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PAGE 12A
. FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS Sunday. January 1«, 3000
The Forsyth County News
Opinion
This is a page of opinions - ours, yours and others.
Signed columns and cartoons are the opinions of the
writers and artists and may not reflect our views.
Allow for what works
in reforming schools
Gov. Roy Barnes’ presenta
tion 6f his education
reform package last week
was but the first step in a long and
potentially painful legislative
process that may or may not result
in sweeping changes for Georgia’s
schools and its education bureau
cracy. Given the governor’s politi
cal clout and broad popularity,
some degree of change seems
likely, but the full extent of that
reform is at this point impossible
to guess.
Inherent in the governor’s pro
posal is a foundation issue that
will rise to the forefront time and
again as the reform debate contin
ues the disparity between
school systems across Georgia.
Many in the affluent suburbs
take for granted a degree of edu
cational opportunity that is for
eign to students in many parts of
rural Georgia. Barnes’ proposal
has to address that, which is why
issues such as a redistribution of
funding from affluent systems to
poorer systems is part of the
debate.
The job of the governor and
the General Assembly is to put
forth a plan for Georgia’s schools
that will offer the best education
possible to all Georgians. In doing
Letter policy
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the Forsyth County News, P. O. Box 210, Cumming, GA 30028, hand deliver to 302
■Old Buford Road, fax to (770) 889-6017, or email editor@forsythnews.com
Letters
Commission keeps
playing games
In its usual hit-and-miss sash
ion, it now appears some of our
commissioners are focused upon
performance appraisals from the
Sheriff’s Department (Forsyth
News 1/12/00).
I find it incredulous that this
board continues to play the politi
cal police game of charging
Sheriff Hendrix with the commis
sion’s “crime of the day.” A note
to the commissioners I would
much rather be served by a dedi
cated and professional law
enforcement team, supported by
the sheriff and the citizens of this
county, than by an unsupported,
underpaid team of professionals
struggling to be recognized for
their contributions in keeping our
county safe. I certainly would
support my taxes going to the
sheriff’s department before the
commissioners decide we need
another parking deck.
\While I’m on the subject of
performance, I would hope the
commissioners were as concerned
about their own performance than
those who take an oath to serve
and protect. Take the issue of the
hew bond referendum proposal.
Certain items contained in this
proposal appear to duplicate that
of the SPLOST initiatives. But
rather than actually stating, in
fact, a duplication exists, some
commissioners “leave it up to the
voters to decide.”
Excuse me, but I thought that
that, however, it is important that
lawmakers take note of the fact
that some of the state’s many
school systems are ahead of the
reform curve in certain areas, and
that any mandated changes aren’t
punitive to systems already ahead
of the game.
Whatever version the final leg
islative reform of state schools
takes, lawmakers need to make
allowances for exceptions to the
rules. For example, school sys
tems like Forsyth County’s, which
is in the midst of developing a
superior technology program,
shouldn’t be forced to abandon
projects proved successful simply
in order to satisfy a revised state
blueprint or meet the dictates of
new bureaucracy.
Some Georgia school systems
have implemented progressive ini
tiatives on their own despite a lack
of state guidance and direction. It
would be foolish not to allow
those initiatives to be continued.
Despite a woeful performance
on a statewide level, Georgia does
have some individual school sys
tems that are doing well in specif
ic areas. That shouldn’t be forgot
ten in the rhetoric-laced legislative
battles that will be fought in the
weeks ahead.
was why we had a board to
sort out these issues and present
to the voters the best alternative.
As to the performance rating sys
tem for the commission unfor
tunately, the election season does
not quite come soon enough for a
few members. As an eternal opti
mist, here’s hoping that the com
missioners take an opportunity
afforded them by the start of the
new year and century to set aside
their political, petty agendas and
get down to the REAL business of
this county. If I need to state
what that is ... we’re in trouble.
Laurie Heinze
Cumming
Bowles was right
about Lewinsky
Hooray for Linda Bowles! Her
piece in your Jan. 7 issue regard
ing the selection of Monica
Lewinsky as a spokesperson for
Jenny Craig was exactly on target!
So many people.women in partic
ular it appears, seem to take an
“accepting” position toward the
whole Clinton affair and this is
bewildering.
Monica Lewinsky is no person
to be admired, in any sense! She
does not define modern woman
hood as I know it. As Bill Bennett
has written, “Where is our out
rage?” “Sordid, despicable, self
ish, immoral, opportunistic and
just plain stupid” are the kinds of
» fl I
"PauSEil
Public supports Barnes’ education plan
They’re starting to grumble in the Capitol
about Gov. Roy Barnes. They say he’s trying
to do too much too fast. They say he’s
engaged in too much bureaucracy building.
They say he’s stepping on the toes of many
who voted for him and a lot of those who
didn’t.
When Barnes delivered his historic educa
tion-reform speech, he invited the state’s top
elected education official to join his entourage
in the House.
State School Superintendent Linda
Schrenko turned down the governor flat. She
watched the speech from the fourth-floor spec
tators’ gallery.
She also fired off a two-page letter to
Barnes, telling the governor what she did not
like about his education-reform ideas, espe
cially his proposed Office of Education
Accountability and local Education
Coordinating Councils.
She wrote: “I still have the same objections
1 have previously raised in regard to the cre
ation of another layer of bureaucracy via your
proposed Office of Education Accountability.
... As drafted the bill adds two more layers
between what the State Board of Education
and I, through the Department of Education,
need to accomplish. The authority proposed
for the Education Coordinating Council goes
far beyond anything I had envisioned. I will
oppose these two components.”
Executives of the state’s leading education
organizations, the Georgia Association of
Educators and the Professional Association of
Georgia Educators, were ambivalent about
Barnes’ education proposals.
They loved his ideas for smaller classes,
school nurses, etc. But bonuses for "good"
teachers? An end to tenure for new teachers?
Hey, that may not be what GAE and PAGE
wanted to hear.
words we should be using when
referring to both
Lewinsky and Clinton in this
matter, not references that suggest
in any way that Monica is some
one to be emulated.
Instead of holding herself out
in some fashion that seems to sug
gest achievement, Monica should
recognize the self-serving wrong
she has done to herself and to our
country.
Jenny Craig is parading
Lewinsky and rewarding her
behavior. Let’s not be a part of it.
Ferrell White
Cumming
Y2K problem was
very real indeed
This letter is in response to the
one published in the Jan. 9 edition
from a gentleman named John
Weisgerber about the Y2K prob
lem as being a “scam.”
I am the president of Cygnus
Applications Solutions Inc., a
Roswell software company that
provides software to the small
business community. We have
been in business more than 10
years and have customers all over
the U.S. and Canada. 1 have been
a programmer for 30 years. I can
assure you that the Y2K problem
was real. Right now I have about
eight programs out of 400 that
have failed since the new year
began. Fortunately, we have
upgraded all of our customers to a
new database so that these prob
lems are easily correctable.
I accept full responsibility for
creating systems for 20 years that
were not Y2K compliant. You
have to realize that in 1989 a
200MB hard drive cost SIO,OOO.
Now you can buy a 10GB hard
drive for $l5O. Up until the past
few years, all systems that were
written had six-digit dates, usual
ly in the format of MMDDYY.
This \Vas to conserve hard drive
space. If we had written eight
digit date formats the average
small business could not afford to
store the information. This did not
become a problem until the 2-
digit new year was less than the
previous year.
The statement that “computer
software companies put bugs into
their systems so that they have to
buy upgrades" is patently false. It
is a standard practice to license
business software for a certain
period of time, but this is typical
ly defined in the initial contract. I
can assure you that if you want to
run a copy of Word Perfect 1.0 on
DOS 6.0 you can still do it.
Technology changes so rapidly
that new functionality is always
available. There is no one or no
program forcing you to buy new
software.
I won’t address the other
insane comments from your letter
because it is obvious that you
don’t know what you are talking
about. You did get one thing right,
though. We did make a few bucks
Bi "
Shipp
Barbara Christmas, executive vice presi
dent of PAGE, said Barnes promised during
his election campaign not to tamper with
tenure.
“Maybe I did,” said Barnes after the
speech. “But you may say one thing in a cam
paign, then find out more about it when you
take office, and change your mind."
(P.S.: The University System can relax.
The governor says he has no intention of
attacking faculty tenure in higher education,
though reports of egregious abuses in that area
persist. Even so, Barnes noted, the perfor
mances of tenured university system faculty
are already reviewed every five years.)
Barnes did not mount the education podi
um last week unmindful of what Georgians
beyond Capitol Square think of his reform
ideas. Never mind what the education insiders
like or dislike about the package.
A poll of 800 likely Georgia voters, taken
in December, showed they overwhelmingly
approve most of Barnes' ideas. And the gover
nor ranked as “the most popular political fig
ure in Georgia today." The survey gave him an
82 percent “favorable" rating vs. just 12 per
cent “unfavorable." He leads a generic re-elec
tion ballot against an unnamed “Republican
alternative” 59 percent to 23 percent, accord
ing to the poll conducted by Hamilton Beattie
& Staff of Washington, D.C.
on these upgrades. I’m betting the
motivation behind your letter was
that you bought some of those
Y2K barrels and are now feeling
pretty stupid.
Robert W. Ross, President,
Cygnus Applications Solutions
McManus column
was way off base
If Mike McManus intended to
stir up debate and controversy
with his diatribe on Sunday, he
was successful. Perhaps my
expectations are a little too high,
but I would think that a regular
contributor to your newspaper
would have a better command of
logic.
It should not be surprising to
learn that my particular feelings
on religion do not match those of
the pious Mr. McManus.
However, I will be more kind than
he and at least express tolerance
for his religious beliefs (some
thing that he seems unable to reci
procate). His sanctimonious “He
who is not with me is against me”
line in a discussion of the concept
of tolerance is the worst twist of
logic I have ever seen from any
one who has ever been promoted
beyond the sixth grade.
Additionally, his paragraph
that started, “Tolerance has
become a supreme American
virtue ...” took a real logical loop
with “We tolerate men who cheat
On education issues, the pollsters found:
• 90 percent of the respondents favor
“making it easier to remove poor or under per
forming teachers.” Political translation: End
tenure.
• 72 percent favor a one-time signing
bonus of $6,000 to attract new teachers in sci
ence and math.
• 69 percent favor giving bonuses of
$1,500 to $2,500 for increasing test scores to
all teachers in schools showing improvement.
• Only 50 percent favored a specific school
voucher plan that would give $6,000 to parents
to choose a private, public or religious school
for their children. Forty-seven percent opposed
the voucher idea. (Barnes is against vouchers;
some Republicans leaders are in favor.)
• 83 percent believe school principals need
more power to make decisions in individual
schools.
In his polling-data memo, pollster William
Hamilton reported: "Overall, voters have a
slightly negative view of the job local schools
are doing educating kids (39 percent positive,
57 percent negative).”
So, as Barnes plows ahead with his educa
tion upgrades, the railbirds under the Gold
Dome may be having second thoughts about
the governor, especially when he raises the
specter of high-risk elections for some legisla
tors who follow him.
But Barnes obviously is confident he has
popular backing for making dramatic changes
in the way we school our children. His cunent
poll numbers suggest that confidence is justi
fied.
Bill Shipp is editor of Bill Shipp's Georgia,-
a weekly newsletter on government and busi
ness. He can be reached at P.O. Box 440755,
Kennesaw, GA 30144 or by calling (770) 422-
2543, e-mail: bshipp@bellsouth.net, Web
address: http://www. billshipp. com
on their wives without being criti
cal, accept divorce ... and, sadl;
are accepting of wickedness ii
high places."
Methinks, perhaps, that Mik
doesn't know the differenc
between tolerating the religiou
beliefs of others and condonin
morally offensive behavior. Ther
is a big difference, and evcryon
knows what it is except, perhap
Mike. For Mike to even infer ths
anyone who doesn’t say hi
prayers and read his scripture i
less moral than he is a travest
and he should know a whole Ic
better.
By golly, if Mike doesn’t g<
to hear his scripture and get date
printed the “good ol” Christia
way, then he’s gonna find som<
body to blame and it must h
everybody who’s different frot
him.
So nice to know that Bill
Graham himself is critical of tl
“soft-minded tolerance" that leac
the "soft minded" to be tolerant <
other religions.
Mike ended his intolcrai
tirade by saying that all this rel
gious tolerance left him “sad at
angry” as a Christian. I wou
suggest that a quick examinatu
of the eleven words of the Goldt
Rule would help Mr. McMam
lower his blood pressure and qt
whining.
Walt Uhlmi
Cummlt
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