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^ Declare amoi
Opinions 4A
X: & EDITORIALS
among the nations, and publish, and set up a standard;
publish, and conceal not; Jeremiah 50:2
2016 and 2017 winner: Editorial Page excellence
2016 winner: Sports Photography excellence
2016 winner: News Photography excellence
2016 winner: Front Page excellence
2017 winner: Best Humor Column - On the Porch
ON THE PORCH by Will Davis
Vote Greg Head in
school board run-off
H uman nature being what it is, even the best insti
tutions need a good enema now and then.
That includes even the crown jewel of Georgia
institutions, Augusta National.
An attorney friend from Augusta was telling me recently
how a well-known local eatery there, The WifeSaver, had
made all those thousands of famous pimento sandwiches
for The Masters for decades. But this year, Augusta National
decided to make a change.
“Were going to make the pimento cheese sandwiches our
selves,” Augusta National told their long-time partner. “We
wont need you anymore.”
The Masters hired dozens of employees and went to work.
But after long hours of effort, their kitchen just couldn’t
match the taste of the WifeSaver s pimento cheese. Finally
they called back the owner of the WifeSaver.
“Look, we’ve tried but we just can’t make them like y’all,”
admitted Augusta National. “Would you share your recipe
with us?”
The owner of the WifeSaver didn’t have to think long.
“Yes, certainly, do you have a pen and paper?” he asked.
“Yessir, go ahead,” he replied.
“OK, first you take a bottle of chopped pimentos drained.”
“Alright, bottle of chopped pimentos.”
“And then you shove them up your a—.”
Yes, even the best institutions, or maybe especially the
good ones, need an enema now and then.
Some leaders of Monroe County’s school system have
demonstrated recently that the
system may need its own enema.
Voters will have the chance to
give it one starting July 2 when
early voting begins for the school
board runoffbetween long-time
incumbent Phil Walker and chal
lenger Greg Head.
School board members con
tinue to insist that the school
system had no choice but to hire
that child molester as a substitute
teacher last fall. They cite a court
order stating that they couldn’t
hold the applicant’s molesta
tion conviction against him in
hiring. What school officials fail
to understand is that Georgia
is an employment-at-will state. Employers can hire or fire
whomever they want for whatever reason they want except
for race. This is on them.
“I thought we had put this behind us,” said chairman No
len Howard, who’s been on the board 20 plus years, insisted
at the Reporter’s debate in May.
School officials sent an apology to their employees for the
criticism engendered by the Reporter’s story. But they never
apologized to parents for putting a molester, one who had
offered oral sex to a 13-year-old boy at his previous substi
tute job in Bibb County, in their children’s classroom.
We learned at that same debate that school board member
Stuart Pippin had planned to propose disciplining the super
intendent and assistant superintendent for the bad hire. That
is, until he was visited by the superintendent’s father at his
job at a local bank, who threatened to pull his accounts out
of the bank and sue him for slander if he went forward with
his proposal. This is Don Corleone, mobster-style politics
right out of “The Godfather”. It’s embarrassing.
Further, a small group of family members of top BOE offi
cials have flooded the Reporter’s vent with hate and invec
tive at this newspaper and our family members for having
the temerity to tell our readers the facts. Why are school
board members and their families so venomous about any
challenge to their authority? Maybe it’s because so many
school board members have family members working for
the school system.
Look, everyone thinks Phil Walker is a nice guy. But when
asked why he’s missed a quarter of his BOE meetings this
year, Walker admitted he has suffered poor health with a
stroke and cancer in recent years. He has told people during
See ON THE PORCH . Page5A
is published every week by The Monroe County Reporter Inc.
Will Davis, President • Robert M. Williams Jr., Vice President
Cheryl S. Williams, Secretary-Treasurer
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Publication No. USPS 997-840
PEACH STATE POLITICS by Kyle Wingfield
Actually, school choice IS good policy
A summertime surprise is
roiling the Georgia GOP’s
gubernatorial primary.
A defeated candidate
recently released a recording in
which Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle said
he supported a school-choice bill
he deemed “bad policy’ merely to
prevent a big campaign donation to
a rival candidate. Now Cagle, who
faces Secretary of State Brian Kemp
in next month’s runoff, is on the
defensive.
Whatever one makes of the politics
of it all, was this bill truly “bad”
policy? Not in the least.
House Bill 217 raised the cap on
the state’s popular tuition tax-credit
scholarship program to $100 million
from $58 million. The program al
lows donors to non-profits award
ing scholarships for private-school
tuition to claim a dollar-for-dollar
credit against their state income-tax
liability.
The scholarships give students
educational choices, whether they
are zoned for low-performing public
schools or being bullied at good
schools.
To attack the program, critics usu
ally rely on two arguments. First they
claim, baselessly, it’s simply a wealth
transfer to the already wealthy. They
also claim, equally spuriously, the
program deprives public schools of
funding and thus undermines public
education.
Let’s tackle these in reverse order.
To the extent funding is an issue for
Georgia’s schools, it’s not because of
tax-credit scholarships. The “auster
ity cuts” to Georgia’s k-12 schools
were always far larger than the sum
of these tax credits. And this year,
legislators managed to end those
cuts while also raising the cap.
For context, the new cap of $100
million is about 1 percent of the $9.9
billion the state alone will spend on
k-12 education next year - which
itself is typically only half of all tax
money allocated to Georgia’s public
schools. (In fiscal 2017, the total was
$20.3 billion.) What’s
more, the average tax-
credit scholarship was
worth about $3,450 in
2017, not even a third
of the per-pupil fund
ing of about $11,650
for public schools. That
meant “more” resources
per student remaining
in public schools, not
fewer.
If this is a scheme to
sink public education,
then, it’s a lousy one.
But what about the no
tion these scholarships
simply go to “the rich”?
Data collected and reported by the
Revenue Department show three in
four families receiving these scholar
ships earned less than $66,334 per
year, and almost half earned less
than $31,719. (These and the figures
that follow are for 2017.) These fami
lies were so “rich” that many of their
children qualified for free lunches
at school. Many would also have
qualified for Obamacare’s Medicaid
expansion, which the loudest critics
of tax-credit scholarships happen to
support.
But what of that last one-quarter of
scholarship recipients? Weren’t they
“rich”?
That depends on how you define
“rich,” and it’s worth noting just how
dramatically some critics change
their tune when we change the sub
ject to health care.
The state data show scholarship
families in the top quartile of income
- the ones earning at least $66,334
per year - had an average of three
dependents. So, think of a family of
five.
Again, the average
tax-credit scholarship
in 2017 was worth
about $3,450. In metro
Atlanta, a family of five
qualified for the same
amount in subsidies for
an Obamacare health
plan if it made $82,000
per year. By the critics’
definition, aren’t we
also subsidizing health
insurance for “the rich”?
In Savannah, a family
of five got about $3,450
of Obamacare subsidies
at $75,000 of income. In Colum
bus, it was at $84,000 of income.
In Augusta, $108,000 of income.
In Albany and Macon, $114,000 of
income.
Why do those who support help
ing these “rich” families buy health
insurance object to giving them
choices for their children’s educa
tion?
The critics are the ideologues here.
Bolstering school choice is not a
“bad policy” for Georgia. It’s an es
sential one.
The president of the Georgia Public
Policy Foundation, Kyle Wingfields
column appears in newspapers
around the state.
JUST THE WAY IT IS by Sloan Oliver
Republicans shouldn’t cave on immigration
T hree years ago, this week,
Donald Trump announced
that he was running for presi
dent Among the positions
he took, none was more prominent
and pro-American than his position
to fix our broken immigration system.
Everyone knows our
immigration system is
broken, largely because
the Democrats want the
following: Dems want
open borders where
if an illegal makes it
into the United States
they are given amnesty
for breaking our laws,
the Dems want to give
welfare to illegals and
to family members so
they become dependent
on the government,
the Dems want the
illegals to bring other
illegals into the country
(called “chain migration”), and the
Dems want to give citizenship and the
vote to illegals because they know many
illegals will vote for them. In a nutshell,
for the past two decades and even
more so when Obama was president,
the Dems have sought open borders
and unrestricted illegal immigration
because Dems want to fundamentally
change the country by changing our
demographics. The Dems encourage
illegal immigration because they want
to remain in power and, since people
are rejecting their idiotic liberal policies,
Dems must import voters who will sup
port them.
KNOWING the Dems’ stupid posi
tion on illegal immigration, Trump ran
on a platform of fixing our immigration
mess by promising - to build a wall, to
stop “chain migration,” and to deport
illegals. Of course, as soon as Trump
announced his immigration position,
we heard the standard leftist rants
about how Trump and his supporters
are racists, bigots, etc., etc. The Dems
and leftists never said that Trump was
wrong; all they did was shout “racism
and bigots” and expected those shouts
to win their argument. However, most
Americans want LEGAL immigration
and we want ZERO illegal immigra
tion. We want illegals to be deported or
to self deport. By supporting Trump,
his supporters are saying, “If you’re
an illegal, you should NEVER receive
citizenship. We don’t care if you were
brought here illegally by your parents at
six months or you came at 60 years of
age, if you’re here illegally - you should
never receive citizenship.” For every
one but Dems, that is very simple to
understand and is why most Americans
support President Trump.
THE PURPOSE of immigration is
to strengthen our na
tion, not to fix the worlds
problems. Therefore, an
immigrant must be skilled
and qualified so they’ll be
a benefit to our society. We
want immigrants who will
contribute economically,
and who won’t be a burden
on anyone. We need our
immigrants to be educated
and have a desire to assimi
late into American society.
However, that is NOT what
Democrats want. Dems
need an impoverished un
derclass that is permanently
dependent on government.
Dems want an immigration policy that
will bring unskilled people to our shores
who will be dependent on government.
Democrats want to give them “free
stuff” so they’ll vote for the Dems.
THE LATEST on the immigration
front is the liberal cry of, “it’s cruel to
separate parents from their children.”
Dems and liberals are screaming this in
response to the border patrol and ICE
jailing illegal immigrants. In compli
ance with the law ICE is arresting and
jailing illegals because they are breaking
the law (gasp). (Note - this law was ig
nored under Obama.) Yes, as confusing
as it is to Dems, someone entering the
country illegally has broken the law.
Now they’re being jailed, and, as such,
illegals with children are being separat
ed from their children. Here’s a simple
solution - if an illegal doesn’t want to
be separated from their children, then
don’t illegally enter the United States
with your children.
ONCE AGAIN, we are hearing about
comprehensive immigration reform
(CIR). To the Dems, CIR means: give
amnesty and citizenship to any and all
illegals, then, we can talk about secur
ing the border. Not surprising, many
RINOs (Republican in name only) are
going along with the Dems on CIR. If
you’re a RINO - reread the paragraphs
above. Trump was elected because
intelligent Americans DO NOT WANT
amnesty or citizenship granted to il
legal immigrants - ever. If the Repubs
are stupid enough to vote for amnesty,
citizenship to illegals, open borders,
chain migration, giving illegals the vote,
etc. - the Republican Party will lose the
mid-term elections and might never
again win a national election. Represen
tative Austin Scott, are you listening?
MEANWHILE, last week President
Trump and Kim Jung Un of North
Korea had an historic meeting in Singa
pore. Never before has a U.S. president
met with the president of North Korea.
Trump has often said that this was a
first step in resolving our problems
with North Korea. At the meeting’s
conclusion, Trump and Kim signed an
agreement in which Kim did agree to
the “complete denuclearization of the
Korean Peninsula.” Other than that, the
agreement was short on details - little of
substance was agreed upon, no timeline
was set, and no verification procedures
were established, and for that, Trump
was criticized by the liberal media. I
find it very odd that the liberal media
would criticize an agreement, signed by
the president that set no guidelines and
had no enforcement mechanism. After
all, the media praised and drooled over
Obama for the Paris Climate Accord
and the Iran Nuclear Agreement - both
of which established no guidelines for
any of the signatories and neither agree
ment has a verification procedure. Can
you say “liberal media hypocrisy?”
IF YOU want one reason why many
people around the world dislike the
United States, watch CNN for a few
days. Last week, my wife and I went on
a cruise. The only news channels on
the ship were CNN and CNN Interna
tional. Wanting to see coverage of the
Trump-Kim summit and the Inspector
General’s report on the FBI’s handling
of the Hillary email investigation that
detailed how Comey broke the law,
I turned on CNN. Yes, they covered
those events for about five minutes.
Then, CNN went right back to Trump
- Russia collusion and “hate Trump”
coverage. Libs, please, for your sanity,
stop watching CNN; your mind is a ter
rible thing to waste.
WEEKLY QUOTE: Congratulations
to the Monroe County Reporter for 1st
Place - Best Editorial Page awarded
by the Georgia Press Association.
Hooorrrahhhh!!
Sloan Oliver is a retired Army officer.
He lives in Bolingbroke with his wife
Sandra. Email him at sloanoliver@
earthlink.net.