State monies to help struggling districts going to Gwinnett, Clayton and Paulding. Many small-town systems get nothing. Why?
As many of you often point out on the blog, state equalization grants are not going to the presumed targets, poor rural districts, but to the mighty Gwinnett County Schools
And you always wonder why.
The AJC looked at the grants that are supposed to help struggling districts with weak tax bases in a Sunday story by AJC reporter James Salzer. The story explains how the grants are awarded, detailing a formula that benefits districts with booming enrollments and eroding property values. In other words: Gwinnett.
But an expert suggests that the calculus of the equalization grants needs to look beyond the property wealth-to-student ratio to personal wealth in a county, which would send more money to struggling south Georgia districts that may have stagnant enrollments but also have persistent poverty and historic school under funding.
Here is an excerpt of the news story: (See list of where grants are going.)
By James Salzer
Gov. Nathan Deal won praise in January when he announced plans to plow an additional $40 million into struggling Georgia school districts that are having trouble raising enough money to educate their children.
What neither the governor nor applauding lawmakers knew at the time was that virtually the entire increase next year will flow to Gwinnett, Clayton and Paulding County schools. Many of the small-town systems that most Georgians would call poor are getting nothing.
That’s according to calculations the Georgia Department of Education recently made using a new equalization funding formula legislators approved last year. About two-thirds of districts get the money on top of their regular state allocation to help address the financial disparity between wealthy and poor systems.
Gwinnett County’s equalization take alone next year will rise from $43.2 million to $65.6 million. Meanwhile, dozens of small, rural systems in Georgia — and many of metro Atlanta’s biggest systems — will get no extra funding. It makes some superintendents wonder whether the formula was drawn to help certain districts and not others.
“I am not sure there is anything equal about it, ” said Cherokee County Superintendent Frank Petruzielo. “It seems to me that it is the most politically motivated component of education funding in Georgia.”
House Education Chairman Brooks Coleman, R-Duluth, who co-chaired an education funding commission that recommended the changes to the equalization law, said politics has nothing to do with it. Gwinnett, he said, is benefiting from the formula used to determine payouts because it has a giant, growing student enrollment at the same time property values have tanked. “There was nothing done to specifically help Gwinnett, ” Coleman said. “It’s a function of the numbers.”
Using more up-to-date enrollment and financial data, the House slightly altered Deal’s original request, approving $474.4 million in equalization funding for the upcoming school year, up from $436.1 million this year. Excluding Gwinnett, Clayton and Paulding, the amount of equalization funding would actually drop, slightly, next year. About half of all equalization funds go to suburban or exurban metro Atlanta-area districts.
The equalization fund, set up in 1985, is supposed to provide greater equity in school funding for systems with lower property tax bases. It was often thought of as a way to help poor, rural districts that can raise little from property taxes. But the collapse of the real estate market in metro Atlanta changed the equation, and the largest grants in recent years have gone to districts that are neither rural nor comparatively poor.
The state’s formula for disbursing the money uses the number of students in the district, the value of property and the property tax rate. A property wealth-to-student ratio qualifies some suburban and urban districts to receive grants.
In the final hours of their 2012 session, state legislators passed a bill intended to slow the growth of the equalization fund and get more money to poor rural districts. The changes reduced the number of systems getting equalization — weeding out some of those deemed too “wealthy.” In some cases, rural districts got more. In others, they were left out completely.
Gwinnett has been getting an increased share of equalization money in recent years because it has the right combination of rapid enrollment growth and eroded tax base. Rick Cost, the school system’s chief financial officer, noted that in 2007, Gwinnett schools enrolled 9.1 percent of all students in Georgia. Its tax digest was 8.9 percent of the state’s total. Next year, he said, Gwinnett will enroll 9.9 percent of all students in the state, but its tax digest will amount to 8 percent of the state’s total.
In 2007, Gwinnett didn’t qualify for equalization funding. Since then, it has been ranked poorer and poorer by the state formula, and has collected an extra $186 million. That money goes to help offset the system’s loss in property tax money. “Since fiscal 2008 … we have lost $143 million in annual local tax revenue … and we have 26,000 more students, ” he said.
The tax base in many systems has plummeted since the recession, but enrollment in those districts is not growing like Gwinnett’s. Enrollment in DeKalb, Cobb and the city of Atlanta systems, for instance, has remained about the same or fallen since the October 2007 count. Enrollment in much of rural Georgia has been stable or fallen as well.
Gwinnett is often considered an innovator in education. Even in tight times, it is making a digital push to invest $54 million in technology improvements that, within a few years, will make hardback textbooks obsolete, allow students 24 /7 access to their schoolwork and give teachers the ability to give tests and track student success — all via the Internet.
By contrast, some of the small, rural systems missing out on equalization have one teacher per subject in their high schools, few advanced courses or foreign language options, no financial reserves to fall back on and no hope of raising serious money from property taxes.
Quitman County’s district, with 345 students, has a much smaller enrollment than most Gwinnett elementary schools. Its superintendent, Allen Fort, worries about having to lay off one or two of his few teachers because of limited funds.
“But somehow we’re richer than Gwinnett County, ” said Fort, whose Southwest Georgia district doesn’t qualify for equalization funding. “Don’t call it equalization, because it’s not equal.” Fort said Quitman schools raise about $70,000 from a mill of property taxes. The system’s budget is $3 million. “One mill (of property taxes) in Gwinnett County could run my system for 10 years, ” he said. “I am not against Gwinnett getting money, I am just trying to figure out how we got none.”
David L. Sjoquist, a state tax and funding expert at Georgia State University’s Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, noted that officials have made efforts in the past to lessen the amount of equalization money going to districts like Gwinnett. Sjoquist said there have been proposals in the past to incorporate some measure of personal wealth into the equation, which would help places like Quitman County, where household income is about half of Gwinnett’s, and the poverty rate is twice Gwinnett’s. But so far the idea hasn’t gone anywhere.
Coleman, the Gwinnett lawmaker, said counties like Gwinnett and Clayton get the equalization money because they have “earned it” under a formula designed to help systems that need it the most. “Gwinnett is big, and it’s poor, ” he said. But Gwinnett also has a strong legislative delegation, and the school system has its own lobbyist at the Capitol.
Fort has a hard time believing Gwinnett’s political clout hasn’t played a role in developing and maintaining a system that benefits the local school system. “Clout, hell, they’ve got a sledgehammer, ” he said. “There are more senators and representatives in Gwinnett County than there are in South Georgia. In the end, we don’t matter.”
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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80 comments Add your comment
Mountain Man
March 18th, 2013
3:56 pm
Why, when I google Quitman county school district budget, does it say $5,725,000? In the article, the complaining super says their budget is only $3,000,000. If it really is $5,725,000 with 380 students, that is over $15,000 per student spendig. And according to my source, most of that ALREADY is from the state funding (59%).
bu2
March 18th, 2013
4:01 pm
@Clarence
However they do it its the same impact. If there was no equalization, Dekalb would have $100 million more $. Gwinnett, according to those numbers above would have $65 million less.
Bernie
March 18th, 2013
4:01 pm
10:10 am @ 2:31 pm – Love how all of the intelligent and smart ones know just what others are thinking all the time. Are you sure you are not a Genius too? Puzzling you is easy!
Pride and Joy
March 18th, 2013
4:07 pm
Thank you, Get Schooled, for this excellent, worthy topic. The rural poor are the poorest of the poor. I grew us rural poor. Thirty years after I left that rural, poor place, it is still rural and poor.
In rural poor areas there are no buses, no Marta, no train and no money to buy a car. People are trapped. At least in the city of ATL there is a way to get to a job and a job to have.
Where I grew up, there wasn’t even a movie theater, no fast food joints, just nothing but poor.
The formula that decides who gets the money is obviously flawed. Rural poor need to get to the top of the list of schools that get the funds.
The reason Gwinnett gets the money and places like ATL is because they have a large population of minority voters and minority organizations to scream about how unfair it is to be a minority. It’s all politics.
Catlady can tell you all about how difficult a rural poverty is to live in and so can I.
This so-called “formula” is not about fairness; it’s about racial propoganda and politics.
Mountain Man
March 18th, 2013
4:22 pm
“The rural poor are the poorest of the poor.”
Pride and Joy – you sound like those people who are always defending the “family farm” – arguing for using our tax money to support an inefficient farming operation just because of its charm (and the votes, of course) when a “factory” farm can produce the exact same corn at half the cost.
Poor is poor is poor – whether rural or urban.
Bernie
March 18th, 2013
4:31 pm
Pride and Joy @ 4:07 pm My God, such Vitriol Bigoted UnTruths spun in a such a way I almost bought into it. But Then I started to……. THINK!
This one is Still POOR! Mentally and Morally Banrupt to their very core with such words they truly believe as fact.
How Sad!…… Truly Very SAD!
You are neither PROUD or JOYFUL… more HATEFUL & EVIL would be a more accurate description
of You.
You are Certainly a product of Your Enviroment and a very SICK & ill informed ONE at that!
Ella
March 18th, 2013
4:52 pm
DeKalb pays 23.85 Property taxes for school and Gwinnett pays 19.25. DeKalb gives money and Gwinnett receives money. Looking at the property taxes for schools makes me sick. How can Gwinnett homeowners pay so little but get so much? Something is absolutely not right at all.
HS Math Teacher
March 18th, 2013
5:23 pm
I agree with Clutch Cargo. I have taught at a small, rural school in a remote area of Georgia for MANY years. We have taken cut after cut, and have downsized, reduced, cut-back, consolidated duties, etc. We’ve done everything except put treadmills in our rooms to improve our health and to generate electricity at the same time.
I would like to point the spear at our state Legislative & DOE leaders once again: As far as the neglect of the small, rural schools, expecially in the remote areas of Georgia, you can really tell that none of them give a damned about us, in that they ignore the fact that most, if not all, small schools do not have an accelerated track for the relatively new math (no way of seperating the ones who SHOULD be in an NON-COLLEGE PREP CURRICULUM), and ALL of our kids are having to slug through this japped-up curriculum. Complaints have made its way throught the rat maze to get to these people, but… they don’t give a damn. The Ph.D. egghead advisors from the big universities are telling them to LBJ-McNamara there way through to the bloody end. “Victory’s just around the corner”.
mountain man
March 18th, 2013
5:23 pm
“DeKalb pays 23.85 Property taxes for school and Gwinnett pays 19.25. DeKalb gives money and Gwinnett receives money.”
And Quitman pays 13.75! But (As far as I know) Dekalb does NOT give ANY of its money it keeps ALL of its local property tax.
Pride and Joy
March 18th, 2013
5:34 pm
Bernie and Mountain Man,
Poor ATL kids have opportunies that rural poor have never had.
There are also a lot of free recreational activities available to urban poor such as free swim times at city pools and they are located at places convenient to those poor people.
The rural poor have no such opportunites. Unless you have lived as a child in a rural, poor area, you cannot possibly make the claims you do.
In my hometown the public library was ten miles away and we had no buses, no Marta, no nothing. The only books available to me where at my poor school. If I couldn’t get it there I couldn’t get it — period.
You really need an education about the rural poor and urban poor.
Big cities get the big monies because they have big numbers of minorites and groups like the NAACP to fight for their interests.
There is no group that advocates for the rural poor, particularly the masses of rura, white poor. As evidence, read Catlady’s posts and drive up to Appalachia and see what real poverty looks like.
Pride and Joy
March 18th, 2013
6:02 pm
Things urban poor have but rural poor doest not:
The first Tuesday of the month many museums and attractions have free entrance fees including the Childrens’ museum and a bus ride or a short walk to get there.
In my hometown, we didn’t have a museum of any kind and no attractions of any kind and no buses or public transportation.
In urban Atlanta there are many free public pools with free swim hours daily.
In my home town, there were no public swimming pools.
In urban Atlanta, there are jobs programs for the poor. There is a GA Dept of Labor which helps people create resumes and helps them get jobs.
In my hometown there is no Department of Labor and no jobs to have. There were no fast food joints, no movie theaters, no malls, no nothing. There were zero job opportunites for older kids and very few for adults.
There was only one free recreational activity — football, and of course, most of the boys played it or basketball.
There were and still are no sports for girls in any shape or form. The best we could do was be a cheerleader at our own expense. We weren’t even allowed on the school bus to get to the games. Players, of course, were provided free rides to games as well as a healthy steak dinner beforehand and everything — free for football only.
Our churches were and still are, tiny. Once a year a deacon would drive to ATL and take we who could afford it to Six Flags. That was my big Summer vacation.
In urban Atlanta the poor kids can get a Marta ride to Six Flags and get a paying job there and afterward, ride the rides for free.
At Lakeside High School they have a swim team and a diving team and a pool for the school.
In my hometown, there was not a single public pool anywhere, especially not in the school.
It was not a family farm community as MM suggests, just a poor, rural small town and no advocates or lobbyists to fight for equality.
Truth in Moderation
March 18th, 2013
6:06 pm
@Catlady
“At one point my little poor system was losing several MILLIONS to the likes of Gwinnett.”
Well, at least they managed to find enough money to pay your TOP salary, even by Gwinnett standards. You did brag about it awhile back. I am certainly not implying that you aren’t worth every penny…..
Truth in Moderation
March 18th, 2013
6:20 pm
“It was not a family farm community as MM suggests, just a poor, rural small town and no advocates or lobbyists to fight for equality.”
Well, they could pull up roots and move to a nice urban area like DETROIT. There’s plenty of CHEAP housing there.
Or, they could use some good old fashioned ingenuity and CREATE a tourist attraction. That’s what Mr. Calloway did for Pine Mountain, Georgia. He owned many acres of undeveloped property. One day he noticed a car, with out -of- town license plates, pulled over and the driver was out of the car, just taking in the beautiful view of nature on the edge of his property. Calloway got the idea that many big city folks would like a beautiful nature preserve to visit and recharge their batteries. That was the beginning of Calloway Gardens. His good idea and hard work transformed raw property into a major Georgia tourist attraction. THIS IS THE KIND OF HELP THE SMALL TOWNS NEED. Not just another government handout.
bu2
March 18th, 2013
6:31 pm
To demonstrate the significance of those figures, if you don’t consider homestead and other exemptions (since I don’t have those figures and don’t know if the AJC data does), Gwinnett would be 23.2 instead of 19.25 to generate an extra $65 million.
For Dekalb it could be lowered from 23.985 to 18.1 if they didn’t have to give up $100 million in equalization. (From the county website-Dekalb tax basis 19.286 billion less Decatur 952 million less Atlanta in Dekalb 1.082 billion-Atlanta figure not on website-that one just my rough guesstimate=17.252 billion for DCSS). It takes 5.8 on that tax basis to generate $100 million.
mountain man
March 18th, 2013
6:40 pm
“For Dekalb it could be lowered from 23.985 to 18.1 if they didn’t have to give up $100 million in equalization.”
y’all guys are confusing me. To whom is Dekalb sending $100 million? Can you please document that.
Bernie
March 18th, 2013
7:26 pm
Pride and Joy @ 5:34 pm – To My ill informed friend here. POOR is POOR! In this nation it means to live without the the basics most average citizens expect, routinely. No matter the location of that Poor child be it Altanta, Appalachia WV, Miami, Oklahoma or the slums of Detroit. The common factor all the things these kids share, is a lack of available community and governmental services be it a quality education, recreational services and access to basic healthcare services. They are Lost ones of our society. The ones who have no advocate at City Hall or the State House. They are all treated the same. Treated with absolute INDIFFERENCE, with our Blessings as a group. Blaming one over the other is the fight we no can afford to have. it only breeds mistrust, hateful feelings and Its a Losing War, where both sides always lose. Your accusation maybe borne out of frustration and perception concerning this issue. However, I am here to inform you, that you are wrong on both counts! The Kids of the inner city are just as poor as those of rural America. The difference is that the inner city POOR problems are far much easier to hide and keep out of the light of examination, among the many who are not suffering along in their plight.
That my friend ,is the ONLY Difference in that shared experience. its no longer a Black or White experience as it once was. It is now more an American experience. One where many of US even HERE, are just one or two missed pay checks or a serious illness and/or injury away.
Gerald
March 18th, 2013
7:52 pm
Pride and Joy:
I grew up in a rural area – though I wasn’t exactly poor – and much of what you are saying is correct. However, allow me to point out that even though we were rural – and a lot of us were poor – we didn’t have to lock our doors at night. And even though illegitimacy and teen pregnancy were problems, there were a lot more extended families to help out with child rearing … grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins etc. as well as to take care of the elderly. Growing up poor in a rural area has its challenges, but the crime, violence, drugs, prostitution and chaotic out of control environments even in places where there should be discipline and order (see schools, public) that the urban poor goes through just does something to the mind. Read the book “There Are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in The Other America” by Alex Kotlowitz to see just a little of what I am talking about. Why simply being in an environment like that isn’t classified as child abuse I will never know. Yes, I live in the city now, but I am not poor. If I was poor, me and my kids would be on the next Greyhound to the country where being poor doesn’t mean having gang members and pimps hanging like vultures over your children. Yeah, 10 miles to the nearest library but that just means a lot of room for kids to run outside, play, go fishing, have gardens and pets etc. Contrast that to the many playgrounds in urban areas that no one sets foot on because the parents are terrified of the drug dealers and other criminals that control the territory. So be grateful for your rural poor background … it could have been a lot worse.
Gerald
March 18th, 2013
8:00 pm
If we could get broadband access and online courses to these schools, that would help solve some of these problems and address some of the gaps. But ultimately, the idea that a kid in Quitman is going to have the same educational opportunity as a kid in Gwinnett or Hall is ridiculous. No matter how much you spend per child, people living in urban areas are going to have access to more resources. You aren’t going to compensate for that even in your wildest socialist social engineering fantasies.
Here is the deal: living in an urban or suburban area has its advantages for the top 5% of the population that will go on to attend a selective university. But for the other 95% that will just wind up going to a regular state school or not attend college at all, there is no real advantage to jumping into the thick of the rat race just to put your kid into a high achieving public school. The traffic, the cliques, the pollution, the sky high cost of living, the stress on kids and marriages from the long hours that you have to put in to maintain that lifestype … if your kid is just going to wind up going to Georgia Southern or West Georgia instead of Georgia Tech or Vanderbilt anyway, it isn’t worth the trouble. You’re actually much better off living in a rural area or small town where it is much less stressful.
DrJS
March 18th, 2013
8:29 pm
The question I have is how does this equalization formula address differences in “Quality Basic Education” (QBE) which is what the equalization grants are supposedly all about. So the big question I have is, what are the criteria for stating that students have obtained some level of basic education? How does the equalization grants allow students to meet the basic criteria statewide?
From what I read, the formula is based upon the tax revenue per pupil independent of any educational outcomes. How does that help determine basic education outcomes? How does it equate to equalizing the educational opportunities across the state (the original intent of the equalization program)?
Basically, I come away with more questions than answers and the impressions I observe from the AJC articles leave me less than confident that equalization program is meeting its objectives.
Ned
March 18th, 2013
9:54 pm
Mt. Man–just because DeKalb (and Fulton and Cobb) aren’t losing PROPERTY tax revenue doesn’t mean they are not losing other tax revenue. As a DeKalb resident I would prefer ALL taxes collected in DeKalb stay in DeKalb, with none going to my “rural” neighbors 4 miles away. BTW Pride & Joy, I really don’t see how you can reason that counties with minorities are the winners here, with these three net loser counties having some of the highest minority population percentages in the state.
And didn’t “rural” Gwinnett win an award for “urban” school systems just last year?
LarryMajor
March 19th, 2013
7:27 am
DrJS, The equalization formula is purely financial. Outcomes don’t enter into it because it has a different purpose. Also, “relative wealth” refers strictly to the school system, not the income level of its citizens. Local school system revenue is based on property tax, not income tax, and a local system will receive a set amount of revenue from any given property regardless of its owner’s income level.
Despite Fort’s unwarranted complaining, Quitman’s tax base currently puts it in a far superior position to raise revenue than Gwinnett (or most other school systems, for that matter). The reason Quitman operates on one of the lowest millage rates in the state is that it generates the same per-student revenue as other systems in the 20 mill range. It is this inequity in the ability to raise revenue that equalization was designed to address.
The only reason “rural” enters into this is that, historically, rural school systems raised less per mill than other school systems. What changed in the past few years are real estate values; the intent and methodology of equalization funding is the same as it has always been.
Lastly, contrary to some comments here, no local tax revenue is used, either directly or indirectly, to fund equalization. It is a state budget item and is funded by standard state revenue streams. That’s why the Governor has the authority to set the amount.
Pride and Joy
March 19th, 2013
8:12 am
Ned, YOu’ve misunderstood. Gwinnett is URBAN! I advocate NOT GIVING money to Gwinnett and the likes.
Rural means rural. Populations LESS than 20k; that’s what I mean by rural poor.
Big cities like Gwinnett and ATL have it made compared to small, rural poor cities taht exist all over the South.
Big areas like Gwinnett and ATl and Detroit all have minority populations and big minority lobbyists like the NAACP. There is NO group or lobbyist helping real rural poor white kids.
And psssst…MM, hey, my hometown did not even have a bus station. No Greyhound bus to take me to that relative mecca that is Detroit where MY taxes were taken to preserve Detroit jobs in car manufacturing plants through the bailouts.
Gwinnett also has the Latino lobbyists who are now courted by the Republican party.
Who cares about the rural poor white kids?
No one in the State or federal government.
Their skin is simply not dark enough.
Pride and Joy
March 19th, 2013
8:17 am
Spoken like a true ignoramus “You’re actually much better off living in a rural area or small town where it is much less stressful.”
You’ve never been a poor white kid in a small Southern poor town.
Stress?
Plenty.
There was no section 8 housing. The only housing my family could afford was a cinder block one room home with no kitchen cabinets and no air-conditioning. Food was kept on boxes on the floor.
We didnt’ accept welfare and didn’t accept food stamps and we sure didn’t get a free lunch.
We packed our own and put up with the STRESS of which there was plenty.
Today’s minorities of blacks and Latinos have it made compared to how we lived.
Clarence
March 19th, 2013
8:41 am
@bu2 – DeKalb doesn’t give up anything for equalization – it is the primary funding formula that decides how the local five mill deduction is calculated. There are two formulas here. One, QBE, is a primary funding formula for all systems (that includes a deduction for the equivalent of five mills). You can argue the fairness of how the local five mill share impacts different systems differently, but that money is never TAKEN or GIVEN to anyone. The second, Equalization, is a formula designed to help systems with a low tax digest per FTE. Income doesn’t factor into anything because tax digest is the only way locals can earn money for schools. The per FTE part is why some rural systems don’t fair well under the current system, but you could just as easily argue that they don’t need the funds – if they only have enough students for one classroom per grade, why do they need more money?
bu2
March 19th, 2013
9:15 am
Counties like Gwinnett can support 19 better than a Quitman can support a 12 because of the income levels of the county and because its urban, not farm land. Gwinnett is “given” extra money. The formula also takes into account the level of taxes, so having lower taxes helps you get more state money, which makes no sense.
Larger districts also can generate vastly more in their SPLOST. So they do have sales tax resources in addition to property tax.
The idea on the small systems is the economies of scale that a large district has. Each needs a superintendent. Gwinnett’s isn’t paid 1000 times what the smallest county superintendent gets. There are lots of similar things that cost larger districts less per student.
zoe
March 19th, 2013
9:18 am
Considering that the state has taken tens of millions from the Clayton County school system by forgiving Delta for the gas tax monies it owed (love how the state forgave that, but it wasn’t monies owed to the state, they were owed to Clayton County) AND the state wants to stop Clayton from assessing Ad Valorum on businesses in the Clayton County area of the airport, I’d say the Clayton is well deserved of an equalization grant. Most of the airport is in Clayton County, but they do not benefit from much of it, except to house people arrested at the airport. Maybe if they were allowed the same benefits as APS, they wouldn’t need an equalization grant.
Pride and Joy
March 19th, 2013
9:51 am
Since we are content to split hairs:
Property owners pay property taxes.
Property owners get the money to pay property taxes by charging enough rent to cover ALL EXPENSES AND make a profit.
Sometimes property owners don’t make a profit because dirt-bags skip out on their rent or damage the property adn sometimes a plant closing or a bad economy causes people to be unable to pay their rent and then the property still has to pay the taxes or a lien is placed against the property by the county, which means, the property owner has to pay the taxes when the property is sold or they have to forfeit the property.
There are many renters who do not pay property taxes and those renters live in section 8 housing or public housing. In those cases, I, the honest, law-abiding citizen is paying for the indigent’s rent AND taxes while the section 8 property owner makes a profit.
So if you want to quibble about who is getting ripped off here…it’s me and people like me.
Truth in Moderation
March 19th, 2013
1:28 pm
@Pride and Joy
“The rural poor have no such opportunites. Unless you have lived as a child in a rural, poor area, you cannot possibly make the claims you do.
In my hometown the public library was ten miles away and we had no buses, no Marta, no nothing. The only books available to me where at my poor school. If I couldn’t get it there I couldn’t get it — period.
You really need an education about the rural poor and urban poor.”
Watch the following TED TALK. A Researcher from India presents research ON THIS VERY TOPIC! His findings may surprise you. The solution IS ACHIEVABLE. Perhaps YOU could be a part of the solution and provide the technology for your former community, yes?
http://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_the_child_driven_education.html
Gerald
March 19th, 2013
1:30 pm
@Pride and Joy:
Looks like you are neither prideful or joyful, but simply a bitter person with an axe to grind against black people and Hispanics. Well go vent at your Tea Party rally where you will find someone who cares. By the way, if you think that blacks run Gwinnett instead of white Republicans, you are sorely delusional in addition to being a race obsessed bitter crank. And it isn’t the NAACP that is screwing these rural counties over, it is the GOP who runs this state. But you won’t take it up with them because you are too busy being angry with blacks.
By the way, more whites receive public assistance than blacks. Always have. And the most expensive government programs, Social Security and Medicare, the ones that are bankrupting this country while Section 8 and foot stamps are pennies by comparison, are received disproportionately by whites.
And so you grew up poor. So what. You still had plenty of opportunities to make the best of it. If you didn’t, that isn’t the NAACP’s fault. It is your own. Most successful blacks and other minorities in this country never received a dime from a civil rights organization. Oh yes, and most blacks and other minorities in this country are not on public assistance and do not work government jobs. So you are barking up the wrong tree. So take your whine and cheese to your David Duke rally where somebody will give you a shoulder to cry on.
Pride and Joy
March 20th, 2013
6:38 pm
Gerald, I’m a Democrat and voted for Obama twice. The only tea party I had was for my dollies when I was a girl.
Rural poor is the poorest of all and rural whites have no one to advocate for them as black, urban, city dwellers do.
Period.