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THE JACKSON HERALD
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 11, 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
letters
Citizen compares older times to current times
our views
State’s math
changes a
debacle
W E TOLD you so.
That’s the mantra that
should be echoing in
the ears of state leaders as they
confront an inconvenient truth —
Georgia’s new high school math
curriculum is an abject failure.
A lot of parents and experienced
educators had predicted the state’s
“blended” math classes wouldn’t
work. In an effort to raise stan
dards, the Georgia Department of
Education did away with traditional
math classes — geometry algebra,
trig, calculus — and replaced them
with Math 1, 2, 3, 4. All of the sub
jects are now mixed together.
The result? High failure rates on
the Math End of Course Tests last
spring.
Now the state board of education
is considering an alternative plan so
that students won’t flunk because
of the new math standards.
All of this was supposed to be an
effort to “raise the bar” and get stu
dents better ready for college. Even
in lower grades, math has been
changed to have students working
on “higher order thinking skills.”
Gone are the days of working on
rote math problems. Mastering
math concepts one at a time has
been replaced by no mastery.
This trend has been building for
a long time. But it’s flawed. It treats
students all the same with no allow
ance for differences between kids.
Not every student has the mental
maturity to conquer higher math.
Not every student is going to col
lege.
Whatever happened to the gener
al math classes that were designed
to help students learn to balance
their checkbooks?
All of that is gone.
At the other end, the brighter
students who are good in math and
who are bound for college will get
cheated under the new math cur
riculum. Since the state has created
blended classes that lack a focus
on mastery college bound students
will be getting a watered down
math curriculum.
All of this was predictable. The
effort was driven by a slew of con
sultants and bureaucrats operating
on nutty theories that populate their
education bubble.
The losers, however, are our stu
dents who have become little more
than lab rats for the stupidity of
educrats.
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
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Jana Adams Mitcham Features Editor
Ben Muro Sports Editor
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Sharon Hogan Reporter
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Dear Editor:
We all heard the president reiterate his plans
to bring home some 90,000 troops real soon.
With the unemployment rate over 10 percent
already, this could just add to the problem,
maybe not.
A guy older than me (!) said: “they don’t
teach history anymore because they might learn
somethin’...”
He was referring to a REAL crisis just before
WWII that was solved when President Hoover’s
administration formulated a program called the
American Recovery Act that organized the CCC
and the WPA and that President Roosevelt took
credit for and implemented.
Remember some other campaign promises
before the presidential election about the NEED
to repair bridges, road, parks, sewers, etc.? Well,
if you scrape away some of the grime on the
IS THERE any hope for Georgia’s HOPE
scholarship program?
Judging from last week’s joint meeting of the
State House and Senate committees on higher
education, there are few reasons to be optimis
tic about the future of this program, which uses
lottery profits to pay college tuition for students
who maintain a 3.0 grade point average.
Testimony at the meeting made it clear that
when the General Assembly convenes next
January, the HOPE financial crisis is going to be
at the top of a long list of problems.
The popular scholarship program is burning
through its reserves as
expenditures outstrip the
profits generated by the
Georgia Lottery. HOPE
expenditures will exceed
lottery funds by $243 mil
lion this fiscal year and
$317 million next year,
according to projections
from the Georgia Student
Finance Commission.
There are only two real
istic choices for lawmak
ers: reduce the number
of students who receive
a HOPE scholarship or
cut the amount of money each student gets.
Sides are already starting to form in this
debate. Senate Minority Leader Robert Brown
(D-Macon) proposed that the HOPE scholar
ship once again become a needs-based source
of college assistance. That means only students
from low-income and middle-income families
could apply for it.
“I think it’s a lasting solution if we want to save
HOPE, and it’s in line with the original purpose
of the scholarship, which was to make a college
education more affordable for Georgia students
who couldn’t otherwise afford it,” Brown said.
The idea of imposing such a limit is not
supported by the remaining candidates for
governor.
If needs-based standards are a political non
starter, another alternative would be to require
that students achieve a minimum score on the
SAT before they can apply for a scholarship.
Gov. Sonny Perdue proposed this kind of SAT
standard back in 2003, when the Legislature
first grappled with the issue of depleted reserve
funds. Perdue suggested then that HOPE schol
arship applicants be required to have a mini
mum score of 950 or 1000 on the SAT exam,
but that proposal was quickly shot down by
lawmakers.
plaques on bridges, roads and parks, you will
see they were the ones who did that work; hun
dreds of thousands of people were employed
and set out each day doing just that - for room,
board, clothing and paid once a month, includ
ing free medical/dental. (Sounds kind of like
the military - only they wore safety helmets and
did not have guns.) The same program worked
later for Germany and Japan to rebuild their
countries with great success.
‘Course, that was then - this is now. Maybe
we’re too sophisticated now ....
This same old guy also said: “if you wait long
enough to do something some people might
forget it wasn’t YOUR idea in the first place ....”
Sincerely,
Frank Rosynek
Jefferson
With the HOPE program in such dire financial
straits, a minimum SAT score requirement will
probably be discussed again.
An SAT standard would set the stage for at
least two kinds of civil wars among legislators.
You would have lawmakers from rural districts
arguing that a minimum SAT score requirement
would favor students from the more affluent
suburban school districts.
There would be another war along racial
lines, with legislators from black districts con
tending that the use of a “culturally biased” SAT
test to determine eligibility would tilt the field
in favor of students from predominantly white
school districts.
The HOPE issue may ultimately touch upon
another sensitive question with enormous impli
cations for Georgia: are there too many students
going to college in the first place?
Testimony at last week’s legislative hearing
revealed that 46 percent of students who obtain
HOPE scholarships lose them within their first
year at college because they fail to maintain a
3.0 grade point average. More than 60 percent
of HOPE recipients lose the scholarship at
some point in their college career for that same
reason.
“I thought the HOPE scholarship was sup
posed to be a reward for outstanding students,”
said Rep. Amos Amerson (R-Dahlonega), a
retired college instructor. “If two-thirds of the
HOPE scholarships are lost, those aren’t really
outstanding students. They are average stu
dents.”
Figures from the Board of Regents also show
that more than 40 percent of the students admit
ted to Georgia’s public colleges fail to graduate
within a six-year period.
While University System officials boast of their
ever-growing increases in enrollment - there
are now more than 300,000 students at the
state’s public colleges - those numbers make
the uncomfortable point that a lot of people
are being admitted who are never going to get
a degree.
Should we keep spending more money - and
raising tuition to higher levels - to try to educate
larger numbers of students who are never going
to finish college? Or does it make more sense
to focus our dwindling financial resources on a
smaller pool of students who have a more realis
tic chance of actually getting a degree?
Those are hard questions that need to be
raised with the candidates for governor.
Tom Crawford is the editor of The Georgia
Report. He can be reached at tcrawford@sare-
port.com.
Taxpayers need
to demand less
T HIS column is for Jackson County
taxpayers. I write a lot about local
governments and their tendency to
waste taxpayer dollars. I have been arguing for
years that many of those in the public sector
don’t know how good they have it: Extreme job
security; above average pay; and above average
benefits.
It’s only been
in the last 18
months that some
of that has begun
to change. Still, I
abhor the whining
from public employ
ees over every
little change they’ve
faced. Yes, many
are paying more
for their insurance
than in the past, but
that’s been true in
the public sector
for years. Don’t bel
lyache so much.
But this column is aimed not at those folks,
it’s aimed at “us,” the average taxpayer. We’ve
got to stop pushing local governments to fulfill
our “wants,” then turn around and complain
about higher taxes.
The truth is, too many of us are demanding
more and more services, but have no stomach
to pay for the extra cost. We need to decide
what it is we really want; if we want gold-stan
dard services, we have to pay gold-standard
prices.
Take recreation. A lot of younger parents
are always pushing for more ball fields, bigger
programs and newer programs. But a lot of
other people who don’t have children directly
involved don’t want to pay higher taxes to make
all of that happen.
There has to be a balance in this, yet find
ing that balance is difficult. The users of the
programs resist paying higher fees, yet it’s not
exactly fair to expect other taxpayers to subsi
dize little Johnny or Suzie to play ball.
And then there is the intangible. Good qual
ity recreation programs add to the local quality
of life, which in turn makes a community an
attractive place to live. That helps with property
values and development, but there is no clear
way to measure that.
Another example is fire protection. People
are scared of losing their homes to a fire and
if asked, often want local governments to put a
fire station staffed full-time on every block. Yet
few are willing to pay for that level of service
because we can’t afford the amount of taxes it
would take. In fact, some nearby counties have
gone almost broke trying to provide extensive
fire protection.
So fellow taxpayers, it’s time we are honest
with ourselves. We can’t afford to pay for all our
“wants” and must decide where the compro
mises should be made.
Here are a few guidelines:
-Don’t make decisions based on fear. No
public agency wants to be cut and all too
often agency officials try to scare the public
into thinking if they’re cut, all kinds of horrible
things will happen. That was what happened in
Hoschton with the town’s former police depart
ment. People were scared that if the depart
ment was abolished, gangs would take over
and crime would run rampant. But it didn’t
happen. Fear should not drive the budget and
decision-making process.
-Recognize what is a “want” and what is a
“need.” Just because a group of people want a
certain service doesn’t mean it’s really needed.
All kinds of special interest groups defend their
pet projects, but county and city leaders have
to cut through the puffery and see what’s really
needed.
-Raise fees on programs people choose to
do. This applies mainly to recreation programs.
Let general taxes pay for infrastructure and
maintenance, but charge enough in fees to par
ticipants to cover the cost of equipment, uni
forms and the salary overhead that manages
the programs. Don’t have general taxpayers
subsidize programs beyond the basics.
-Cut all new infrastructure spending. If you
build it, you have to maintain it. For now, local
governments should not start any new infra
structure because they simply can’t afford to
maintain it.
It’s time for taxpayers to realize that the more
they want the more it will cost. In today’s eco
nomic environment, we should stop complain
ing about what we don’t have and simply find
a way to maintain what we do have at the least
expense.
That’s the only way for local governments to
survive without massive tax hikes.
Mike Buffington is editor of The Jackson
Herald. He can be reached at mike@mainstreet-
"The election never seems official
until I read about it in the newspaper!"
Hope is running out for students
mike
buffington
news.com.