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PAGE 4A - THE COMMERCE (GA) NEWS. WEDNESDAY. OCTOBER 1. 2008
mion
Editorial Views
Governor Plays With
Funding Of Schools
From Gov. Sonny Perdue's standpoint, the
state can violate the law and local govern
ments or boards of education cannot legally
challenge it.
That is the gist of his request of Attorney
General Thurbert Baker on the legality of
local school boards using local funds to
join The Consortium for Adequate School
Funding. That group is suing the state for fail
ure to provide the funds necessary to educate
children.
The consortium says Georgia is not meeting
its legal responsibility to provide adequate
funding. It claims the state's per-pupil fund
ing of education has declined 4.8 percent
between the fiscal years of 2002 and 2007
when numbers are adjusted for funding.
The consortium's members are all school
boards. School boards have no other sourc
es of money other than public funds, and
Perdue wants to make sure such money can
not be used to challenge the state's handling
of education funding.
The governor doesn't want that suit to come
to light because, if successful, it would force
Georgia to ante-up on school funding. Over
the past decade, while the state's spending for
education has increased, its percentage of the
cost of educating children has fallen. School
boards have had to increase local taxes to
make up the difference. In one of the great
examples of political hypocrisy, state offi
cials have become critical of the rise in local
school tax rates that were necessitated by the
state's abdication of its responsibilities.
Instead of backing a fair hearing of the
issue, the governor is waging a public rela
tions war. He's trying to anger taxpayers that
their money is being used to challenge a state
policy that one-third of Georgia's school sys
tems believe violates state law.
Georgia's schools must educate children
whether the price of gasoline is $2 per gal
lon or $5. They face the same increased
costs for materials and utilities with which
citizens and businesses cope. They cannot
increase classroom size to save money, refuse
to educate new students or lay off teachers
who have signed contracts. When the state
fails to adequately fund all of those costs,
the only recourses for school boards is to dip
into reserves or increase local school prop
erty taxes. Since most school systems have
depleted their reserves, the local taxpayer
is stuck picking up the slack — leaving the
governor and the General Assembly free to
pose as good stewards for holding down state
spending and leaving the local school boards
to face angry taxpayers.
Rather than face the issue, the governor is
playing games. He's doing an end run around
the problem by trying to eliminate school
systems' abilities to challenge the state, pos
sibly because he knows the consortium's
challenge has merit. The local school boards
suing Georgia through the consortium are
concerned about the education of thousands
of children. The important issue is not the
use of taxpayers' money to litigate this case,
but whether Georgia is living up to its legal
obligations to finance public education. Were
the state doing so, there would be no outcry
by a third of Georgia's school systems and
no need to pay attorneys to get for Georgia's
children the level of funding the law says the
state should provide.
Editorials, unless otherwise noted, are written
by Mark Beardsley. He can be reached at mark@
mainstreetnews. com
The Commerce News
ESTABLISHED IN 1875
USPS 125-320
1672 South Broad Street
Commerce, Georgia 30529
MIKE BUFFINGTON Co-Publisher
SCOTT BUFFINGTON Co-Publisher
MARK BEARDSLEY..Editor/General Manager
JUSTIN POOLE Sports Editor
TERESA MARSHALL Office Manager
MERRILL BAGWELL Cartoonist
THE COMMERCE NEWS is the legal organ of
the city of Commerce and is published every
Wednesday by MainStreet Newspapers Inc.
Periodical postage paid at Commerce, Georgia
30529.
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and Madison counties, $19.75; State of
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POSTMASTER send address changes to THE
COMMERCE NEWS, P.O. Box 908, Jefferson, GA,
30549.
Presidential elections used to be really
exciting. Now, they're just scary.
My Room Became Our Room
When I was 12,1
gained an unwanted
roommate: my baby
sister. Not that I didn't
enjoy her; I did. In
fact, she'll happily tell
you now that I mined
her young life by tak
ing her everywhere I
went, and the latter
part of that statement,
at least, is true. Emily
was smart and funny from the day she
was born, she had a halo of golden
curls around her sweet and sunny
little face, and to me she was, in the
most literal sense, a living doll: an
enchanting toy.
So if I went bicycling, she rode in
the basket ("without a helmet," she is
quick to point out); if I was sledding,
you could find her lying on my back,
clinging to my parka hood ("terrified,"
she likes to add here). When I became
a cheerleader, she morphed into our
mascot, and rode with us on the bus
to the away games, dressed in her
favorite pajamas (which we "totally
destroyed," she says, by dyeing them
green). One of us, anyway, had a fan
tastic time.
But share my room? Give up the
privacy of that most sacred of sanc
tuaries? It seemed impossible to me
— and young as she was, she knew it,
which is one of those regrets of the
heart that I guess I'll have with me
always. I don't think I said anything
out loud, but as you can tell, she was
no dummy. How ungenerous of me,
I think now, and how unkind, to let
a small child feel unwelcome in the
place that would be her only refuge, as
it was mine.
And how mistaken I was to think
that the pleasure of her company
would end at the door to our room.
She turned out to be the best of room
mates, the funniest and the most dis
creet, and we had a shared privacy that
A Few
Facts t A
Lot Of
Gossip 2
BY SUSAN HARPER
was far better than sol
itude. Together we bat
tled everything from
measles to nightmares
to spiders on the ceil-
/ jt ing, and in the process
K we built a strong con-
nection that would
keep us close despite
the difference in our
ages and decades of
living far apart.
When I left for college, our room
became hers, but I didn't realize it until
much later, because whenever I came
home, everything of "mine" was still
there, untouched (except I think she
must have dusted it all — silly figurines,
perfume bottles, the whole bit).
Now — suddenly, it seems — her
daughter is just about exactly the age
I was when Emily moved in with me.
It's one of the gifts of family life, I
suppose, that you can catch a glimpse
of yourself, briefly but clearly, as you
were at a younger age by watching a
beloved niece or nephew. My niece
has a foot in each of two worlds,
childhood and adulthood, and belongs
to neither. We adults, to whom she
once looked up, are now creatures
from the black lagoon, although she's
far too polite to show this in any way.
She just lives apart from us, in a paral
lel universe. She's in her room even
when she's not in her room.
Meanwhile, her mom and I, left to
our own devices, are now grownups
together, with that wonderful little
slice of our shared past, when she put
up with me without ever letting me
know. Now, though, she lets me know.
I really hear it about those green paja
mas! ("Oh, go on," I tell her. "You
loved every minute of it." And we
laugh.)
Susan Harper is director of the
Commerce Public Library. She lives in
Commerce.
The Experience Of A Lifetime
Viewpoints
In
Rotation
The experience of
a lifetime presents
itself in many forms.
Some people claim
meeting their favor
ite actor, athlete or
author as their experi
ence of a lifetime. A
lot of people cherish
a vacation to a far
away land and say it
is their experience
of a lifetime. Spending time tour
ing museums, cathedrals, castles and
historical monuments gives reference
to another type of experience of a
lifetime. Others, well, they might still
be searching for their experience of a
lifetime.
What could possibly be waiting for
young men who have felonies, dif
ficult pasts, unknowing futures, and
challenging lifestyles as their experi
ence of a lifetime? What could change
their life where they could turn the
corner and be afforded the opportu
nity to overcome their desperate lives?
Nineteen years ago my position as
the youngest in the family was over
taken by my cousin Evan. It was a joy
ous time in our family, and over the
years we were always cheering for him
at the baseball field or football field.
BYTRICIA MASSEY
It was fun to be able
to watch him succeed.
But things changed
six years ago when our
family was crushed
with the untimely
^ JS deaths of our closest
family members — my
uncle, stepfather and
grandmother. Evan
lost two uncles and
the only grandparent
he had ever known.
Shortly after my grandmother's
death, Evan's parents recognized that
divorce was inevitable. Obviously,
Evan's world crashed. Personality
changes, questionable behavior and
other clues, led our family to believe
that Evan was quickly traveling down
the wrong path in life. We knew that
underneath the destructive behav
ior, the Evan we all knew and loved
was desperate to get out. After two
attempts at boarding schools, Evan was
not willing to accept that something
needed to change. For reasons too per
sonal to share, Evan was arrested.
As part of his sentence, Evan was
ordered to the Paul Anderson Youth
Home for Boys in Vidalia. After learn-
Please Turn to Page 5A
It's
Gospel
According
To Mark
BY MARK BEARDSLEY
No Answers
Here For
Financial Woes
I have to admit that the finan
cial crisis worries me. What
troubles me most is that I don't
have a clue as to what, if any
thing, should be done to rem
edy the situation.
Therefore, I decline to be con
sidered for secretary of the trea
sury or head of the Securities
and Exchange Commission
when the inevitable openings
occur.
I've never balanced a check
book. I know the theory, but
when you're married to a detail-
oriented banker, you let her
handle that project.
I'm as qualified to consider
financial policy for the U.S. as
Sarah Palin is to be president,
but the good news is there is no
chance I'll have such responsi
bilities forced upon me.
Having established my lack of
financial credentials, I will say
that I'm opposed to the $700
billion bailout.
When I state that position, the
logical next question is, "well,
what would you do?"
For that, I have no answer.
My opposition is more philo
sophical than pragmatic. If
financial institutions were stu
pid enough to loan money to
people without doing their due
diligence, my sense says they
deserve to take a hit and we, the
taxpayers, should not be forced
to come to their rescue. The
government should not be the
default insurer of every large
financial institution.
Secondly, this crisis should be
a wake-up call. Even a journal
ist can tell that government has
abandoned its fiscal responsibili
ties, and the mortgage and cred
it crises are the result of individ
uals doing the same thing. It's
time that both the government
and the governed become reac
quainted with the idea of living
within your income.
The bailout is more of the
same from the government.
"Just put it on my tab" suggests
that we're still not serious about
our national indebtedness.
It's the big picture that eludes
me. When Wachovia shares hit
96 cents, a lot of people lost a
lot of money. The nest eggs and
retirement savings of millions
of people are quickly diminish
ing, and if the collapse contin
ues, working folks will be hurt.
If banks don't have money to
loan and credit dries up, the
economy will shudder to a halt.
Our economy requires frivo
lous spending. If Americans
began buying only what they
need and can afford, it'll be
years before the economy recov
ers. If we quit buying coffee
at $3 a cup, cut back to basic
cable, cease replacing cars when
they're out of style and realize
that life can exist without the
ability to text message on our
phones, what will it do to the
gross national product?
I can't foresee the full conse
quences of either the bailout or
the failure to enact a rescue. I'll
just hope we learn something
about the need for fiscal respon
sibility this time around.
Mark Beardsley is editor of The
Commerce News. He can be reached
at mark@mainstreetnews.com