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PAGE 4A 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 Postmaster: Send Address Changes To: MainStreet Newspapers, Inc. PO Box 908 Jefferson, Georgia 30549-0908 Web Site: www.JacksonHeraldTODAY.com Email: mike@mainstreetnews.com Voice: 706.367.5233 Fax: 706.367.9355 (news) Periodical Postage paid at Jefferson, GA 30549 (SCED 271980) Yearly Subscriptions: $19.75 in-county; $38.85 in state; $44.50 out-of-state; Sr. Citizens’ and college students $2 off; Military $42.50 ■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