After learning abut the for-profit charter school issue from and the tax credits for private school tuition, I interpret today’s VDT articles as part of a political agenda to further dismantle a Georgia Constitutional right to Free Public School Education. Here we are again, let’s paint the schools as failing and then try to legitimize further defunding of the schools. And instead of Free Public Education the students from poor families will continue to get what ever is left when the well-to-do take their large piece of the public school education pie.
CHARTER SCHOOLS SERVE STUDENTS ALREADY SERVED WELL IN PUBLIC EDUCATION:
It is important that we understand that Free Public Education is clearly being
I could use quite a few verbs, adjectives, nouns to describe my year with K-12 and NONE of those would be complimentary. Public funds are used to the pay salaries plus all other expenses for this privilege to freely HOME SCHOOL a child. The lead educator is the LEARNING COACH (who is the stay-at-home relative). If I had wanted to be a TEACHER, I would have chosen an education career. Bottom line-slick way to divert public funds for private profit…. And now those kids can participate in public school sports. All those voices that rose up to defeat Lowndes-Valdosta Consolidation should RUN-not WALK to stop the PRIVATIZATION of PUBLIC EDUCATION in Georgia!Checking to see where Amy Carter, Ron Borders, Jay Shaw and other POLITICIANS stand on this issue. Been out of loop for a minute..Trying to make up for lost time with K-12..I am sure someone will update me. Thank you for your advocacy.
-Fannie Jackson
I don’t think Ron Borders holds any elected office, and Jay Shaw is retired; his son Jason Shaw was elected to the same statehouse seat. Here’s a list of our state elected officials.
I will work to improve our schools so our children have every opportunity to succeed. Too many students have dropped out of high school, and we have lost far too many good teachers due to budget cuts to our K-12 schools because, “…we live in challenging times and tight budgets”. The budget could not have been that tight if they were $23.5 million dollars available to fund an Administration building for Valdosta State University. Our elected representative should have been advising the Governor to Ear Mark that $23.5 million for the Georgia Department of Education in order to retain and hire more teachers and Para Pros.
Saturday I heard him say he opposes the charter schools constitutional amendment.
County Planner Jason Davenport described the problem, which came up in a request to rezone a piece of property that was partly zoned RA (Residential Agriculture) and partly Conservation:
We did get help from the clerk’s office to try to clear up when this property was zoned and why it was zoned conservation. I just don’t have anything [unintelligible]. We have minutes that say one thing and a zoning map that says another.
He said they had had limited time to investigate, and had not been able to resolve this issue.
That issue is still on the table. I would just remind you that in the grand scheme it is a minor issue.
Commissioner Richard Raines made the motion:
For my part I’m for rezoning the entire property RA and eliminating the conservation.
And that’s what they did. Which raises issues of what we should do.
Conservation records Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 28 February 2012 13 March 2012. Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).
It may have been a civil rights violation. But let’s talk about human rights violations. That young man was a human, and he deserved his human rights to be expected. And until we as a people — a people, black, white, Latino — come together and demand our human rights, this will continue to happen.
That young man didn’t deserve this because he was black. He didn’t deserve it because he was a human.
Human rights and American rights —JC Cunningham Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 22 March 2012. Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).
More excerpts:
But they didn’t even respect basic human rights basic American rights….
Ladies and gentlemen, we must write, we must continue to march, we must continue to speak, not amongst ourselves. Tonight I ask when you go home look to the right of you, to the left of you. I mean the houses to the right of you, the houses to the left of you. Ask them where they were tonight. Ask them what their thoughts are. What if it would have been their child. They would have been here. They would have been appalled if you were not here….
Don’t be afraid to talk to your white colleagues, don’t be afraid to talk to your hispanic colleagues. There’s nothing to be ashamed of to be out here and to demand, to demand your basic human rights.
ALEC seems, however, to have a special interest in privatization
— that is, on turning the provision of public services, from
schools to prisons, over to for-profit corporations. And some of the
most prominent beneficiaries of privatization, such as the online
education company K12 Inc. and the prison operator Corrections
Corporation of America, are, not surprisingly, very much involved
with the organization.
What this tells us, in turn, is that ALEC’s claim to stand for
limited government and free markets is deeply misleading. To a large
extent the organization seeks not limited government but privatized
government, in which corporations get their profits from taxpayer
dollars, dollars steered their way by friendly politicians. In
short, ALEC isn’t so much about promoting free markets as it is
about expanding crony capitalism.
And in case you were wondering, no, the kind of privatization ALEC
promotes isn’t in the public interest; instead of success stories,
what we’re getting is a series of scandals. Private charter schools,
for example, appear to deliver a lot of profits but little in the
way of educational achievement.
Think about that: we seem to be turning into a country where crony
capitalism doesn’t just waste taxpayer money but warps criminal
justice, in which growing incarceration reflects not the need to
protect law-abiding citizens but the profits corporations can reap
from a larger prison population.
Martin Luther King Jr. wrote from a Birmingham jail in 1963:
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
And today we have an organized threat to justice everywhere.
That threat is called ALEC.
The bird that could speak nine languages —Rev. Floyd Rose Sanford Florida where 17 year Trayvon was murdered, and the killer has not been arrested, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 22 March 2012. Video by George Boston Rhynes for bostongbr on YouTube.
Several protesters wore hooded sweat shirts, held boxes of Skittles and cans of iced tea. They asked if those items made them appear suspicious as well.
More excerpts:
“That this community and every community in this country will continue to press for Mr. Zimmerman’s arrest and conviction,” Rev. Rose told Gullberg.
The news that Sanford Police Chief Bill Lee temporarily stepped down sparked new life into the rally.
“We all know that he botched the investigation. He did not even arrest Mr. Zimmerman, which would have been standard practice,” said Rev. Rose.
“I think the story is still kind of broad right now, people want to know what’s happened. So I’m actually happy about the crowd that came out today,” Valdosta State University NAACP Chapter President DeAndre Jones told Gullberg.
Videos of the rally on the courthouse steps Thursday.
Please join me and SCLC at the Courthouse in Valdsota at 6:30 for a “Justice for Trayvon Martin” rally Thursday, March 22nd. Thousands of people all over the United States will be gathering, including thiousands in Sanford Florida where 17 year Trayvon was murdered, and the killer has not been arrested.
Come let your voice be heard: 6:30 Thursday, March 22nd.
Rally “Justice for Trayvon Martin” Floyd Rose, Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 22 March 2012. Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).
Well, sort of.
The links in the flash thing at the top do work again,
so you can get to detailed pages.
Well, some of them: Staff & Board works, but Meeting Schedule does not.
This description still applies:
It was also pointed out that meeting agendas and minutes were still
available on the crashed website, but were intermixed with coding
language.
The latest agenda is available.
I thank VLCIA again for that, as I did both in Citizens to Be Heard
and after the meeting Tuesday.
Doubtless VLCIA staff are doing what they can.
As an organizational issue, I wonder
if the electricity was out for a week at the VLCIA office
would the Industrial Authority do this:
Continue reading →
A key legislative committee on Tuesday approved sweeping changes to Georgia's criminal justice system in a sentencing reform package intended to control prison spending and ensure costly prison beds are reserved for the state's most dangerous criminals.
credits for private school tuition, I interpret today’s VDT articles as part of a political agenda to further dismantle a Georgia Constitutional right to Free Public School Education. Here we are again, let’s paint the schools as failing and then try to legitimize further defunding of the schools. And instead of Free Public Education the students from poor families will continue to get what ever is left when the well-to-do take their large piece of the public school education pie.
