Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 4A
THE JACKSON HERALD
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 31, 2010
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
Why do
schools exist?
W HAT is the purpose
of education? That
question may seem
obvious, but ask 100 people why
schools exist and there will be
100 different opinions.
Among those opinions, a pop
ular one is that education is for
the training of workers in our
economy. Indeed, over the last
two decades secondary schools
have increasingly put an empha
sis on workforce development.
A growth in vocational programs
has ridden that wave and today
is a large part of school pro
grams.
But perhaps that idea has gone
too far. Schools don’t exist just
to train worker-bees for eco
nomic development. Students
shouldn’t be viewed as mere
“products” of an assembly line.
At their core, schools should
prepare people to be construc
tive citizens. A part of that is the
building of a common base of
civic, cultural, social and politi
cal knowledge.
But all too often, that core is
missing, either through neglect
or extreme political correctness.
The common body of knowl
edge has fragmented such that it
really doesn’t exist.
The result is that schools are
churning out people who have
some specific technical skills,
but no understanding of the
larger world around them. They
can’t balance a checkbook,
evaluate political candidates,
or understand information that
is put into a historical context
because they themselves have
little historical context. And too
many have no concept of how
to express their ideas either ver
bally or in written form.
While schools tend to focus
on language and math skills,
that doesn’t seem to be work
ing. Take a look at the terrible
grammar and spelling by those
who put comments on any of
the various mainstreetnews.com
websites — the inability to com
municate clearly is obvious. And
while some students do con
quer math, many high school
graduates can’t compute simple
math formulas.
Maybe it’s time for school sys
tems to focus less on develop
ing worker-widgets and more
on developing well-rounded citi
zens.
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
letters
Citizen backs government, ‘ObamaCare’
Dear Editor:
Mike Buffington’s rant on March 24 about the evils of
“ObamaCare” leaves me shaking my head in amazement.
In his mind, all forms and levels of government are dys
functional and essentially useless. Counter-productive. I
can almost feel the heat radiating from his contempt.
I agree that two views prevail in the country today: One
that government can and should solve problems and the
other that government will always get it wrong.
But for crying out loud, if government is fundamentally
evil and awful, why do we have a country at all?
The purpose of government is to provide services and
protections in a fair and honest manner. Otherwise, the
strong and the powerful will steamroll the weak.
When we write off government as a danger to the world,
we facilitate the steamrolling.
Instead of railing against government, we ought to be
putting our heads together to find ways to make it func
tion properly. There is no alternative, unless you are into
anarchy.
There is another way to look at the prevailing views in
our country: One view wants to get things done, and the
other wants to block things from happening.
Healthcare is a case in point. There is no earthly reason
for the insurance industry to be involved in our healthcare.
Insurance is a useless middleman, a leech gleefully taking
our money, making big profits while we get zero in return.
In a rational world, we would pull the plug on the insur
ance companies and treat good health as a fundamental
right of every citizen.
And since that kind of thing is why government was
thought up in the first place, the cost of healthcare would
be - gasp - socialized and paid for with our taxes.
Not possible, you say? Well, that isn’t government’s fault;
it’s yours and mine.
The government is us, Mike. The government is us.
Sincerely,
Walter A. Smith
Jefferson
(Buffington responds: It appears I feel about govern
ment the same way you do about insurance companies. I
would argue that health care isn’t a “fundamental right”
of every citizen. I have yet to find that language in the
U.S. Constitution. Finally, the best way to keep govern
ment honest is to ask questions and hold public officials
accountable for their actions. If anyone is getting “steam-
rolled” here, it’s citizens by a too-powerful government.)
A great premise, but
SBRC isn’t working!
Dear Editor:
As parents, when we first heard about the SBRC three
years ago, my thought was super - this will tell us exactly
what our children know, and don’t know. We will know
exactly what to study and improve on the things we
need to. In reality, this is not what has taken place.
After two years of diligently studying the SBRC, indi
vidual performance indicators, summary marks, and
changing grading policies we feel more lost than found,
still searching for a true assessment of knowledge. The
standards are great, but the marking system leaves
much to be desired.
The idea behind knowing specific strengths and
weaknesses is fantastic, but what we have seemingly
ended up with is a pass/fail report card that runs all year
long; in some cases going from “EXCEEDS” to “DOES
NOT MEET” in the course of 9 weeks.
Now, with the recently issued policy of no “IN
PROGRESS” marks for the final term, what are we
left with? What does the student who achieved an
EXCEEDS in term 2 and a DOES NOT MEET in term
3 receive in term 4 on that same standard? What they
know right then? Well what about what they knew six
months ago?
Children learn the same concepts at different times.
This was supposed to be the inherent beauty of SBRC.
If “the end” is all that matters, then why put ourselves
through this process all year long? It’s a lot of work for
teachers, who have such limited time already. Yet, our
BOE is pushing the SBRC up to the 7th grade level for
next year; more of the same.
Once a standard has exceeded or met, what’s the
point of reassessing it again and again? Yes, they need
to retain that knowledge through revisiting the subject,
but they have already proven their understanding of it.
Wouldn’t time be better spent moving on to something
new? Lord knows there are more than enough stan
dards to cover in the 180 days available.
Without question the most frustrating aspect of the
SBRC process has got to be the lack of information
available to parents, particularly at the middle school
level. Fortunately, our children have been afforded
teachers who take the time to communicate with us via
weekly newsletters, class websites, and emails. We at
least know when assessments will take place, but we
remain in the dark about how they performed.
There is no access to scores once work is complete.
Nothing comes home, nor is it available on line. We
have to rely on our 6th grader to answer the question
“So how did you do on that math test today?”, “Oh
MOM, it was so easy!” As for “student led conferences,”
it’s great to teach the children to be accountable, but
conference time needs to be an opportunity for the par
ent and teacher to converse. We can converse with our
children anytime.
When is it okay to say, this was a good idea, but it
needs some tweaking. And please stop shoving it down
the throats of parents and teachers! Some serious ques
tions need to be addressed and answered. Parents are
their child’s only true advocate - it’s time to stand up
and be heard!
Sincerely,
Mr. and Mrs. Bill Paiter
Tax pledges aren’t what they used to be
AMERICANS for Tax Reform, an organization that
opposes tax increases, for years has asked legislators
from across the country to make this promise: “I
will oppose and vote against
any and all efforts to increase
taxes.”
That anti-tax pledge has
been signed by 19 members
of the Georgia Senate and
50 members of the House of
Representatives, a group that
is mostly Republican but does
include a few Democratic law
makers.
It’s easy to make such a
promise when the economy
is growing and tax collections
are strong. Under those condi
tions, the state can continue to
provide the same level of services without having to
demand higher taxes from its citizens.
The pledge can come back and bite you, however,
when the state is in the middle of the worst economic
downturn since the Great Depression and revenue
collections are plummeting by 15 to 20 percent. If you
don’t do something to raise revenues, serious cutbacks
in services have to be made.
That’s been the case in Georgia for the past two years,
where the General Assembly finds itself facing a pro
jected budget deficit of $2.4 billion or more in the next
fiscal year. This has forced legislators to cut funding
to the point where school systems are running out of
money and hospitals may have to be closed.
When you get hit hard in the face by that kind of
reality, you start to realize that maybe you shouldn’t
have been so quick to make an absolute promise that
you would vote against “any and all efforts to increase
taxes.”
That realization has hit home with Georgia lawmak
ers this year. Some of them, such as Rep. Fran Millar
(R-Dunwoody), have renounced the pledge and asked
that their names be removed from the “no new taxes”
list. Others have simply gone ahead and voted for leg
islation to raise taxes and fees, regardless of the political
damage it may do to them later.
We saw that happen a few weeks ago when the House
of Representatives voted to impose a 30-year tax to raise
money for a new Georgia Dome stadium in Atlanta.
That stadium tax bill was introduced by Rep. Mark
Burkhalter (R-Johns Creek), who signed the anti-tax
pledge.
There were 34 House members who signed the
anti-tax pledge but voted for the stadium tax, including
Ben Harbin of Evans, Larry O’Neal of Bonaire, Amos
Amerson of Dahlonega, Mike Coan of Lawrenceville,
Katie Dempsey of Rome, Mark Hamilton of Cumming,
Calvin Hill of Canton, Gene Maddox of Cairo, Alan
Powell of Hartwell, Bobby Reese of Sugar Hill, Carl
Rogers of Gainesville, Ed Rynders of Albany, Donna
Sheldon of Dacula, Bob Smith of Watkinsville, Len
Walker of Loganville, and Mark Williams of Jesup.
We saw it happen again last week when the House
passed bills that will increase about 80 state licensing
and inspection fees (which should generate more
than $90 million in revenues) and imposed a bed tax
on hospitals to raise $169 million for Medicaid. There
were dozens of conservative Republicans who voted
for the bills, with many of those “yes” votes coming
from people who once signed a solemn pledge to vote
against “any and all efforts to increase taxes.”
It was an amazing sight to see House Majority Leader
Jerry Keen (R-St. Simons) urging his colleagues to pass
both pieces of legislation. Keen is one of the most
conservative Republicans in the Legislature and a signer
of the anti-tax pledge. When someone like Jerry Keen
is supporting tax increases, you know the world has
changed.
There are some lawmakers who will insist that they
weren’t voting to raise taxes, they were just voting to
“enhance fees” or some such thing. That is a weak
argument. A tax is a tax, no matter what you try to
call it, and those votes last week were votes for tax
increases.
There are times when a situation is so dire that a
politician has to reconsider a promise he or she once
made and vote differently to reflect a change in circum
stances. I think this is one of those times.
You can criticize these legislators for going back on
a promise, if you want to - but you can also commend
them for having the wisdom to adjust to the demands
of the real world.
Tom Crawford is the editor of The Georgia Report. He
can be reached at tcrawford@caDitolimDact.net.
Movies tell
a larger story
T WO recent movies with
sports themes carried a
message larger than the
simple stories they tell. This nation
could learn something from both.
“Invictus,” tells the true story of
how Nelson Mandela used a South
African rugby team to begin heal
ing the
nation
after the
fall of
apart
heid
and his
own
election
as presi
dent.
Racial
tensions
in South
Africa
soared
after white
Afrikaans lost power to the major
ity black population in the 1990s.
The transition from a system of
legalized segregation to a black-mn
government played on the fears of
both sides.
Amid that tension, Mandela
decided to use sports as a vehicle
to begin the process of reuniting
the country.
But not just any sport or just any
team. Mandela chose as his sym
bol the mostly-white Springboks
rugby team. The team was seen at
that time as a symbol of the former
white Afrikanns apartheid govern
ment.
After the team won the 1995
World Cup, Mandela strode onto
the field and donned the green
Springbok jersey, a symbolic move
that told the nation the new black-
majority government wanted to
reconcile the nation, including
Afrikanns.
While rugby didn’t unify the
nation — critics say Mandela’s
symbolic move only masked the
underlying problems — it did serve
as a platform to at least promote
the idea of reconciliation.
The second movie, “The Blind
Side,” also tells a story of racial
healing, but on a much smaller
scale of one person and one family.
Michael Oher, a sometimes
homeless black kid from the
Memphis projects, had a difficult
childhood. Bouncing from foster
home to foster home and some
times homeless, he eventually
ended up in a private school where
he lagged academically.
Oher was eventually taken in by
a wealthy white family in Memphis,
an event that a generation ago
would have been unthinkable in
that part of the country.
But as a football star, Oher found
acceptance and support, eventually
playing football for Ole Miss and
now the Baltimore Ravens.
While athletics served as a ticket
out of the terrible conditions into
which he was born, Oher was also
helped by the compassion of one
family.
The common theme in these
two movies is this: Change can take
place in both large and small ways
not from the use of government
power, but rather from the actions
of individuals who want to make a
difference.
That is something of a radi
cal notion today, a time when so
many in this country are looking to
government either for a bailout or
a handout. Making changes from
acts of compassion or the seeking
of common ground is not what
our society hears much about.
Government, we are told, is the
solution to all our problems.
But it isn’t. The real solution lies
in the small acts of people, from
the powerful like Nelson Mandela
who seek reconciliation not
through force, but through leader
ship; and from the small acts of
individuals and families who seek
to change the world one life at a
time.
Mike Buffington is editor of The
Jackson Herald. He can be reached
at mike@mainstreetnews.com.
mike
buffington