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THE JACKSON HERALD
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 15, 2009
Named the best weekly editorial page in the nation for 2007, 2008
Opinions
“Private opinion is weak, but public opinion is almost omnipotent. ”
- Henry Ward Beecher ~
Mike Buffington, editor • Email: Mike@mainstreetnews.com
our views
Local schools
rank among
state’s best
T HERE’S probably noth
ing more controversial
in a community than its
public schools and education.
Just about everyone is affected by
public school systems, either with
children in a school or from pay
ing taxes to support local schools.
In addition, the public schools in
Jackson County — all three systems
— make up the county’s largest
employment sector. And everyone
has opinions about what is right
or wrong with public education in
general.
While there are many legitimate
issues worthy of debate about our
public schools, Jackson County is
fortunate to have some of the better
schools found in the state. Over the
last few years, the tide of standard
ized test scores has shown a con
sistent pattern of achievement from
most of Jackson County’s public
schools.
That doesn’t mean local schools
are perfect or that some couldn’t be
better. In fact, just judging a school
based on test scores probably isn’t
totally accurate; other factors, such
as school safety, social/cultural
atmosphere, community respon
siveness and extracurricular and
athletic offerings affect students’
overall education experience.
But at their core, schools exist for
academics. Absent other objective
criteria, standardized tests results,
taken over time, are the best barom
eter available to see how a particu
lar school is doing. In that regard,
most Jackson County schools rank
among the best in the state in year-
to-year results over a broad swath of
tests at multiple grade levels.
Of course, a lot of schools make
that claim. School officials are very
good at PR spin, often using the
phrase that a particular test result
was “better than the state average.”
But that phrase is meaningless.
Just being at or slightly better than
the state average is a very low stan
dard and does not reflect quality or
real achievement. Unless a school
is significantly better than the state
average, it really doesn’t have much
to brag about.
And that’s what separates most
Jackson County schools from their
peers. Rather than just being “at or
better” than the state average, most
local schools perform well above
that mediocre standard.
So even as the economic down
turn is affecting local public schools
with layoffs and other cutbacks, it
should be noted that for the most
part, the three Jackson County
school systems rank among the
state’s best. Of that, the entire com
munity should be proud.
The Jackson Herald
Founded 1875 • The Official Legal
Organ of Jackson County, Ga.
Mike Buffington Co-Publisher & Editor
Scott Buffington Co-Publisher &
Advertising Manager
News Department
Angela Gary Associate Editor
Jana Adams Mitcham Features Editor
Brandon Reed Sports Editor
Kerri Testement Reporter
Sharon Hogan Reporter
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■2
"Don't worry, son... It only seems like
there's a candidate for governor behind every bush."
Perdue will grab more power under roads bill
THIS WAS one of those legislative sessions where
our elected representatives didn’t accomplish much,
with one exception. They did pass a bill, SB 200, that
could have an enormous impact on state politics and
the balance of power at the capital for many years to
come.
SB 200 will drastically
revamp the Department of
Transportation, shifting much
of the power over the agency’s
$2 billion yearly budget to the
governor and, to a lesser extent,
the legislators.
The office of governor,
already one of the strongest
in the country, becomes that
much more powerful with the
ability to control which high
ways get built and which do
not.
“Mark my words,” said Rep.
Alan Powell (D-Hartwell), a longtime House member.
“It may take three years, it may take six months, but we
just changed the face of politics in Georgia.”
Perdue lobbied heavily for the adoption of SB 200
and has said many times that a departmental restruc
turing is needed to reform the “dysfunctional” DOT.
Legislators who have been unable to get road projects
started in their districts were also taking out their frus
tration on the department.
“We as the General Assembly will have control over
the money,” said Sen. Tommie Williams (R-Lyons).
“DOT’S ineptness to plan and fund will change. . .
DOT will accomplish what we want them to accom
plish.”
There could be a darker side here: by turning over
so much power to the governor and the General
Assembly, SB 200 could also provide more opportuni
ties for corruption and political meddling in the award
of lucrative highway construction contracts. Those
were the factors that prompted Gov. Carl Sanders to
put the current DOT structure in place in the 1960s.
“This system breeds corruption - it has before and
it will do it again,” warned Sen. Steve Thompson
(D-Powder Springs).
SB 200 creates a new position at DOT, planning
director, that will be filled by the governor. The plan
ning director will have the most important job at DOT
because he or she will draw up the list of highway
projects authorized for construction, subject to review
by the governor.
After the governor has refined the project list, the
General Assembly then chooses the projects it wants
to fund so long as the total amount spent on them
doesn’t exceed 20 percent of the available funds.
By controlling what’s on the list of transportation
projects, the governor will have a very big stick for
threatening lawmakers who aren’t voting his way on
other legislation.
While the current governor is a Republican, he will
have about 18 months in office to exercise the pow
ers granted to him under SB 200. If the next governor
should be a Democrat - such as Roy Barnes, for
example - then lawmakers will have greatly enhanced
the leverage that Barnes and his longtime adviser,
Bobby Kahn, could use in getting legislation passed.
There have already been some indications as to
how the “new” version of DOT could be used by the
party in power to reward political supporters.
Rep. Vance Smith (R-Pine Mountain) sponsored
HB 277, which would have implemented a statewide
one-cent sales tax to raise money for transportation
projects.
Smith’s bill included a long list of transportation
projects that would be funded by the new tax, includ
ing a road widening that provided access to the
posh Reynolds Plantation in Greene County, a resort
developed by Mercer Reynolds. Reynolds is a heavy
hitter in Republican circles as a fundraiser for George
W. Bush and a supporter of Perdue and other GOP
political figures.
Perdue’s ultimate goal in getting SB 200 adopted
may be to facilitate the award of major contracts to pri
vate companies that want to take over the construction
and management of public highways in Georgia.
One of the world’s leading private developers of toll
roads is Cintra, an international conglomerate based
in Spain. Cintra has built and operated such major
American highways as the Chicago Skyway and the
Indiana Toll Road.
When Perdue flew to Spain last September with a
contingent of business leaders - at the same time
that Georgia motorists were struggling to cope with a
severe gasoline shortage - one of the companies he
met with was Cintra.
That could be the ultimate legacy of SB 200 -
Georgians paying high tolls to drive on highways
owned by a European conglomerate. You heard it
here first.
Tom Crawford is the editor of Capitol Impact's
Georgia Report. He can be reached at tcrawford@
capitolimpact.net.
Tea Party protests
more media event
than movement
B Y THE time you read this,
Wednesday’s “Tea Party”
tax protests will be over.
Frustrated with high taxes at all levels
of government and with the poten
tial long-term impact of the federal
bailouts, tax protesters were slated to
throw a series of “tea parties” around
the nation
on April
15, better
known as
tax day.
I sympa
thize with
the mes
sage, but
I’m not sure
it will be
make much
more than
a minor
political
ripple. Unlike
the real Boston Tea Party that set the
stage for the American Revolution,
today’s mock protests appear to be
more about political party mooning
than a fundamental shift in our politi
cal culture. (A historical note: The
Boston Tea Party of 1773 was not real
ly about high taxes, it was about other
issues protestors had with British
control over the colonies. Most histo
rians believe it was a carefully staged
event and not just a mob action.
Certainly it became a “media” event
of its day as Colonial leaders used it
to bait the British into over-reacting,
thus turning additional public opinion
against England.)
Today’s tea party protests are really
not so much about taxes as they are
about the GOP attempting to reas
sert some kind of political life fol
lowing the onslaught of Democratic
domination of the White House and
Congress. The multi-prong policy
attacks by Democrats on a large
number of issues has left the GOP
reeling with no clear leader and no
strong policy alternatives.
That political frustration has been
married to the general frustration
over the declining economy in an
effort to create a rally point for con
servatives. Conservative media com
mentators — many of whom shrill for
the GOP — have used the tea party
movement to create a focal point to
rally party faithful.
Despite that political overtone, the
frustration about taxes in America is
real. A smaller and smaller pool of
people are paying more and more
of government costs. The incentives
to work hard and achieve are being
diluted by a mentality of wealth redis
tribution.
But what will happen when soci
ety’s producers, those who work
and invest in the economy, decide
their efforts are no longer worthwhile
because of high taxes? So many peo
ple are already directly or indirectly
being supported by government,
what happens when the productive
private sector stops producing and
paying taxes?
Conservatives in the GOP under
stand this issue, but have little stand
ing to speak against it. The federal
bailouts began under a GOP admin
istration last year; and that same
administration was no beacon of a
conservative fiscal policy.
So there is a real undercurrent of
frustration in America, but these tea
party protests are just media shows,
not a fundamental movement. Only
when Americans push back at the
ballot box and in the courts will any
change take place.
But you have to wonder, with so
many people now suckling off gov
ernment, is there anyone left to stop
more government spending?
Mike Buffington is editor of The
Jackson Herald. He can be reached
at mike@mainstreetnews.com.
mike
buffington