and why I call on them to stand up and say whether they are for or against it:
the same old disproved disinformation sent again yesterday by a
CUEE board member from
the Chamber’s own email address to Chamber members.
If you support CUEE, you support this disinformation campaign
instead of real research that shows consolidation would do nothing
to improve education, it would raise everyone’s taxes, and
it would not help attract industry.
Instead, it would seriously damage public education.
This is not a time to be silent. Which side are you on? CUEE and the Chamber’s propaganda campaign? Or public education, and you will vote no?
CUEE Board Member “Jud Rackley, CPA” emailed yesterday from chamber@valdostachamber.com, subject “The Truth About School Taxes and Unification”, including:
I’ve heard several people say school unification will cause a significant tax increase. Yet, no one seems to know why this would happen. It appears this rumor is based on a document circulated by the Lowndes County Board of Education.
Dr. Troy Davis
spelled out why taxes would increase,
based on actual tax statements, plus information from the Lowndes County
Tax Assessors’ office and the actual budgets of the Valdosta and Lowndes
County School Systems.
See also former Valdosta
School Superintendent Sam Allen’s partial list
of massive layoffs, service cuts, and school closings
caused by reduced income because of less federal and state funding,
and increased costs due to bussing.
And the formal statements against consolidation approved overwhelmingly
by both school boards.
In addition to these statements by people with actual experience in school
administration, see also
the extensive statement against consolidation by the Valdosta City Council,
and
even the VDT turned against this consolidation effort.
If that’s not enough, David Mullis has compiled all the research
into a convenient
Grassroots Handbook Against School Consolidation.
Opposed to all this evidence, we have this undocumented letter Continue reading