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PAGE 10A > FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS Sunday. March 14,2004 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. Sad commentary on state’s schools A defining moment of Gov. Roy Barnes’ tenure in office was the passage of sweeping educational re-forms meant to improve Georgia’s public school. We may never know if those reforms approved in 2000 would have worked as a complete package, as var ious components of the school improvement plan have fallen by the wayside, abandoned or delayed by state lawmakers. Mandatory reduction in class sizes was postponed due to budget concerns. Now there is a push to delay enforcement of a pol icy that requires third graders to earn a passing score on a standardized test to win promotion. State school Superin tendent Kathy Cox said last week she expects as many as 23 percent of Georgia's third graders to fail the Criterion Referenced Competency Test this spring. Those who do will be provided with an opportunity for special instruction during the sum mer and given a chance to take the test again, but even so Cox said as many as I 1.000 Georgia third graders, roughly 10 percent, likely would be retained rather than promoted even after a second testing. State legislators, mean while. are considering a bill Leders County must invest in infrastructure for future While I don't relish the idea of raising taxes. I was very disappointed when the courthouse/jailhouse bond issue failed. Why? I grew up within 3 miles of where Disneyland was built. The growth there was phenomenal, but the city/county planners and taxpayers realized that if the infrastructure did n’t keep pace, the price of catching up at a future date would have been many times more expen sive. Everyone here, as in Anaheim/Orange County then, wants growth to increase property values, but here there is a short-sightedness toward how to support that growth. The taxpay ers here have got to look toward the future and further out than their own property lines. If the infrastructure doesn't support the growth, values will notjncrease. Basic services like wider roads, sewage treatment, school construction and, yes, courthouses and jails need to keep pace. Growth in value does have a price tag. It’s time to step up to the plate now. Don’t ignore these things like Atlanta has with their sewer system. Dennis Faulkner Cumming Creative alternatives needed to save tax money The “no” vote against the Justice Center is just away for the residents of Forsyth County to express their outrage at the out of control growth permitted in this county. How many times have the citizens of Forsyth County protested rezonings because of the lack of facilities like roads, fire and police protection and lack of adequate jail facilities? Time after time the protests have been ignored. No concern was given to the obvious shortage of infrastruc ture. Maybe now, the commissioners will listen to the objections. The center is too costly and too that would delay at least another year implementa tion of the policy for third graders. They note that since other elements of the school reform package have not been implemented, there is no reason to think students are ready for this stage in the accountability process. Cox does not favor post poning implementation. It seems that when the subject of improving Georgia's schools is broached everyone recog nizes the need and embraces the idea. But when it comes down to enacting true reforms, there are always reasons not to move ahead. Everyone is for reform, but seemingly only so long as no parents are angered, no students are made uncomfortable, no educa tors are challenged, and no schools are held account able. We do not have the expertise to know whether the test proposed for Georgia's third graders is appropriate for use as a pass-fail benchmark. But we do know that something is wrong when the state’s schools have known for four years this day was coming, and still one stu dent in five in the third grade is expected to be lacking in the basic skills required for promotion. many non-violent offenders are stuck behind bars at taxpayer expense. Let’s find other ways to restrain non-violent prisoners. Confine them to their own home and work place. If confined in a county prison, the county is responsible for food, medical treatment, and even dental care. If confined to the home, the prisoner must pay the bills and can keep working. A simple alternative to prison confinement would be an ankle bracelet tracking device. Save prisons for the criminal who is a threat to another living creature or a repeat offender. Prison confinement is like the old debtors prison. You cannot pay a fine or pay back society if locked away. Next vote, let’s have some reasonable alter natives. The answer is not always, spend, spend, spend. Pam Wood Cumming Shipp fails to understand Northern Arc opposition Once again [columnist Bill Shipp proves his] idiocy by calling N. Arc opponents “carpetbag ger suburbanites.” Why did [he] use the term carpetbagger? Are you assuming opponents of the N. Arc were all Yankees trying to “take over” the South? For your information, a lot of NATF mem bers are good native Southerners who saw this project for what it is and was —a boondoggle designed to pay those with special interests related to this community dividing road. N. Arc opponents are not opposed to a east/west connector and we are not going “to die sitting in traffic and breathing bad air.” Your embellishment is comical. We agree something needs to be done. But the path chosen was empty when first proposed. But now, 17 years later, the area is covered with neighborhoods, schools and local parks where children play sports. If Barnes would have emphasized com munity preservation instead of community destruction, his chances of carrying constituents "north of Atlanta” wot|ld have been substantially - . n .SfcAßss •~ safe©**, e * *"■* ° ° S ■ 0 ** 0 ' SA x? ■ ~ _ 0 l?°° ,-T- 1 KERKYMI I&!s7b4 I I . _ IB—A. ClZl— * ' o • ■. Q •. • 0 < - -"v W 0 •» ' v*— # ♦ _ ■ -J 0 0 'jfigSpV <* ' Z*' ■y / < ‘Y —| ‘Big Guy’ faces some big decisions Lt. Gov. Mark "Big Guy” Taylor, one of only a handful of ready-for-prime-time stale Democrats, ought to consider running for the U.S. Senate. Despite long odds. 46-year old Taylor has the potential to become another Sam Nunn if elected. The politician from Albany would have time to gain seniority and power. If Taylor exited the Gold Dome for a run at Washington, however, the struggling Democrats could lose hope of hanging onto power in Atlanta. Taylor is emerging from the current sorry session of the Legislature as one of the few high achievers in either the Senate or House. The lieutenant governor has been a stout (no pun intended) advocate of the HOPE scholar ship program, child protection and reducing class size in public schools. He has fought talk of tax increases and tried vainly to stave off drastic reductions in state-provided health care, espe cially women's medical pro grams. He exploded in public anger when the Board of Regents announced yet another tuition increase for Georgia's universities. While his Democratic coun terpart. House Speaker Terry Coleman, has attempted to cooperate with Republicans. Taylor has been a constant irri tant to the elephants, challeng ing the accuracy of their budget numbers and scoffing at many of their proposals, often to no avail. I Bill Shipp “Hey, what happened to all the fiscal conservatives in this state?” he pointedly asked in a recent meeting with Republican budget writers who responded with cold silence. Taylor offered to debate Gov. Sonny Perdue on Perdue's determination to chop the HOPE scholarship. Perdue won't come out. As lieutenant governor and president of the state Senate, Taylor depends on his soapbox for strength. He is virtually without real power in the GOP dominated upper chamber, w hich Republicans took over by inducing four just-elected Democrats to defect. If the flee ing donkeys had held their ground. Taylor would likely to be on his way to becoming the Democratic nominee for gover nor in 2006 without much trou ble. As it is, his future is by no means certain. Secretary of State Cathy Cox is gradually becoming a favorite of w hat is left of the Democratic brain trust. A bruising primary between Cox and Taylor might leave the winner so weakened that the Republican nominee (incum bent Perdue. GOP strategy guru Ralph Reed. Senate President Pro Tern Eric Johnson or some one else) would have little trou- higher. [Shipp’s] latest column shows lack of knowledge regarding the N .Arc. Michael Merck Suwanee Pure democracy is a dangerous concept I couldn’t help but take note of the few remarks by Franklin Graham on television the other night. Franklin had recently been to see Mel Gibson’s new movie about the death of Christ. According to Dr. Graham, it was democ racy. effectively, that spelled the end for Jesus. The story goes that Pontius Pilate, an able politician, appealed to the local popular opinion to make his decision to crucify Jesus. By simply acting on the local opinion, rather than deciding on rightful principle, Pilate did just what any democratic politician would do. In this case, however, the actions of a democrat did far more harm than usual. This time, a decision derived democratically destroyed the man many consid er to be the savior of mankind. But for his own purposes, by following popular opinion, Pilate gained favor from the mob and furthered his career. Had he acted on principle, he might have been thrown out of office. Does this scene sound familiar? Os course, after Jesus' death the mob was sorry. That’s the danger of a society making its decisions by the rule of popular opinion. Popular opinions change from day to day. Many times the majority opinion is wrong. There is a distinct parallelism between the actions of Mr. Pilate 2000 years ago and the actions of the American high courts today. In a large part, the American courts have ceased to formulate decisions from the principled will of the American people expressed in the Constitution. The courts have increasingly acted in favor of certain prevailing societal opinions. By so doing, over time much of our Constitution has become effectively meaningless. The more our Constitution becomes effectively meaning less, the more our nation resembles a global ble winning the general elec tion. So the easy fix for Democrats one that might make them competitive again - is to enlist Taylor for the Senate race with the united backing of the party. And let Cathy Cox try for governor in two years, unimpeded by any other big name candidate. Sounds logical enough, right? Trouble is, Taylor won't cooperate. He sees his future in Georgia, not Washington. Besides, the Republican senato rial frontrunner, Johnny Isakson, would be virtually impossible to defeat in an antic ipated Republican landslide in the November general election. Taylor knows his way around Georgia politics. While fellow Democrats Gov. Roy Barnes and Sen. Max Cleland were getting hosed in the last election. Taylor ran up impres sive victorious vote totals. Capturing 52 percent of the electorate (1.041 million votes) and majorities in 97 counties, Taylor easily defeated Republican challenger Steve Stancil, who appeared on paper to be the quality of the GOP crop. Before being elected lieu tenant governor. Taylor spent 11 years in the Senate. WTien Gov. Zell Miller tried to change the state flag in 1993. Taylor served valiantly as his floor leader and took his share of lumps for the ensuing debacle over the Rebel cross. When Gov. Miller zig zagged to save his career by democracy run by the rule of popular opinion rather than a self-governing republic deciding by its ideals, republican principles and laws which spring from those principles. America was not designed to be a democracy. The founding fathers would roll over in their graves if they knew what their progeny had done with their grand republican experiment. It’s perhaps the shame of the world that Jesus did not have a Constitution protecting his rights. Hank Sullivan Cumming Moving jobs overseas endangers U.S. econoomy The United States cannot close its trade deficit if our economy is being moved offshore. Offshore production hits the trade deficit from both ends goods once produced domes tically become imports and. as production moves offshore, the ability to export declines. When a U.S. business moves a factory to China, that factory’s products are no longer potential exports. They are potential imports. Offshore production is not your father’s tra ditional foreign trade. Goods are not being trad ed. Offshore production is not a case of United States making good X and trading it to China for good Y. It is a case of the United States no •longer making good X in the United States. We are making it in China instead. Foreign labor is being substituted for U.S. labor in the production of the goods and services that Americans consume. So what is the future for U.S. workers? According to a Bureau of Labor Statistics report released Feb. 11, the 10-year outlook for U.S job growth is poor for high-tech and knowledge jobs. Seven of the 10 fastest-growing areas are those that require only on-the-job training retail sales persons, janitors, cashiers, waiters and waitresses, service assistants, etc. Our economy is "outsourcing" itself out of existence. Wendell Nutt Cumming t j < introducing the most draconian criminal code (remember two strikes and out?) in America. Taylor carried the governor’s water again. Taylor is loyal and smart, two almost unheard-of qualities in today’s state political climate. In 2002, sensing Barnes and Cleland were headed over a cliff. Taylor divorced his re election campaign from the Democratic pack. While the others touted their heroic (and unpopular, as it turned out) records, Taylor adopted a bland platform based on improved public safety, bet ter schools and more jobs. His TV ads depicted the lieutenant governor as The Big Guy. pos ing in the Senate chamber with a gurgling toddler. Voters, chuckling at the jollier and gen tler candidate, turned out for Taylor, even as they dumped Cleland and Barnes. In his career. Taylor has taken some tough hits, ranging from innuendoes about drug use to slurs about depending on his father's wealth for political suc cess. He has weathered those blasts to become one of the Democrats' brightest stars. So what's next for Taylor run for re-election, stand for governor or go for the Senate? “Not the Senate.” says a top aide emphatically. Notice the aide didn't say “never." but then hardly anyone in politics ever does. Bill Shipp’s column appears each Sunday and Wednesday. His e-mail address is hshipp @ bellsouth, net.