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THE JACKSON HERALD
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 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
letters
Adams on the mark
our views
Education
leaders being
intellectually
dishonest
F ALL the govern
ment agencies
newspapers deal
with, the one most likely to
“spin” their news releases is
the Georgia Department of
Education. No matter how
bad the news, the DOE finds
creative ways to bury the bad
news and highlight some triv
ial “good news.”
Take this year’s SAT results
news release. The head
line from DOE was, “SAT:
Georgias minority students
outperform nation. ”
At first blush, that sounds
like Georgia students were
better than the national aver
age. They weren’t; turns out
Georgia minority students
were better than the national
average of minority students.
But if you read several para
graphs down, you discover
the real story: Georgia’s over
all SAT scores fell in 2009.
The lead about minority
students was just a smoke
screen, a clever attempt by
DOE to mask and bury the
real story that the state’s over
all scores had fallen — again.
The inability of DOE to talk
straight has become a huge
handicap to Georgia’s educa
tion system. In fact, the spin
game has begun to spread
down to individual schools
where officials mimic the
state’s double-speak. Bad
news becomes good news
through the magic of pick
ing out some minor point to
highlight.
But that kind of misleading
data does nothing to address
fixing problems in Georgia’s
public schools. Until educa
tion leaders are willing to
talk straight to parents and
constituents, nothing will
change and problems won’t
get fixed.
Georgia education leaders
are being intellectually dis
honest in how they commu
nicate. They get an “F.”
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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Dear Editor:
Virgil Adams published a very thought-
provoking and soul-searching column in the
Aug. 19 issue of The Jackson Herald, entitled
“What’ll they tell their kids?” Whether he
intended it to be a sermon or if subcon
sciously it flowed out, it was applicable to our
time. Virgil as a “seasoned” senior citizen as
many of us are, shared his wisdom and wit
and made a contribution to those of us who
took time to digest what he said. In this period
of economic stress, budget cuts, 11.5 percent
unemployment, health care debate confu
sion, citizen apathy, local postering on citizen
inclusion and etc., his column challenged us
to just be fair, objective, positive, considerate
and charitable of others, look at both sides of
an issue and believe we all love our Country
and Community.
I spoke to a very nice lady last week who
chairs one of our public committees, who
clearly understood the task before her to do
the right thing. But I feel sure, from the charity
in her voice, that it conflicted with factions
on her committee, resulting in a negative
response. She reported to me that it was just
too difficult and time consuming for them to
review who was worthy or unworthy of con
sideration, one size fits all. 1 was shocked, but
I encouraged her to read the third paragraph
of Virgil’s column. Also, it’s not hard to have
an open mind. What will she tell her poster
ity?
I met Virgil Adams in August of 1995,
a few months after I arrived in Jackson
County as my wife Betty and I drove down
Westmoreland Drive in Jefferson, doing a bit
of house hunting. We noticed a couple, who
we later learned was Virgil and his wife Mary
doing some gardening and some general yard
work. We stopped to inquire about the neigh
borhood, since Westmoreland was a short
distance from TenCate Bicolon, Pendergrass,
where I worked. Being newcomers, we were
immediately impressed by the cordiality, hos
pitality and just plain friendliness of both
Our school leadership
AS THE election for governor drew closer in
2002, the Republican challenger Sonny Perdue
was beating up on Democratic incumbent Roy
Barnes with anything he
could find.
One of the blunt
instruments with which
Perdue clobbered
Barnes was the state’s
last-place ranking on
SAT college board
scores: “Georgia’s bet
ter than that, that’s unac
ceptable, those are not
the kind of results that
we want, Roy Barnes,
and Georgia’s going
to do better because
they’re going to elect
new leadership that will work with educators
to make sure that we do better.”
He later added: “I’ve told you before, the SAT
is the gold standard. It’s just not Republicans
who think the SAT is the standard. Other states
recognize that.”
Perdue and state school Supt. Kathy Cox
are now in their seventh year in office as the
persons responsible for the state’s direction in
education. How is Georgia faring, as measured
by Perdue’s “gold standard” of SAT scores?
Unfortunately for the state, our schools are
not doing very well. In 2003, during the first
year of the Perdue-Cox reign, Georgia again
ranked 50th in average SAT score. In 2004, the
state skyrocketed all the way to 49th (thank
goodness for South Carolina). But by 2005,
Georgia had slipped back into a tie with South
Carolina for last place.
That ranking has since improved slightly,
with Georgia currently in 47th place. The
state’s average SAT score still ranks below the
national average, however, and that score has
been declining in recent years.
Students can score a maximum of 2400 on
the SAT college board. The average SAT score
for Georgia students was 1477 in 2006, 1472 in
2007, 1466 in 2008 and 1460 in the latest num
bers released last week.
During the past academic year, students in
the southern states of Alabama, Mississippi,
Arkansas, Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee,
Virginia, Texas, and Kentucky all had higher
average SAT scores than Georgia.
Even California, which is facing bankruptcy
becauseofmulti-billion-dollarbudgetdeficits.did
better than Georgia in the national SAT rankings.
Virgil and Mary. And their willingness to share
information with a couple of “snowbird trans
plants.” It was obvious that they had invested
a lot of passion and love in Jackson County
and its people.
Later in October 1995, my wife had not
relocated from Buffalo, I received a very gra
cious and welcomed invitation from Mary
and Vigil to have supper with them. It saved
me from preparing a meal of Chili Mac
in my Commerce apartment. I will always
remember that meal and the two people who
reached out to me, sharing their experiences,
vision and concern for this Community with
much candor.
As a retired journalist, Virgil’s weekly col
umns should remind us that if we have a life
long task or gift that we should “do all we can
- while we can” and to be a Servant. Also I
think, to massage his words further, about not
having all of the answers, there is a message
to always strive for inclusion and “spread the
Big Tent” in our relations, public and private
- leaders are developed not born and they
are found Everywhere. In so many words,
Virgil, I believe is telling us that the same “old
Playbook” will not work anymore. We have a
period of immense challenge yet tremendous
opportunity if we are prepared to embrace it.
Of all his columns, this one I’ll save in a sheet
protector.
I have read most of his weekly columns,
but his recent Aug. 19 column, if you read it
in depth, really depicts Virgil Adams and his
inner deep down feelings about our poster
ity and what we should desire to relate to
them and pass on to them. As he quotes the
Prophet Isaiah’s prophetic words, used by
President Lyndon Baines Johnson, “Come
Let Us Reason Together” is an Event that all
of our Leaders of all political stripes, need to
practice. Thank you Virgil for reminding us
that Today’s Actions are Tomorrow’s Legacy.
Sincerely,
Jim Scott
Commerce
‘needs imrpovement’
That doesn’t look much like progress to me
- it looks instead like Perdue’s vaunted “gold
standard” is getting a little more tarnished
every year.
During the same period when the state’s SAT
scores were steadily declining, Perdue and
the General Assembly were cutting a total of
nearly $2 billion in state formula funding to
local school systems. Do you think there’s a
connection there?
Perdue cannot run for another term as gov
ernor so there will be a new chief executive in
2011. Whether that governor does any better
than Perdue at addressing the education issue,
of course, remains to be seen.
Cox, on the other hand, can legally run for a
third term as school superintendent and, as far
as I can tell, plans to do just that.
Does she deserve another term as the head
of public education?
It’s hard to argue in her favor, in part because
she never raised any public objections or pro
tests to Perdue’s continued cutbacks in spend
ing on schools. She could not have stopped
those spending cutbacks, but she at least could
have sent the signal that she would stand up for
Georgia’s public school students. She chose
not to do that.
It was also Cox who caused much embar
rassment for the state by attempting to remove
from the science curriculum all references to
evolution, the “Big Bang” and other scientific
theories that upset the Christian fundamentalist
wing of her Republican Party.
One of Cox’s top aides at the Department of
Education, while being questioned in a school
funding lawsuit, testified that high school stu
dents didn’t really need to take any science
or social studies courses to get an “adequate”
education. “I think you can do without sci
ence,” the Cox aide said.
Cox and her husband have also filed for per
sonal bankruptcy and were faced with having
their home foreclosed. Should a person with
that kind of financial record be running a state
agency with a $5.5 billion budget?
Under the standards of the No Child Left
Behind law, schools that don’t make adequate
yearly progress in upgrading student perfor
mance are placed on the “Needs Improvement”
list.
Perdue and Cox would appear to be two
names that belong on that list.
Tom Crawford is the editor of Capitol
Impact’s Georgia Report. He can be reached
at tcrawford@capitolimpact. net.
Nepotism, arrogance
are Pendergrass’
real problems
S OME of those who are following the
Pendergrass public corruption scandal may
think all of this is something new.
It’s not. The Pendergrass area has long been
associated with a culture of intimidation and corrup
tion. That today’s Pendergrass town leaders appear
to flaunt the law and ignore public opinion is just
another chapter in a very long and sorry legacy for
the community:
• It was a Jackson
County sheriff that hailed
from Pendergrass who
in the early 1960s went
to prison on car theft
charges.
• Prominent
Pendergrass citizens
were deeply involved
in a large car theft ring
based in Pendergrass;
some served time in jail
for criminal activity dur
ing the 1960s.
• People from
Pendergrass were mur
dered in the 1960s due to
their involvement in local organized crime rings.
• It was a “kingpin” bootlegger based in
Pendergrass who in 1967 paid to have the district
attorney murdered by putting dynamite in his car
and blowing him up.
That last act got the attention of state and federal
officials, who swarmed into Jackson County. It took
many more years, but Jackson County eventually
began to shed its image as a haven for organized
crime; even Pendergrass began to clean up its
image.
But that was due mostly to outsiders who came
in to mop up the county. The people in Pendergrass
knew about all the organized crime in the area, but
had done little to challenge it. They were scared
and had stayed quiet, allowing it to flourish.
Although the major organized crime faded from
the area, that culture of silence about community
problems lived on. Over the years, I’ve received a lot
of calls, mail and e-mail from Pendergrass citizens
who didn’t like what was happening in their com
munity, but who were fearful of speaking out.
That changed last week at the Pendergrass City
Council meeting when area citizens showed they
were fed up with the mismanagement of the city
and embarrassed by the antics of the town’s elected
leaders.
As citizen after citizen stood to speak, more and
more people followed. It was a moment of liberation
as the decades-old spell of fear and intimidation was
broken. Last week, it was council members who
had fear in their eyes, not citizens.
Since that meeting, there has been a flurry of
activity; Pendergrass citizens are organizing; there’s
talk of a recall; meetings are being planned; people
are angry about the distortions and lies they’ve been
fed by city leaders.
So where will all this lead?
If the GBI doesn’t find something to bring down
city administrator Rob Russell, “the family” will oust
him, hoping that throwing Russell under the bus will
pacify all the angry citizens.
But either way, removing Russell won’t quell this
backlash in Pendergrass. While a vast majority of
citizens would applaud Russell’s ouster, he isn’t the
real problem.
Fixing tickets isn’t the real problem.
Misusing SPLOST money isn’t the real problem.
Harassing drivers for money isn’t the real prob
lem.
Settling a city lawsuit in secret isn’t the real prob
lem.
Destroying city documents isn’t the real problem.
The real problem is Mayor Monk Tolbert and “the
family’s” control over the Pendergrass government.
The government doesn’t exist to serve citizens, but
rather to serve “the family’s” extensive real estate
interests in the town.
Nepotism and arrogance are the real issues in
Pendergrass. Citizens are tired of “the family” stack
ing the deck with relatives, friends and sycophants
to maintain a petty dictatorship.
Pendergrass is a tiny town, less than 500 people.
But the Pendergrass government is a large embar
rassment to all of Jackson County because of its
backward leaders who flaunt the law.
Deep, fundamental changes are needed in
Pendergrass, changes that will make it impossible
for one person or family to dominate and control
the entire city government.
By ignoring citizens and abusing their trust; by
lying to them and misleading them; by defending
that which is indefensible; by ignoring the misman
agement of public funds; by being exclusive rather
than inclusive of the citizenry; by employing secrecy
rather than transparency and openness; and by
maintaining political control through nepotism and
arrogance, Mayor Tolbert and “the family” gave life
to this uprising of Pendergrass citizens.
They ought not be surprised when this revolt
knocks them off their throne.
Mike Buffington is editor of The Jackson Herald.
He can be reached at mike@mainstreetnews.com.
mike
buffington