, on one pretext or another.

- John Taylor Gatto

If you haven’t read what he has to say, then you are likely coming at this fundamentally-failed system with the wrong viewpoint. Education has never been the goal of this system or the people who created it (despite the well-intentioned folks who give their lives in service of it).

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Mountain Man, 3:22 pm

I don’t have a lot of time to continue writing on the blog this afternoon. But I will say a few brief words in response to your questions.

1. ATTENDANCE. I was on the phone with parents and counselors about this if it became an issue. I tried to care for my students and let them know that I cared for them, personally. I tried to keep my courses relevant to their needs, interesting in delivery, and challenging for them without the course being so difficult that they could not master the work. I had first insured, through my preliminary diagnostic analysis, that all of my students were properly placed from the beginning days of my classes. If attendance were a problem beyond that, I knew that it probably had to do with social/evironmental/psychological reasons. I would refer those students to the Student Support Team in my school for extra looking into. That need, however, was rare in my Advanced Reading elective course.

2. DISCIPLINE. Same techniques and approaches that I listed for attendance worked for me with discipline. In addition, as I have previously stated, I worked with the administrator on my hall and asked him if he would back me up in the first couple of weeks of the school year with the students whom I might send to him (regardless of the number). I told him that he would probably have very few discipline referrals from me for the rest of the year, if he would do so. He agreed, I think, because I had already proven myself to be a seasoned teacher in that school over the years. So, at the beginning of each school year, if a student or two would not curb the tendency to disrupt the class after repeated warnings from me, then I would “march” the student out of my class to the administrator’s office down the hall and asked that student to take a seat in the administrator’s outer office. The administrator would then later deal with that student as he could. The secretary kept an eye on the student. If the administrator could not see the student that period, the student would go to his/her next class and be called into the administrator’s office later in the day. Students were caught off guard at my “chutzpa” in marching them out of my classroom and down the hall to the administrator’s office. No other teacher that they knew was so bold as to do that so immediately. Little did they know it had all be “prearranged.” Students – I learned over the years – quickly learn the “understood but not spoken educational fact” that a teacher can only send so many discipline problems to the office before the teacher is seen as the problem, not the student. As a result, many teachers will absorb disrespectful behavior from students rather than address it forthrightly by sending them to the office – and the students know this. That only makes their discipline problems worse, because they are allowed to be disrespectful to teachers – their immediate authority figures. And we know the difficulty many adolescents go through in learning how to interact well with authority figures – often because of their backgrounds as well as their ages.

I must also say that I believe that if my students had not also known – and seen for themselves – that I was dedicating myself and my talents to them with such effort because I sincerely cared for each one of them and because I wanted all of them to succeed, that my disciplinary approach could have backfired on me. It was the combination of compassionate care and high expectations of respect – given by me toward every student under my care, as well as the expectation that I also should receive respect from students – that made the difference. Also, keeping my students motivated and interested in my courses’ content helped to keep discipline problems at bay. I also well knew that if I had had misplaced students in my Advanced Reading classes, that that, in itself, would have created discipline problems – but I did not have misplaced students – all were on their correct instructional level – because I had prepared beforehand to have any misplaced student reassigned to a course in which he or she was prepared to function with success.

Mountain Man, I had planned to answer the rest of your questions, but I simply do not have time to do so this afternoon. I will answer your questions later regarding the continuous progress of academic advancement by students.

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Correction: “been prearranged”

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Where you start in life does matter. But it is only a gauge of how hard you will have to work to achieve… not a limit on HOW FAR you can go. Some have to work harder than others because they were born into poverty. Others, born into privlege, have to work less hard to achieve. That’s life. This idea that everyone has to have exactly the same of everything is crazy and will never be attainable.

I do feel for those born into districts with low quality schools. I was one of those kids. I’m not from an urban area, instead from a rural Applachian belt district which can be just as bad if not worse. I scratched and clawed my way out. And today, I feel like at the end of the day, I am responsible for MY kids. And I want better for them. I sold my home at loss in a Title 1 school district in Gwinnett and moved to South Forsyth County to change the trajectory of their future. We are not wealthy and made HUGE sacrifices to do this. Many of my neighbors chose to stay and fight the fight, but I already know the upward battle ahead. It’s not going to just be elementary school, or high school. The competition at the college level and beyond into the job place will blow their minds. It takes a VERY strong willed person to succeed when you start at the bottom. BUT… IT CAN BE DONE! I once read that it takes at least 3-4 generations to escape poverty (assuming those involved are actively trying). My parents are better off than my grandparents who didn’t make past 8th grade. My husband and I are better off then my parents who didn’t graduate high school but was able to make good money as a coal miner. I hope and pray my kids will be better off and better educated than we are because of the choices we made for them.

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For a comprehensive analisys of the real problem with the government schools watch “IndoctriNation: Public Schools and the Decline of Christianity in America.” http://www.indoctrinationmovie.com

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@Mary Elizabeth

Thanks for the info on the USPS. I did not know about the forced pre-funded healthcare benefits.
What is really going on is that Wall Street needs NEW money to speculate with. They are now targeting the retirement/pension funds. Just look at what has been going on in California:

“MORE ON UC REGENTS CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The Berkeley Planet reports that since 2003 Gerald Parsky, Richard C. Blum, and Paul Wachter, all financiers themselves have steered UC investments and pensions towards risky private equity and real estate instruments. In order to maintain the appearance of propriety, they got UC to hire private money managers with high fees. Not only were private managers paid handsomely, their investment choices have suffered much more than blue chip stocks and bonds. $2 billion were steered toward risky financial instruments and the losses that UC suffered are negatively impacting its retirement and endowment funds. Blum, once again, reveals himself to be a beneficiary of his regental position: after being appointed to the board in 2002, $745 million of UC money was invested in seven private equity deals involving either Blum or his firm, Blum Capital Partners.”
ht tp://utotherescue.blogspot.com/2010/09/more-on-uc-regents-conflict-of-interest.html
Mr. Blum is Senator Feinstein’s husband.

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Joachim,
Interesting link to the “Indoctrination” movie, but they have their basic terminology wrong. The movie is equating “socialism” with the removal of Christianity and with the brainwashing of children. Socialism is an economic system for inefficient markets, and it is nothing. It is simply services, for example: roads, schools (K12 and university), public health provided as services in an economically unexploitative way. Socialism has as much to do with brainwashing as changing the oil in your car, in other words, nothing.

What “socialism” would do is remove a lot of profit and executive compensation from: insurance companies, hospital administration, pharmaceutical companies, and lenders who provide student debt for university study. For example, the CEO of United Health (I paid them $50k myself) would be “hurt” by socialism if the health-insurance scam was taken away and replaced with a public health system.

Anyway, socialism is not about brainwashing and removing religion or values, just the opposite, as it is usual the “Christian” peoples who care enough to provide services, care for the populace, and not exploit the populace for services.

So, I wonder who is funding that movie you feature, or who produced it? It looks like a slick piece of propaganda using religious fear to support continued financial exploitation through non-socialist services. By the way, if you look at 100 rich countries, 99 of them take care of their people and only one does not. Can you guess who that is? USA.

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should say -”film producer for hire”

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About “Indoctrination” movie to “get you to remove your children from public schools,” Creepy stuff, the publishing company for the book is selling religious goods and books and has an “about us” section that tells you exactly zero about the company, nothing. No person, no history, nothing. http://www.newleafpublishinggroup.com/nlp.php

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Madge from Accounting – “Google No Child Left Behind.”

I did and I found nothing that said schools MUST give a diploma to unqualified students. Please copy and paste the exact reference and give the link, because obviously I am too dumb to be able to find it myself.

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I’m sorry to be late to this chain and can’t read all of the comments. As most know, I have strong opinions on this front. After all that we have been through in DCSS, it is impossible for me to believe that it could be any worse to try a voucher or privatization system. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The budget that has been ratcheted up by public education is in the billions of dollars a year. The funds come from local dollars, state dollars and federal dollars. They come from taxpayers at all sources. It seems to me that no agency is watching over how the funds are actually being spent. We have all sorts of mandates over testing that don’t actually relate to what actually happens in the classroom or how the budget is passed or whether the passed budget is actually implemented. There seems to be no consequence for a BOE or school system administrator that fails to implement a passed budget or who fails to hire the best or the brightest for a particular job. There is an incentive built in to choose programs that secure future jobs outside the system with no incentive to look out for what’s best for the child sitting in the classroom. There are no checks and balances in place. It is high time that the dollars being spent are infused at the lowest possible level and are broken into the tiniest little pieces so that it becomes much more difficult (it will never become impossible because it just isn’t human nature) for such diversions away from the child to occur — let the funds flow to the child sitting in the classroom. To me, at this point in time, the best answer is vouchers or privatization. It doesn’t mean that is it a long-term solution — it just means that the current system of a monopoly in the current situation has failed and ht funds coming in at the top has been abused. It is time to stop. The abuse looks too much like a sthat which happens in small third world countries and I’m very afraid that the long-term consequences on our children are not going to be much different.

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“Mountain Man-I have sat through at least 2 retention meetings in which I recommended retention. I was overridden by either parent or principal.”

TeacherMom4 – the regulations say that the decision of the promotion committe has to be UNANIMOUS – that means you caved and voted to promote – is that correct?

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Sorry, TeacherMom4 – I am not blaming you alone – the principal is just as much to blame. And I don’t know your circumstances – would you have been fired if you had gone against your principal? As I have said repeatedly, ADMINISTRATORS are the root of our education problems. PRINCIPALS – why are YOU voting to promote unqualified students?

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Truth in Moderation, 9:35 pm, 3/15/13

Thank you for your words, Truth, and also thank you very much for your information about the use of pension money for risky investments. Appreciated!

Retired teachers in Georgia must be ever vigilant that this situation does not happen to our pension money – the retirement money that we, ourselves, paid into during our active teaching years so that our own money could be prudently invested for us in our old age.

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@ Truth in Moderation and Mary Elizabeth.

Last year, the use of Georgia’s state pension funds for risky investment ventures WERE approved by our legislative Golden Domers, but fortunately they shot themselves in the foot. They may correct this soon. Mary Elizabeth, I hope your warnings will be heeded.

From Atlanta Business Chronicle, April 16, 2012:
Gov. Nathan Deal signed legislation that for the first time will let managers of the state employees’ pension fund make “alternative investments” expected to yield higher returns. [NOTE: NOT TRS, pension fund for teachers.] Business groups supported the bill as a way to create more jobs in Georgia by generating more investment capital. This year’s legislation includes safeguards designed to lessen the risk of expanding investments beyond traditional stocks and bonds. Under the bill, the Employees’ Retirement System of Georgia [state workers] will not be allowed to invest more than 5 percent of the fund’s assets in alternatives at any one time.

The pension fund for Georgia’s retired teachers still won’t be making alternative investments. Representatives of teacher groups argued successfully to have the Teachers Retirement System of Georgia excluded from the measure.

From AJC, Dec. 30, 2012:
Lawmakers gave the go-ahead for Georgia’s public pensions to start putting money into start-up ventures and other “alternative” investments. Supporters hoped the new law would help rev up the state’s economy by making it easier to attract investment firms and get capital to Georgia’s entrepreneurs.

But someone forgot to release the parking brake on the new initiative, according to some pension experts. Most of the affected pensions haven’t made any alternative investments yet. Critics say the new law makes it difficult for Georgia’s retirement plans to ever come close to putting 5 percent of their portfolios in start-up ventures or other long-term alternative investments, as lawmakers intended.

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Mountain Man, I never altered my opinion. It just wasn’t considered in the end. I came out and said I disagreed with the decision, but the decision wasn’t mine to make. I don’t care what the law says; the law is not followed. This happens on a routine basis. If a kid passes the CRCT, there is no discussion of retention, even if the kid fails classes and isn’t proficient. I’m not making it up. I am not the only teacher who has experienced this. My professional opinion, expertise, and input count for squat in these situations, and the grades I record are meaningless to prove/disprove proficiency.

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@PC
I know what happened to the hawk. He spent too much time in Lullwater Preserve. You do know about the radiation experiments, yes? And Yerkes drainage? And the Chemistry department dumping? Of course Carter’s EPA sez “all clear!” It is all in their documents.

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More on pension fund THEFT:

WHY ISN’T THIS GUY IN JAIL?
“Billions for Blum
Since 2004, Mr. Blum has had a direct influence on where CalPERS puts its money. His firm, Blum Capital Partners, is paid $3 million a year to handle $500 million worth of CalPERS investments as an external investment advisor.

According to reports issued for CalPERS by the investment advisory firm, Wilshire Consulting, Blum Capital Partners invests CalPERS money in public companies where Blum Capital Partners itself holds dominant ownership stakes, including the for-profit colleges Career Education Corporation and ITT Educational Services. It also places CalPERS money into its own private equity investment vehicles. But as of March 2010, CalPERS has reported an aggregate loss of 18 percent in these Blum funds.

In addition to hiring Blum Capital Partners to control a half billion dollars in investments, the pension fund has placed billions of dollars with three other companies where Mr. Blum has significant ownership stakes. CalPERS also pays large management fees to two of these entities.”

Blum Capitol Partners continued to load up on ITT E.S. stock in 2010. They owned over 10% and had to file with the SEC. It’s stock was worth over $100/share. That same month, a SENATE SUBCOMMITTEE decided to do a 2 year “investigation” on for-profit schools, INCLUDING ITT EDUCATIONAL SERVICES. In July of 2012, the SENATE committee releases a SCATHING report on these schools. THE STOCK PLUMMETED. In January 2012, the stock dropped to around $16/ share. PUMP AND DUMP. Teachers, check into this!

ht tp://spot.us/pitches/337-investors-club-how-the-uc-regents-spin-public-funds-into-private-profit/story
ht tp://www.wnd.com/2007/03/40845/

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“What things did I see that indicated this? There were several:
I saw a large amount of money being used to fund the projects of this group, funds that poured in from around the northern hemisphere and the world. Couriers were sent to the corners of the globe, and many of the top financial institutions had a vested interest in bringing this “new world order” to pass. This was discussed in leadership meetings; shown in videos to members of the group, such as the grainy films I saw in the 1960s showing a large round table with 13 members sitting around it, and the words “these are your leaders” spoken as the members rose and pledged allegiance to the coming new order. I will not mention the figures shown in this film in order to avoid the claim of “libel” but they were well known, influential, and many were behind the banking system of the modern world.

The Illuminati are funding this coming world order quietly, behind the scenes. They believe that money not only “talks” as the saying goes, but buys media coverage, or silence; protection; and the influence needed to shape our modern world. “As the economy goes, the nation will go,” I was taught in my teens by leaders in this group. They are practical pragmatists, in spite of their occult bent, who understand the motivation that drives much of mankind: greed, or the desire to gain wealth and power.”
ht tp://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica/illuminati/svali1_00.htm

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All the changes to Public Education mentioned in the article, “Can we simultaneously fix and flee public schools”? speak to the answer to the question. You can’t do both. This is why the flee portion has been the direction taken by our state government. Now, the question is: Will taxpayers continue to buy into this position taken by the state? All taxpayers have a stake in the decision made because the children being educated today are future voters, those who will work to serve in nursing homes and other jobs in the state/country, future taxpayers and most importantly future parents.

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