Newspaper Page Text
8A
FEBRUARY 21, 2002
Marion Williams —
king of Augusta?
ere it is, ladies and
gentlemen, the
thing we have all
been waiting for. An elixir
for all of the political prob
lems our city is experienc
ing. No more debates about
who should hire and fire
department heads and at
torneys. No more pesk3/
commission meetings. And
no more worries over
whether we should have a
strong mayor and weak
commission or vice versa.
Why not just crown
Marion Williams king? He
obviously wants the job.
He wants to pick and
choose departments heads
and attorneys instead of
leaving thejobt~those who
are better qualified. He
made a big deal over
Parental depression and
children a deadly mix
Andrea Yates’ mother-in
law testified Feb. 19t that
her son’s wife was “cata
tonic” in the months be
fore she drowned her five
children. She said her
daughter-in-law some
times spent several hours
on the bed scratching her
head bald. The husband’s
testimony indicated that
Andrea had lapsed into
this sort of behavior on
and off for years.
Why, then, didn't one of
these people do some
thing?
It is irresponsible to
leave children in the care
of a person who is hardly
capable of caring for her
self. And for a husband to
stand idly by while his
mentally ill wife becomes
pregnant over and over
again is beyond reproach.
To invoke the Gospel while
doing so is downright blas
Atlanta mayor sets good example
Atlanta Mayor Shirley
Franklin has been serving
in her post for only a mat
ter of weeks. Yet she has
already won over the labor
unions, cut her staffto save
money, reorganized that
staff to fit her needs, and
now she is proposing some
rules that would govern
the ethical behavior of
those in government of
fices, including herself.
Many of these rules con
cern restrictions on the
sources of outside income,
such as payment for speak
ingengagements, and gifts.
Franklin also wants to set
up an independent ethics
board, hire an ethics of
Aug“' Sta CharlesW. Walker
Publisher
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@Efl!i&@q Dennis Williams Lillian Wan
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AUGUSTA FULUD
whether the administra
tor had a sticker on his
automobile identifying
him as a government
employee. Noone who has
been following this com
missioner for even a short
‘time would be surprised
if he suddenly demanded
a pencil-count of every
government office in the
county, all the while
screaming for account
ability for all the broken
points.
His job and that of his
colleagues on the com
mission is to set policy,
and that is what they
should stick to doing.
Beyond this, they need to
step aside and let the ex
perts they have hired do
their jobs.
phemous.
Even if she hadn’t
drowned her children,
being in the house with a
parent acting like that
would have scarred them
for life. At the very least,
they would have grown
up frightened and un
happy, doomed to spend
their adult lives reliving
the nightmares of their
youth.
Our imperfect cycle of
Jjustice is going to take its
course. Andrea Yates is
probably going to be
locked into an institution
for the criminally insane.
Rusty Yates is going to be
condemned by some for
thereasonsjust stated and
lauded by others for the
dubious virtue of “stand
ing by” his wife.
But what’s the point?
The children are already
dead.
ficer. And she wants to
require council members,
judges and high-ranking
city officials to disclose
income and assets.
In short, she took the
reins of the city when she
climbed into the saddle.
Of course this proposal
will have to be approved
by the city council, but
chances are, she has al
ready discussed it with
them and created a con
sensus before going out
and embarrassing herself
with failure.
The leadership of Au
gusta could take some
cues from her.
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CHILDWATCH. By Marian Wright Edelman |
Positive alternatives for our youths
aising two small chil
drenisdifficult anytime
but it is especially diffi
cult when a parent is
still very young too. Denise
Williams had her first child, a
son, at sixteen andayear later,
she had a little girl. It’s been
only three years since Denise
first became a mother and
dropped out of high school but
now she is in college studying
tobecomeateacher and work
ing part-time as a child care
provider. How did she get so
far in so little time? Denise
credits a community develop
ment program for giving her
the strength to improve her
life.
At 18, Denise was tired and
depressed trying to raise two
babiesunder her parents’ roof.
“I really thank my mother for
helping me with the kids, but
I just felt like things weren’t
going anywhere. I didn’t have
a good job and had no one to
turn to,” she recalled. At the
youth development program,
Denise not only finished her
high school education, she
found anetwork of friends who
“watch each others’ back and
GUEST EDITORIAL By Charles G. Larke
County’s schools making strides
hen promoting the
city of Augusta and
its surrounding ar
eas, the Augusta
Metro Chamber of Commerce,
our local political leaders and
others charged with bringing
economic growth to the Cen
tral Savannah River Area
should consider the facts as
published in the latest state
Department of Education Re
port Card. :
Thestate Departmentof Edu
cation puts Augusta’s public
schools in the same compari
son group as school systems in
Savannah, Macon, Columbus
and Atlanta. Specifically, we
are compared with schools in
Bibb County, Chatham
County, Muscogee County and
Atlanta City.
Weare in this group because
of similar demographic statis
tics, including our large stu
dent population and the num
ber of our students receiving
free or reduced lunches — an
indicator of the number of chil
dren livingat or below the pov
erty level.
It is no surprise that we as a
city are constantly competing
with these same communities
for new industry and economic
development dollars. What may
come as a surprise to some,
keep each other going,” she
said. When she first arrived,
she discovered “there were a
whole bunch of people a lot
worse off than me. Some had
been in jail. Some had four
children. Some didn’t even
have custody of their children.
Andtheywereall trying to get
their lives together.”
_After Denise got her high
school diploma, her program
supervisors helped her apply
for college and financial aid.
Once she got in, they paid for
her books, using the months
of community service Denise
did while she was in the pro
gram as credit. Denise now
earns $6 an hour at her part
time job. After she graduates
from college and becomes a
teacher, her salary will range
from $25,000 to $35,000 a year.
Deniseisjust one example of
a young person benefitting
from a positive community de
velopment program. Many
young people lack the skills to
succeed in the job market and
theunemployment rateis high
est for workers between 16 to
19. Older teenagers who need.
jobs or job skills are not the
including the Augusta Metro
Chamber of Commerce, is how
we compare to the school sys
tems in our group.
The statistics show that we
do a better job in readying our
studentsfor post-secondary edu
cation, for the workforce and
for life.
Our 9-12 drop-out rate is 5.4
percent, significantlylower than
all the school systems in our
comparison group. We have
higher SAT scores (950) than
the other school systemsin our
comparison group: Chatham
(938), Muscogee (913), Bibb
(891) and Atlanta City (856).
We are the only school sys
tem in our comparison group
that. scores above the group
average in all five areas — En
glish/languagearts, mathemat
ics, social studies, science and
writing— onthe Georgia High
School Graduation Test.
Wealso lead our comparative
group in the percentage of stu
dents who pass the GHSGT on
the first try.
These telling statistics come
aswecortinuetobuild state-of
the-art facilities for our chil
dren—wejust kicked offa S2OO
million school construction and
renovation campaign —and we
continue to hire quality teach
ers and administrators to edu
only young people who benefit
from having positive commu
nity support. Accordingto the
Census Bureau, nearly seven
million children come home
alone after school each week
without adult supervision or
structured activities of any
kind. These school-age chil
dren are at greater risk of
harmful behavior like smok
ing, -drinking, sex, or crime.
Violent juvenile crime peaks
between 3 and 7 p.m., and
teenagers are morelikely tobe
victims of serious violent crime
in the hour after school lets
out than any other time. Mil
lions of children lack a super
vised, nurturing, safe, and fun
after-school environment and
CDF is trying to change that
fact.
There are many examples of
programs that are proven to
be safe, productive spaces for
young people. Thechallengeis
providing enough of them so
that all children can benefit.
TitlelX of the Act to Leave No
Child Behind, the comprehen
sive children’s bill introduced
in Congress in May, would
expand after-school programs
cate our students and comply~
with the new student-teacher
ratiorequirementsas mandated
under HBIIB7.
But weare notrestingon our
laurels: We recognize that our
elementary and middle school
studentsneed help. Theresults
of our first grade norm-refer
ence testsshow weareahead of
the national average. But our
test scores on the Stanford-9
put us near the bottom of our
comparison group in third and
fifth grade, indicating that we -
have to increase our efforts in
all early grades.
We are making a concerted
effort to address these issues
with new readingprogramssuch
as America’s Choice and the
A Comparison of Key Indicators to Student Achievement
for Selected Large School Systems in Georgia 2000-2001
School Systems ~ SAT Scores Dropoutßate %Free/Reduced
(Percentage) Lunch
Atlanta (city) 856 175 t 76.5
Bibb 891 1.2 60.1
Chatham 938 104 52.0
Muscogee 913 6.3 56.3
Richmond 950 5.4 63.8
to allow millions miore chil
dren to participate and meet
theneedsofchildrenand work
ing parents. It would increase
funding for the 21* Century
Community Learning Centers
after-school programs to al
low them to serve many more
children and receive thetrain
ing and technical assistance
they need to maintain high
quality programs. Parents and
children who already partici
pate in 21st Century Commu
nity Learning Centers know
how valuable they can be and
how important it is that even
more children get similar op
portunities.
The Youth Development sec
tion of the Act to Leave No
Child Behind would also in
crease support forjob training
and youth employment pro
grams that prepare young
people to compete in the job
market including Youthßuild,
Job Corps, so they can help
more youngpeoplelike Denise.
It would increase funding for
AmeriCorps to support youth
volunteerism. It would autho-
See ALTERNATIVES, 9A
Voyager 100% Literacy System.
Both areresearch-based meth
ods of improving student
achievement.
Like us, Columbia County
fares very well in its compari
son group (Fulton, Bryan and
Cobb, among others) and con
tinues to do its best for its
students. Teachersand students
in both our counties are work
ing hard toimproveour schools
and it shows.
But don’t take our word for
it. Visit the state Department of
Education website
(www.doe.kl2.ga.us) and look
at the Report Card. It is all
there.
See SCHOOLS, 9A