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THE JACKSON HERALD
WEDNESDAY, JULY 19, 2017
Opinions
“Private opinion is weak, but public opinion is almost omnipotent. ”
- Henry Ward Beecher ~
Mike Buffington, editor • Email: Mike@mainstreetnews.com
Big change in Jefferson school growth
mike
buffington
Remarkable.
That about the only word that fits the change
in outlook of the
Jefferson City School
System over the last
30 years.
Last week, the
school system sent a
strongly-worded let
ter to the city council
opposing any more
annexations of sub
divisions into the city.
The reason is the
potential that the
system will soon
become overcrowd
ed. Students who live
inside the city limits of Jefferson automatically
have a legal right to attend the city school system.
Students who live outside the city have no legal
right to attend and must pay tuition, if space is
available.
Because of the reputation of the city school sys
tem, subdivision developers want to annex into
the city. That adds a premium they can charge
when selling a new house.
Success breeds success. But success can also
breed too much growth
too quick, especially now
that the local economy has
mostly recovered from the
recession. Home building
in Jefferson and Jackson
County is exploding.
It wasn’t always that way.
Thirty years ago, the
Jefferson City School
System faced the opposite
problem. It wanted and
needed more students.
It’s complicated, but
here’s a digest version of
events:
In the early 1950s,
Jackson County’s three
school systems entered
into contracts over who
would educate what chil
dren and for busing ser
vices. The push behind
that was a large move by the state to consolidate
smaller schools.
The upshot was that following that contract,
white students in North and South Jackson were
bused to Jefferson High School after their 7th
Grade year. Busing was also done for elementary
grade county students who lived near Jefferson.
In 1970, the federal court mandated school
integration and became entangled in the opera
tions of local school systems. To accommodate
incoming black students, Jefferson needed to
build more classrooms. To qualify for state funds
to help pay for that, the court extended the old
1950s era contracts because it thought that was
necessary for Jefferson to get the funds.
The upshot of all that was that a lot of county
students attended Jefferson City Schools.
In 1979, all that changed. Jackson County High
School was moved from Braselton to Jefferson.
It has grown
and added
classrooms
and new
schools, but
still more and
more students
are coming.
Jefferson High School lost 100 students that first
year.
That scared Jefferson school officials. The
system had over 800 students who lived outside
the city limits.
A series of lawsuits between the system ensued
with Jefferson arguing that the county system
had illegally accepted students who had been
assigned to Jefferson schools under the old con
tracts and desegregation court order.
Jefferson won. The court ruled that the county
couldn’t accept any more students who lived in
the county district, but who were assigned to
Jefferson High School.
More lawsuits were filed and by the end of 1981,
the court ruled that students who lived in that
Jefferson attendance zone could attend JCHS if
both school boards agreed.
The Jefferson BOE didn’t. It mandated that all
rising 9th Graders had to attend JHS if they lived
in the attendance zone.
It took four more years, but eventually the
federal courts exited from their entanglement in
the local school systems. What that happened
in 1985, county students were free to attend any
school they wanted to.
The result was a loss of students from Jefferson
to the county system.
For years, Jefferson strug
gled to have enough stu
dents to fill classrooms so
it could offer a complete
program. The city annexed
more property to expand its
tax base and to also provide
infrastructure for new hous
ing to lure students into the
city system.
Today the school system
has the opposite problem. It
has grown and added class
rooms and new schools, but
still more and more students
are coming. Its campuses
are almost full. Rather than
having too few students, it’s
struggling to absorb growth.
Of particular note, the city
has 600 undeveloped build
ing lots just waiting for a new
home — and the kids those
houses will bring.
There is no easy answer to all of this. Even
without annexing any more land, the city will
continue to grow with infill projects. Overtime,
the city school system will be forced to raise its
out-of-district tuition and eventually not accept
any more students who live outside the city limits.
Land and housing prices will then go up, espe
cially if the city adopts a moratorium on residen
tial annexations.
A lot of people would like to freeze the city and
its schools as it is today.
No more growth.
Keep the school system its current size.
Preserve the “smallness” of a small town.
History indicates that will be very difficult to do.
Mike Buffington is co-publisher of Mainstreet
Newspapers. He can be reached at mike@main-
streetnews.com.
state report
Georgia has its own mini-Trump
BY TOM CRAWFORD
For those Georgia voters who couldn’t get enough of Donald Trump
in last year’s election, fear not.
We have a local version of The Donald who is now running for gov
ernor: state Sen. Michael Williams (R-Cumming), who hasn’t served
quite two terms in the Legislature but has his eye on the state’s top job.
Williams was the first Georgia lawmaker to endorse Trump in the
presidential election and his campaign for governor is modeled on
how Trump ran for office. He even has a campaign manager, Seth
Weathers, who was briefly involved in Trump’s Georgia campaign
organization.
Like Trump, Williams is trashing his opponents both online and in
public, making outrageous accusations that aren’t supported by such
things as facts and data.
In particular, he is going after Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, the choice of
many in the capital establishment to be the successor to current Gov.
Nathan Deal.
At the state GOP convention in June, Williams claimed that Cagle
and the Senate leadership offered him the chairmanship of the
powerful Senate Appropriations Committee if he would not run for
governor.
“The establishment, and the career politicians they finance, see our
movement and they know we’re coming for them,” Williams said.
He repeated that charge last Thursday at a capital press conference:
“There’s a reason that Casey Cagle’s team wanted me out of this race
to the point where they offered me a Senate chairmanship for my
support.”
In the face of numerous questions from reporters, Williams would
not produce any evidence at either event to back up his sensational
charges against Cagle and the party establishment.
Most likely, that’s because his accusations aren’t true. The charges
have been denied by everyone who would have been in a position to
offer him a chairmanship, and it’s simply implausible that the Senate
leadership would have made such a move.
Like Trump, Williams sees himself as a martyr to political correct
ness, a valiant fighter that the “establishment” wants to bring down
because of his opposition to crony capitalism.
He declared at last week’s press conference: “1 know that in less
time than it takes me to tie my shoes, Casey and his gang of bullies will
begin to further assault me and my family. It won’t be the first time or
the last. We are ready. You cannot break us... .We will be here. Your
days are numbered.”
Like Trump, Williams tweets a never-ending stream of attacks on
liberals, the party establishment, and undocumented immigrants.
He appears to hate the establishment even more than he hates
immigrants.
I guess it won’t be long before he’s referring to the lieutenant gover
nor as “Crooked Casey” and “Low-energy Cagle.”
Many of Williams’ tweets include pleas for campaign contributions,
promising that if people will just give him money “we can beat the
establishment.”
That message doesn’t appear to be resonating with Republicans.
When the campaign disclosure reports for the period ending June
30 were released last week, Williams wasn’t even close to his oppo
nents in raising money.
Cagle reported nearly $2.7 million in contributions, Secretary
of State Brian Kemp reported $1.7 million, and even an obscure
state senator named Hunter Hill brought in more than $1 million.
Democrats Stacey Abrams and Stacey Evans each raised more than
$400,000.
Williams’ take was a measly $51,404 in outside contributions. Even
the Democrats running for governor were out-raising him by a ratio of
more than eight-to-one.
Like Trump, Williams is now in a position to talk about how he can
use his own money to run for office so that the “establishment” can’t
buy him.
He indicated on his disclosure report that he’s loaned his campaign
$1 million in personal funds. Thus, he’s kicking in $20 out of his own
pocket for every dollar he brings in.
When a candidate has that much trouble raising money, attacks his
own party, and makes thunderous accusations that he knows aren’t
true, the normal rules of politics would tell you that the candidate is
on track to lose the race.
However, Trump’s presidential campaign showed us that the old
political rules no longer apply. Williams thinks he can do at the state
level what Trump did at the national level. Will the voters agree with
him?
Tom Crawford is editor of The Georgia Report, an internet news
service at gareport.com that reports on state government and poli
tics. He can be reached at tcrawford@sareDort. com.
The Jackson Herald
Founded 1875
Merged with The Commerce News 2017
The Official Legal Organ of Jackson County, Ga.
Herman Buffington, Publisher 1965-2005
Mike Buffington Co-Publisher & Editor
Scott Buffington Co-Publisher & Advertising Manager
Angela Gary Associate Editor Features
Alex Pace Braselton News Editor
Ron Bridgeman Reporter
Ben Munro Sports Editor
Charles Phelps Sports Reporter
Wesleigh Sagon Photographer/Features
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