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DEL.ICIO.USHow education funding should roll is key question
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
While the headlines go to House Speaker Glenn Richardson’s long-shot proposal to eliminate property taxes, an equally revolutionary proposal for public education will greet legislators in January.
It’s the work of a 23-member task force that Gov. Sonny Perdue appointed three years ago to explore public school funding. Georgia spends more than half its budget on education, with $7.2 billion, or 38.5 percent, going to k-12.
The work is not yet final, but two points should be made.
One is that the speaker’s tax plan, while revolutionary, has the emotion and impulse of a Boston tea party rebellion. While adherents may come, it’s largely a pocket rebellion skirmishing in Dillard, Lyons, Cairo and other outposts in hopes of gathering converts and steam before hitting the Capitol.
More planned and methodical, but just as revolutionary, is the work of the education finance task force. It should be a painless revolution. There’s nothing unsettling about it. No reason for fright.
The second point to be made here, though, is that the proper place for education debates is in the General Assembly, where the state’s education, transportation, health care and other needs compete.
But activists around the country, including here in Georgia, have drawn judges into the fray. The hope of local school officials who have failed the parents and children in their districts is to entice a judge into giving them more of somebody else’s money. Trial is tentatively scheduled for September 2008 in Fulton Superior Court. There’s no work here for a judge.
The work done by former state representative and school board member Dean Alford and others is groundbreaking. Three efforts are especially striking.
One — important but not all that novel — is to determine precisely how much money is needed to produce an educated child. Final numbers are about a month away, but as a start, the task force concludes that a system should be able to meet the academic needs of an elementary school child for $6,220, plus add-ons for other considerations — special needs, for example. Operation and maintenance of school buildings would add another $600 and transportation another $151.
The second significant contribution goes to the heart of the suits here and elsewhere. That is to identify wealth and tax it appropriately.
“There are probably better ways of measuring wealth than we use now,” said Jeffrey Williams, a consultant to the task force. “We only use property values now.” In the 1950s and early ’60s, he says, some measure of personal income was included. From the ’60s on, it’s been the property tax.
Williams examined 10 local systems spread throughout the state. Some were rich in property and wealth, some poor on both and some low or high on wealth or property.
He found that 1 mill of property tax wealth would produce $414 per student in a high property wealth/low household income wealth system in rural east central Georgia. It’s unnamed (District 1) because later parts of the equation contain some hypotheticals. At the other end, District 10, is a low property/low income rural district in south central Georgia. A mill there generates $47 per student. In a rich metro Atlanta district, it generates $263. Local systems are required under the 22-year-old Quality Basic Education funding formula to tax themselves 5 mills.
In District 1, the locals would raise $2,070 per student, and the state would add $1,948, for a total of $4,018 per student. In District 10, the locals would raise $232, and the state would add $3,687 for a total of $3,919 per student.
The question now — and this is a legislative decision — is whether and how the formula should be changed to take other forms of wealth into account.
It’s the third element, though, that’s most exciting and potentially most revolutionary. Essentially it would allow local systems to enter one of five contract relationships with the state, depending on the degree of confidence they have in their abilities to do their jobs. At one end, they could continue the existing QBE formula that focuses entirely on inputs. Do this, do that. Here’s the check. No risk. No accountability for results.
At the other, local systems could operate virtually free of state direction — take the money and run. They would, however, contractually agree to achieve specified results — graduation rates, for example — within a specific time under a three-year rolling contract. If they failed repeatedly, there would be consequences. Probably not loss of funding and certainly not a state takeover. But they could see the school removed from their control. It’s risk and reward. The burden would be on those who file suit now to perform or to be exposed.
This is not hastily considered. And while it is revolutionary, it’s not radical.
This is local control for real.
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By TW
October 9, 2007 8:06 AM | Link to this
The ten states with the lowest SAT scores in 2004 ALL voted for Republican George W. Bush. As the state of Georgia is already part of this proud group, why would we want to educate our kids????? Not only might it turn the state blue, but the cost would seriously cut into my car collection.
By jbmlaw
October 9, 2007 8:07 AM | Link to this
Good morning all. Hope everyone noticed the difference in traffic on government-free Monday. A house-cleaning issue, only two of the five jbmlaw posts yesterday were mine; you’ll know which two. A couple of comments today:
“The second significant contribution … is to identify wealth and tax it appropriately.” Our society’s greatest “wealth” is the dynamic economic engine. So long as it is not overtaxed – and I could not argue that our engine is overtaxed now, thanks to the Bush tax cuts – the engine will throw off enough to fund schooling, should we decide that is an appropriate use of taxpayer funds. Sales tax remains much less damaging to the economy than taxation of fixed wealth.
Element three, “allow local systems to enter one of five contract relationships with the state.” Sounds like Federalism. I thought we abolished that concept in 1865, or certainly by 1937. Someone other than an all-knowing central government calling the shots. I suspect our leftist friends will not like that idea. After all, if moving the decision-making to a lower centralized government works, what would result if we moved the decision-making to an even lower level, allowing the individual parent-level to determine who should provide the education services?
By Mid-South Philosopher
October 9, 2007 8:08 AM | Link to this
Good morning, Jim,
We have debated education for years, my friend, and I doubt that either of us is going to experience an epiphany on the issue; however, I will try one more time.
The most important issue that we seem to face is the appropriate way to fund the appropriate education for every child in Georgia.
The singular element that all of the educational reformists and elitists miss in whatever reform program that is ultimately implemented (from No Child Left Behind all the way to No Teacher Left With One) is the nature of the learner. Just as not every basketball player can dunk a basketball, not every student can excel to the same level UNLESS that level is set so low that it is meaningless. This is a harsh reality, but reality it is. Let me hasten to say that this undeniable truth DOES NOT relieve teachers from trying to bring every child along!
A second element often overlooked is that of the support and encouragement of parents and the community. Until parents and other adult caregivers of children, as well as the communities in general, are all held accountable for their nurturing of learning to the same degree that teachers are held accountable for their delivery of perky-paced, standards-based, sterile instruction, the state of schools in this state…AIN’T-A-GONNA change. Before teachers can NOT leave a child behind, said child has to be BROUGHT to the station!
But don’t lose faith. All of you, who hold that ANYONE, off the street, can do a better job teaching than someone who has been through a teacher education program, are going to get your way. With the increasing number of retirements of teachers of the baby boom generation and with the attitude of under 30 crowd toward teaching, which can be summarized in the three word exclamation (Are you crazy!), by the end of this decade, you will have your chance to bring in retired corporatist geniuses to show everyone how it is done. I look forward to that circus.
So in the overall scheme of things, funding isn’t going to mean all that much.
By Anonymous
October 9, 2007 8:15 AM | Link to this
But to identify and tax actual wealth rather than just property values… why, that would involve taxing capital gains and inheritances!
Wooten’s gonna lose his Conservative Secret Decoder Ring for heresy like that.
By armedleftist
October 9, 2007 8:18 AM | Link to this
Abolishing the property tax will be harmful to our society. It is CLASS WARFARE in favor of the rich. Land, the earth, is and has always been the ultimate source of our food, and it continues to be a source of great wealth. Allowing the wealthiest of us to hoard this valuable treasure, tax free, will transfer a significant burden on taxation to those at the bottom of the economic ladder, which will lead to even more instability. Progressive taxes and property taxes protect the poor and promote the general welfare. When those barriers come down, the poor will be at the end of their rope, and rather than fall, they will fight.
By armedleftist
October 9, 2007 8:20 AM | Link to this
Abolishing the property tax will be harmful to our society. It is CLASS WARFARE in favor of the rich. Land, the earth, is and has always been the ultimate source of our food, and it continues to be a source of great wealth. Allowing the wealthiest of us to hoard this valuable treasure, tax free, will transfer a significant burden on taxation to those at the bottom of the economic ladder, which will lead to even more instability. Progressive taxes and property taxes protect the poor and promote the general welfare. When those barriers come down, the poor will be at the end of their rope, and rather than fall, they will fight.
By armedleftist
October 9, 2007 8:20 AM | Link to this
Abolishing the property tax will be harmful to our society. It is CLASS WARFARE in favor of the rich. Land, the earth, is and has always been the ultimate source of our food, and it continues to be a source of great wealth. Allowing the wealthiest of us to hoard this valuable treasure, tax free, will transfer a significant burden on taxation to those at the bottom of the economic ladder, which will lead to even more instability. Progressive taxes and property taxes protect the poor and promote the general welfare. When those barriers come down, the poor will be at the end of their rope, and rather than fall, they will fight.
By Craig
October 9, 2007 8:29 AM | Link to this
Mid South is onto something. And I think hell must be freezing over, I actually think that Jim wrote a well reasoned column today.
The typical brain dead “conservative” view of schools is to bash “government schools” and teacher unions, and talk about vouchers. As someone who lives with a teacher, I promise you that the real issue is parental involvement. Typically the parents only get involved when little Johnny is assigned too much homework so that it interferes with little league or Pee Wee Football. Vouchers and school choice will not be a solution to the problem, without involved parents.
So I do think Jim is on to something - let each local school district survey their situation, and develop a plan to best meet the needs of their kids, taking into consideration the specifics of their area.
Accountability, and local control - what’s not to like?
By Redneck Convert
October 9, 2007 8:29 AM | Link to this
Well, this education stuff cost way too much and we don’t get nothing out of it here in GA. We would of been better off spending all that money on old Sonny’s Go Fishing plan or maybe buying up some more hunting land. The way it is, the kids come out of school just as dumb as they went in. Most of them can’t pour pee out of a boot with the directions marked on the heel.
Anyway, we need to get back to one-room schools and teachers that have to stay with famblys and live by rules like no dating and such and beat the crap out of kids that don’t learn. This is GA, not some yankee state where people run around using big words and acting all uppity and getting office jobs that is all being shipped to India anyway.
I said it before, I’ll say it again. I never made it out of 5th grade and it never hurt me none. You don’t need good schooling to make it in life. Just look at the good old boys down at the capital. They run the whole state and I doubt there is a ounce of schooling between them. People get all upset about low test scores and such, but the kids that make those scores will grow up just fine and be able to buy their own trailer and pickup, just watch and see.
Anyway, all a new way of paying for schools would do is boost the pay of teachers and they would run around in new cars with the Educator plates on them. We got enough pinheads in this state, we don’t need more to turn into libruls and try to ruin our good Southren way of life with fancy ways. So let the kids stay in school till 16 and then drop out and make money to get their own trailer and pickup. Maybe we need to get rid of the law that says kids got to go to school till 16. Like a good Republican I favor letting the parents decide weather their kids ought to go to school or not and weather they should use tax money to pay for private school. Just keep the guvmint out of it.
Anyway, that’s my opinion and its very true.
By CDog
October 9, 2007 8:35 AM | Link to this
The lowest performing counties on the SAT in Georgia voted for John Kerry. Black students, who perform lower than anyone on the SAT, overwhelmingly voted for John Kerry. SAT comparison is not where you want to go with comparing the parties.
By CDog
October 9, 2007 8:35 AM | Link to this
The lowest performing counties on the SAT in Georgia voted for John Kerry. Black students, who perform lower than anyone on the SAT, overwhelmingly supported John Kerry. SAT comparison is not where you want to go with comparing the parties.
By Susan
October 9, 2007 8:45 AM | Link to this
Car collection? SO you’re saying that the TW stands for Tonka Wanker?
I agree with mid south who basically said, “Some parents dont care if their tots are tards. If all the kids rode the short bus, the costs of education can be cut in half.”
JBM. Pendaticism is it’s own reword. Overstuffing a turkey is only correct when you allow for unexpected (thus uninvited) in-laws. Dont share your concept of federalism with the Iraqi Parliament. They havent’ hanged a martinet or a filibusterer since they got back from vacation, which they spent watching old films of Will Roger’s standup act.(“There’s got to be something else he can do with that rope, ahkmed.”)
By Just Nasty and Mean
October 9, 2007 8:49 AM | Link to this
We can all talk about funding for improving our schools, and providing incentives to perform. But it has been proved that more money is not going to produce ANY desired results unless we tackle the problem at the core—teachers and teacher’s unions. We have allowed the most powerful political machine to take over our most important asset—our kids. There is no desire or incentive for teachers (and their unions) to improve standards, work harder, improve learning. Instead, there is the opposite—a desire to hire more teachers and staff—and dumb down classes to the lowest common dominator. I don’t see ANYBODY—particularly politicians—willing to take this on—or even discuss it!
By Michael Smith
October 9, 2007 8:53 AM | Link to this
Nothing whatsoever justifies the notion that one person should be forced to bear responsibility for the education of another person’s child. NOTHING!
The parents, and only the parents, have sole responsibility for the child’s care. They, and they alone, have total authority over the decision to bring the child into this world. They, and they alone, must bear responsibility for the consequences of that decision.
Forcing the responsibility for the child’s education — or any part of his care — onto the taxpayers is forcing one person — the taxpayer — to bear responsibility for the consequences of another person’s — the parent’s — actions. Punishing one man for another man’s actions is the very essence of INJUSTICE — and nothing can justify an injustice.
People that cannot properly care for children have no business bringing them into this world; a system that allows and indeed encourages them to do so is both irresponsible and immoral.
By Susan
October 9, 2007 8:59 AM | Link to this
Parents will never get involved. They will never do more than what they’ve been doing all along.
You cant expect people to change. There’s too many socio-cultural boogiemen in the way.
The only problem with funding education is that pirates siphon most of the money to a long entrenched good-old boy network of thieves and criminals. Give me two weeks to audit the books of the education funding in this state and I’ll smoke out a thousand rats, put them in prison, and have enough money to send every illegal alien kid to yale. (including the pregnant ones).
hasta la vista baby. We are a corrupt nation, corrupting ourselves for our own security at the expense of the masses. Revolution is long overdue, and from the grim faces I see on the street, imminent.
We created this. We let our institutions run away with us. We admired only the ends and ridiculed the victims of the means.
The civil war bug is contagious. Our national condum is very thin and worn bare, which might feel good now, but we’ll have the devil to pay later.
By Anonymous
October 9, 2007 9:01 AM | Link to this
Well, we’ve heard from the “Anarchy Now!” wing of the libertarian fringe, brought to you by Mr. Smith Runs from Washington.
Anyone have anything meaningful to say about how to improve public education? And no, griping about “teachers and teachers unions” doesn’t count. The comments on parental involvement were useful, though….
By Susan
October 9, 2007 9:05 AM | Link to this
Yeah, it was really cool when I blogged, “Parents will never get involved”…. thanks for the kinds words, anon.
By @@
October 9, 2007 9:13 AM | Link to this
Aahhhh, the value of sweat equity.
I like it!
By Curious Observer
October 9, 2007 9:16 AM | Link to this
Only a dyed-in-the-wool idiot would blame teachers’ unions for the woeful condition of public education in this state. If there is a more impotent organization than a Georgia teachers’ union, I want to see it. Exactly when is the last time Georgia saw teachers go out on strike or use any power tactic against the establishment? I doubt that you can come up with even one example.
No, the problem with education in Georgia is a totally anti-education mind frame. Do you really think that Bubba and Earlene instill the concept of the importance of education in their children? No, for them school is merely an impediment to the family’s vacationing at Panama City Beach or attending the tractor pull down in Hiram.
Like it or not, Georgia is and has been an intellectual wasteland with an oasis here and there. Most parents seem to think of schools as they would think of factories. They believe that they can wash their hands of the educational process by sending Bubba Jr. to the factory and waiting until he returns with a piece of paper in hand. To them, education is not a process. Go into the average Georgia home and you will not find any books except for a bible. A child does not hear an exhortation to excel at school, nor does family talk center on the value of education, other than the occasional talk about a diploma’s leading to a job. Georgia children have no motivation to learn and no support for the learning process as a valuable thing in and of itself.
Garbage in, garbage out, or put in a more succinct way, redneck in, redneck out. Don’t waste your time in discussing funding formulas for schools. The problem isn’t the funding, nor is it the teachers. I fear that our friend Pope Rednecks has hit upon a sad truth about the South.
By Susan
October 9, 2007 9:20 AM | Link to this
Curious, couldn’t you have just wrote, “It’s the curriculum, stupid”?
By Susan
October 9, 2007 9:37 AM | Link to this
Page Three in the AJC is about the Nobel Prizes for research on genes in mice. If you brought that article to a middle school in Georgia you could get arrested.
‘muff said about education in Georgia.
Then @@ said, “Mice wear jeans? I did not know that. Hannity missed that one! What is the deal?”
By GreyGayGeek
October 9, 2007 9:40 AM | Link to this
Susan @ 9:20 - I think CO’s point could be summed up with “It’s the parents, stupid”. Or, rather, “It’s the stupid parents, stupid”. Or maybe “Stupid is as stupid does”.
I once was friends with a fellow who is an art teacher in the Atlanta public schools. Very few of his students had or knew any discipline at home, including educational discipline and most especially behavioral discipline. And that same lack of any discipline spilled over into the children’s actions at school.
The neocons on here like to keep parroting the Jim-Rush Wootenbaugh line that teachers and the impotent teachers’ union are to blame for ALL educational problems in Georgia. Sorry, but as with many things, the problems start the same place the solutions need to start - AT HOME.
Isn’t one of the neocon’s great Battle Cries something along the lines of Personal Responsibility? What bigger Personal Responsibility can a person take on than the proper rearing and nurturing of their own child?
By Craig
October 9, 2007 9:41 AM | Link to this
Ahh so many great posts - Anonymous, Susan, mid South, Curious, and then the reason I visit this place - Redneck Convert.
And then of course there’s just nasty and Mr. Smith. Teachers unions in Georgia are a joke, nasty, no matter what the talk radio guy tells you. And Mr. Smith, we spend money to educate children in order to provide for the overall wealth of our society. Why do you think we are one of the richest countries in the world? In part, it’s because our founders decided that every child - not just the children of well to do families - should be educated. Thanks to that decision, you have a good job and a high standard of living.
By Pat
October 9, 2007 9:42 AM | Link to this
Throwing all of this $$$, regardless of where it comes from, toward curricula and buildings is not going to solve the social problems. Social problems are the root of the low success rate of Georgia public schools. Buying new software and new schoolhouses is like putting a round peg into a square hole. Do not give local superintendents and school boards 5 choices. Most are not qualified to pick from one choice without messing it up.
By mamaknowsbest
October 9, 2007 9:48 AM | Link to this
Pure and simple the problem w/schools is lack of parenting. Parents have dropped the ball and expect schools to pick up the slack. The big need for school nurses is just one way parents have put the burden on schools. I did not have a school nurse at any school I attended. My parents always took care of any medical issues. Why are schools purchasing band-aids, tylenol, cough drops, etc. Counselors are expected to make sure every child gets post-secondary counseling. My parents did my counseling. Counselors also have to deal w/testing and students’ personal problems. Where is the family? Teachers must spend unbelievable amounts of time dealing w/discipline. We have way too many administrators dealing w/discipline and students’ personal problems. Where are mama and dadday? Why did you have a kid you can’t transport to school? If mama and daddy did took care of their own we wouldn’t need to spend so much money per child. If parents did their part we would not need all of the high paid positions in the school systems across America. The problem is families have forgotten about responsibility. We are just raising more irresponsible citizens that think government will take care of it all.
By RW (the oravaginal)
October 9, 2007 9:59 AM | Link to this
Mammaknowsbest, a school nurse put syrup-of-ipicath in my jock strap to cure prickly heat once. I haven’t been able to see a medical professional with risking the loss of my viagra prescription ever since. capiche? No school nurses.
By Mama'sHormonalToday
October 9, 2007 10:07 AM | Link to this
The problem is families have forgotten about responsibility.
So true! And you’re a BIG friggin’ help when you decide that the best remedy is for the rest of society to ignore these kids too! BRAVO to you for sticking to your “Eff Y’all” guns no matter what.
Surely America will be a better place when EVERYONE decides to turn their backs on those who, through no action of their own, were born into our next generation. It’s ONLY the principle that matters, not the outcome! Now go eat another piece of cheesecake quick before your blood sugar balances out.
By Shar
October 9, 2007 10:17 AM | Link to this
As a mother of three Atlantans, all of whom started out in the public school system and none of whom are there today, as well as a former highly active school volunteer, I agree with Craig and Mid South that parents are the crucial and most failure-prone link in the educational system. A student who comes to school chronically unprepared, unfed, exhausted and without supplies is a student who is unable to learn. A teacher or school administrator can do little about these problems, yet they are held accountable for the results. By middle school, children have figured out two crucial things - their parent(s) are not going to force them to do their homework, turn off the TV and put down the Cheetos, and they are so far behind their peers that they have little hope or interest in catching up. These kids show up disaffected, resentful of authority and unable to compete, and the teacher is expected to reach and inspire them while bringing along the struggling learners and challenging the advanced. If you want a quick visceral understanding of how impossible this is, take your lunch hour today and go watch an eighth grade algebra class.
Schools have so commited to the equality ideal that they are functionally unable to respond to these highly disparate needs - or even to officially recognize them. However, if everyone gets the same thing, very few get what they need. The group that schools have chosen to pick up this slack is the students. Advanced students are paired with lagging ones on the ubiquitous “group projects” to both tutor and produce work that garners high marks and self-esteem for those students desperately in need of both. Classes are geared to lower level learners on the assumption that the parents of advanced students will provide external stimulation and academic opportunities. The constant discipline problems caused by the frustrated, alienated and humiliated nonlearners are now treated by group punishments in hopes that the shame of causing everyone to suffer will curb behavior that administrators are unable to affect. Instead, of course, this becomes a source of power over the group.
Parents should be able to choose schools within a certain radius (if they are relying on school transport) from their homes. In return, the schools should present the parents with a contract for out of school performance. The student, at a minimum, should arrive at school with homework done, sufficient food and sleep, and be respectful of others. Parents should be held accountable for this part of the educational process. Those who are unwilling to do this should have their children assigned to schools that are geared to substituting for the parental role, where kids are fed, rested, chaperoned and made to do their homework without distractions, most likely in the context of a longer day. Students could be switched into ‘choice’ schools on the basis of their own willingness to follow the rules.
Teachers in private schools typically have fewer professional qualifications and accept far less generous pay packages than do their counterparts in public schools, yet their students average higher performance. This is because they have a more prepared group in their classes, classes are more likely to be tracked so the students are at similar levels, teachers can put together and deliver more cohesive lessons and chronically disruptive or uncooperative students face meaningful consequences and/or expulsion. These luxuries are not available to a public school teacher or student, and their lack is a massive weight on perfomance of all concerned.
By RW (the aboriginal)
October 9, 2007 10:22 AM | Link to this
I agree with RW(the oravaginal). I wont risk my viagra rx neither. no nurses.
By mamaknowsbest
October 9, 2007 10:40 AM | Link to this
Like I said we are teaching lack of responsibility. If government continues taking care of the everything, we will not have to step up and take responsibility. It is not a sweet and pretty picture for everyone, but it is simple. As long as someone else is doing the work you don’t have to do anything. Why would you?
By Captain Freedom
October 9, 2007 10:47 AM | Link to this
THE Captain agrees that the greatest problem with education in our state is the low caliber of student that arrives at the schoolhouse door. This is a direct result of sytematic neglect by liberal me-first parents who are more concerned with their own hedonistic pleasures than with instilling the Proper Virtues in their grubby little offspring.
The solution is simple…Ethnic Cleansing will free our school systems of the need to carry these nasty little deadweights until they are old enough to be imprisoned. We save money on education and penal systems, and Mr Wooten’s concerns about traffic are answered as well.
Our Godly Mr Smith, who rightly resents being forced to fund education for the liberal anklebiters, will be allowed to divert the savings into his own personal fire department.
(For why should we be forced to fund a fire department that is more likely to help someone else than ourselves? it’s Socialism, dammit!)
Now, we may be forced to eliminate some of the stalwart supporters of True Belief in order to make a clean sweep of the problem. Sadly, too many of our Daughter of the Confederacy are churning out methaddicted mouth breathers, and in order to relieve the burden on the taxpayer, these pale-skinned pariahs will need to be sacrificed along with Those People. But this dark decision carries its own silver lining: i) it proves we are not racist in carrying out this Final Solution; ii) NASCAR will disappear overnight; iii) no more unsightly trailer parks. Anyway, the balance sheet will show that more liberals will be made redundant than True Belief conservatives. It’s win-win.
Ethnic Cleansing to save public education. It is the Right Thing to do.
By time for the harsh but fair truth
October 9, 2007 10:47 AM | Link to this
Watching hysterical mutant far left LYING scum like the inbred amoeba brained tw at peeping tom puke up its hateful bigoted LIES is always fabulous entertainment.
The sick pervert peeping tom cannot bring itself to blame the vile smug leftist teeeeechers. It will NOT EVER point an honest finger at countless sullen backward ebonics spouting thuggish blacks who sullenly regard education as “acting white” … nor the illegal mexican type leeches who have infested numerous skooool systems in GA and dumbed standards down even further by bigotedly refusing to learn proper English and shamelessly utterly wasting precious resources teaching illegals!!
Yet the supercilious hatefilled wankpig peeping tom gleefully blames “rednecks”. It is yanKKKee filth like peeping tom and northern retards like inbred rednecKKK and their abortion bucket escapee ilk filth that need to be kicked out of the south and sent back up north on cattle trucks to endlessly bleat and whine about Dixie.
Blacks and mexican types are SYSTEMATICALLY the lowest achievers in GA. Just go into Atlanta and listen to so many backward black yoofs and whoralicious welfare leeching HO’s with fatherless young soon to be felons attempt to communicate. Even a youngish African Grey parrot - Timneh or Congo - usually speaks better English than the average hippety hop thug!! And the parrot is NOT a gangbanger, a drive by shooter, a life long petty criminal - or out on probation/parole!! An AfriKan parrot won’t shoot someone for their “sneakers” or perpetrate an armed home invasion. Nor will a parrot sport gang tatoos or colours.
Yet the vast majority of non-white LEGAL immigrant kids and their parents see the worth and value of education and make endless sacrifices to avail themselves of the opportunities provided here.
Yes there are undeniably numererous white kiddies who are poorly educated by far left teeechers ONLY concerned with their tenure and perpetrating their brainwashing self absorbed leftist puke in the classrooms. Very predicktably white yoof criminality is invariably far less violent/systematic than black/mexican types. Few white yoofs and twenty somethings end up on WSB TV night after night after night after night after night having endlessly and slavishly done the same kind of moronic predator type crimes their duskier bruthas and sistahs revel in!!. The nightly TV perp walk doesn’t LIE!!
The likes of peeping tom wouldn’t recognise intellectual honesty even if it generously cracked open its extra-chromosomed doltish thick skull!!
By Curious Observer
October 9, 2007 11:08 AM | Link to this
Obviously, Georgia is not the only system turning out substandard graduates. I give you TFTT as an example of a failed British system. For all practical purposes, TFTT is merely a redneck with a British accent. He retains the close-minded racial and ethnic hatreds of his adopted Georgia brethren, although I suspect the latter nevertheless spell, punctuate, and think better. They could hardly do worse, even with no educational exposure at all.
By time for the harsh but fair truth
October 9, 2007 11:15 AM | Link to this
Yet ANOTHER thuggish brutal murder by three black thugs!!! The cancer of vicious black yoof crime is NOT only a plague in the USA.
Doubtless the odious black racial pimps from Jena will have another sickening “free the three” march after these black murderous thugs are arrested!!
Stabbed A-level student becomes London’s 21st murdered teenager this year
An A-level student was stabbed to death as he tried to stop a black gang stealing his friend’s mobile phone.
Rizwan Darbar, 17, was knifed in the stomach in the confrontation in a park.
The devout Muslim, of Indian origin, died in hospital despite emergency surgery.
Last night, as police searched for three youths, his devastated father spoke of his “lovely, respectful lad”.
The murder in East London on Sunday was the 21st knife or gun killing of a teenager in the city this year.
Rizwan and two friends had been sitting in West Ham Park, Forest Gate, listening to music on a mobile phone, when the three yobs approached and demanded the handset and money.
When Rizwan began arguing, one of the trio - who was wearing a hoodie - stabbed him.
His father Ayub, 47, a launderette owner from Forest Gate, said: “Rizwan has never been in any trouble. He was a lovely, respectful lad and a very courageous guy.
“He was a devout Muslim who was fasting and praying at his local mosque every evening for Ramadan.
“He was born during Ramadan in 1990 and now he has died during Ramadan too.’
He said his son, a part-time shop assistant, was a keen cricketer who had practised with the father of former England captain Nasser Hussain.
Rizwan’s brother Tausif, 19, was at his side as he was taken to hospital.
He said: “My mum phoned me at about 6pm and said Rizwan’s been hurt. I was in a car and quite close by.
“I went straight to the park. I saw the ambulance and they were just >putting him into it so I got in the back with him.
“He was conscious but he was in a lot of pain. They’d given him morphine. He didn’t talk much but he was able to recognise who I was. I was just holding his hand until we got to the hospital.
“I stayed with him until we got to the operating theatre but they would not let me in.”
Tausif said his brother had gone for a walk because he was bored.
He said: “They were waiting for other friends to turn up. These three black boys asked them to give them their phones and their money.
“But they think Rizwan objected. The guys who attacked him ran off and Rizwan’s mates chased them. But when they saw Rizwan was on the ground they went back and called the ambulance and police.’
He said his brother was an avid West Ham United fan who loved music and “hanging around” with his friends.
He had been studying accounting, finance and business studies and was planning to go to university to study economics.
Detective Chief Inspector Matt Horne, leading the investigation, said Rizwan “had done nothing whatsoever that would explain that level of violence”.
He said: “At the moment it appears this was an unprovoked robbery with gratuitous violence.
“The guys were reasonable lads doing nothing other than listening to music. The victim had very little warning. Our advice is always to hand over the phone.”
Detectives are examining possible links to another incident in the park last week.
They are also checking for similarities to the murder of 15-year-old Adam Regis, nephew of Olympic medallist John Regis, who was stabbed nearby in March.
The youth believed to have stabbed Rizwan is said to be of mixed race, aged around 18 and about 5ft 8in.
His two companions were black.
One was described as around 18, between 5ft 10in and 6ft 1in and wearing a blue or black top and jeans.
The second was “noticeably” darker-skinned, smaller and wearing a black hooded jacket and dark trousers.
Rizwan’s death sparked a wave of crisis meetings at Scotland Yard, where detectives are trying to clamp down on the escalating knife problem.
By Jackie
October 9, 2007 11:23 AM | Link to this
To eliminate means of funding PUBLIC education and make each of us responsible for our own children’s education is akin to saying that I drive on Peachtree, but, I am only responsible for the taxes used to maintain that portion that I use. We have no system and no individuals that are perfect, therefore the concept of the common good is the best means and method that we have available to educate ALL. Are all students who have high SAT/ACT scores and attend the “best” educational institutions in the country always academically successful?
By Master of Flatulence
October 9, 2007 11:24 AM | Link to this
Craig, like you I used to think teacher unions in Georgia were a joke … until they played a big role in making smart, well-financed Roy Barnes into a one-term governor and ushered in Sonny Puredoo.
By Captain Freedom
October 9, 2007 11:28 AM | Link to this
Though THE Captain is loathe to poke the hornet’s nest that is TFTT’s atrophied little brain stem, He feels compelled to comment on the tragedy related in the Crazy Brit’s latest post (if by post one means the demented ravings scrawled on the cell wall in and “ink” made of one’s own feces and semen).
The death of the lad in England is yet another result of their misguided policy of gun control. The result of this Socialist nightmare? A nation awash in deadly knives, with no means for good, decent White Britons to defend themselves from these blade-wielding Super-Predators.
If only this good and decent young White man had been issued a firearm for his own protection, the outcome would have been different. But the feel-good Nanny State of the IslamoLabourites would rather see another dead White Briton than arm Her citizens to the (admittedly ill-kept) teeth. Typical liberal puke coddling.
THE Captain trusts that this show of support of TFTT’s post will not be misconstrued to indicate that THE Captain is as madbonkersbat$h!t crazy as TFTT. But even a blind squirrel with bad teeth will find the occasional acorn, and THE Captain wishes to encourage TFTT in his recovery and rehabilitation.
By Foot
October 9, 2007 11:29 AM | Link to this
Why dont we ask the children how we should fund education? Let the children choose the source!
By time for the harsh but fair truth
October 9, 2007 11:30 AM | Link to this
HEE HEEEEEEEEE HEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
the deranged far left f aggot HO peeping tom is so easy to wind up and abuse with facts and reasoned argument!!
As expected peeping tom makes NOT even ONE ATTEMPT to answer the factual points I made!! Just more witless angry at being exposed for the DISHONEST wankpig it is abuse!!
Clearly I am mercilessly mocKKKing peeping tom with my deliberate witty sardonic use of English. peeping tom is just too retarded and inbred to realise this!! BUt its supercilious mutated yanKKKee genes are incapable of processing this!!
peeping tom is the actual racist bigot here!!! It will NOT EVER point a legitimate finger at thuggish moronic blacks who reject education as “acting white” and indulge in worthless lives of endless criminality and production of endless black criminal proles to replace the current generation of black yoof thugs!! The illegal mexican type leech thuggery is only a fairly recent plague - at the unprecedented level its attained. But it IS getting worse!! Just talk to any gang unit cop in Gwinnett or LA or Houston etc!!!
tell us peeping tom are U suitably impressed by the level of general black yoof erudition in Dekalb/S Fulton/Clayton/Cobb etc …????
By Captain Freedom
October 9, 2007 11:33 AM | Link to this
Egad.
THE Captain wishes to post a retraction. It seems that in his compassion to afford TFTT the benifit of the doubt, THE Captain has been hoodwinked.
It appears that the young man killed in England (as reported by TFTT) was in fact an Islamo-worshipping terrorist-to-be. THE Captain regrets having been bamboozled into regretting the demise of a potential suicider, and apologizes to all Real Americans for the slight against Our Brave Troops (the real ones, not the phony ones who only get injured to pad their resumes).
However, everything THE Captain wrote about gun control, knife wielding Super Predators, and the need for the government to arm all White Citizens for their own protection stands.
By Captain Freedom
October 9, 2007 11:33 AM | Link to this
Egad.
THE Captain wishes to post a retraction. It seems that in his compassion to afford TFTT the benifit of the doubt, THE Captain has been hoodwinked.
It appears that the young man killed in England (as reported by TFTT) was in fact an Islamo-worshipping terrorist-to-be. THE Captain regrets having been bamboozled into regretting the demise of a potential suicider, and apologizes to all Real Americans for the slight against Our Brave Troops (the real ones, not the phony ones who only get injured to pad their resumes).
However, everything THE Captain wrote about gun control, knife wielding Super Predators, and the need for the government to arm all White Citizens for their own protection stands.
By Craig
October 9, 2007 11:47 AM | Link to this
Master - I have to admit, you’re right about that one…
By Hands Across Baghdad
October 9, 2007 11:49 AM | Link to this
Why dont we let the children choose the source of the funding for education? I just thought of that. Hey, I can hack if the rest of you can. Analchord is gold, man, and I’m getting my share of the glory. I blogged it first, just check out the time differential in the two blogs, and subtract the longitude, dude. I’m the genius, I thought of it first, bleah.
By DancePartner
October 9, 2007 12:01 PM | Link to this
I agree with Craig. Master’s a moron. You cant tell what his point is from the double negative sarcasm that flips direction twice, just like how a retard would express himself. Seems a shame.
By time for the harsh but fair truth
October 9, 2007 12:02 PM | Link to this
FINALLY … Lance Corporal Syphilis has finally arrived at the brain munching final stages of syphilis - AND NOT BEFORE TIME!!!
Syphilis is the KY (not Kentucky) jelly slurping anal wart ridden alter ego transgenedered son of a worn out Haitian leper colony 50 cent hooker - a fact much envied by inbred redneKKK who curiously arrived here in the US courtesy of a homosexual COCKroach sperm bank and a very promiscuous lesbian knackerjack deaf dumb and blind toad who for a few AIDS infested horsesh!tflies incubated inbred as one of its own!!
Syphilis’s proves its own IMBECILIC congenital stupidity and inability to read and inwardly digest even ordinary reading matter (clearly it has NO such problems inwardly digesting San Fran Sicko Bathhouse emissions). Like the should have been aborted long ago anal retetive whoralicious wanker peeping tom Syphilis is manically unable to process purely factual legitimate criticism of GLOBAL black yoof hippety hop thugs and their seemingly endless murderous antics. Hence its deliciously doltish rant posted to yours truly before it had even read the meat of the story. Indeed Syphilis ALWAYS prefers to devour its meat in bathhouses … not in factual cyber debate situations.
The best thing that Syphilis can do for all of us is to go IMMEDIATELY play Russian Roulette with a fully loaded Uzi!!
By Captain Freedom
October 9, 2007 12:05 PM | Link to this
THE Captain forgets how easy it is to crank up the deeply afflicted TFTT. My apologies to the readers of this forum for upsetting him.
By Walley's World
October 9, 2007 12:06 PM | Link to this
Once again we see our useless media exposing intel secrets which causes the cowardly enemy to scatter and disappear like roaches.
But the disclosure from ABC and later other news organizations tipped off Qaeda’s internal security division that the organization’s Internet communications system, known among American intelligence analysts as Obelisk, was compromised.
The People’s Right To Know is going to get a lot of Western people killed. Whoever leaked this out within ABC or elsewhere within the main stream media needs to be thrown in Gitmo indefinitely.
Since the 1960s the media has been no friend of America and consistently shifts further left. The Far Left is no friend of America either, so how about that. If Republicans had any nads, they’d boycott any political debate hosted by Chris Matthews just like the Democrat sock puppets did to Chris Wallace of Fox News.
Check out Drudge right now. He’s got a picture of Hillary in the Halloween outfit that matches accordingly year round. lol
By time for the harsh but fair truth
October 9, 2007 12:15 PM | Link to this
Syphilis - like the sad abjectly inadequate dogturd peeping tom is clearly even easier to wind up than the fat LYING poisonous femianzi heffalunp E Edwards (is factually by Ann Coulter). Even funnier is witnessing Syphilis’ pathetic cretinous inability to grasp the salient blindingly obvious FACTS of yet another mindless black gang murder of an innocent kid - this time in London.
By Craig
October 9, 2007 12:16 PM | Link to this
Walley the leak came from someone in the Bush administration - maybe it’s the Bushies who are a threat to us?
By mack77
October 9, 2007 12:23 PM | Link to this
“Why dont [sic] we let the children choose the source of the funding for education?”
I’ll take a shot at that. Because they are government educated idiots who think they know everything but in reality know nothing? Give them a litmus test of sort: if they can’t point to China on a map, if they can’t name their elected US congressional representatives, and if they can’t list one single amendment in the Bill Of Rights, then they deserve no say in anything. I’d really like that to be a test of voters, too.
By Cheryl
October 9, 2007 12:25 PM | Link to this
I agree with RW, it IS a shame that his own mother let someone loose on him at birth with a vacuum aspirator. Those things should be made illegal, and the clinics shut down. It’s like crack babies or something. Ugh!
By Media Matters Watchdog
October 9, 2007 12:27 PM | Link to this
Did someone mention leaks here? Let’s ask the DEMOCRATS about wiretapping they were wetting their beds over just six months ago.
By Just Nasty and Mean
October 9, 2007 12:31 PM | Link to this
We can fund education a million different ways and with Billion$ of dollars and it wouldn’t make a twit of a difference. We need PERFORMANCE by the persons we employ to do the job we pay them for—educating our kids! Focusing on your tenure, your benefits, your overwork, your job description, your support staff, your top-heavy staff positions will NOT ACCOMPLISH ANYTHING!!! If these kids fall behind—don’t promote them until they pass or drop out. If they don’t behave-kick them out or call the cops! If they are trying, but can’t perform—do what you are—supposedly —-trained and paid to do—TEACH THEM!! But NOOOO!! We’ve got to be compassionate to the lowest common dominator and bring EVERYBODY down to that level—because—as we all know—-NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND. The laws of nature say that some will ALWAYS be left behind! Teachers should TEACH to the level kids are capable of learning—then MOVE ON to support those that can learn more.
Instead, teacher’s unions push to hire more teachers for specialized classes for every friggin type of scenario that could be devised. If people knew how we are spending billion$ turning our public schools into asylums for special needs kids, some of whom will NEVER EVER LEARN or SPEAK THEIR OWN NAMES or learn A-B-C (much less the alphabet)is a prime example of how the taxpayer and government is now REQUIRED to attend public schools—JUST LIKE THE VALEDICTORIAN! But get this—taxpayers spend MORE on the special needs kid than the ones that might actually do something with their lives!
I don’t care how we fund education. What is important is spending the money wisely. Instead, we are P…issing it away on inane and useless causes.
By Cheryl
October 9, 2007 12:38 PM | Link to this
nasty, if you had stopped at 25 words, you would have had the post of the day. Seems a shame.
Nobody reads as much as you just insisted they read. I’m the lone exception. Why? Cause I have talent, ideas, and the most influentiall writing style since Hemmingway, and he even stole a couple of lines from my grandpa, capiche?
chillatto!
By Jack
October 9, 2007 12:51 PM | Link to this
Performance? Yeah right. Teachers get paid to move students up the ladder of education. Not to see that they learn. 1st they dumb-down the classes in an effort to increase the grad rate and if that doesn’t work they pass those that don’t make the grade so they don’t have to look at them the following year. If highschools in GA were hard enough to prep students for college, the grad rate would be in the toilet and the administrator would be in hot water. The only fix is parenting.
By Redneck Convert
October 9, 2007 12:54 PM | Link to this
Me and my buddy Jim Earl was talking about Wooten’s column over lunch at Billy Bob’s today and Jim Earl come up with a great idea for getting the dummys to do better in school.
Jim Earl says we ought to pay the parents 500 bucks every time a kid makes a A in a class and 400 bucks for a B.
That would get the parents intrusted in the kids education right fast. If the kid come home with a grade lower than a B they would take his chain saw and 4-wheeler away from him and let the kid know he had ruint the familys vacation plans. Kids would be kept up till 2 in the morning to do their home work.
And the parents would be all over the school house trying to help. The mothers would be wiggling in front of the men teachers and the fathers would be doing the same in front of the women teachers.
Instead of a lousy apple or fruit basket before the Christmas break, kids would be leaving 20s and 50s and even 100s on the teachers desk.
Pretty soon we would have the smartest kids in the U.S. of A. That would be good, even if it did mean yankees would want to move to GA to get their kids a good education. At the end of the school term parents would be showing up at WalMart with their wallets stuffed with money and bragging about how good their kids done.
Of course, the parents of real dumb kids would be out of luck. They would have to send their kids to one of them slow classes taught by @@ to get them ready to be state legislaters and such.
Anyway, Jim Earl says it would still be cheaper than keeping on pouring money down the education rat hole like we do now. And it would work a lot better than trying to bribe teachers with bonus money and such.
If the problem is parents, like so many on this blog say it is, then we ought to do something to make parents set up and take notice. There ain’t nothing like greenbacks to make parents see the light.
By deegee
October 9, 2007 1:08 PM | Link to this
Any wonder why there is a problem here? Let’s follow the timeline and the waste of resources. Three years ago the governor appointed a whopping 23 member task force to study one aspect of the problem with our school system, public school funding. Three years have gone by and the work of the 23 member task force is still not complete. As we read on, it appears that the person doing all of the studying is Jeffrey Williams, a consultant to the 23 member public school finance task force. What do the 23 member task force do while the consultants are out studying public school finance? My hunch is that the task force will politicize the consultants’ data and present it to the legislature in such a way that will protect the school administrators and ensure that nothing is changed. My suggestion is to outsource upper and middle management of the Georgia school system to consultants.
By mamaknowsbest
October 9, 2007 1:13 PM | Link to this
It is sad, but Redneck and Jim Earl are right. This is what it would take. Jack is also right about graduation rate. The quantity of diplomas not quality is most important to our state. Georgia diplomas are useless. Ask anyone that has hired a recent Georgia HS grad. Our state has low expectations. The new “one diploma” is a marketing ploy. Check it out. All diplomas are not equal.
By Guv Guy
October 9, 2007 1:25 PM | Link to this
Well, Ah sees the deadbeat government workers are back on the job, blogging away their work day. You know, word is getting back to the powers what be in guv, and one day a witch hunt will be on for you deadbeat government works at Georgia State agencies, and at CDC, ASTDR, HHS, DOJ, Education, HUD and all the other tax sucking initials by which federal parasite agencies identify their worthless selves, including the biggest deadbeats of all EPA and Homo Land Insecurity. I keep sending complaints about you dead beats to your bosses here in Atlanta, and in Washington, DC. GAO has promised to look into this at some point in the future.
By Captain Freedom
October 9, 2007 1:31 PM | Link to this
With all due respect to Mr Redneck (who, sadly, will be one of our True Belief Brethren who will likely experience cleansing in THE Captain’s plan), he and his good friend Jim Ed are just throwing good money after bad.
Putting cash in the hands of the ne’er-do-well urchins ruining our public school system will only lead to greater incidences of crack-related shootings (when Those People start making good grades) or meth-lab explosions (when Godly White Christians begin investing in the prime entrepeurial opportunities found in the nether regions of Our Fair State).
That would just mean more taxes for guys like me and Mr Smith who don’t need police and fire services, but have to pay for them anyway to take care of people like that.
Alas, I will miss Mr Redneck once the cleansing begins, but I’m sure that he and Jim Ed and their brood of broken-Big Wheel peddling trailer denizens will happily march to the chambers knowing that they are helping to usher in Our Golden Age.
No, THE Captain continues to insist that His Modest Proposal is the Right Thing to do.
By Guv Guy
October 9, 2007 3:14 PM | Link to this
Dick Chicken Cheney has never been in the military, never done an honest days work imho, yet he is called mr ceo and mr vice chimp! Aint amerika great! Now we have Mr Woodenhead, aka a journalist, who has never written a word worth reading, yet he is called mr assistant editor! Aint the ajc great!
By Dusty
October 9, 2007 3:38 PM | Link to this
Ok.. I am not getting the intricacies of this bill. More money from rich people for failing schools?
More money from EVERYBODY for all schools? Not all schools are failing.
Parents(locals) are going to run schools when they can’t even get their children there in a “learning” condition?
Add more bureaucracy to the school system already overloaded with people making more than teachers?
Teachers cannot teach children who are not smart, polite and well fed? What kind of teaching skills are taught these days?
Teachers and principals are not allowed to discipline pupils?
More taxes??
As you can see, I am not getting the jist of these finances and problems. Does anybody??
By jm
October 9, 2007 4:23 PM | Link to this
So if a locale voted against a tax increase to go for use in the schools, did the school officials fail the parents (who told them to make do with less).
I think Mid-South Philosopher@8:08 nailed it best. If you want to get a glimpse of what the teacher situation is going to be in a couple of years, look at the current nursing situation. The people (women) who made up the core of those professions for years no longer have to settle for the lower paying “pink collar” jobs.
By Captain Freedom
October 9, 2007 4:27 PM | Link to this
Dusty -
THE Captain understands completely and has offered his own corrective to this seemingly intractable problem.
However, it is unlikely that We, The People have the political will to institute this logical extension of Common Sense True Belief. Alas, THE Captain remains a Prophet, ahead of His time.
By Disgusted
October 9, 2007 4:31 PM | Link to this
This Dusty must be as dumb as a fence post. If the children absorb the home lesson that education isn’t that important and that they must go to school merely to satisfy the requirements of the law, what difference does it make how good or how well-trained the teachers are? It seems that redneck Republicans must always have somebody to blame for educational problems—the teachers, the government, the legal prohibition against using tax money to fund religious schools, bureaucrats. Of course, they themselves are absolutely blameless. So we get ridiculous legislation like No Child Left Behind to try to punish the schools. A hint: when the horse has collapsed in the ditch, beating it will not help.
By @@
October 9, 2007 4:44 PM | Link to this
Just Nasty @ 12:31:
I could agree with most of your comments, but I wouldn’t be as harsh.
*But get this—taxpayers spend MORE on the special needs kid than the ones that might actually do something with their lives!
Are you rushncap, the professor’s teaching assistant at ml’s?
*I don’t care how we fund education. What is important is spending the money wisely. Instead, we are P…issing it away on inane and useless causes.
I guess you would want us to abort the little useless causes-euthanize them if one inconveniently slips through.
By Captain Freedom
October 9, 2007 5:04 PM | Link to this
Commenter Just Nasty has developed the Common Sense Conervatism doctrine to a conclusion that is inescapable. Yet even THE Captain must shy away from the implications.
In a nutshell, Just Nasty proposes:
Mental and physical defectives should be culled from the pack for the betterment of society.
Precious resources should only be invested on those who deserve it, by virtue either of innate merit (as assessed by a panel of Ubermenschen) or as a result of family connections.
Inferior people shall not be employed. In this way, starvation will act as a corrective on those wretches who escape detection by the Panel of Ubermenschen.
Deviation from the norm (as established by The Panel) is de facto evidence of one’s unsuitability for enjoying the beneifs of Society.
THE Captain offers His Humble respect to Just Nasty, who takes THE Captain’s own Modest Proposal and hones it to a fine point. Just Nasty gives THE Captain hope for a Golden Age in Our Great Nation.
By Dusty
October 9, 2007 5:07 PM | Link to this
Disgusted 4:31
You obviously don’t understand. I am trying to figure the ins and outs of what Jim Wooten has presented here.
My children are in the university system now, some beyond. Education has been an understood requirement in our family. The number of degrees already acquired will attest to that.
I am studying what Wooten has to say about grade school financing and teaching. There seems to be room for improvement and I am trying to understand it better, even if my children are not there. We should care, don’t you think?
By Dusty s Doctor
October 9, 2007 5:18 PM | Link to this
Dusty, you live in a fantasy world. As your Doctor, I require that you repeat every morning in front of the mirror the facts of your sorry life: You are a 48 year old, obese, never married, hairy woman. You have never been out on a date, let alone engaged in procreation. You live with your parents in a basement apartment that has some water leakage problems. You never attended college, but you work as a secretary in a government office. As your doctor, I insist that you relinquish this fantasy world you have built up, it is damaging what meager progress you have been making. You have no long, tall son, no children at all. Now get a grip. That will be $150 added onto your usual weekly insurance covered session, billed as emergency intervention.
By witch hunt
October 9, 2007 5:30 PM | Link to this
It’s official - The terrorists support Hillary for president!
“I hope Hillary is elected in order to have the occasion to carry out all the promises she is giving regarding Iraq,” stated Ala Senakreh, West Bank chief of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terrorist group. Senakreh is one of dozens of terror leaders sounding off about American politics in the new book, “Schmoozing with Terrorists: From Hollywood to the Holy Land, Jihadists Reveal their Global Plans — to a Jew!”
Maybe she’ll send her new adviser, “Socks” Berger (and no, that’s not that White House cat again), back into the National Archives to steal some more classified intelligence documents.
Wake the hell up, America.
By @@
October 9, 2007 5:33 PM | Link to this
‘Ya know Captain - what one can expect from adults and what one can expect from children are two different things. Unless of course, you’re saying that the “left side” of the adult brain suffers from life-long delays in development.
That ^^^ was a mean and nasty thing to say about Democrats.
In regards to teaching, bring more to the profession than your open wallet. Otherwise you’ll be mediocre in your performance.
Can you mandate that? No, but you should be able to expect it from those who work with our kids.
A shared passion can produce a beautiful outcome.
By ray
October 9, 2007 5:45 PM | Link to this
witch hunt: because the republicans made such a movie star out of usama bin laden, the terrist nation will forever be indebted to the gop. the worst thing that could happen to them would be us electing a commander in chief capable of reading his/her own pdbs.
By Scream 4 .5
October 9, 2007 5:47 PM | Link to this
(CNSNews.com) - The liberal talk radio network Air America announced this week it will launch a nationwide show focusing on atheism. The first national show will feature Christopher Hitchens, author of “God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.”
And to George Soros wastes time and money drooling over Rush in an attempt to get revenge for the free market crash and burn of Air America. Hahaha!
By witch hunt
October 9, 2007 5:53 PM | Link to this
ray: guess we’ll never know what the Clinton admin did about Osama, because evidence was destroyed by Sandy Burglar. Don’t that just beat all?
By DemDems4Ever
October 9, 2007 5:59 PM | Link to this
Regardless of the quality, or lack thereof, in the Georgia public school system, a child CAN learn. The onus is on the parents.
Ernest Vandiver declared he would close Georgia schools before he would allow integration. Off to a private school did I go. My parents would not allow me to miss a year, or more, of school.
To declare all of Georgia residents rednecks is as uneducated as some of the posts today. To blame redenck Republicans for the problems is just as narrow-minded.
The Republicans have been in control of state government for an inisgnificant period of time when compared to Democrat control.
The reality is Democrats and Republicans share equally in the failures of Georgia schools. But both parties failures are insignificant when compared to the failures of parents.
I have witnessed parents who ask for a transfer because a teacher gave TOO MUCH homework. I would only ask for a transfer for just the opposite reason.
We also have incompetent teachers and this will be a fact of life in any school system. The measure of the system should be how the incompetents are disciplined, whether there is improvement and then whether the incompetent teacher is discharged if there is no improvement.
The post(s) indicating money is not the issue is/are generally correct. Waste of the money available is the issue and this will be true as long as Government is involved, at least until we take the power away from our elected officials.
We have the power through our votes but we continue to send failures back to Congress, our State Legislature and to local elected positions.
Until we abandon the Far Left and Far Right political positions and refocus on the best interests of the public, the failures of government will continue. The only way to do so is to eliminate career politicians.
By Dusty
October 9, 2007 5:59 PM | Link to this
Captain oh Captain,
You have crossed the bar of functional thought. Do not include me in your ethnic cleansing menage as I am not full of phoniness and liberal dilitantism (whatever that is) like you.
Begone, black spot of disfunctional disguised liberalism. I wear not your coat of iniquity and so forth.
Gather youself with yon brother RedNeck. He is your alter ego, your esprit de corps, your mental equivalent and all that stuff. You two twits are identical twins of fabrication.
Oh well, sometimes you are entertaining. Yep. Clowns.
By Scream 4 .5
October 9, 2007 5:59 PM | Link to this
NBC’s David Gregory, on the Tuesday “Today” show, wondered if the West was trending Democratic and to find out he asked only Democrats. Analyzing the GOP’s ‘08 Electoral College prospects in the West, Gregory refused to interview any Republicans, instead choosing to interview Democrats as he proclaimed: “Concern for the environment, the partisan fights of Washington and this President’s war in Iraq have left many Westerners bitter.”
Hahaha! Isn’t that just like a stupid lib. Why does David Gregory’s jaw and facial structure resemble an orangutan anyway? I never liked that beady eyed goon.
By ray
October 9, 2007 6:00 PM | Link to this
witch hunt: time to put your thinning knee pads away. usama bin laden will go down in history as bush/cheney’s daddy. game over.
By DemDems4Ever
October 9, 2007 6:05 PM | Link to this
B. Clinton was scared of bin Laden and H. Clinton will follow the same path, thus the need for Sandy Berger.
By Scream 4 .5
October 9, 2007 6:15 PM | Link to this
Liberal PMSNBC’s Dan Abrams pointed an accusatory finger at Fox News Monday claiming, “The Republicans have had Fox News, and O’Reilly in particular, in their pocket on the Republican talking points since 1996.”
You’ve GOT to be kidding me. A PMSNBC moonbat, of which network has Chris Matthews and that nobody Keith Olberman who practically try to tongue Democrats when either interviewing them or commentating about them, has the gall to say that. Of course we won’t even go there on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and PBS. Good God. Now it’s Fox News Derangement Syndrome from the tin hats!
Great retort video can be found here. I’m telling you folks at Fox, you’d better start punching these liberal media azzholes back even harder, because it’s only going to get worse going into next year. Nip those annoying weeds in the bud.
Hey Kieth, how are those ratings there going for ya, nutbag?
By witch hunt
October 9, 2007 6:23 PM | Link to this
usama bin laden will go down in history as bush/cheney’s daddy. game over.
Only in your wet dreams, boy. The truth is out there and will be exposed next year. Notice how Hillary is back pedaling on Berger now.
Nah, you leftist kooks just keep bringing Osama up in public. We’ll nail you Clinton lovers to the wall. Game, set, AND match over, jack.
By ray
October 9, 2007 6:29 PM | Link to this
scream 4 .5: we trotted out faux news as our starting pitcher and got our tail kicked. nobody likes a loser. might I suggest a cave for the next five years?
By Scream 4 .5
October 9, 2007 6:36 PM | Link to this
Ray - your beloved CNN and PMSNBC has been getting a MASSIVE and WELL DESERVED azzwhippin COMBINED by Fox News in ratings for YEARS. What’s wrong with you deranged libs? Like getting a whoopin when you’re already on the ground after the CONSTANT beatdowns? You love coming back for more or something? SMACK! SMACK! POW! Hahaha! M-o-r-o-n-s!
By ray
October 9, 2007 6:44 PM | Link to this
scream 4 .5: we’re out 4000 soldiers and hundreds of billions of dollars and you worry about television ratings. classic republican. explains completely the rights inability to fight a war. best just stick with the grenadas. failure.
By Glenn Gilbert
October 9, 2007 9:22 PM | Link to this
Mr. Wooten, though I greatly appreciate your taking up this complex scheme for revamping school finance, I must disagree with your assertion that the plan is in any way “revolutionary”. Alas, nobody is really in revolt over Georgia’s operation of one of the most expensively bad education systems ever devised. And this well-intended finance model, its blue-ribbon pedigree notwithstanding, will not really change student outcomes (which in the end is the only thing that matters).
Granted, the state’s adoption of an “adequacy model” (as it is called on the West Coast, where it is already a fading fad) probably would equalize school funding enough to stave off equal protection lawsuits, but conditioning the money on quantifiable “results” does nothing to improve the actual conditions for learning. While the bean-counters count the merely quantifiable, the educators know that what really counts remains largely unquantifiable: a child’s zest for learning, her ability to draw useful distinctions, to adapt to novel circumstances, to cooperate with others toward a common end, to invest in deferred dividends, to smell a rat, to frame problems and craft solutions, to learn from the mistakes of others, to love this country knowingly and actively, to say something new. Count these.
Yes, it’s smarter to pay for test scores and graduation rates than it is to subsidize time in the seat, but these are all spurious proxies that require us to pretend, for example, that more sheepskins mean more learning, or that the tests really do test what they pretend to test, or that what they pretend to test is worth learning and that students actually retain what we suppose they have learned.
The “adequacy” model (more pretend-bang for the same buck) is superior to the status quo (ever more bucks for the same pretend-bang), but neither constitutes a realistic business model suitable for any business’s Annual Report: real bang for the buck, but preferably more bang for the buck and optimally more bang for less bucks. This would be “accountability” made real. It also would place you on the wrong side of the NEA, in a cornfield at midnight with a shovel in your hands.
By Catscan
October 10, 2007 8:16 AM | Link to this
So what Glen Gilbert is saying is that if bang for the buck is the criteria, then wooten’s ideas about funding education would cost too much doe. Is this deer season? I see buck. I go bang. If I could shoot, I’d have dozens of trophies, and be quite popular. If I could write, I’d have a pulitzer prize like Cynthia Tucker. If I weren’t a moron, the nurses and staff at the institute would let me out of here. Time for my sponge bath. I aint nevah gonna git outta here. I’m a wonder of modern science!
By Catscan
October 10, 2007 8:38 AM | Link to this
If I were governor, I’d change the school’s curriculum as follows: Elementary schools would teach all about the electromagnetic spectrum. Stuff it down their throats. Let them memorize the spelling and frequency of all the known wavelengths. Teach personal hygiene and house keeping too. Start a essay-writing program.
Middle school. Start with bio-chemistry. Stuff it down their throats. Teach advanced personal hygiene and house keeping too. Start teaching them business law. Force essay writing upon them. Let them choose the topic, but it better be about their feelings and how much they hate their parents, so that we can also introduce psychology to them.
We are raising nitwits. I should know, my daughter went through the highest rated county school system in the world, and emerged a nitwit. All her friends are nitwits.
I am asking anyone who reads this to join me in a class action suit against the educational board of cobb county ga. They couldn’t organize a spelling bee.
We’ve blown it. Completely. The educational techniques employed today would succeed only if we wanted to enrich a complex network of intersecting subsets of corrupt administrators. I’m calling for the complete and total disemboweling and reconstruction of the entire heirarchy of our educational structure in Cobb County.
Give me a two week audit. I’ll smoke out a thousand rats. The money saved will pay for every conceivable infrastructure upgrade in Cobb County. It’ll pay for healthcare for these kids too. I have inside information about the reality on the chalkboards in cobb county, and if divulged, I wouldn’t live two minutes.
newt’s beloved cobb county is corrupt. Newt is my star witness. He knows exactly what’s what, otherwise why would anyone let this man speak? They’re making it too costly for him to stool-pigeon.
I call my first witness, Newt Gingrich. “Do you swear to lie for those what brung you to your high post?”
“STFU”
“Your honor….”
“The witness will answer”
“What was the Q?”
“Are you a liar”
“Yes, but I’m lying about that, so no.”
“Your honor…..”
“Case dismissed and the prosecuter is in contempt and ordered to spend life in prison.”
“D’oh!”
By Glenn Gilbert
October 10, 2007 10:12 AM | Link to this
My guess is that the wannabe satirists who blog here simply haven’t lived long & hard enough to write effective satire. And the stakes of the game that Mr. Wooten described in yesterday’s column are so high that children really should not attempt satire at home. Unless they’ve actually got the chops, that is.
By Scream 5
October 10, 2007 11:47 AM | Link to this
By ray October 9, 2007 6:44 PM | Link to this
scream 4 .5: we’re out 4000 soldiers and hundreds of billions of dollars and you worry about television ratings. classic republican. explains completely the rights inability to fight a war. best just stick with the grenadas. failure.
And ^^that^^ is classic democrat - make a comment about Fox News, get the beatdown retort with facts, and then change the subject to Iraq. Stoopid liberal POS can’t even hold down their own arguments and cowardly scurry away to a new rathole.