Your morning jolt: $30 million in traffic fees diverted from driver’s ed
Something to remember next time a victim’s name is attached to a piece of legislation. From Dorrie Turner and the Associated Press:
More than $30 million in traffic fees collected for driver’s education courses across Georgia in the last few years hasn’t been spent on helping teens learn how to drive, according to a state audit released Wednesday.
Since 2009, state lawmakers haven’t appropriated any money to the Georgia Driver’s Education Commission even though a special fee for the programs tacked on to traffic tickets has brought in about $10 million per year, the audit found. Of the $57 million collected since Joshua’s Law took effect in 2005, just $8 million has gone to driver’s education, which led to at least three high schools shutting down their programs, the audit found.
The money, instead, is being spent to plug state budget deficits.
***
Gov. Nathan Deal will hold a news conference this morning to announce a “comprehensive plan for improving college completion rates.” You have to wonder if he’s moving in the same direction as Texas Gov. Rick Perry. From today’s Washington Post:
Perry has proposed that the state’s top colleges come up with a four-year degree that costs no more than $10,000 — a goal that skeptics say cannot be achieved without sacrificing academic quality and prestige.
***
11Alive reports that a racist flyer is being distributed in Alpharetta, accusing a Fulton County charter school of being a “terrorist training camp.” From the WXIA web site:
“Every paragraph is racist and hate-filled,” said Fiona Bagley who received the flyer in her mailbox Wednesday morning.
The flyer was circulated by a group calling itself the “Milton County Tea Party Patriots Citizens Council.”
Georgia has many, many groups that have incorporated “tea party” into their names. One of the largest, Georgia Tea Party Patriots, disavowed the flyer. Julianne Thompson, one of the state coordinators said she’d never heard of the group. More:
The flyer uses several racial slurs and refers to Muslims as “camel jockeys” and “ragheads.”
The flyer ostensibly tries to mobilize opposition to Amana Academy — a Fulton County charter school that opened in 2005. Amana offers students in kindergarten through eighth grade language classes in Arabic.
***
The GOP presidential campaign of Newt Gingrich on Wednesday hit back at suggestions that many of Gingrich’s 1.3 million Twitter followers might be artificial. The statement issued by Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond to many media outlets:
At no time has the campaign or Gingrich Communications employed an outside group to inflate the number of followers of @newtgingrich. Any accusation of the kind is a lie, a smear and unsubstantiated.
Twitter’s addition of @newtgingrich to the suggested user list is responsible for a large, but indeterminable amount of followers. Twitter users follow Newt the same way they elect to follow Ashton Kutcher, Shaquille O’Neal or John McCain. Twitter alone is the authority on counting followers and policing their legitimacy.
One new analytic company, PeekYou, reported that only a small percentage of Gingrich’s Twitter followers actually seemed to be real people. But Ben Smith at Politico.com reports that PeekYou founder Michael Hussey, backed off allegations that Gingrich operatives had intentionally puffed up their standings, “saying that Gingrich’s place on Twitter’s now-defunct suggested user list was also a good explanation for the data he found.”
***
The post on GOP presidential candidate Jon Huntsman’s Aug. 23 and 24 visit to Atlanta had been up only 10 minutes before a Mitt Romney operative in Georgia provided proof that the former U.S. ambassador to China had been bracketed.
Josh Romney, one of the many Romney sons, will be in Atlanta Aug. 17 for a fund-raiser. The candidate’s wife, Ann Romney will have a fund-raising luncheon in Atlanta on Aug. 31.
- By Jim Galloway, Political Insider
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66 comments Add your comment
deegee
August 4th, 2011
10:14 am
I would like to see how much Joshua’s law cost the taxpayers of Georgia. Pure revenue figures don’t tell the story. I think that every lawmaker that sponsors some new piece of legislation should be responsible for letting us know a year after it was implemented how much it actually cost to implement and how much it actually saved us.
campaign worker
August 4th, 2011
10:25 am
Fake “Tea Party” literature was distributed in the 2010 elections, too. It’s probably the same or similar people who had a group called “Georgia Families Deserve the Best”
Tommy Gunn
August 4th, 2011
10:46 am
As a BOE member I heard a demonstration on adding Drivers Ed as a regular class, and utilizing the funds from this law. We passed, for the exact reasons presented here. You can’t trust the state to give you the money. Great idea, bad execution.
On another note, the colleges could easily have a degree that would truly be achievable in 4 years at $10,000. Problem is, that would mean they would have to concentrate on education, cut the fluff, money generating classes. Allow students to take the first year math and english courses and cut out the remedials, and make the “fees” (taxes by any other name) elective. (If you plan to attend athletic events, you pay the fee, etc.) A day of reckoning is upon the college elite, though they might not realize it yet.
td
August 4th, 2011
10:54 am
I am sure this is an Obama unaffiliated progressive group that is starting the campaign strategy to try to discredit the Tea party so that independent suburban women voters will say Obama is the lesser of two evils so we will vote for him again.
I was watching Morning Joe this morning and they said there is no way Obama can win re election on his record or the economy so he is going to have to run the most negative campaign in the history of this country. He has to discredit the Tea Party and whoever the Republican nominee is will be bashed from day one. Just like Palin was 4 years ago.
JoeV
August 4th, 2011
11:02 am
td,
Your ignorance knows NO bounds. I swear you are probably the biggest idiot I have EVER interacted with and that is saying a lot considering I live in GA.
Hazel
August 4th, 2011
11:03 am
“I am sure this is an Obama unaffiliated progressive group that is starting the campaign strategy to try to discredit the Tea party so that independent suburban women voters will say Obama is the lesser of two evils so we will vote for him again.”
Proof?
Maybe these are the same people who darkened the photos of Gordon Joyner a few years back, before Obama was even known. Of course, if they can plant the birth announcement 50 years ago, this would be a piece of cake!
Real Athens
August 4th, 2011
11:04 am
“I am sure this is an Obama unaffiliated progressive group that is starting the campaign strategy to try to discredit the Tea party”
The Tea Party discredits themselves just fine. They need no help. Why aren’t they decrying the diversion of funds from Georgia students to plug holes in an entirely GOP state budget?
Because the Tea Party and the GOP are one in the same.
td
August 4th, 2011
11:12 am
JoeV
August 4th, 2011
11:02 am
The hit dog is screaming. Typical liberal tactic. When you can not defend your position go on the attack and try to discredit. You and I both know that this was not a direct Obama campaign tactic (and I said it) but is the exact type of tactics that will come out in force in the next few months. This is the only way he has a chance to win re election.
So keep on attacking and I will be here to keep pointing out what this socialist administration is doing.
double
August 4th, 2011
11:13 am
TD go fill up you car with shale.Makes as much sense as your knocking Obama.He Obama is not cause of all ills.He inherited most of nations problems,and has not improved them.Who could have done better?You probably think you could.You’re so hung up on self.
td
August 4th, 2011
11:18 am
Hazel
August 4th, 2011
11:03 am
“Proof?”
No proof and that is why I was very careful in saying “Obama unaffiliated progressive group”. This is just the types of tactics we are going to see in the next several months. We have already heard the attacks from other unaffiliated groups bashing the Tea Party as being racist. It fits the profile of the progressive narrative.
Road Scholar
August 4th, 2011
11:25 am
td; Look out for that boogieman over your shoulder! Are we paranoid? Watching Morning Joe? What? Your tv has more channels than Fox News?
While not using the money for its intended purpose is disgusting, didn’t the governor state previously that all the specific taxes that are to be used for specific programs could not be traced ?
Hazel
August 4th, 2011
11:26 am
No proof and that is why I was very careful in saying “Obama unaffiliated progressive group”
Again, why not some of the folk that passed around the numerous email cartoons and the monkey dolls and the store owners who put statements on their billboards? Why not the people who actually feel this way? When you see a person hit by a car, you shouldn’t assume they did it to try to sue the driver. I guess the Klan is actually a front for the NAACP.
CobbGOPer
August 4th, 2011
11:31 am
Colleges need to move away from this rigid “four-year” degree. Why, if I’m majoring in computer science, do I need to take a bunch of other classes that have nothing to do with computer science? You take two years of “core classes” which for the most part simply rehash things we learned (or should have) in high school, and only then do we get to our “major” classes. We can cut two years of classes – and costs – out right there. If I’m a political science major, teach me political science. Don’t make me take two biology classes, a health class, a psychology class, and myriad other classes that relate in no way (or very tenuously) to political science.
But colleges and universities nowadays are all about making money in order to grow as much as possible, become “research” schools, and then further profit off the innovations and research of their professors and students.
GaBlue
August 4th, 2011
11:35 am
td,
Tsk, tsk. Maybe you’re right; maybe you’re wrong. Learn how to say “I suspect” instead of “I am sure” and you won’t come off as such an arrogant blowhard all the time. As to your feelings about the tactics of bashing… cracker, please! Trying to pin that only on progressives — while failing to acknowledge it in your own comrades — is the epitome of “disingenuous.” NO ONE believes that negative campaigning is one-sided. Not even you.
deegee
August 4th, 2011
11:41 am
“He has to discredit the Tea Party and whoever the Republican nominee is will be bashed from day one. Just like Palin was 4 years ago.”
That’s after whoever emerges as the republican candidate is bashed by his/her own party during the primary.
Oh Intown Writer...
August 4th, 2011
11:52 am
This is what the State of Florida Board of Regents did years ago. By making folks graduate within 4 years, they get more cash cows through the doors.
On the downside, it lead the the total dumbing down of degrees across the board, and flagship universities all knew it. The UF Engineering Dept grads were not happy. Try getting a degree in a top engineering school in 4 years… if you want a broad base of classes and a little bit of sleep, it’s not a walk in the park. The same applies to many other disciplines, esp. if you try to shoehorn in a real internship or field work as well.
So as the Florida degrees were watered down in content and stature, so too will be the Georgia system degrees.
Tom
August 4th, 2011
11:54 am
Same tactic as the covert libs who would show up at TP rallies/events with inflammatory signs or dressed as Nazis.
Centrist
August 4th, 2011
11:56 am
td,
I see the usual AJC socialist posters are out in force this morning. I am more toward the political center than you and the few other Republican posters here, but welcome your balance on this leftist blog (which certainly does not represent the GA electorate).
Oh Intown Writer...
August 4th, 2011
11:56 am
Oh, and a broad education, at least generally conversant in a variety of fields impacting one’s life, used to be the mark of a valuable member of society. Plenty of religious institutions made their students read on all sorts of subjects. Because to contribute to the betterment of society, you really needed to know something.
The world is full of computer geeks who have absolutely no understanding about the field that they’re programming for, and as a result produce overly complicated programs and systems that don’t effectively produce any value-add. And as someone who looks at those candidates with the other hiring decision makers, we promptly circular-file their job applications.
If you cannot think broadly, you cannot problem solve for our clients. And all that classwork you took is going to be obsolete in 2 yrs anyways – and if you can’t creatively and wholistically think, you ain’t got crap to offer us to stay viable as consultants.
DannyX
August 4th, 2011
12:02 pm
Centrist @ 11:56 ” I am more toward the political center”
How so? You have mostly extremist views.
Cobbian
August 4th, 2011
12:06 pm
We need people educated in what it is to be a citizen and a member of society, not just in the nuts and bolts of a career. It seems to me that the idea of creating the “educated man” has been distorted into some sort of fancy, higher brow trade school. If all someone wants is to be able to perform within a limited career field, then what he wants is not a college education. What he wants is career training. And I suggest that is why we have so many college degreed people who cannot write, speak poorly, and have limited critical thinking skills.
We are pawns to be manipulated if we cannot discern when we are being manipulated.
Go to this link to see why real education is not career training. The link takes you to a civics quiz. After taking the quiz, click the links to the web site and see how well others have done. Almost everyone fails, but one of the groups that is worse than the overall score is elected officials.
http://www.isi.org/quiz.aspx?q=FE5C3B47-9675-41E0-9CF3-072BB31E2692
Centrist
August 4th, 2011
12:14 pm
I am repeatedly shown that the majority of conservatives write polite posts here, while the liberals make personal attacks. Just today td has been called: “ignorant” by JoeV, double “hung up on self”, “paranoid” by Road Scholar, and “arrogant, blowhard, disingenuous” by Ga Blue.
@ DannyX – You think extremism is everything right of your leftist views. I do not support the right wing or left wing of either party. Examples of non-Republican/TEA party views – I don’t push for a Christian theocracy, am pro-choice, and support Obama’s call for tax reform to close the capital gains/ trust/ and other loopholes made for the truly wealthy and corporations (just not until the economy improves), and I don’t have any animosity toward President Obama.
td
August 4th, 2011
12:15 pm
Centrist
August 4th, 2011
11:56 am
I am not as far to the right as you may think. For example: I think the loopholes should be removed from the tax code but that the tax code should be flattened and taxpayers should be expanded (we tax SS benefits so why not make people count as income Child Support, Medicaid, Section 8 and even Food Stamps). I also think that in order to save SS that we should start gradually raising the age of retirement and at the same time start gradually raising the cut off amount of money a person has to continue to contribute.
td
August 4th, 2011
12:17 pm
DannyX
August 4th, 2011
12:02 pm
Centrist @ 11:56 ” I am more toward the political center”
How so? You have mostly extremist views.
You my friend would think that anyone to the right of Lenin was an extremist. You really need to get out a little more and experoance the real world.
deegee
August 4th, 2011
12:18 pm
Oh Intown Writer, you are so correct. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard end users complain about brand new applications that make it harder for them to perform their job. Unfortunately we have become a metrics driven workplace with limited interaction between the business and the technical sides of a company. The people that develop software should have some working knowledge of the business application of the software.
Problem solving is a method that can be learned. It is difficult to evaluate problem solving proficiency in the workplace via metric performance measurements. Therefore, it is undervalued in the workplace. In other words a person that takes 20 support calls in a day and solves 10 problems looks better on paper than a person that takes 10 calls in a day and solves all of them.
Trusslady
August 4th, 2011
12:20 pm
May I request that you all quit feeding the td troll!
Politi Cal
August 4th, 2011
12:25 pm
Just what “race” as Muslims? I though tthey came in all shades, like Christians.
Centrist
August 4th, 2011
12:26 pm
@ Trusslady – again you make my point about liberals making personal attacks.
@ DannyX – I have voted for the Democrats running against both of our U.S. Senators (corporate shills), Attorney General (various reasons), and Libertarians for most other offices (including President).
td
August 4th, 2011
12:28 pm
Trusslady
August 4th, 2011
12:20 pm
May I request that you all quit feeding the td troll!
My dear I have been on this blog for more than two years now. Troll would refer that I was getting paid to come on here and post. I would love to be able to get paid so if you could just please point me in the right direction to collect some money then I would be more than happy to go and apply.
DannyX
August 4th, 2011
12:30 pm
“You my friend would think that anyone to the right of Lenin was an extremist. You really need to get out a little more and experoance the real world.”
I may be a far left extremist liberal td, but I know a hell of a lot about politics. Its very easy to see where people line up around here. When I see a fraud I will call them out. Centrist is a fraud.
amazing
August 4th, 2011
12:37 pm
I presume Obama will be the reason the state diverted the funds. On a more serious note, Jim, how much money was collected in fines from the new super speeder law and how much was actually given to trauma centers? My gut tells me you will find a similar story. This also serves as proof point that Democrats are not the only political party proficient at playing the shell game!
td
August 4th, 2011
12:41 pm
td
August 4th, 2011
12:28 pm
Trusslady
August 4th, 2011
12:20 pm
BTW: I am not a Republican (although the last Dem I voted for was Sam Nunn). My personal domestic philosophy is more closely aligned with the libertarian party and I am more of a neocon when it comes to international affairs. I do vote conservative the vast majority of the time because the socialist in this country will never allow people to suffer the consequences of their actions, so we have to have some government control over peoples actions.
I know where I stand and can explain why. Can you?
Centrist
August 4th, 2011
12:42 pm
Let’s add DannyX to the list of liberals who make personal attacks when he calls me “a fraud”. Stating one’s political opinions is not fraud – mine just never intersects with someone who admittedly says “I may be a far left extremist liberal”.
Mr. Holmes
August 4th, 2011
12:46 pm
You take two years of “core classes” which for the most part simply rehash things we learned (or should have) in high school, and only then do we get to our “major” classes.
CobbGOPer: The kind of school you suggest already exists: it’s called DeVry, and it’s accepting applications right now. I encourage your children to look into it, as the admission standards are fairly lenient.
But colleges and universities nowadays are all about making money in order to grow as much as possible, become “research” schools, and then further profit off the innovations and research of their professors and students.
I admire the tone of your post. I can almost see the spittle leaving your mouth as you utter these words. Once upon a time, an educated populace and a vibrant U.S. research base was considered a value to the nation. Now, unfortunately, we have people like you, and by gosh, look at those Chinese and Indians catching up to us. I’m sure it’s all a coincidence.
td
August 4th, 2011
12:49 pm
DannyX
August 4th, 2011
12:30 pm
I think I am pretty in tune with politics as well and I think you are wrong my friend.
Centrist is the prime example of that 20% of the electorate that are responsible for electing the President. Reagen Democrat, soccer mom, security mom or whtever the press is naming them in this political cycle. These people are right leaning (especially on the finiance side and defense side) but are pretty socially progressive. They are the surburban white married women that put Obama over the top in the last election and will be the ones to decide if he has another term or not.
Pamela
August 4th, 2011
12:49 pm
They need to put drivers education back into all of the public schools in Georgia. I guarantee you that if they do that the mortality rate will go down for or caused by teen drivers.
GaBlue
August 4th, 2011
12:54 pm
Claiming to be a centrist while slapping labels on other people is like saying, “I will label YOU but don’t you dare label ME with any nasty labels, because unlike YOU, I am in the middle and therefore uniquely authorized to dispense nasty labels.”
At least, that’s how it looks from where I’m sitting. (That’s my opinion, not something I claim to “know for sure.”)
td
August 4th, 2011
12:55 pm
Pamela
August 4th, 2011
12:49 pm
They need to put drivers education back into all of the public schools in Georgia. I guarantee you that if they do that the mortality rate will go down for or caused by teen drivers.
I may agree with you on the need for drivers ed would benefit the future drivers. What really needs to happen is kids should not be driving until they are 18.
GaBlue
August 4th, 2011
1:00 pm
Pamela,
AMEN, sister! Few skills are more important to the life of a 21st-Century American than the safe and proper operation of an automobile. LIVES are at stake! That anyone would deem it an unnecessary expense to educate our youth in this vital skill is something I cannot understand. There’s is no reset button on a life that’s shattered or extinguished on the roadway. Unless you care about no one, then you are or will be affected by bad driving! When that happens, it won’t matter who is or is not to blame, or whose “failure” it was to educate. It won’t matter because it will be too late. D’OH!
jconservative
August 4th, 2011
1:03 pm
I agree with the General Assembly, Georgia kids do not need drivers education. Just give them a license and let them get On The Job Training.
LH
August 4th, 2011
1:08 pm
TO CobbGOPer – GA Tech colleges already offer “stepped” programs – go for a two semesters and get a certificate that prepares you for an industry certification then go get a diploma then associate degree then move on to the four year bachelor degree
DannyX
August 4th, 2011
1:10 pm
GaBlue nails it at 12:54
Centrist @ 12:42 “Let’s add DannyX to the list of liberals who make personal attacks when he calls me “a fraud”.”
Add me to the list of name callers? That has to be one of the biggest cop outs of all time. You will not find a single instance of me ever doing any name calling, nor do I make personal attacks. I have asked you repeatedly how your view on a issue could be considered “centrist.” I’m calling you a fraud because you can never back up your claim as a centrist. You are mainly extreme, hardly ever center. td is not a fraud, we know where he stands and he doesn’t try to pretend to be something he is not.
Department of the Obvious
August 4th, 2011
1:11 pm
I guess I’m a rabid, left-wing socialist if I think that if the legislature enacts a law to charge me a fee (i.e., a tire disposal fee when I buy new tires that is supposed to go into a trust fund to remove illegal solid waste dumps) instead of into the general budget.
I felt it was wrong when the dems did it, and I think its still wrong when the GOP does it. So call me a jihadist, idiotic libtard if you want, but I still think its wrong.
Centrist
August 4th, 2011
1:13 pm
@GaBlue – If people espouse liberal, lefitst, socialist, conservative, right, Tea Party views – I figure they are on that side of the political spectrum unless they state and give examples otherwise. Most posters are likely Democrats or Republicans to varying degrees. I pegged td as a conservative Republican until he said he was more of a Libertarian. I figure you to be a liberal Democrat. Am I right?
Aquagirl
August 4th, 2011
1:17 pm
I see the usual AJC socialist posters are out in force this morning.
Yes, those darn socialists—always asking for proof or facts when you blow wingnut accusations out your bum. What a bunch of killjoys. Can’t a man just enjoy his self-constructed fantasyland in peace?
Centrist
August 4th, 2011
1:18 pm
@ DannyX – I have often posted things that folks on the right have disagreed with. They did not call me a fraud or extremist, though. Are you a selective reader? Please see my posts at 12:14 and 12:26 today for examples.
Centrist
August 4th, 2011
1:22 pm
I swore off engaging the constantly satirical name calling liberal “girl” here, but see she had to use her “wingnut” slur today to join the rest of the list. She has lots more – but I wrote her off long ago.
Just Wait
August 4th, 2011
1:23 pm
Someone should tell ole Nathan that his efforts should be getting kids to finish high school. Worry about college later.
GaBlue
August 4th, 2011
1:25 pm
Centrist,
Sorry. I am a moderate Democrat, and lean toward the libertarian side on many issues. I understand the confusion, though, because the degree to which one is labeled L or C is largely tied to geography and the times. For the record, I’d prefer to dispense with labels and discuss individual issues rationally, looking at the big picture, with pragmatic, long-term solutions in mind. Partisan bickering isn’t do us (the American people) any damn good whatsoever that I can see.
Tom
August 4th, 2011
1:28 pm
REAL Tea Party has no social agenda (conservative, or otherwise)….period.