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The Braselton News
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
The Braselton News
Mike Buffington.
Scott Buffington
Angela Gary
Kerri Testement.
Jeremy Ginn
Editor & Co-Publisher
Co-Publisher
Managing Editor
News Editor
Advertising
Web Site: braseltonnews.com
Opinion
“Difference of opinion leads
to enquiry, and enquiry to
truth. ” -Thomas Jefferson
our views
Political parity is
important on BOE
ONE OF THE key questions coming from the
facilities controversy at Jackson County Compre
hensive High School concerns the voice of citizens
living in the West Jackson Area. Are West Jackson
citizen and parent concerns being heard on the
Jackson County Board of Education?
That’s a complicated question. It goes back over
a quarter-of-a-century and involves a lot of differ
ent aspects.
Before 1980, Jackson County High School was
in Braselton. While the county school system op
erated schools all over Jackson County, the pres
ence of its high school in West Jackson gave the
area extra weight on the BOE.
Despite that, when JCHS moved to Jefferson
in 1980, leaders of that difficult transition mostly
hailed from the West Jackson Area. They caught
flak from their friends and neighbors, but they did
what they believed was best for the future of edu
cation in Jackson County.
Fast forward to 2000. Over the 20-year interim,
the BOE’s center of influence shifted. From 2000
until today, the board became weighted more heav
ily by representation from the East side of Jackson
County. Ironically, in that same period of time, West
Jackson was growing at a rapid rate. Politically,
however, representation on the BOE has lagged
that growth.
This issue has been magnified by recent turmoil
in the seat on the BOE that represents the Brasel-
ton-Hoschton area. Consistency has been lacking.
But politics is an ebb-and-flow game. After the
next realignment of BOE districts, the West Jack-
son area should garner more representation on
the board due to growth. The board will, in effect,
have come full circle.
Beyond the political level, however, the funda
mental question is one that has not changed over
the last 28 years: Is there educational parity in
Jackson County’s schools?
Although the details are different today than they
were in 1980, that question remains with regard to
the county’s two high schools. Are the facilities and
opportunities at both JCCHS and the newer East
Jackson Comprehensive High School roughly on
par with each other?
Some parents complained to the BOE Monday
night that parity between the schools has been
skewed by the board’s lack of attention on JCCHS
facilities in recent years.
Whether those concerns are true or not remain
to be fully examined. But the concerns echo louder
because of the unbalanced political dynamics of
the BOE itself. If citizens and parents believe they
are not being given a fair voice on the board, that
issue becomes fertile ground for grudges to grow.
Parity of facilities and programs in the county
school system will no doubt be an on-going issue
in Jackson County. That’s just the nature of what
happens with multiple schools.
But the fundamental issue will be to make sure
there is true political parity on the BOE itself. If not,
all the other issues will just echo much louder.
by John Sheppard
"X guess we lost the paperless revolution."
letters
Says school issue ‘not a competition’
Dear Editor:
“It is not a competition.” No truer words have
been said. This is not West versus East.
Congratulations to East Jackson Comprehensive
High School. There is not a green-eyed monster
lurking the halls of Jackson County Comprehen
sive High School. This is not just about JCCHS.
But there is frustration and disbelief by parents,
faculty and students that a board of education
that was elected to represent the entire county
has made very one-sided decisions and has been
poor stewards of the $70 million dollars of SPLOST
money that came from a vote that would not have
passed if had not been for the Westside folks.
Our school board consists of five members.
Three of them graduated from Commerce high
school, one from Jefferson and the newest mem
ber who was recently appointed is the lone JCCHS
graduate. Our one board member from the West
side has a spouse working on that side of the
county. Ironically, the other four board members
have relatives employed by schools in the East
attendance zone.
The majority of our administrators live in other
counties. So why wouldn’t the folks around here
feel that the powers-that-be (some of whom have
gotten too big for their britches) have taken no sig
nificant interest in the Western side of the county?
The neglect of facilities at JCCHS is very notice
able and the list of needs is long.
When allocating the dollars to be spent on the
new high school, was it a need or a want to install
seven plasma TVs in the field house?
Was it a need or a want that the EJCHS principal
was not happy with the color of the pillars in front
of her new school, so $30,000 was spent to repaint
them?
Was it a need or a want to build three gymnasi
ums heated and cooled when maybe two would
have sufficed (temporarily) and the other one
could have been built at JCCHS since they have
one that has no a/c or heat, a leaking roof and
many other maintenance issues?
Voters are already looking for people to run
against this current board. In 2008 and 2010, I
predict a positive change. It is long overdue.
But for now, this board needs to listen to the
parents they have ignored and the students who
deserve better. You all have endangered students
on the road due to the ridiculous attendance zone
and the faculty that you all have stifled and intimi
dated every step of the way.
If I remember correctly, the new schools were
supposed to help all of this county not hurt some.
Sincerely,
Lila Nunn
Pendergrass
School safety program
needs parent review
Dear Editor:
I have a concern to share with other parents and
members of the community. Last week, a letter
came home with my first grader notifying parents
of a personal safety program to be presented call
Good-Touch/Bad-Touch. I researched this curricu
lum last year and found that some of the language
and content presented was too explicit and was
not age-appropriate; therefore, my child will not
be participating.
I strongly urge parents to preview the Good-
Touch/Bad-Touch curriculum before deciding if
your child will sit in on these sessions.
Sincerely,
Julie Riley
Hoschton
What lies ahead with Georgia legislative session?
THIS IS the schedule that Georgia legislators like to follow in years (like this one)
that are also election years:
•Convene the session on the second Monday in January.
•Adopt a budget.
•Adjourn the session as quickly as possible so that once again you can legally
accept cash contributions from lobbyists for your reelection campaign.
That abbreviated schedule is going to be more difficult to follow this year,
because there is a long list of tough issues that cannot be swept under the rug
- which means that our lawmakers will actually have to take a
position and vote on them.
As these issues are debated over the next few weeks, we
may finally get some answers to questions that have been
hanging over the political landscape for quite some time.
At the end of last year’s session, for example, Gov. Sonny
Perdue clashed with the House leadership over a tax rebate
bill and got so angry that he vetoed the supplemental state
budget. House Speaker Glenn Richardson was so angry at
Perdue that he accused the governor of showing his “back
side” to Georgia taxpayers.
Will Richardson criticize Perdue’s “backside” again this
year? Or will he expand his attacks to other parts of the
governor’s anatomy?
The most talked-about piece of legislation is Richardson’s
proposal to eliminate property taxes in Georgia and replace them with a more
broadly based sales tax that applies to both goods and services.
Richardson has traveled the length and width of the state over the past eight
months trying to whip up support for his plan, which has gone through almost as
many rewrites as there are books in the Bible. The proposal has now been scaled
back so that it would affect only homeowners’ property taxes for local education
and the ad valorem tax on motor vehicles.
School boards and education officials still oppose the plan because, for some
strange reason, they don’t think it’s a good idea for the House speaker to have
more over local education budgets than the school board elected by local vot
ers.
Will Richardson try to ram through his proposal over the opposition of school
officials? Former governor Roy Barnes could give him some insights as to how
good an idea that is.
The future of Georgia’s water resources is also on the line as lawmakers will be
required to accept or reject a statewide water management plan drafted largely
by the Environmental Protection Division.
The proposed plan has not gone down well with environmental groups and
elected officials from outside metro Atlanta who believe that the plan will enable
Atlanta developers to divert water from the rest of the state. Top state officials
claim that the water management plan will be fair to everybody, but their argu
ments have not been convincing.
“I think it’s an understandable misperception (that the water plan benefits
Atlanta at the expense of downstream communities),” Perdue said. “If I’m in South
Georgia, yes, I’m fearful Atlanta is taking our water, but that is not the case.”
“The obvious truth is Perdue, [Lt. Gov. Casey] Cagle, and Richardson are simply
not telling the truth about their Two Georgias plan,” said Columbus attorney Jim
Butler, an environmental activist. “Voters will tolerate a lot, but they won’t tolerate
stealing water and destroying rivers.”
There are other important issues on the to-do list for legislators: the state’s
congested highways, the lack of a commuter rail alternative, a proposal to allow
people to carry firearms into bars and taverns where folks tend to drink liquor and
get riled up, and funding for a trauma care network to treat the people who will be
shot in the resulting barroom brawls.
Perdue’s critics argue that these issues have piled up in this election year
because of the governor’s unwillingness to take the lead on resolving them.
“By ignoring them, things have now been pushed to a crisis where hopefully the
truth will finally come out as to who this governor really is,” said House Minority
Leader DuBose Porter (D-Dublin). “We’re faced with a state water crisis and he
redirected $30 million in bonds that would have built state reservoirs. He cut $1.3
billion in state funding for education, which forced local school boards to raise
their property taxes.”
Regardless of who’s at fault, the issues are there and will have to be dealt with
- a prospect that is making more than a few lawmakers very nervous.
Tom Crawford is the editor of Capitol Impact’s Georgia Report, an Internet news
site at www.gareport.com that covers government and politics in Georgia.
Hoping for
progress under
the Gold Dome
I READ an article recently that
claimed less than 30 percent of the
general public has ever contacted
their legislative representatives
about an issue of importance to
them.
I admit, I’ve only
contacted one of
my representa
tives once for
an issue-related
matter.
But with state
legislators head
ing back to the
Gold Dome in
Atlanta this week,
I started to think
what would I want
my representa
tives focusing on this session.
For me, that would include:
•Transportation. It seems like
Interstate 85 in this region con
tinues to feel the growth of metro
Atlanta. A few years ago, it seemed
like I-85 rarely had traffic north of
Chateau Elan. Now, it seems like
there is a constant traffic jam. There
have been plans to expand i-85 for
years, but it seems like those plans
have been delayed by funding
shortfalls.
For that matter, there are plenty of
other much-needed road projects
around metro Atlanta that have
yet to happen — despite years of
promises.
State legislators need to take a
look at how the Georgia Depart
ment of Transportation, regional
authorities and local governments
can work together to finally get
these projects in gear. That issue
alone could start a major shake-up
among all of the government agen
cies involved in transportation.
•Healthcare. As health insurance
costs continue to rise, fewer people
will be able afford health insurance
— thus putting a strain on the bud
gets of hospitals and families when
those services are needed.
This may be an issue that needs
some direction from the federal
government, but Georgia legislators
shouldn’t depend on the folks in
Washington, D.C., to bail out all of
the state’s health needs.
There are almost 50 million unin
sured people in the United States.
Georgia legislators need to work
with local health insurance provid
ers on a reasonable compromise
that’s best for working families.
•Education. Georgia’s education
system continues to suffer, despite
some instructional improvements in
the past few years.
Education in this state needs
some drastic changes — either in
the area of funding and/or school
vouchers. The governor’s trivial
(and sometimes under funded)
initiatives in the past few years are
not making the improvements that
Georgia’s children deserve today.
Of course, if the state legisla
ture becomes wrapped in petty
political issues, the issues of more
substance will suffer. Last year’s
session under the Gold Dome pro
duced few substantial changes on
the issues that most Georgians care
about.
Legislators can stay busy during
those 40 days in Atlanta, but let’s
hope they’re working on those key
issues.
You can monitor if your state
senator or representative is spon
soring substantial legislation in the
state capitol (or just congratulating
another high school sports team for
a win) at www.legis.state.ga.us.
Kerri Testement is the news editor
for The Braselton News. Her e-mail
address is kerri@mainstreetnews.
com.
Kerri
Testement
kerri@mainstreet-
news.com