Thinking Right

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

February 3, 2009 8:04 AM | Link to this

Good morning all. I have little to add to Jim’s excellent argument this morning, and our true education experts, Glenn and @@, will jump in soon enough. I offer only a few notes from a longer view.

“Micro-management” is characteristic of the standard overlord mentality, that the oligarchy is best suited to make all decisions for all. The reader will recognize that typically-elitist and/or democrat trait is the same as the one forming the intellectual justification for the bizarrely-named “stimulus” bill. Surely the inherent elitism is the principal reason our schools-managers are held in such low regard by the population. (Is there anyone out there who says, “our state/county/city board of education is surely the finest in the world?” Too often the boards are regarded as poorly as democrat Congressional leaders, and for the same reasons.) School nurses and school lunches and school buses are not elements of the core purposes of the schools, although they can be useful tools in the right hands, in accomplishing goals.

Lest there be any who do not understand the difference, “intelligent management” is not hostile to setting goals. Intelligent management theory says that the manager – at any level - can set either (a) the goals, or (b) the method to be used to accomplish the goals, but not both (a) and (b). If one selects (a), “the goals,” efficiency requires one to allow the implementing field force full use of their individual imaginations to accomplish those goals. If one chooses (b), “the procedures to be used,” the implementing field-force is responsible only for diligent adherence to the procedures; in this latter case the planning manager is primarily responsible for accomplishment, or not, of the goals. For entirely too long Georgia educrats (like most government educrats) created model curricula to be followed, which was followed diligently, and but then attempted to blame the implementing field force for student failure to achieve arguably conflicting “measurement goals.”

In an ideal world we dispense with testing and ranking students, and merely offer instruction in the minimal necessary life skills – how to read, how to keyboard, how to write spreadsheet formulae, how to fill out tax forms (an especially urgent need there for any Obama appointees), how to prepare a resume (especially urgent need there for anyone living in a country that believes in government “stimulus” spending as means to “help” the economy.)

Our culture does not seek an ideal world. As a management issue, I advocate encouraging teachers to “teach to the tests,” and each to set his own curriculum. I would have the supervisors write the ultimate measuring tests, i.e., to set the education goals. (If we can purchase a particular measuring package, e.g., SAT or ACT, why would we need supervisors? Any clerk can compare starting and ending scores, to measure teaching efficacy. Reminds me of a funny story, I was obtaining a banking professional credential 15 years ago, and my start-of-the-course score was a 98, and my end-of-the-course score was a 96. Great teaching I guess – couldn’t possibly be the attention-span of the student.)

Surely it is no wonder parents desire vouchers; they merely wish to escape the incompetent management so-often characteristic of government. The Gwinnett deal is the right way to run a railroad, short of going the route of full freedom, “vouchers.” As our democrat friends are generally hostile to individual freedom of choice, the Gwinnett plan is probably the best we can hope for. (Yes, dear PoFo, I realize I ended with a preposition, and that is something up with which you will not put.)

A short unrelated note, Dr. Sowell this morning sounds like our genial host discussing the “stimulus” bill and the pseudo-conservatives among the Senate republicans. One wonders why the House republicans are so good, and why the Senate republicans are so worthless.

By JWIgnoramous

February 3, 2009 8:10 AM | Link to this

If the funding was provided to local boards of education throughout Georgia…most would simply build new Football arenas and leave the average classroom in the 1930’s. Have you seriously attended many of the High School’s within the rural parts of this state? Have you seen the complete lack of technology in this 21st century? A good model to see the backwardness would be a specific northern county that has spent over a million to upgrade a perfectly usable football stadium built in the 1980’s but lacks all forms of modern research based instruction using the very technology that will be required in the workforce. So…Yeah let’s give it to local control that made Georgia such a backward system to begin with.

By PURR

February 3, 2009 8:34 AM | Link to this

The polio epidemic in the 50’s should be all the data you need to understand why conservative columnists like the healthcare-rich, but compassion-challenged Jim Wooten are finished.

Input/throughput! good one. We really do have to invent an alternative to this process. really. The GA really shouldn’t be debating issues like school nurses. really.

“Admittedly”. It’s a scar. dont use it, but mostly, really. lose the really. it’s really inappropriate at all times.

The vouchers, expected to average about $5k each…..keeping the cash that the child’s presence justified. You can restate that whole paragraph with half the words. It’s torture to wade through these impossible entanglements of ideas and structural obscenities.

I dont get it. You obviously dont even care any more. it’s bookman, isn’t it? He must have banned you from his blog 2, Jim. Some troll must have impersonated you impersonating someone else and of course, the troll fingered you, and of course bookman believed it. I’ve been there.

Bookman has a plan. He’s doing a rush limbaugh: he’s using extreme lunatic fringe trolls from the right as the representative conservative commenters. He sets them up like Rush , who only airs the liberal nuts that call in and ignores the thousands of logical ones. That’s right. I got banned on Limbaugh too. I’ve been banned from more blogs, radio shows, comedy stages, public forums, roundtables, and other media arenas than anybody in the entire world. Even AL Jezeera wont let me email them or comment or even go upstairs to their “Face Mecca” chatroom. i have learned some arab phrases, however. “Death to america, but leave the Starbucks” is the latest in-phrase. Also, if you have a souped-up 1973 Plymouth Belvedere you can get 100 drachmas for it in Anbar. ($35K in 1970 money).

But what you can take away from our little talk today, sir, is that nobody talks about the price of tea in china when that’s the only thing that matters now.

By Recreational flatulence

February 3, 2009 8:36 AM | Link to this

Little time today. I’ll check back after Glenn has set Jim straight. Then, I’ll have the whole story.

By Barry

February 3, 2009 8:39 AM | Link to this

The school “choice” movement is nothing but a poorly masked effort to end public education - but its proponents refuse to have that debate, preferring instead to pick around the edges in hopes that it continues to unravel. To instead fix public schools, simply implement the single, sensible condition of Eric Johnson’s otherwise awful bill: give all public schools the ability to oust bad students just like private schools to which they constantly are unfairly compared.

By Redneck Convert

February 3, 2009 8:42 AM | Link to this

Well, I’m with Raghead. Let’s just give the parent a $5,000 check and let them decide where to send their kid to school, if you still got to have schools. And keep your hands off of the schools. If schools want to build a new football stadium instead of classrooms, they ought to be able to do it. Instead of going out raising money to pay for the football team and such.

But let’s get to the heart of the matter. In another couple years little Sonny Zell George will be starting school. There’s alot of trash going to those schools and alot of librul teachers, including a bunch of Those People. I ain’t including @@ in that. If @@ taught all the kids they would listen to Rush and be mighty careful when they got around a teacher or else get their head whacked.

Anyway, I ought to have the right to say, You ain’t going to expose Sonny Zell George to all that and Those People too. He’s starting out as a good little redneck and he ought to be able to stay that way. I want him to love NASCAR and chainsaws and football and pickups just as much when he finishes as he does now. And God too, if it’s Sunday.

I ain’t even going to say anything about GA State University hiring a bunch of people to teach You Know What. I’m just suprized Wooten didn’t mention it.

That’s my opinion and it’s very true. Have a good day everybody.

By Copyleft

February 3, 2009 8:43 AM | Link to this

(Checking my watch) Yep, it’s about time for Wooten to take another uninformed jab at public schools and whine about the need for a market approach to education. “The land of opportunity—for those who can afford it.”

Oh look, there it is! Nicely done, Mr. Wooten. Right on schedule.

By Barry

February 3, 2009 8:46 AM | Link to this

The school “choice” movement is nothing but a poorly masked effort to end public education - but its proponents refuse to have that debate, preferring instead to pick around the edges in hopes that it continues to unravel. To instead fix public schools, simply implement the single, sensible condition of Eric Johnson’s otherwise awful bill: give all public schools the ability to oust bad students just like private schools to which they constantly are unfairly compared.

By Churchill's MOM

February 3, 2009 8:48 AM | Link to this

Jim, glad they have put you back on the web. I am an expert on public education, we send our son to Athens Academy, how could anyone who loves their childeren send them to public school. As usual it’s up to me to do the heavy lifting here, this is from a speach by Newt Gingrich yesterday.

But there was a ray of sunshine: Gingrich believes Sarah Palin might have a bright future. If you consider that a ray of sunshine.

“If Sarah Palin seeks out sophisticated policy advisers and takes sophisticated positions, she will be very formidable,” Gingrich said. “Gov. Palin has an advantage in Iowa [where the 2012 presidential campaign may officially begin] because she is popular with the fundamentalist wing of the party.”

By Gus

February 3, 2009 8:52 AM | Link to this

Did Palin ever get back to Courik on which magazines she gets her news from?

By Peter

February 3, 2009 8:52 AM | Link to this

Gee Jim will this take Georgia Schools off the bottom tier of all education systems in the nation……?

Got to love the Republican’s they can’t run anything…….. somebody please tell me how we have risen in education rankings while we have had Sonny in office……..

Are we now 48th ? 49th ? Wow are we really doing ANY BETTER ?

Who’s worse Mississippi ?

By Road Scholar

February 3, 2009 9:05 AM | Link to this

Wouldn’t be nice if the education system first funded the supplies that teachers need to teach their classes? I’m not talking about frills, unless you consider pencils, pens, paper… frills.

If the parents except a voucher, they must sign a pledge to ensure their child’s conduct and progress! How is that different from what is needed in public schools? Parents need to be more involved in participating in their child’s education besides telling them to “go study” or “don’t do that”. Look at the successful schools (by test scores, graduation rates (sometimes inflated due to lower standards), etc.) and emulate their programs, some of which involve the parents in teaching, monitoring, and funding programs with respective goals.

Parents have a choice now, so they can pay for it in involvement, regardless of vouchers.

By Jackie

February 3, 2009 9:08 AM | Link to this

Does having local control over schools mean that each school system will have their own set of standards?

It sounds like those that are in charge will make ALL the rules, therefore, all others are required to follow those rules, regardless of how those rules may impact their children.

It leaves the door open to many negative things relating to our children.

Does the writer want us to start charging for our children to have an opportunity at education?

By REPUBLICANS EVIL TIME IS UP

February 3, 2009 9:17 AM | Link to this

IT SEEMS TO ME THAT SINCE THE REPUBLICANS ARE IN POWER IN GEORGIA,WHY IS IT THAT WE ARE STILL STUPID AND DUMB AS HELL,AND 50TH IN THE NATION IN EDUCATION,I NEVER READ HERE ON THE BLOGS ABOUT THAT COMING FROM ALL THESE SO-CALLED GENIUSES LIKE RAGNAR AND REDNECK CONVERT,THESE SUPER STUPIDS NEVER POINT OUT THAT WITH ALL THIS GOP SO-CALLED LEADERSHIP GEORGIA IS BACKWARDS AND SUPER SLOW. WHO WILL THE NEO-NAZIS IN THE STATE OF GA BLAME FOR THEIR STUPIDNESS? WILL THEY PLACE BLAME ON CLINTON CARTER OR OBAMA? PRICE,GINGREY,SUXBY,JOHNNY BOY,AND SONNY PERDONT HAVE NOT RAISED THE EDUCATIONAL STANDARD IN GEORGIA YET, BUT YOU HICKS AND REDNECKS IN RURAL NORTH AND SOUTH GA DONT SEE THE LIGHT!

ONLY A FOOL KEEPS GOING FOR THE SAME BROKE CYCLE,MEANING WHILE YOU ALL ARE SCREAMING DIXIE AND STANDING BY THE CONFAGDERATE FLAG,YOU ARE BEING SOLD OUT BY THE SAME REDNECKS WHO LAUGH AT YOU HICKS WHILE THEY PARTY IN BUCKHEAD!

By Ga Values

February 3, 2009 9:21 AM | Link to this

This is just a straw man, 6 years ago the tuition at Athens Academy was about $15,000, even the wacko religious schools are around $12,000. Poor people can not make up the difference for tuition much less all the other expense items that come with privite school. I have to agree with Churchill’s Mom if you can’t afford privite school then you should not have childeren. That said all our childeren went to Public Universities and got a 1st rate education there.

By ron

February 3, 2009 9:35 AM | Link to this

First you buy a large warehouse and give it to the Army to run.Then you send every student there that would desire to be a problem within his/her school system.You will be left with a core of students that at least show some sign of wanting to learn.Since the Army personnel are already paid,there will be no additional salaries to worry about.Regular cirriculum will be taught between periods of push-ups,sit-ups,and other general calesthentics that will be used as instructional aids.Waterboarding will not be encouraged,but it won’t be banned either.

Next,send back to the respective governments any mandate that interferes with class time.Little Johnny/Mary is going to be in the classroom x number of hours a day.Let’s use this time wisely by actually providing instruction aimed at learning.

Next on the agenda will be testing.The results of the test will reflect not only the student’s achievement but will also reflect how well the teachers are doing their jobs.This was a novel approach that I learned as an instructor in the Army.

Local school boards that become disfunctoinal will be disbanded immediately and it’s elected members sent to jail for the remainder of their elected term.

There will be no Private schools or there will be no Public schools.The People get to vote on this issue statewide ony once and foreverafter will be expected to hold their tongue.Whichever school system survives will be strictly under local control and since everyone’s taxes are supporting it,the State will kick in an appropriate share of the expenses.No advice from them will be sought or accepted.

No one over the age of 18 will be allowed to see,participate in or be within 500 yards of any sporting event held at the school.This will apply to grades k-12 only.

No one will be allowed to use a preposition to end a sentence with.

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

February 3, 2009 9:39 AM | Link to this

Dear Barry @ 8:46, The opposition to freedom of school “choice” movement is nothing but a poorly masked effort to end protect the jobs of the incompetent - but its proponents refuse to have that debate, preferring instead to pick around the edges in hopes that it continues to unravel.

Dear Peter @ 8:52, “Gee Jim will this take Georgia Schools off the bottom tier of all education systems in the nation……?” I have a sure-fire plan to accomplish that goal, we’ll cede to City of Chicago that portion of Georgia within I-285. Suddenly GA will have the highest scores in the country.

DEAR EVIL @ 9:17, YOUR EVERY WORD SEEMINGLY SPRINGS FROM CULTISM AS YOU CITE NO POLICY IN YOUR HARRANGUE. SUGGEST YOU CONSIDER “POLICIES” RATHER THAN “PEOPLE” IN YOUR ANALYSIS OF CAUSATION.

By songbird

February 3, 2009 9:49 AM | Link to this

Raghead,

I don’t know where you get your information, but it’s the areas outside the Metro Area that have the worst test scores in Georgia. The SAT scores from Grady HS are just as good as many of your OTP High Schools. Look it up.

By Glenn

February 3, 2009 9:51 AM | Link to this

Omigawd, Jim Wooten, if you’re out there: I thank the stars and moon you too for your having written this column! This one’s needed writing for a long time now.

By GW

February 3, 2009 9:51 AM | Link to this

AJC writers keep telling us that Georgia has a teacher’s union. Since when? Check the facts please. GAE only wishes and PAGE is not even close.

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

February 3, 2009 9:52 AM | Link to this

Trivia note, only PoFo will care: Jakob Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdi was born 200 years ago today. Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and The Big Bopper died 50 years ago today. It was the day the music (Bach, Schubert) was reborn, and it was the day the music died (McLean).

By Redneck Convert

February 3, 2009 9:55 AM | Link to this

“…FROM ALL THESE SO-CALLED GENIUSES LIKE RAGNAR AND REDNECK CONVERT,THESE SUPER STUPIDS NEVER POINT OUT THAT WITH ALL THIS GOP SO-CALLED LEADERSHIP GEORGIA IS BACKWARDS AND SUPER SLOW.”

Well, I never!

By Peter

February 3, 2009 9:56 AM | Link to this

HA HA HA……….By Ragnar Danneskjöld ……….

” I have a sure-fire plan to accomplish that goal, we’ll cede to City of Chicago that portion of Georgia within I-285. Suddenly GA will have the highest scores in the country.”

Funny stuff from a typical Republican……. NEVER EVER a real solution….wait maybe all kids should intern at Sonny’s Personal Fish farm !

Then we can be 47th in the country and all Georgia Children can fish for a living !

Pork is what Republican’s are all about …….. Personal gain !

By Steven Daedalus

February 3, 2009 10:00 AM | Link to this

Yea, take $5000 to Darlington, Athens Academy, Lovett, Westminister etc. and watch them laugh their butts off and call security, as they escort you out the door.

By Churchill's MOM

February 3, 2009 10:01 AM | Link to this

She is in the Washington Post today also, YOU GO GIRL

“Our nominee doesn’t run with the Washington herd,” Sarah Palin at the Republican National Convention.

I know I’m a little late to the game of pointing out that Gov. Sarah Palin (R-the state within eyesight of Russia) ran with the Washington herd at the Alfalfa dinner on Saturday. In politics, people say over-the-top things all the time. So, I’ll give her a bit of a pass for being a walking contradiction in a fabulous black evening gown (from what I could see from the video clip). But, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, what I can’t give Palin a pass on is her consistent choice of style over real substance. Time and time again, when she has been given an opportunity to share her vision for the Republican Party and how it should make its way out of the political wilderness, she has declined.

When Palin spoke to the Republican Governors Association a week after the election, she reverted to the cotton-candy campaign stump speech that proved unsuccessful. When House Republicans invited the life of the Grand Old Party to give a morale-boosting speech to the faithful this past weekend, she begged off. Something about pressing business in Alaska keeping her in the state. Things must have wrapped up pretty quickly, because there she was with the Washington elite she so disdained at the Capital Hilton on Saturday night. Palin’s Capitol Hill colleagues were not amused.

Palin’s one stab at substance so far was a dud. At first blush, her Feb. 2 op-ed in the Minneapolis Star Tribune seemed like a serious attempt to raise alarm about a pressing issue — a bill to block drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge — before Congress. But as she points out in the first paragraph, this bill is introduced every year. And my own reporting shows that this perennial bill perennially goes nowhere. Palin gets an A for effort, I suppose.

But said effort is nothing compared to what some of her potential 2012 rivals are doing. I found it interesting that in “The Monday Fix,” Chris Cilizza listed five Republicans he views as “the five most influential — and powerful — voices in the party today.”

Governors from South Carolina (Mark Sanford), Lousiana (Bobby Jindal) and Mississippi (Haley Barbour) made the list. As did former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who has huddled with congressional Republicans to discuss the stimulus bill. Not unlike Palin, the other governors are running their states in the worst economic environment in decades. But Sanford, Jindal and Barbour are also in positions to directly affect the policy direction of the GOP. Sanford is the current head of the Republican Governors Association. Barbour, a former chairman of the party, is seen as a front-runner for the RGA top-spot in 2010. And Jindal talked candidly about the party’s need to retake the mantle of ethics and good government.

Cilizza listed Palin as No. 1 because “anything she does is news.” True enough. But garnering press attention (famous for being famous, one might say) will do nothing for a party in search of itself and nothing for someone with boundless talent who is unwilling to do the necessary hard work to be taken seriously.

By The Anti-Wooten

February 3, 2009 10:07 AM | Link to this

Private school vouchers do a couple of pretty nice things for the Republic party legislators.

1)It gives them a raise of $5000 per year/child.

2)It provides cover and deniability for not making the difficult choices that could actually fix the schools of GA.

I don’t have kids and don’t especially have a dog in this hunt(other than paying school taxes) but unless we fix education in this country we’ll continue the spiral into a 3rd world nation.

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

February 3, 2009 10:09 AM | Link to this

Dear Songbird @ 9:49, apologies, I did not intend my mock argument to be hurtful. I was mocking the leftist perspective that arbitrary “rankings” comparisons matter. There is no way to intelligently discuss differences among various school systems without getting into the whole Nature-Nurture debate, and frankly that is a stupid side-show when the topic is as focused and thoughtful as today’s essay.

By ron

February 3, 2009 10:12 AM | Link to this

Dear Ragnar,——Although music took a serious downturn 50 years ago today ,the real music died on January 1st,1953.

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

February 3, 2009 10:15 AM | Link to this

Dear Anti @ 10:07, why do you assume “fixing” education ought not allow radical change in our approach, a la vouchers?

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

February 3, 2009 10:18 AM | Link to this

Dear ron @ 10:12, you perplex me. Do you allude to the death of (a) Sergei Prokofiev, or (b) Josef Stalin, whose death ended the “conservative” constraints on Russian composers, allowing them to embrace the bizarre Western “Shoernberg” diversion from listenable music?

By PinkoNeoConLibertarian

February 3, 2009 10:19 AM | Link to this

My main issue with the whole “school voucher” idea is why should any one segment of society be allowed to determine on an individual basis how my tax dollars are spent?

If you want public funds for education then you go to the schools that are mandated for you, period.

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

February 3, 2009 10:23 AM | Link to this

Dear ron - I cannot spell Schoenberg.

By Dusty

February 3, 2009 10:26 AM | Link to this

Well, I don’t know about all this, Jim Wooten. I can’t see handing parents a check for five thousand and saying sign this and promise to do right about your child’s education. Of course, they’d all sign.

These would be the same parents who neither encourage nor discipline their children. If they don’t care about their child in public school, private school is not going to bring any great success.

I suggest that when a child enters public school, their parents or a family representative must attend PTA meetings or their child is removed from school.

If a child enters school and the parents cannot supply a phone number to reach them or some responsible person in case of emergency, that child will be removed from school.

Parents are the ones who need “jacking up”. School should not be a dumping ground, play ground or baby sitting service. There should be a sign over every school doorway saying COME HERE FOR AN EDUCATION.

Some of my children are in the higher education levels of the state system. They wanted more education and they are getting it. One is receiving a PhD this spring. They have put a lot into it and they are getting a great education from it. They know their parents are encouraging them every step of the way.

For a bit of paraphrasing: Parents, ask not what your school can do, jump into the middle of it and help.

By Raggedisnott Dungfliesfrommypiehole

February 3, 2009 10:39 AM | Link to this

Avaunt, ye lefty usurpers and ye reichwing faithful! If ever ye were in doubt that I, thy Fearless Leader, were in danger of losing my loquacity, ye have only to cast your eyes upon my morning greeting (and gratified I was that I secured my place as the first poster of the day— thrills me to my frillies, I tell ye). Aye, I do sigh and mourn the fact that the web dialoging days of our doughty deity, Woo-ten the Mighty, are numbered. But yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of ideological obscurity, I shall not lose heart! Indeed, as did Queen Boudicca of old, I shall continue sallying forth, issuing thundrous excoriations of all opinions liberal, and shall, with deadly backside bursts of bombast, utterly smite the leftist heathern hordes with gaseous grenades of my unassailable sagacity (supplemented in no small part, ‘struth, by my formidable cutting & pasting skills— thank the gods for the tart-tongued rogues of The New Republic). Kneel with me now, my reichwing brethren and sistren (a word newly-coined by mine own self, am I not clever??)— yea, bend forward with all the might ye can muster, and let us blast our board clean of the dissonant discord of the vile leftist hordes. ONWARD, HO! Thppppt (Beg pardon— my fecund flatulence o’ertook me.)

By Glenn

February 3, 2009 10:39 AM | Link to this

Oh ferrevinsakes, Jim,

I think the clever @@ might even back me up on this one: You just might need a nurse for the crucial flash-point of American schooling, the education of 11 year-old girls. And then there’s the little problem of what comes after. (For a quickie, cue into your nearest Hip Hop video.) Bottom line, as it were: nurses count. They’re — believe me — indispensable.

By Dusty

February 3, 2009 10:41 AM | Link to this

Dear Ragnar and Ron,

I suggest you two do the Ritual Fire Dance for the joy of all of us. (Indian gear acceptable.) Tchaikovsky would love it!

By Dusty

February 3, 2009 10:49 AM | Link to this

PoFo @10:39

I don’t know what you loaded your loquacity with this morning but you overdid the dose. Maybe a breath of fresh air would help.

By the way, did you and Queen Boudicca know that London is covered with snow? How about that? I guess that lowered the fog on Queenie’s statue.

By The Anti-Wooten

February 3, 2009 10:50 AM | Link to this

Ragnar my list of reasons for opposing vouchers is extensive, I’ll share just a few of those.

Many of these private schools are far substandard to most public schools. I’m close to one of my nieces that attended a private Christian school in Woodstock from 4th grade through high school. I observed the educational progress she and her classmates made(or in this case, didn’t make)and I was appalled. I asked her Dad on several occasions if ALL of the teachers were certified or even college educated, some were not. Not one of her graduating class of ~40 was accepted at any top tier university and that’s if you generously accept that UGA is a top tier school. I asked around and apparently this is pretty close to the norm for many private schools, they are primarily business units for churches. That’s a pretty broad brush and I do know there are some private schools that beat the curve but they appear to be exceptional rather than the rule.

How do we fund vouchers? Does each $5K voucher defund public schools by that amount?

I personally have a very strong objection to one red cent of my tax money going to any private school that has a religious affiliation. That’s a litigation that I’d gladly join.

According to what I read and know from experience $5k covers only a small portion of the tuition so we’re doing nothing other than giving a taxpayer funded raise to those that can already afford this. If we don’t take the approach that we’re all in this boat together then we’ll all sink.

Public schools are one example of what seperates us from nations that only provide education for those that can afford it, only provide education for males, only provide education for positions of privilege and power. We as a nation offer this opportunity to everyone and public schools are that mechanism.

If we put education in the hand of a business then sooner or later that business is dictating the education received. I know that you’re a premier proponent of free marketeering so that doesn’t bother you but if ABC School corporation decides that children will only learn what they want to teach we end up with semi-educated zombies trained to perform the functions that ABC School Corp. wants them to do. We’ve all recently seen how well it’s worked out when corporations have too much control and not enough oversight.

I’ll now repeat myself, not one penny of public tax funds should be sent to any private school with a religious affiliation.

By El Jefe

February 3, 2009 10:51 AM | Link to this

Gee, local control of schools, what a concept.

I guess I am old fashion, but when did it become something the Federal Government should get involved with?

I can understand state overlook and auditing of the funds, setting standards for a base line education, but nothing beyond that.

I can understand the local school boards having to toe the line with the State board, but why should the feds get involved? What is the upside to government involvement? I’ll tell you, control of the money, means control over the schools and the federal government is all about control. Control over what your child learns, or doesn’t.

Why not let the locals run their own schools? Let them take the responsibility - oh, wait - there is the problem, they don’t want the responsibility, just the money, they want someone else to blame when they can’t teach little Johnny.

By Glenn

February 3, 2009 10:51 AM | Link to this

Yes but you’re clinging to doctrines of scarcity, Jim, as though this thing were a real hat-trick! It’s not a formal show; no need for the grand gesture. Erudition should be free, and freely available to all who can sign or see or hear it. Period. When this nation discovers that fact, it will become as great as its oratory. Until then, let’s cut school nurses down a notch or two, huh?

By ron

February 3, 2009 10:51 AM | Link to this

Dear Ragnar,——Think closer to home.Alabama,I believe.”Hot rod Ford and a two dollar bill”.

By songbird

February 3, 2009 11:17 AM | Link to this

I accept your apology Ragnar. I get a little incensed when people rag on inside 285. I have lived inside 285 most of my time in Atlanta and I much prefer it. I live in the Virginia Highland/Morningside area and the public schools for that area are quite good. Trying to lump everyone who lives inside the perimeter into one group is as ridiculous and saying everyone who lives outside the perimeter is a redneck.

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

February 3, 2009 11:29 AM | Link to this

Ha, thanks ron - I do have the complete recordings of Hank on my mp3 - I am not quite the snob I aspire to be.

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

February 3, 2009 11:39 AM | Link to this

Dear Anti @ 10:50, my reasons for favoring vouchers are brief, but at least as deeply held as yours. Your objection to a forcible contribution to religious or charitable organizations of even one penny of tax monies is reasonable, but how do you justify using government guns to take the money of those who would wish religious training for their children? Is your superior knowledge of what is best for all children to trump theirs? Or is your right to take their monies, to spend according to your priorities, superior to theirs? I think all controllers are wrong, and would leave the selection of education venue to those with custodial responsibility. I admit believing there is nothing about public schools that makes them superior to private schools.

By Algonquin J. Calhoun

February 3, 2009 11:40 AM | Link to this

By Barry February 3, 2009 8:46 AM | Link to this The school “choice” movement is nothing but a poorly masked effort to end public education.

Barry, you are completely correct! The Republican effort to end public education began when I was a boy. I grew up in a village in northern Louisiana and when school desegregation came along the Christian academies sprang into being. The effort to kill public education has continued from those days to these and, as long as there are Republicans, it will continue. I got a good education in a public school and there’s still a good education to be had in the public schools. The Republicans, being the party of the rich and affluent, don’t like the idea of people of lesser means being afforded an education of equal value to that they buy for their children. So, they clothe their true feelings in patriotic raiment and think they’re fooling us. We know what time it is without having to look at our watches!

By Algonquin J. Calhoun

February 3, 2009 11:52 AM | Link to this

By Ragnar Danneskjöld February 3, 2009 11:29 AM | Link to this Ha, thanks ron - I do have the complete recordings of Hank on my mp3 - I am not quite the snob I aspire to be.

But do you have ‘Rising Outlaw’ by Hank Williams III? If you don’t, you need to get it. Check out his version of ‘You’re the Reason.’ You’ll be glad you did.

By JLK

February 3, 2009 11:53 AM | Link to this

What’s new? Wooten (and his verbose anti-everything defender) have always opposed the idea that any child should receive any sort of education for which his or her parents do not pay handsomely. Public education, to them, simply serves to delay our societal evolution into the proper order of Haves and Have-nots, the two Americas: one in which looking out for number one is the only virtue that matters (except for Sundays, when they spend an hour pretending otherwise), and the America in which the lower-born toil for next-to-nothing and die young of something curable before they become a drain on a higher being’s wallet. The only purpose for these long, boring paragraphs is the gratuitous joy of hearing themselves ramble. Stop your half-hearted attempts to pretend you give a sh-t about anything but your own bank accounts, already. Really, you’re boring us.

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

February 3, 2009 12:04 PM | Link to this

Dear songbird @ 11:17, I fully agree with your post. There are many other excellent public schools within the perimeter, in Druid Hills, and in DeKalb near Emory, and in Vinings. I am often not as sensitive as I should be to concerns such as those you express, and I endeavor to improve. I am not consciously hurtful, except when I discuss the overlords.

Dear Algonquin @ 11:52, I am unfamiliar. I think I saw something in the WSJ a couple of months ago about III, and my younger son also urged me onto the same path as you suggest. (Having pledged to explore, I still affirm my preference for Boheme and Carmen. But I ripped the greatist hits albums of both Charley Pride and Ronnie Milsaps last week.)

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

February 3, 2009 12:11 PM | Link to this

Dear JLK @ 11:53, “Public education, to them, simply serves to delay our societal evolution into the proper order of Haves and Have-nots…” We would agree that government schools serve as the principal indoctrination device, to depress the skills and aspirations of those with the highest potential among us. Nothing noble about that.

By flann

February 3, 2009 12:34 PM | Link to this

Hope everyone places the “Ragnar Danneskjöld” Ayn Rand reference properly…in the garbage. Objectivist drivel.

By Algonquin J. Calhoun

February 3, 2009 12:38 PM | Link to this

Raggie, be careful now! If you find yourself singing about a wooden Indian and Smoky Mountain Rain you just might be a redneck.

By ButtHead

February 3, 2009 1:02 PM | Link to this

REPUBLICANS EVIL TIME IS UP, Wow, you need a little anger management help, and a little education. So here is both, until 2 years ago not one person complained about the economy because it was working fine. Then some people voted for “change”, the change that we got was dimacrat controlled congress. What has happened in the last 2 years? Gas priced tripled, then came down, Fannie and Freddie, run by dimacrats, went down the tubes taking a large part of the economy with them. So please direct your anger where it belongs, The Dimacrats in charge.

By Forever Fairness Doctrine

February 3, 2009 1:03 PM | Link to this

Objectivist drivel.

Oh SURE, like you liberal moonbats are all about subjectiveness and all that.

Speaking of objectivity, what is up with Democrats and not paying their taxes? Is that only for Republicans or something? Buh-bye Tom! Well our Treasury head is in however. SEND IN MORE CLOWNS!!!!

“WASHINGTON - Former Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle on Tuesday withdrew his nomination to oversee the Health and Human Services Department, just a few hours after another Obama nominee also withdrew.”

“Both had controveries with taxes.”

“Earlier Tuesday, Nancy Killefer withdrew as President Barack Obama’s nominee to be the first chief performance officer for the federal government.”

“Killefer, a 55-year-old executive with consulting giant McKinsey & Co., was the second major Obama administration nominee to withdraw and the third to have tax problems complicate their nomination after President Barack Obama announced their selection.”

By jm

February 3, 2009 1:06 PM | Link to this

*When the child leaves, the local system is freed of the obligation to provide teachers and classrooms * - of course, Mr. Wooten, the classroom has the same fixed cost whether it is empty or full.

As proposed by Johnson, children could go to another district, or to another school within their home district, but the choice on whether to take them is with the receiving school and district. - Mr. Wooten fails to mention how those children will be transported to those new schools and who might be asked to pick up those costs.

By Patty

February 3, 2009 1:26 PM | Link to this

The problem with Georgia’s school system is three-fold.

First, the state government mandates that ONE test will reveal how well the children in the state are being taught. And that test will provide the information as to whether a teacher is doing his/her job well. So what do the teachers do? They throw out any chance at real education and TEACH for the test which means Georgia kids are ill-prepared to go to college, get a job or just do the basic skills required in every day life.

Secondly, there’s this invisible wall between parents and the schools where if parents have any concerns over children with learning issues, the teachers/specialist don’t have any usable ideas except to do the same old, same old—placement in some remedial class that’s worth a hill of beans. There are parents out here who care and it’s frustrating to meet with supposed specialists and get no answers. And three, but this is important. There is truth to the idea that if you give local school boards money, they will simply use it to update their atheletic programs. Graduating from a school that was endowed with a trust fund and watching the money go into cheerleading outfits or a football field, my feeling would be if this is allowed, some guidelines must be imposed with documentation to back it up.

The Georgia School System has been in need of a massive overhaul for years—one of the reasons I left the state until my daughters are out of public school.

By jill in clayton county

February 3, 2009 1:29 PM | Link to this

The $5,000 voucher sounds like a good idea, Jim. It’s too small to make a wholesale change but it’s a start.

To the gentleman/-woman who screeched about not letting his tax dollars support such a voucher at a “religious school”, I would disagree - you already do. The fact that most “religious” bodies and private schools are tax exempt organizations means you already support them.

So, now you can send your offspring’s offspring to an atheistic school - a public school - and others can send their brood to a religious or other school. Your tax dollars support my right to send my children to a religious school and mine support your right to be an idiot.

Fair enough.

By Recreational flatulence

February 3, 2009 1:49 PM | Link to this

Well two out of three tax cheats doing the right thing isn’t bad, I guess. Boy, I thought Obama was supposed to bring something new to Washington. Looks like the same old crooks to me.

By jill in clayton county

February 3, 2009 1:51 PM | Link to this

As an additional thought…

I also think that minimum school enrollment should be equal to, let’s say, 270 or more, to qualify for this voucher treatment. All other “schools” would be considered under the “Home School Statutes: Ga. Code Ann. § 20-2-690(c)” and treated accordingly.

By REPUBLICANS EVIL TIME IS UP

February 3, 2009 1:55 PM | Link to this

SAY BUTHEAD YOU COULD NOT FIND ANY LIE OR PROPAGANDA IN WHAT I WAS SAYING ABOUT THE GEORGIA GOP ABOUT EDUCATION, ITS THE NEO-NAZIS REPUBLICANS WHO HAVE BEEN IN POWER IN GEORGIA, SO WHY ARE WE STILL 50TH IN THE NATION IN EDUCATION,THE DEMOCRAPS DIDNT HAVE ANY THING TO DO WITH STATE AND LOCAL EDUCATIONAL LAWS, ITS THE REDNECK GOP THAT IN POWER THATS KEEPING EDUCATION HELD BACK.

TRUE THE DEMOCRAPS WERE IN POWER IN THE SENATE FOR TWO YEARS,BUT THE GOP WAS IN POWER FOR 6 YEARS, ITS FUNNY HOW YOU FAKE CONSERVATIVE NEO-NAZIS NEVER POINT THAT OUT, CLINTON DID THIS CARTER DID THAT, BUT NEVER WHAT REAGAN BUSH 1 OR BUSH 2 DID.

BUTTHEAD WHEN GAS WAS 4.00 A GALLON THE WHOLE COUNTRY LOOSING THEIR JOBS,PEOPLE LOOSING THEIR HOMES,AND THEIR KIDS CANT GO TO COLLEGE,THIS WAS DONE UNDER A GOP PRESIDENT WHO HAD THE VETO POWER TO VETO WHAT EVER THE DEMOCRAPS PUT ON THE TABLE.

SUXBY PRICE ISIKSON SONNY GINGREY AND THE REST OF THE GEORGIA GOP SELLING YOU STUPIDS OUT WHILE YOU SEE YOUR BEING SOLD OUT,SO IM GLAD THAT THEY ARE LAUGHING AT THEIR BUCKHEAD PARTIES AND GET TOGETHERS ABOUT HOW THEY GOT THE RURAL GEORGIA VOTERS IN THEIR BACK POCKETS,SO RAISE THE REBEL FLAG TODAY FOR DIXIE CAUSE YALL DONE LOST AGAIN!

By Raggedisnott Dungfliesfrommypiehole

February 3, 2009 2:20 PM | Link to this

Ah, Jill, my little swill-spewing pill! An if ye were not so unfortunate as to be from that abhorrent wasteland of the Dark Ones, Clayton County, I might succumb to the temptation to pay court to thee most enthusiastically. Hmmmmm…what ideas thrust themselves into my overwrought brain— aye, a sandwich! A Jill and Dusty sandwich, with yours truly as its manly, randy filling! A capital idea, eh? What say ye, ladies? Shall we dance in a Durkee’s Sandwich Spread of insouciance? Frolic playfully in a Poupon of passion? (Addendum: Jill, milady, do invite thy alter ego, BS Aplenty— her girth and singular lack of mirth will be much appreciated.)

By crazylikeafox

February 3, 2009 2:39 PM | Link to this

Jim, Jim, Jim. The truth about school vouchers is that our tax dollars will be subsidizing elusive private schools for the children of the wealthy. If someone wants to send their kids to private schools…let them pay for it themselves. I thought that was the Republican way?? Case in point, Weselyn here in Gwinnett county. Annual tuition is about $16,000 per year and we know folks who pay that.

$5000 vouchers will not suddenly make this school suddently accessible for anyone with a moderate income. Market ecomonics is a theory which doesn’t really work in real life and is what brought us a very expensive health care system which focuses more on making a dollar than on patient care. Please don’t let market forces rule our education system or only the wealthy in this country will end up with an education…the way it is turning out in the American Health Care business. They are giving us the business alright but not the care.

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

February 3, 2009 2:44 PM | Link to this

Dear Algonquin @ 12:38, my “redneck” credentials are pretty strong – I am only one generation removed, through both parents, from small farms in moonshine country in a remote area of middle Tennessee. To borrow a line from IHVH and from Popeye, I am who I am.

By @@

February 3, 2009 3:02 PM | Link to this

Aahhhh yes, Jim — how to educate a child…..let me count the ways. One size does not fit all.

Their abilities and interests are as individual as fingerprints. The only thing they have in common is they’re the littlest of the people and treated as such.

When it comes to choice, those on the left will reserve it for those who wish to do away with the “little nuisances” before their potential can be realized. But freedom to choose a better education? No way…..no how!

If, by the grace of their parents, they make it into the vast unknown, they’re more often than not met with a daily dose of ritalin to make everyone’s job easier.

I remember reading an article at CNN a few years back. Government studies had revealed that approximately 4-million school-age children suffered from ADHD yet 20 million prescriptions had been written for the disorder. That was when “teachers” alone were at liberty to diagnose.

A government employee will aspire to the lowest possible standards allowed.

By jill in clayton county

February 3, 2009 3:13 PM | Link to this

Raggedisnott Dungfliesfrommypiehole

Easy to see why you live in a deluded fantasy-land. Now, go turn off the TV, brush you tooth and head back to your jail cell. The real love fest’s about to begin.

By williebkind

February 3, 2009 3:14 PM | Link to this

Well Redneck Convert makes me laugh again….However, look at all those educated folks in Atlanta and nearby. They keep voting by race and party not morals and traditional beliefs. Have they fixed Atlanta? Look at what they have done in California…its BROKE!

Shucks they left Chicago and came here to make us just like them. Vote Liberal it does not matter how big a scum you are. Schools will not change that—will it?

So how does education help. Why would you want to send some poor family member to a liberal college anyway? They would not learn anything new. Those liberals have already told them.

My only problem is I have someone in a penthouse view telling me what I can and can not do on my place, where I can send Jr. to school, tell me what Jr. has to learn to be educated, and that religion and beer is not part of the constitution. Is that education?

I saw on history channel that our good ole forefathers sat around with a pint of beer and created the greatest country on earth. Not one person stood up and said I graduated from Oxford and should be in charge ‘cause I am educated. ( I dont think they had Harvard back then) I

Abe Lincoln learned on his own. Read some stuff and use his new learned knowledge to impress other folks. Why does liberals think government has the right syllabus?

If I had vouchers, I could send Jr. where ever I wanted—is that what scares the liberals? I could find a real school that taught what made America great and what made it humble. Yeah it made mistakes and corrected some important ones. That is what vouchers would do for Jr. He would become a great American with southern values and freedom for all.

Liberals remind me of Hitler where he stated “Work make you free”—Just like the liberals think about education. Education without values is like the rich democrats paying taxes! Vouchers would help Jr more.

I am a product of public schools and you have to forgive.

By Oil of Olive

February 3, 2009 3:22 PM | Link to this

I am what I am, and that’s all what i am.

Forget ritalin, somebody’s been abusing exlax on this blog, and that’s an army twenty million strong…and growing.

bwa haw

By Duke

February 3, 2009 3:45 PM | Link to this

Most would choose the local system? Jim, when parents realize the full extent of the scandal of American public education, NOBODY will choose the local system. The only hope for this country is home-schooling, and the only hope for the international socialists is to outlaw home-schooling. That is where the fight will be.

For many years, U. S. school children have scored near the bottom of the 20 or so industrialized nations in science and math. No reform is possible within the system. It is completely controlled by the teacher’s unions, and they will be intransigent to the end.

A full K-12 curriculum on 22 CD’s for $195:

www.robinsoncurriculum.com

By Jackie

February 3, 2009 3:48 PM | Link to this

Wonder why the so-called conservatives always want to change something that is working well?

I do believe, overall, the USA has the world’s BEST education system.

Why is it students from around the world want to attend our colleges and universities?

Is there a preponderance of students from the USA enrolled in those schools?

Vouchers? We all aware that the rich want to continue to soak the poor to help their kids.

By jill in clayton county

February 3, 2009 3:59 PM | Link to this

Jackie

The entrance requirements for the U.S. secondary education system are competitive and therefor of relative high quality. That’s what competition accomplishes.

By Duke

February 3, 2009 3:59 PM | Link to this

Jackie says, “Why is it students from around the world want to attend our colleges and universities?”

Our graduate schools of science and math are still very good (as opposed to their counterparts in liberal arts) but almost all of the best graduate students are foreigners. For many years, U. S. students have scored near the bottom of industrialized nations in science and math. High school students in Taiwan routinely work calculus problems which American graduate students cannot solve.

Again, check out the Robinson Curriculum:

www.robinsoncurriculum.com

Your child will complete at least one year of college level work in high school. If he or she is even slightly gifted, heorshe will complete two years of college work. With today’s standards, it is not hard to do.

By Curious Observer

February 3, 2009 4:31 PM | Link to this

“Your child will complete at least one year of college level work in high school.”

I must have been teaching some other country’s high school graduates during all those years I taught in colleges and universities here in the United States. The ones I taught didn’t know the parts of speech and their functions, much less the rules of English usage; couldn’t work even basic percentage calculations; and couldn’t support a single assertion with facts.

By Jackie

February 3, 2009 4:51 PM | Link to this

@Jill in Clayton County

Competition has nothing to do with education, I would argue. My home state of NC has a State University and Community College system that is considered one of the nations best.

The 58 Community Colleges DO NOT require a SAT/ACT test for entrance. The 17 four-year institutions recognize the degrees from those Community Colleges. Some of the other private state schools - Wake Forest and Duke - are actively pursuing a policy of not requiring entrance exams.

The policy is what is called “open door admissions.” Even the state flagship, UNC-Chapel Hill has as part of their mission statement, “… we will let you in, it is up to you to get out.”

By Jackie

February 3, 2009 5:02 PM | Link to this

@Duke

What criteria are you using to measure the relative worth of a Liberal Arts degree?

By Oil of Olive

February 3, 2009 5:18 PM | Link to this

In the USA, most women use the school of hard knockers, or breast implants to get ahead in life. So jackie is right. The good old usa has the breast education system in der verld.

Eye contact is a lost art.

By Public Schooler and proud of it

February 3, 2009 5:28 PM | Link to this

Why do conservatives hate public education so much? This country had great schools when i was growing up and they can easily be great again if right-wing hacks like Wooten stop bashing them and start helping restore them to their former glory. For some reason I doubt Mr. Wooten ever attended a private school. Although it would certainly explain his elitist take on this situation.

By Grob Hahn

February 3, 2009 5:36 PM | Link to this

As terrible as Douglas County schools are claimed to be, we have people sneaking kids into our schools from several Georgia and a couple of Alabama counties.
Grobbbbb

By Glenn

February 3, 2009 5:49 PM | Link to this

Mr. Wooten puts a lot of faith in what he likes to call “choice”, a term popularized by a now dead economist from Chicago, and Stanford. Don’t count on it. In education, it will usher in a new era of falderol, of trumped-up expectations undersold by over-advertised hyper-expectations!!! Edu-cheap.

By Oil of Olive

February 3, 2009 5:49 PM | Link to this

Wooten is grasping for a new conservative strawman to justify the supreme courts 2000 straw vote. If he only had a brain, or a heart, or courage; why, he could……….

wait, a brain, a heart and courage. THAT’S IT!! that’s the new conservative platform!!! education, healthcare, and strong defense!!!!

By Glenn

February 3, 2009 6:01 PM | Link to this

This column I love because it’s boldly structural. It envisions a new stucture of the schooling of the young. We should do that, ever and always, because ours is a daring country. But we mustn’t lose sight of the Common School ideal. Horace Mann was right: Mr. Jefferson’s democracy requires a common purpose, the actual education of young Americans to the friendly yoke of Democracy. If we can’t do this much, we are unfit to the challenge and unworthy of the title.

Don’t sell out.

By Jackie

February 3, 2009 6:38 PM | Link to this

Someone stated in a previous statement “That was when “teachers” alone were at liberty to diagnose.

A government employee will aspire to the lowest possible standards allowed.”

We must remember that the legislators of the state makes rules to determine what teachers are allowed to do.

By Algonquin J. Calhoun

February 4, 2009 8:29 AM | Link to this

The aptly named Butthead didn’t mention the billion a week George W. Hitler dumped down that rat hole Iraq. That had a lot to do with the shape we’re in now. The Republinazis were too busy going on Abramoff junkets and checking out the hot action in men’s rooms across the country to think of the welfare of the taxpayers. They are out of power now and they’re going to stay out. The country is much better off without these closeted gay thieves robbing us!

By Mick

February 4, 2009 9:05 AM | Link to this

Most of the comments here (Mr. Wooten’s column included) are theoretical arguments based on ideology with very little attention given to practical realiities. The devil is always in the details.

For example, giving parents $5,000 for each student will cost the State at least an additional $500 million annually. Why? Because under the current system, students enrolled in private schools (and home schools) receive no (as in zero) State money. The number of private school students in Georgia currently exceeds 100,000 (not counting home schooled students whom I assume would also be eligible for the vouchers).

Do not make the mistake of assuming I am talking here of the students currently in public schools who would be taking their vouchers and moving to private schools. The effect on the State budget of these students would be a net zero. I am talking of the more than 100,000 students who currently receive zero dollars in State funds.

Jim, are you really suggesing the Legislature will appropriate an additional $500 million each year to support a voucher program?

I think not. What they will do is cut the average expenditure per child in public schools so that the total amount spent on K-12 students remains the same.

By Pro-choice in Education

February 4, 2009 11:21 AM | Link to this

I am a strong advocate for choice in education!! However, just yesterday, an email was circulated to private schools involved in the GA special needs voucher program. It appears, that the GADOE has determined that they don’t want to uphold the calendar for “scheduled payments”. The GADOE has decided to cut these vouchers by 2% AND hold the payments until they have re-figured the new amounts (almost a month later than the scheduled date)!!

My questions are: “Why are they dispensing the funds rather than a neutral party? Why have they NEVER followed the published calendar for dispensing the vouchers - they have always been late up to one month? Why do they always wait to issue an email about their delay on the exact day that the vouchers are due for release? If this program has problems, then, believe me … it’s the GADOE’s failure to comply with AND treat the program equitably as they would treat one of their own programs!! What’s the problem!!??

By Brad

February 4, 2009 11:36 AM | Link to this

There are no teacher unions in the state of Georgia, only teacher organizations. But, conservatives never let facts get in the way of their ideology.

By kevin

February 8, 2009 11:00 AM | Link to this

I just heard Senator Conrad (D) on Face the Nation. He said that indivduals and corporations can’t stimulate the economy. Only taxpayers through the government can do that. Huh??? I thought taxpayers were either individuals or businesses.

Or perhaps he meant that the government will print more money and future taxpayers will have to pay off that debt.

By stalled

February 8, 2009 11:57 AM | Link to this

Obama is taking a very big risk with inflation. Inflation has been so low over the last twenty years that mathematically it’s a high risk.

Inflation would kill the beast.

By stalled

February 8, 2009 12:16 PM | Link to this

Candid Cancer update: Eat all your vegetables, people.