Tag Archives: Education

a “public dialog” —Alex Jones

Received today on Three things to actually improve education. This CUEE supporter completely ignores all three things I recommended to improve education; I will respond in more detail in the next post. -jsq
I have actually attended several of the public meetings and listened to the discussions from the Education Planning Committee. I’m not sure if you realize this or not, but the committee consists of parents, concerned residents and educators from both school systems and VSU. The committee also has members who are supportive and opposed to school unification, and it includes both city and county residents. In fact, Sam Allen even attended and participated in the last meeting.

The objective of the Education Planning Committee is to

Continue reading →

Here, it’s your hot potato —VLCIA to Andrea Schruijer

VLCIA has its first regular meeting with its new executive director today, 5:30 PM, in the Industrial Authority Conference Room, 2110 N. Patterson Street. They’ve lobbed the biomass hot potato to her.

David Rodock wrote in the VDT 14 July 2011, Industrial Authority welcomes new director,

When it comes to the proposed biomass facility and maintaining a healthy relationship with the Georgia Department of Economic Development, which assisted the Industrial Authority in attracting the project, Schruijer believes staff and board members will be able to work through the situation.

“With economic development, it can be difficult to juggle a lot of different items,” said Schruijer. “It’s a balancing act to make sure you have all the parties involved and educated on the situation. The Department of Economic Development was there to help us recruit the project and they did just what they were supposed to do. In fact, they went above and beyond their duties by brushing over this project with a fine tooth comb. We worked with them and they worked with us. It seemed like a good project, and I think we’ll be able to work through this, maintain a good relationship with them as long as we keep the avenues for communication open.”

That sounds like Industrial-speak for they’re going to “move on to” things that do work. However she chooses to phrase it, it’s about time.

Regarding transparency: Continue reading →

Three things to actually improve education —John S. Quarterman

People ask me why I oppose CUEE. It’s because I’d rather actually improve education instead.

It seems to me the burden of proof is on the people proposing to make massive changes in the local education system. And CUEE has not provided any evidence for their position. Sam Allen of Friends of Valdosta City Schools (FVCS) pithily sums up CUEE:

“It’s not about the children. It’s about somebody’s ego.”
I don’t think the children should have to suffer for somebody’s ego.

CUEE’s unification push isn’t about education. It’s about a “unified platform” to attract industry. That alone is enough reason to oppose “unification”. It’s not about education!

As former Industrial Authority Chair Jerome Tucker has been heard to remark on numerous occassions, “nobody ever asked me how many school systems we had!” The only example in Georgia CUEE points to for this is the Kia plant that came to Troup County, Georgia. It’s funny how none of the locals seem to have mentioned any such connection in the numerous articles published about the Kia plant. Instead, the mayor of the town with the Kia plant complains that his town doesn’t have a high school. That’s right: he’s complaining that the school system is too consolidated! The only actual education between Kia and education in Troup County is with West Georgia Tech, the local technical college.

CUEE has finally cobbled together an education committee, but it won’t even report back before the proposed ballot referendum vote. CUEE has no plan to improve education.

If CUEE actually did want to help the disadvantaged in the Valdosta City schools, Continue reading →

Ohio selling off prisons

The governor of Ohio created a budget shortfall, and wants to solve it by selling off private prisons in “a yard sale” in a recession, like “a junkie” for “his next fix.”

According to testimony by a nonpartisan research institute:

“The biggest source of Ohio’s budget problem is not overspending or compenstation for public employees. It is a reduction in revenue.
…
The tax changes also were weighted to high-income Ohioans. More than 40 percent of the income-tax cuts are going to the five percent of families with income of $135,000 or more a year. Meanwhile, the bottom three-fifths of Ohio families will receive just 13 percent of the total tax cut.
According to a recent poll, the people of Ohio think this is unfair and don’t believe the governor can fix the budget without raising taxes.

There are other reasons selling off prisons to private prison companies such as CCA is a bad idea.

Mark Niquette wrote for Bloomberg 29 June 2011, Kasich Tries to Avoid Arizona’s Mistakes in Ohio Prison Selloff:

Still, Democratic lawmakers, including Representative Matt Lundy of Elyria, question whether Ohio is making a wise move.

“The buyer wins and the taxpayers lose when we sell in the middle of a recession,” Lundy said during press conference last month, calling the move “a yard sale.”

Selling assets for “one-time” money is a mistake, Louisiana Treasurer John Kennedy said. He opposed a plan by Republican Governor Bobby Jindal to sell three prisons to raise $90 million, a proposal the Legislature didn’t approve.

“A junkie can sell his TV or his stereo or his iPod and generate money for his next fix,” Kennedy, also a Republican, said in a telephone interview from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. “But if he’s going to ever get well, he needs to face his addiction.”

An even better quote in that story comes from CCA’s own Steve Owen: Continue reading →

an End to ICE/Local Police Collaboration

Another Sunday, more church people against private prisons.

A year ago, on 29 July 2010, Letter to Secretary Napolitano Calling for an End to ICE/Local Police Collaboration and a Halt to Expansion of Immigration Detention System:

On the occasion of the scheduled implementation of Arizona’s racial profiling law, SB 1070, veterans of the civil rights movement and representatives of social justice and faith-based community organizations in Georgia today issued a letter to the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano, calling on her to put an end to 287(g) and other ICE-local police collaborations which lead to racial profiling and separation of families, and halt the expansion of the inhumane, profit-driven immigration detention system.

“As veterans of the civil rights movement and representatives of social-justice and faith-based organizations in Georgia, we urge you to take the bold steps necessary to end this unjust system that creates divided families and improbable prisoners,” says the letter. Signatories of the letter include: Constance Curry, a veteran of the civil rights movement and Atlanta-based writer and activist; Edward Dubose, President of the Georgia State Conference NAACP; Ajamu Baraka, Executive Director of the U.S. Human Rights Network; Jerome Scott, Founder and Board Chair of Project South; Reverend Gregory Williams, President of Atlantans Building Leadership for Empowerment (ABLE); and many others.

Only seven months later Rev. Gregory Williams and others got to speak against the all-too-similar Georgia law, HB 87. Jeremy Redmon wrote for the AJC 3 March 2011, House passes Arizona-style bill aimed at illegal immigration: Continue reading →

Too many people are making literally billions from the illicit drug trade —Major Neill Franklin

The only way to stop drug lords from reaping billions from the drug trade is to end drug prohibition, says a former leader of the drug war. The same applies to private prison companies reaping millions.

Tony O’Neill wrote 14 June 2011 in The Fix, Why Growing Numbers of Police Are Slamming Drug Prohibition:

For decades, police were convinced that total prohibition was the only way to end America’s deadly drug wars. Now thousands of cops are not only having second thoughts but actually taking to the streets in protest.

“I was pro-prohibition: that’s what my training was about!” says Major Neill Franklin, Executive Director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), who previously served for 33 years with the Maryland State Police and the Baltimore police forces on the front line of America’s longest running war. “Even though I grew up in Baltimore and saw what was going on, we were taught and trained to believe that if we push hard enough, if we lock up the people involved, then this will eventually dissipate, or at least be reduced to a manageable level.” He gives a long, world-weary sigh. “Of course back then I had no clue…You just can’t tell somebody not to use and they’re gonna stop using! As long as there are people willing to buy, and as long as people don’t have employment, then you’re going to have an illicit drug trade. I saw that we made these arrests—we locked up dealers and users alike—and it might get quiet for a few days, or even a couple of weeks, but give it time and it all starts up again.”

The War on Drugs has failed. Like alcohol prohibition before it, it breeds more violence. Law enforcement against it just makes it worse: Continue reading →

Portugal as forerunner for U.S. states repealing drug prohibition

If Portugal can do it, Washington state or even Georgia can do it.

For comparison:

Population
Portugal 10.632 million
Washington (U.S.)6.664 million
Georgia (U.S.)9.829 million
California (U.S.)36.962 million
So Portugal, which has successfully decriminalized drugs, is similar in scale to a mid-sized U.S. state. Somewhat bigger than Washington state, which just almost got marijuana decriminalization on a ballot, and of whose voters almost a majority support it. With a little more work, people against prohibition could get Washington to be the first state to end marijuana prohibition. Too bad they’re not going for all drugs, like Portugal did, but marijuana offences account probably for the most drug-related lockups, so that’s a good place to start. Still, the problem won’t be solved until the drug cartels and the prison-industrial-complex are deprived of their drug-related income by legalizing the rest, and taxing them so states derive income from them.

Meanwhile we could refuse to participate by declining a private prison in Lowndes County, Georgia, and spending that tax money on rehabilitation and education instead.

-jsq

Portugal ends drug prohibition and addiction declines

According to AFP 1 July 2011, Portugal drug law show results ten years on, experts say
Health experts in Portugal said Friday that Portugal’s decision 10 years ago to decriminalise drug use and treat addicts rather than punishing them is an experiment that has worked.

“There is no doubt that the phenomenon of addiction is in decline in Portugal,” said Joao Goulao, President of the Institute of Drugs and Drugs Addiction, a press conference to mark the 10th anniversary of the law.

The number of addicts considered “problematic” — those who repeatedly use “hard” drugs and intravenous users — had fallen by half since the early 1990s, when the figure was estimated at around 100,000 people, Goulao said.

Other factors had also played their part however, Goulao, a medical doctor added.

“This development can not only be attributed to decriminalisation but to a confluence of treatment and risk reduction policies.”

Portugal’s holistic approach had also led to a “spectacular” reduction in the number of infections among intravenous users and a significant drop in drug-related crimes, he added.

So what did they do? Continue reading →

Wiregrass Tech town hall on a soft skills/work ethics curriculum 8 August 2011

Found on the Lowndes County web pages:

Town Hall Meeting

with state and local leaders
Monday, August 8, 2011
6:30 p.m.-8:00 p.m.

Wiregrass Georgia Technical College
Brooks Hall Conference Center
4089 Val-Tech Road, Valdosta

Give your input on a
soft skills/work ethics curriculum
required by House Bill 186 to help
prepare our future workforce for success and
help our businesses and industries to prosper.

Meeting will be moderated by Melvin Everson,
Executive Director of the Governor’s Office
of Workforce Development.

For directions or information please call 229-333-2121.

Tinkering with number of schools doesn’t improve education —John S. Quarterman

While I agree with most of Karen Noll’s post, especially the part about CUEE should come clean about why it’s spending so much money on something about which it knows little, I don’t agree that consolidating high schools would help.

I remember when Lowndes County consolidated two high schools into one, and the rationale was cost saving and more resources for science classes. What it was really about was football. And it worked: Lowndes High School now often wins the state championship, and Valdosta hasn’t in a decade. While education lags behind.

I think the Lowndes County Board of Education is doing the right Continue reading →