PAGE 4A
THE BANKS COUNTY NEWS
WEDNESDAY, MAY 1, 2013
Editor: Angela Gary
Phone: 706-367-2490
E-mail: AngieEditor@aol.com
Website: www.banksnewsTODAY.com
Opinion
“Where the press is free and every man
able to read, all is safe.”
— Thomas Jefferson
What community
newspapers
mean to me
A wise man once told me, “If it isn’t in
the newspaper, it never really happened.” I
have found this to be no truer than in politics.
Community newspapers are true guardians of the
public interest and the absolute best purveyor of
accurate local information.
When I first ran for the state Senate a decade
ago, I thought that I had a pretty good handle on
all of Northeast Georgia. The 46th District was
composed of parts of Clarke, Oconee, Jackson
and Barrow Counties, and
I had lived in Clarke my
entire life. I had family and
friends across the District.
Well, it didn’t take long
for me to learn that I had
a lot to learn. Local news
papers were the ultimate
“cheat-sheet” for a first time
candidate. Farm Bureau
meetings, volunteer fire
department information,
local PTA meetings, church gatherings, and local
political and government meetings can all be
found in the local newspaper. As valuable as the
AJC and WSB Channel 2 are, you are not going to
hear about the Statham Sunflower Festival from
them.
Events like these are where I gained a true
understanding of issues in each individual com
munity. While Northeast Georgia has a lot in
common, each community has its own character
and its own issues.
Community newspapers helped Brian Kemp
the candidate, but they helped Brian Kemp the
elected official so much more. When you get
down to the Gold Dome, it is very easy to fall
into the mindset that Georgia begins and ends
at 1-285. The focus is on “front-page” issues that
affect education, transportation and healthcare.
Too often, all the communication on these issues
comes from the major metro media. That means
hearing about how a change in the QBE formula
will affect DeKalb County, what the loss of the GA
400 toll means to transportation funding and what
the trauma care formula will mean for Grady
Memorial Hospital.
The laws passed in Atlanta govern all 159 coun
ties in Georgia and the staffs at the community
newspapers are the ones doing the true research
in determining the local impact of legislation.
Never is any new law an “apples to apples” when
it comes to Georgia because are so diverse from
an economic, industrial and physical standpoint.
I have the privilege of representing every single
citizen of Georgia as the Secretary of State. Since
I took office in 2010,1 have visited 153 of 159
counties and will shortly have visited each and
every one. Not once have I ever been through a
county without contacting the local community
newspaper. The reason is simple, “If it isn’t in
the newspaper, it never really happened.”
The Banks County News
Founded 1968
The official legal organ
of Banks County, Ga.
Mike Buffington
Scott Buffington
Angela Gary
Randy Crump
Sharon Hogan
Anelia Chambers
Co-Publisher
Co-Publisher
Editor
Sports Editor
Reporter
Receptionist
Phones (all 706 area code):
Angela Gary Phone
367-2490
Angela Gary Fax
367-9355
Homer Office Phone
677-3491
Homer Office Fax
677-3263
(SCED 547160)
Published weekly by
MainStreet Newspapers, Inc.,
PO. Box 908, Jefferson, Ga. 30549
Subscription in county
$19.75
Subscription in state
$38.85
Subscription out of state
$44.20
Military with APO address
$42.20
Senior citizens
get a $2 discount
Periodicals postage paid at Homer, Ga. 30547
Postmaster, send address changes to:
Subscriptions,
The Banks County News,
PO. Box 920, 935 Historic Homer Highway
Homer, Ga. 30547
Member: Georgia Press Association
Georgia Sports Writers Association
National Newspaper Association
"I was so excited that
they repealed the Birthday Tax
I rushed right out
and bought a new car!"
I found out
what replaced it!
This is why our kids aren't learning
The dedication of George W. Bush’s presi
dential library last week reminded me of one
of the former president’s most
memorable public comments.
During a speech on education
reform, Bush once remarked:
“Rarely is the question asked: Is our
children learning?”
All too often, the answer to that
question has been that Georgia’s
kids aren’t learning very much.
There are many reasons why
student and teacher performance is
so disappointing, but I would argue
that much of the fault lies in the
people who have been elected
to set policy for our public
schools.
The problem goes back
beyond the days of former
state school superintendent
Linda Schrenko, but she
serves as a good example.
Rather than improve Georgia’s
schools, Schrenko spent her
time stealing federal education
funds that were used to pay for
a facelift and an unsuccessful
political campaign.
Schrenko’s replacement,
Kathy Cox, was more honest
but unfortunately was some
what lacking in intellectual
capacity.
During a revision of the state
curriculum, Cox ordered the
word “evolution” to be deleted
from the science curriculum,
along with any mention of the
“Big Bang” theory, the theory of plate tecton
ics, and the concept of the descent of living
organisms from a common ancestor.
Those concepts are crucial to the study
of biology, physics, and geology, but they
were removed from the curriculum because
they would have suggested the earth was
more than 10,000 years old - and thus upset
Christian fundamentalists who wanted biblical
creationism to be taught instead.
Cox eventually reversed herself after the
public protested and the national media gave
Georgia a lot of embarrassing coverage.
A few years later, when the state was being
sued for not spending enough money on
public schools, one of Cox’s top deputies
testified during a deposition that Georgia’s
students did not need to take classes in sci
ence or social studies to receive an adequate
education.
“I think you can do without science,” the
Cox aide said under questioning from law
yers. She added later: “I think you can fail
social studies and get an adequate educa
tion.”
With that kind of leadership at the top, it’s
not difficult to figure out why Georgia ranks
so consistently near the bottom in academic
performance.
I am reminded again of the state’s failings
in education with the recent debate over the
“Common Core” curriculum standards.
This is a set of guidelines that are
intended to give students a more
rigorous education in English,
math, history, science and social
studies as they progress through
the K-12 public school systems.
The curriculum standards were
developed by educators from
Georgia and 44 other states so that
there would be some consistent
goals for teaching our students.
The Common Core standards
are now the center of a controversy
in which some political figures
are demanding that they be
junked because they are sup
posedly part of a conspiracy
by the Obama administration
and assorted radicals to carry
out a federal takeover of edu
cation.
State Sen. Bill Ligon
(R-Brunswick) introduced a
bill this year that would have
prohibited the Georgia Board
of Education from implement
ing these curriculum stan
dards, but the legislation went
nowhere.
Elected officials and GOP
activists from Cobb County
have now joined the fight,
calling for Georgia to reject
the standards because they
are supposedly the product of
“liberals” and “communists”
working in cahoots with the
White House.
Gov. Nathan Deal, to his credit, has pushed
back against the madness. During a trip to
Cobb County for an unrelated bill signing, the
governor was asked by a local reporter about
the curriculum standards.
Deal defended the standards and pointed
out that they were crafted by state-level educa
tors. “The federal government did not man
date it, they did not control it, they did not
dictate its content,” Deal said.
Conservative political figures like Deal,
former governor Sonny Perdue and current
school Supt. John Barge all support the idea
of Common Core standards. But we are now
being asked to believe that they are part of
some radical scheme to bring about federal
control of education.
It’s absurd and silly, of course, but it is
another example of how some people try to
score political points rather than work to give
our kids a decent education. We are a poorer
state because of it.
Tom Crawford is editor of The Georgia
Report, an internet news service at gareport.
com that reports on government and politics
in Georgia. He can be reached at tcrawford@
gareport.com.
tom
crawford
Conservative political
figures like Deal,
former governor Sonny
Perdue and current
school Supt. John
Barge all support the
idea of Common Core
standards. But we are
now being asked to
believe that they are part
of some radical scheme
to bring about federal
control of education.
POLICY ON LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
The policy for letters to the editor submitted to The Banks County News is as fol
lows:
• An original copy of all letters must be submitted for publication. Members of our
staff will not type out or hand-write letters for people who stop by the office and
ask them to do so.
• Letters to the editor must be signed with the address and phone number of the
person who wrote them. The address and phone number will be for our verifica
tion purposes only and will not be printed unless the writer requests it.
• E-mailed letters will be accepted but we must have a phone number and
address.
• Letters that are libelous will also not be printed. Letters may also be edited to
meet space requirements.
Anyone with questions on the policy is asked to contact editor Angela Gary at
AngieEditor@aol.com or 706-367-2490.
Death of newspapers
prematurely reported
“Extra! Extra! Newspapers aren’t dead!”
This is quoted from a recent headline in USA
Today. The article, by Rem Rieder, reports
a new business model has taken shape that
makes newspapers a mature industry and, at
the same time, an emerging industry.
And who doesn’t
love the local newspa
per? Where else will
we find a picture of our
grandchild hitting a
baseball over the fence
or our daughter receiv
ing an award for win
ning the spelling bee?
Who doesn’t love the
special features only
newspapers offer, such
as a Church News Bloopers column with
items like: “The evening service tonight ser
mon will be What is Hell?’ Come early and
listen to the choir practice.” Or, “Rev. Jones
wants you to remember many who are sick of
the community.”
The good news is that newspaper revenues
are increasing because newspapers are now
charging for content searched on the web,
and they are increasing revenues through
e-commerce and hosting special events that
recognize charities and community leader
ship.
Magazines have avoided much of the nega
tive impact of the internet because they are
more designed for institutional advertising,
while the main business model for newspa
pers is item and price advertising. So now,
newspapers are producing their own maga
zines and reaping new profits from for their
efforts.
There are indications that many of the web
sites that challenged newspapers are slipping,
becoming fads have no long term prospects.
Monster.com and its help wanted site are
now for sale with no takers. Groupon.com is
now a bust. A recent article documented how
Facebook “can’t sell soap,” saying people
do not click on ads as they are visiting with
friends.
Digital advertising, once promising the Holy
Grail, has been a huge disappointment in the
advertising world. And if people don’t look
at advertising on their computers or lap tops,
why would they look at ads on the mobile
phones?
There is an elephant in the room for
internet hopefuls, those young startups that
promise such hope for entrepreneurs and
venture capitalists. Their ideas will depend on
super high speed wireless internet. The pipe
line they will need to deliver their ideas is not
generally available because only 48 percent of
the country has high speed internet at home.
And it’s only available in the metro areas of
the U.S.
Because of the expense, this internet pipe
line is not being built out in the state or in the
rest of the U.S. For instance, it’s long been a
dream idea that a physician who is a specialist
could beam on the internet in real time from
Emory Hospital to talk with doctors in rural
areas to solve a specific medical issue. There
are internet systems designed to carry this out,
but high speed internet is not available to show
internet video and provide other services to
almost 50 percent of Georgia communities.
The lack of high speed internet availability
for a major segment of the population, the
disappointing advertising results on internet
and social media sites, and the efforts of print
media to adapt to the internet, charge for
content on their own web sites, and print new
niche products has given print publications
new life as an “emerging” industry.
After all, in the small town of St. Simons,
Georgia, population 12,000, there are nine
print publications? Among the count are two
big magazines in addition to The Coastal
Illustrated, Bulldog Illustrated, two real estate
magazines, the Brunswick News, The Georgia
Times-Union and the local St. Simons news
paper. All of these are being published during
the biggest recession since the 1930s, and
many of the publications are owned by the
Brunswick News.
We all love our newspapers. How can we
do with out blooper headlines like: “Rally
against apathy draws small crowd.” “City
unsure why sewer smells.” Or my favorite,
“Fort Benning Army vehicle disappears after
being painted with camouflage.”
Without good, strong newspapers, who is
going to look after the interest of everyday citi
zens when it comes to political events? Who
will report on the bad guys and celebrate the
good guys. Who will give power to people
who have no power?
Only newspapers and other print media
can do that in the accurate, fair and tme way
that has worked for hundreds of years. The
internet has not killed newspapers or print
media, but it certainty changed it, and maybe
saved it for all of us, forever.
Neely Young is publisher and editor in chief
of Georgia Trend Magazine and past presi
dent of the Georgia Press Association.
neely
young
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