Thinking Right

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

February 17, 2009 8:05 AM | Link to this

Good morning all. I extract principles from Jim’s morning essay:

(1) Creation of a government freebie – the Hope Scholarship – had a profound adverse effect on the integrity of the traditional measurement of academic progress, “grades.” Mere teachers, who had no greater wish than to impart wisdom to underdeveloped minds, were suddenly thrust into the position of gate-keepers for a welfare program. So Kathy Cox now trains teachers to be effective gate-keepers. I suppose that is a solution, but I think it not the optimal one. If we have a state standardized test, why do we need grades at all?

(2) Governor Perdue and the legislature jointly get an attaboy from me. By allowing counties to opt out of the state regimen, and measuring final results only, rather than adherence to the prescribed regimen, they strike a blow for imaginative educators. We note that one county actually had an imaginative educator, somewhere, and embraced the new freedom. I stand amazed that there exists a government educator not cowed by risk aversion.

(3) “Fair price to buy a decent education from the local system” has a funny ring to me. That is the language we use to question monopoly pricing. That is the language we use to challenge corporate welfare. Perversely, both concepts fit the dysfunctional education system. There is no intelligent reason education must, or even should, be a monopoly. Those of us who admire the corrective power of markets would wish to harness that cleansing agent for marginal (and worse) schools. The harder question Jim asks is, “to what extent should government compel taxpayer-subsidy for the education industry?” (Ok, he didn’t ask in so many words, but it is there.) I believe in charities. I’m less enthusiastic about compulsion.

(4) “Get all Georgia on the same curriculum and grading standard.” This sounds like a conflict with #2, “push authority down to the local level.” Either we will allow local control, or we won’t. I am under-whelmed by the quality of government wisdom at any level. In a rational world the final decision on quality measurement would be made by the consumer, voting with his feet. Needless paucity of choice precludes that option.

(5) “Work for a judiciary that respects the rights and prerogatives of elected officials in the legislative and executive branches to work this through.” In a more rational time courts would decline to adjudicate such purely-political issues, leaving that to the elected bodies. We live in an era when the ego of the government official – especially that of a judge - trumps any respect for contrary opinion. At risk of inciting revolution, I note that governors and legislators are separately co-equal with the judiciary – each always has the option of simply ignoring unmeritorious decisions of the other, and any coalition (of two of the three branches of government) wins.

By Chris Broe

February 17, 2009 8:29 AM | Link to this

Jim’s been writing speeches. He wrote this from the standpoint of someone feigning the epistomological constraints of any student in Georgia, as if one of them wrote it. Fun Piece.

By Big Bucks GOP

February 17, 2009 8:40 AM | Link to this

Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc, Donald Trump’s casino group, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Tuesday, court documents show.

The casino operator had assets of about $2.1 billion and total debts of about $1.74 billion on December 31, 2008, it said in its filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey.

Nine affiliates of the casino operator including Trump Plaza Associates, Trump Plaza Associates, Trump Marina Associates and Trump Taj Mahal Associates simultaneously sought protection, according to the filing.

The company missed a $53.1 million bond interest payment due on December 1 as a sharp downturn in consumer spending hit casino revenues.

Donald Trump said on Friday that he had decided to resign from the board of the company due to disagreements with bondholders who wanted the casino group to file for bankruptcy.

By Redneck Convert

February 17, 2009 8:40 AM | Link to this

Well, I wish the schools would teach something useful, like how to keep a chainsaw or lawnmower running good, instead of this book stuff. This is GA, not some Northren state that grinds out pointy heads all the time.

You can look at this blog to see what happens when schools teach books instead of useful stuff. This Ragnar can turn out a whole book on what’s wrong with the politicans but couldn’t adjust a set of spark plugs to save his life. Same with this PoFo or whatever he calls hisself. His head’s in the clouds and he’s so jumbled up inside he can’t hardly make any sense. The only one that makes sense is Sister Dusty. She’s a good church-going without alot of this heavy thinking.

Anyhow, little Sonny Zell George will be starting school pretty soon and I been worryed about how the schools will handle him. I’ll be sending them a good, godly redneck boy, and I want him coming out the same way. They can teach him how to figure the angle on a piece of edging, but I don’t want them filling his head with alot of this thinking stuff. He won’t never move on to maybe run for the House or the Senate if they ruin him like that.

I don’t care much about this Hope scholarship unless they let it be used for a good trade school. All the colledges are good for is turning out a bunch of pointy-heads that become libruls.

Have a good day everybody.

By Peanut Man

February 17, 2009 8:43 AM | Link to this

How much money did Saxby take from Peanut Corporation of America? What did they get for it?

By Chris Broe

February 17, 2009 8:59 AM | Link to this

Is Donald Trump peaking too early? He once sang “Green Acres” with his wife around on a special on NBC. He’s very entertaining on his show. He’s probably the best new television personality since Jack Benny. Even his show still has legs. I will watch Joan Rivers defy Donald Trump and love every minute of it.

I have three Trump ties.

By Leon

February 17, 2009 9:35 AM | Link to this

Great call JW! Just leave the schools alone on their current trajectory and everything will be just fine. Heck in another 10 years GA will be up to 47th out of 50, hooray!!

Also I say Redneck Convert for guvnuh in 2010, where do I send my campaign contribution?

By Mid-South Philosopher

February 17, 2009 9:38 AM | Link to this

Good morning, Jim.

Your suggestions this morning are not bad at all. As you know, I have agonized over this issue for nearly four decades.

It may well be that for all that time society has been funding the wrong educational entity. We have always funded “students”, whether “per pupil”, “average daily attendance”, or “full-time equivalency”.

How about we start funding school plants! In other words, what does it cost to operate a school to provide the services needed for the clients, irrespective of the numbers. Can we educate without factoring in numbers, if we have adequate resources otherwise.

I don’t know, but it is an interesting idea.

By Big Bucks GOP

February 17, 2009 9:41 AM | Link to this

A provision buried deep inside the $787 billion economic stimulus bill would impose restrictions on executive bonuses at financial institutions that are much tougher than those proposed 10 days ago by the Treasury Department.

By Big Bucks GOP

February 17, 2009 9:43 AM | Link to this

The F.D.I.C. is struggling to manage $15 billion worth of loans and property left from failed banks,

By Big Bucks GOP

February 17, 2009 9:44 AM | Link to this

Nearly 800 jobs are being eliminated at Delphi’s steering division, which is bring sold to private equity firm Platinum Equity.

By Big Bucks GOP

February 17, 2009 9:45 AM | Link to this

Global assets of hedge funds may drop to $1.2 trillion by the end of the first quarter, down 35 percent from 2007 as the number of managers decline and funds rely less on strategies that use leverage, a UBS executive said on Tuesday.

By Big Bucks GOP

February 17, 2009 9:46 AM | Link to this

Citadel Investment Group has decided to continue suspending redemptions from its two largest funds for another quarter after freezing them last year, but will institute a new program to allow withdrawals.

By Bill

February 17, 2009 9:46 AM | Link to this

Mr. Wooten:

Congressman Phil Gingrey, a good and honest man, is being wronged by a group of “militia” types in his district and needs your help.

Even though Congressman Gingrey immediately apologized for being critical of Rush Limbaugh, even though Congressman Gingrey promised not to do this again, even though he went on Mr. Limbaugh’s show and apologized directly to him and even though Mr. Limbaugh was very gracious in accepting his apology, a group of yahoos are trying to find an challenger to Mr. Gingrey for the republican primary next year.

I have explained all of this to one of them but his response is that Gingrey can never be trusted again. He said it is not just that he was critical of Mr. Limbaugh but it also has something to do with the fact that Congressman Gingrey said the inaugaration of Obama was “historical” and that Gingrey attended the event.

Please, please write a story about this fine and decent Congressman before you retire so that people will see that Congressman Gingrey is a person to vote for and that everyone deserves a chance to be foregiven for saying the wrong things.

I do not want anyone to think that I do not understand the importance of Mr. Limbaugh or that I do not think that Mr. Limbaugh is a true American leader. That is not the point, the point is that Congressman Gingrey deserves a second chance. If Mr. Limbaugh is willing to forgive him, why not us?

By Big Bucks GOP

February 17, 2009 9:47 AM | Link to this

Markets in Asia and Europe fell on Monday, after a report showed that Japan’s economy contracted in the last quarter at its quickest pace in 35 years and a weekend meeting of the Group of 7 finance ministers provided few concrete proposals to counter the recession.

By Big Bucks GOP

February 17, 2009 9:49 AM | Link to this

One of the top advisers to the money manager J. Ezra Merkin, who invested $2 billion of his clients’ money with Bernard L. Madoff, is a convicted felon who worked for Mr. Merkin while still in federal prison, according to recently filed court documents.

By Big Bucks GOP

February 17, 2009 9:51 AM | Link to this

GOOD NEWS FOR A CHANGE

Hundreds of lawyers and their support staff at top law firms around the nation have been laid off over the past few days, with as many as 800 law firm workers potentially having lost their jobs on Wednesday and Thursday.

By Churchill's MOM

February 17, 2009 9:59 AM | Link to this

Peanut Man 8:43 AM

Saxby was up here yesterday at the Chamber of Commerce meetsing, sitting next to his bud Mike Adams(2 of a kind). He said he was right to vote for the trillion dollar Wall Street bailout but Obama’s recovery plan was wrong. He said we need to give Bankers more money to solve the oversupply of housing problem. Sorta like giving a drunk more to drink if you ask me. Well anyway the bankers are getting their money worth with Saxby, too bad the taxpayers aren’t.

By Chris Broe

February 17, 2009 10:11 AM | Link to this

Bookman’s “why ahkmed cant shoot” piece about Afghanistan would have been a real blockbuster…..if it had been written when I wrote it in 2003.

We trained this enemy to hold territory with slingshots. They were our allies. Now they’re the enemy. The advantage the Soviets enjoyed was the irony of American support for the same Afghan Rebels who would later become the 911 conspirators. Also, the Soviets could leave without caring what chaos they’d leave behind. America has a conscience. We cant leave Afghanistan. We cant leave Iraq either.

When the country realizes that Cheney has doomed us to perpetual war, (for his personal gain), then I think I’ll get the support of the people I need to form the basis of a movement to indict Cheney. (My life’s mission).

Cheney via Rummy refused a direct order from Bush to attack Osama bin laden. It’s on record; It’s practically on film. Summer and Fall of 2002. Bush ordered Rummy in to finish off the CIA-surrounded Osama Bin Laden and his entire army. Rummy stood down at Cheney’s bequest. Why? Cheney knew that if we destroyed Bin Laden, then no Iraq War could have been possible. America, with that victory, would have expected the troops to come home. 911 avenged. Lets move on. Imagine the parade.

Instead it was the Saudis, who own the defense industry, who pressed and caused this Iraq War to happen via their face-masks: Cheney and W. Bio weapons? Face masks. Cheney and W. Fact.

I know it. You know it. The American people know it. This is why we don’t trust our banks. Until we get Cheney to confess and let us know how many of those banks are Saudi banks, then we cant move forward with our economy. If the evidence is classified, then declassify it. Cheney doesn’t respect classified data, like Valerie Plame, so why should we?

Fact. We aint never gonna git outta Iraq. (not without causing a regional war’s spread with virtually no firewalls between Baghdad and China. Russia could grab a lot of territory in a meltdown quick. Eurasian maps have always been guidelines.. (I minored in Cartography). Sketch: Early cartographers laying down the law:: “Okay, russia is going to try to contain itself from those mountains to that river if they can. Somebody get Taras Bulbar on the phone. Doesn’t Attila ever take time off? The Vatican is now Lower Mongolia?

The Roman empire didnt’ end, they got french cartographers.

Iraq is our 51st state. New Alabama.

In truth, the only path to peace is for us to respect and revere Islam. They have Abraham on their side. Have you hugged a mullah today?

I wonder if Ike ever envisioned a Blackwater.

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

February 17, 2009 10:12 AM | Link to this

Dear Bucks @ 9:51, “Hundreds of lawyers and their support staff at top law firms around the nation have been laid off over the past few days,” Are you certain that is good news? Sounds like a news item reading, “Grizzlies roaming through Kroger.” We’re better off when they’re caged up.

By Mom in Rural Georgia

February 17, 2009 10:17 AM | Link to this

MATH must be ‘fixed’ -by math-minded people, not be UGA’s education department. Math has right and wrong answers, and should not be taught through constructivist ‘discovery’ methods. The students in our local system have fallen way behind in math due to Connected Math and Everyday Math curricula (constructivist or ‘reform’ math). Now Cox is requiring the same ‘fuzzy math’ for ALL public High Schools in Georgia.

The Georgia Tech professors need to take a stand against this silly method of teaching math!

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

February 17, 2009 10:21 AM | Link to this

Dear Bill @ 9:46, don’t sweat the loonies, Gingrey will be ok. His voting record will make or break him, and so far it has been good. Gotta run, need to gap my spark plugs.

By frustrated teacher

February 17, 2009 10:48 AM | Link to this

We are way too focused on how Japan teaches (read pushes)its students math at an incredibly young age and expect all our children to be ready for this. We forget developmental abilities and how not all children are ready for algebra at 6th grade level. Teachers are expected to teach a ‘standardized’ curriculum with 1 day for this concept and 2 days for the next. How many of you learned math in this way or could have mastered the math in this way? While I agree that we do need good leadership, lockstep ‘teach the test’ is not what we need for these kids.

By Chris Broe

February 17, 2009 11:06 AM | Link to this

Frustrated. I meet more frustrated teachers these days. We should start, in elementary school, with the electromagnetic spectrum and teach children what radiation is. Simultaneously we should drown them in the math. There are ways to teach math that are fun, and there are ways to make math seem easy.

I witnessed first hand the mini-war between teachers, students and parents. The teachers dont pick their battles very well, and the parents are over-reactionary. They go on binges of PTA vendettas. Vice Principles and Principles dance to the parent’s drum beats. Parents have a very short fuse when it comes to the question of their child’s innocence.

By James

February 17, 2009 11:25 AM | Link to this

Here’s a small change that will give more meaningful grades to public school students, and it won’t cost a nickel: require all teachers to grade on a strict curve. That way the middle 50% of every class will get C’s, the top 10% get A’s, the bottom 10% get F’s, 15% get B’s, and 15% get D’s. This doesn’t deal with the issue of some schools offering a rigorous algebra curriculum whereas others turn it into “fun with letters and numbers”—but at least it makes it clear who the best and worst students are in the class.

There is a “fairness” issue here—what if every single student “gets it”, does all the work with a high degree of insight and creativity, and deserves an A or B? I can only say that from my (college) teaching experience that never happens, at least not in a class of 30-40. Maybe in an upper-level college class with 5 really smart, highly motivated students, but that’s not the sort of thing you would see in any K-12 public school environment.

By Jim, will you PLEASE shut up until you buy a clue from Vanna?

February 17, 2009 11:41 AM | Link to this

Jim, before you ever attach a column to the headline Georgia’s public schools on the right course, go teach in a public school for a week, and see what the “reformers” won’t address.

On second thought, don’t.

I cannot, in good conscience, subject a group of children to the sight of Wooten, under the teacher’s desk, balled up in a fetal position in a puddle of his own urine, sobbing uncontrollably, “It really isn’t the teachers; it really isn’t the curriculum; it really is the discipline!”

By @@

February 17, 2009 11:54 AM | Link to this

Jim:

We’ll have to wait and see how “pushing it down to the local level” in Clayton County plays out. Until our elections — and still, at the “Talk Clayton” blog, it was all whitey’s fault that our kids lost accreditation?

Fortunately now, we may be on the right path. Pam Anderson is our new chairman and so far, she’s doing a great job. There’s still some mumblers and grumblers on the board but I think it’s because they’re “straggling” with the fact that she’s white and in a position of authority.

I’m hoping that legislators will sign on to H.B. 215. Being able to pursue three separate degrees while in high school makes perfectly good sense to me.

All students do not share the same interests and therefore, don’t apply themselves when the courses don’t inspire. A friend of mine teaches in a north Fayette County high school. Her frustration level is high. The majority of kids in her classes (many transplants from Clayton County) have no interest in learning the curriculum but yet, they’re in the college prep program? Their presence has disrupted those students who seek to excel.

It’s important to focus on a student’s strengths. The !?!progressives’!?! teaching methods must come to recognize realities — not every student is college material. Their talents lay elsewhere.

As far as vouchers go…..work out an agreement with private schools where they commit to take no more than 80% of the county’s cost to educate. Leave the remaining 20% to the county.

3,000 students and counting have left Clayton County schools. That 20% could go a long way for those that remain.

By Chris Broe

February 17, 2009 12:10 PM | Link to this

Jim’s having a bit of fun with us all. This “why johnny cant read” piece is written from the standpoint of someone feigning to possess the epistomological constraints that any student in Georgia possesses, (as if one of them wrote i). Fun Piece.

Of course the Mensa Cum Laudes who blog here missed it. Jim is wasted on his own trolls. Bookman’s blog has also degenerated into easily-manipulated blog-simple flotsam and jetsam. I don’t comment there because I’m afraid of all the emoticons, but I still indirectly set the tone of the entire blog through innuendo here. Those overachievers cant stop themselves from absorbing the coded messages I secret into some of my comments here. I’m like a cross between SNL’s Subliminal Guy and Shakespeare’s Iago.

Bookman is getting the education of a lifetime.

Jklol

By Curious Observer

February 17, 2009 12:18 PM | Link to this

“Being able to pursue three separate degrees while in high school makes perfectly good sense to me.”

And do you know what happens to the kids who pursue these three tracks, @@? They all end up in college, and the burden falls on college teachers to try to bring them up to academic speed. Those who do not want the supposed rigors of a college preparatory program go for a track that’s less rigorous—then they apply to a college. The Hope Scholarship program does not ask whether a student has pursued college preparatory studies—only whether the student has a B average.

Most college administrators, of course, want as many students as they can get. And woe betide the professor who fails too many students. The upshot of these three “degrees,” then, is to continue academic mediocrity into the college ranks.

Been there. Done that.

By Jackie

February 17, 2009 12:27 PM | Link to this

If we remove the “teaching to the test” concept from out schools and allow the teachers to teach, our angst relating to education would ease.

Do we still have the world’s greatest colleges and universities?

Where does 80%-90% of those students marticulate?

Now, what is wrong with our schools?

By deegee

February 17, 2009 12:40 PM | Link to this

Still waiting on that Bristol Palin - Levi Johnston wedding. Bristol goes “On the Record” with Greta van Sustern and lets the world know how much fun it is to be a mom. She is considering marrying the dad who is “involved” in the baby’s life. Momma Grizzly reared up during the interview and stole the spotlight from her baby grizzly cubs. White trash.

By Hazel

February 17, 2009 12:45 PM | Link to this

“In any event, the first long-term requirement to upgrade public education is to get all Georgia on the same curriculum and grading standard.”

Gee, I wonder why that doesn’t make a national standard a good thing? What is it that a child in Buckhead and Valdosta has in common, but a child from El Paso doesn’t? Do Georgians learn math and science different? Or is it that history hang-up?

By Chris Broe

February 17, 2009 1:13 PM | Link to this

He wrote this from the standpoint of someone feigning the epistomological constraints of any student in Georgia, as if one of them wrote it. Wooten wore a helmet when he wrote it for inspiration. Fun Piece.

By Churchill's MOM

February 17, 2009 1:58 PM | Link to this

deegee 12:40 PM

Jut what do you have against our next President?

By Cicero.55 BC

February 17, 2009 2:03 PM | Link to this

“The budget should be balanced, the treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, assistance to foreign countries should be curtailed lest we become bankrupt, and the people should be forced to work and not depend on government for subsistence.”

By Cnn reports

February 17, 2009 2:21 PM | Link to this

Aroid is barely holding back the tears. Maybe we need to strip this guy of everything in order to trust our banks and institutions again. Maybe Aroid has to be the sacrificial lamb along with Cheney.

Both behind bars would make my world a better place.

Sometimes an example has to be made. This is one of those times. Cheney and Aroid: The techno twins of the evil empire of greed and lust for glory and power madness and everything.

By Dusty

February 17, 2009 2:23 PM | Link to this

Dear Jim Wooten,

I hope you are correct in asking that “nothing be changed” in the policies for our Georgia schools. It does seem like we have had enough changes for a while.

Didn’t President Bush try to improve schools by regulated testing for the entire country? I’ve never heard anything good said about that. To say that we need BETTER teachers and BETTER student is only a big wish. Seems like every cure brings a new problem. I guess that is why you prefer no change.

I really do not understand why Georgia is ranked low in school achievement. I am sure we have on the average, just as many intelligent children as any other state.

One thing I believe is that Georgia is really one of the “melting pots” of population in this country. If there is a crisis such as Katrina, people come to Atlanta for sanctuary. Refugees from other countries come here for jobs and the aid that comes for immigrants.(My own denomination has a Refugee Service here.) Their children are held back by the changes in their lives and sometimes, difficulties with a new language and new customs. I don’t have any numbers to know if my conclusions are correct but what factors DO make Georgia low in educational ratings??

By Ragnar Danneskjöld

February 17, 2009 2:37 PM | Link to this

Interesting item, interview with Allen Stanford last September :

Wonder where he stands politically?

By Curious Observer

February 17, 2009 3:21 PM | Link to this

“Interesting item, interview with Allen Stanford last September”

Would this be the same Allen Stanford who was charged with over $9 billion in fraud this morning? If so, maybe I should be getting my banking news from a bank robber.

By BS Aplenty

February 17, 2009 3:48 PM | Link to this

Jackie

What’s wrong with our secondary school system? Your questions hint at the answer. But for those unable to discern the answer, here it is: We don’t have any entrance requirements for secondary public schools.

By @@

February 17, 2009 4:34 PM | Link to this

Curious Observer:

And do you know what happens to the kids who pursue these three tracks, @@? They all end up in college, and the burden falls on college teachers to try to bring them up to academic speed.

I know of many instances where that’s just not true. Case in point….

that friend of mine who teaches in Fayette County? Her son was not college material. Smart kid….more inclined to mechanics than academics. He was in college prep classes because that’s where everyone told him he should be. That’s what society tells our kids. The pressure was overwhelming. Even his mother, a teacher pushed him to that end. He came to me more than once asking for advice. I told him he was smart in ways that others weren’t and never could be.

God love him. He couldn’t convince his mother. He tried and while he was trying he was dabbling in trade. He graduated with the necessary “B” but was miserable during his four years in high school. At the age of 16 he had his own landscape maintenance business….accumulated $18,000 in his bank account. Went on to get his electrician’s license and is now a proud, working member of The IBEW.

At 22 he had bought his own home and just recently, at the age of 26, purchased two rental properties. His younger brother is following in his footsteps although the trade school he’s attending isn’t in electrical.

The daughter (in-between) is about to finish college.

Every kid is different. Let them follow their own dreams, not those put upon them by a society that seeks to discriminate based on educational accomplishment.

There will always be a need for skilled tradesmen. Many college graduates don’t know their “you-know-what” for a hole in the ground when it comes to the basic necessities in life.

By Paul G.

February 17, 2009 4:43 PM | Link to this

This article is just blather and all the pseudo intellectuals who usually post fell right into Mr. Right Wing’s trap. Forget all the ten dollar words like pontification and epistomological. The bottom line is this: Georgia is ranked 48 or 49 in the nation on public school performance.Why is that? Connecticut and New Hampshire are rated in the top 10. Why is that? Are the New Englanders just smarter? Probably so. They know that in order to hire and retain the best teachers, you have to pay them and pay them well. Folks up there are able and willing to pay more to get the best. People in Georgia, overall, do NOT see this phenomenon. Instead calling for tax cuts, tax cuts, tax cuts. They want Ferrari performance at a Volkswagen price. It ain’t ever gonna happen. Until Georgia begins to pay it’s teachers well,it will always rank in the bottom 10 states.

By Jackie

February 17, 2009 4:45 PM | Link to this

@BS Aplenty

Why are entrance requirements necessary?

The education system in this country was considered the best in the world because the mission was to educate all in the interest of furthering the republic.

Worked well until folks began to complain about things that were not germain to education.

By Sinsus

February 17, 2009 5:28 PM | Link to this

New Hampshire demographics: White 95.8% Black 1.1% Hispanic 2.3%

Connecticutt demographics: White 84.6% Black 10.2% Hispanic 11.2%

Georgia demographics: White 65.8% Black 29.9% Hispanic 7.5%

By Cnn reports

February 17, 2009 5:33 PM | Link to this

and THAT’S why we luv Georgia!

By Glenn

February 17, 2009 5:33 PM | Link to this

Wish I had had more time today to comment on this column. A tremendous lot of judicious study went into it, and I’m certain that Mr. Wooten’s in earnest — as he half should be.

The reason why I half-respect this piece is that Jim, whether he realizes it or not, is torn between the “standardization” drumbeat — “Don’t touch it”! — and a call for continuous improvement. I believe wholly in both. I also agree that the GA GOP has moved us toward that day when the two can be reconciled.

Standardization evolves government, when what we should want, as Jim hints, is devolution. One way to have both is to consider that each level of government, and indeed each educational constituency, holds a qualitatively different stake in the process of forcing millions of other people’s children through a robust system of mass, compulsory, public schooling or its acceptable equivalent in the private sector. (For bonus points consider that the State’s interest in the education of the young differs from parents’ interest in it, and both often differ from the interests of the principal clientele, the children themselves.)

With a bit of social contracting, and without diminishing in any way the fairly coherent program put into place by Georgia’s leadership to date, the state government could adopt and espouse (and even enforce) a set of compencies required everywhere in the State, and still allow for local educational offcials to overlay locally derived expectations with the support of local educators, parents, pupils and the community at large. Something like Maynard Hutchins’s “core-plus-elective” approach.

This raises the question of whether and how the feds should play a role. That of course is a question that runs deep in The South. In the last General Election neither party had much of anything good to say about No Child Left Behind, for example, and both presidential nominees frequently portrayed it as the federal power-grab it really has been. What, then, should be Georgia’s official response to NCLB, going forward?

Part and parcel of this question, this turf treaty, has got to be a concern for continued racial disparities in the way education services are received — and not merely delivered — in Georgia. The scholastic condition of our African American children, for example, is a hoary litany. Their educational attainments continue to lag far behind those of their White and Asian classmates. In many high schools more than half of our African American students do not receive a diploma within four years. They are more likely than any other group to be suspended from school, or expelled altogether. Moreover, they are both under-represented in programs for the highly capable, and over-represented in special education programs.

This is the story of a lasting tragedy, the loss of possibility, that is felt by students and their families, by their communities and by the State itself, as hundreds of thousands of underachieving African Americans behold, from the wrong side of a scholastic gulf, too often are left to watch as others build bridges to a brighter future. The judiciary does have an affirmative obligation to watch our progress toward rectifying these terrible disparities. And I see no reason why jurists should not make judgments on such matters while politicians, economists, journalists, and dubiously trained school administrators do so.

By Paul G.

February 17, 2009 5:37 PM | Link to this

Sinsus, Statistics noted; however I’m not convinced its a skin color issue.

By Jackie

February 17, 2009 5:47 PM | Link to this

@Glenn,

I think consideration should be given to restructuring how our education is funded.

If we determine that a specific number of dollars will be spent throughout the state, then each citizen is responsible for their percentage of said taxes, eliminating property taxes.

Secondly, teachers would be paid a salary that is commensurate with skill-set required to “teach” the students.

This would allow all students to attend a school that has the same dollars being spent for educational attainment, regardless of location.

It would save dollars by eliminating the need for number of miles driven by buses and personal transportation.

Everyone would be an economic participant in the educational system. After all, we are all in the same boat.

By Glenn

February 17, 2009 5:53 PM | Link to this

Also, we’ve still got work to do. The Republican leadership, led by Mr. Cagel, should not have killed the legislative provision requiring public dollars to follow the child. And even better provision would find Georgia’s tax dollars chasing after the child’s demonstrated competencies: cash for actual, and demonstrably retained results.

Further, Redneck’s facetious reminder of the need for practical learning, for what is now preferably termed Career Technical Education, is rather astute. Tracking or no, secondary students can and should be prepared for rewarding work in society. All students, be they the “favored dullards”, as Jim so nicely put it (gosh, I wonder which ones those would be), or those who are neither favored nor dullards.

By Cnn reports

February 17, 2009 5:54 PM | Link to this

Wooten and Bookman’s new websites reviewed here: Wooten and Bookman: You’ve both given up on your ideology, which you never could define, and thus exposed as poseurs in both your careers and in your real lives, (by me), you’ve created some cyber-monument to your great failure as a journalists, as you’ve seceded to yet another new last refuge from your careers.

You’re not writers. You’re not journalists. You’re nihilistic denialists. (no backs, no vice versas, no changies)

By Dusty

February 17, 2009 5:59 PM | Link to this

Glenn,

We all see the disparities and we all wish they would change. You see it but you don’t offer any solutions. Jim Wooten doesn’t think the judges know more about schools than anybody else. You seem to think they could render a judgment that would help. HOW?

If you know a “cure”, please forget California and work miracles here. (Or at least give us a few clues.) We’d appreciate it.

By Glenn

February 17, 2009 6:03 PM | Link to this

I agree, Jackie, about the structures of funding, and have some pretty specific notions along those lines. I also have a renewed concern for the funding beast having reared its ugly head yet again. How many times do we have to go through this?

As for teachers being judged according to their presumed skillsets, you and I agree, I think, that we are even worse at that task than we are at judging the fluencies of the children themselves. Our measures may be the central problem. Certainly they are so flawed as to be a major part of the problem.

By Cicero.55 BC

February 17, 2009 6:05 PM | Link to this

Another way to explain the stimulus business— remember that idea started over a year ago when we all got a “stimulus” from the government….

Shortly after class, an economics student approaches his economics professor and says, “I don’t understand this stimulus bill. Can you explain it to me?”

The professor replied, “I don’t have any time to explain it at my office, but if you come over to my house on Saturday and help me with my weekend project, I’ll be glad to explain it to you.” The student agreed.

At the agreed-upon time, the student showed up at the professor’s house. The professor stated that the weekend project involved his backyard pool.

They both went out back to the pool, and the professor handed the student a bucket. Demonstrating with his own bucket, the professor said, “First, go over to the deep end, and fill your bucket with as much water as you can.” The student did as he was instructed.

The professor then continued, “Follow me over to the shallow end, and then dump all the water from your bucket into it.” The student was naturally confused, but did as he was told.

The professor then explained they were going to do this many more times, and began walking back to the deep end of the pool.

The confused student asked, “Excuse me, but why are we doing this?”

The professor matter-of-factly stated that he was trying to make the shallow end much deeper.

The student didn’t think the economics professor was serious, but figured that he would find out the real story soon enough.

However, after the 6th trip between the shallow end and the deep end, the student began to become worried that his economics professor had gone mad. The student finally replied, “All we’re doing is wasting valuable time and effort on unproductive pursuits. Even worse, when this process is all over, everything will be at the same level it was before, so all you’ll really have accomplished is the destruction of what could have been truly productive action!”

The professor put down his bucket and replied with a smile, “Congratulations. You now understand the stimulus bill.”

By SD

February 18, 2009 8:17 AM | Link to this

Redneck convert might be onto something. I can tell you that every child in my fourth grade class is not college bound. We already know who should be taught a trade. Providing useful service to everyone is not a bad thing. Instead of sending everyone to college let some money be spent on teaching children to function in the real world. The money is there and the teachers are too. Just get out of our way and let us teach. Contrary to popular belief, teachers do have brains and can make decisions that positively affect our youth.

By frustrated teacher

February 18, 2009 12:22 PM | Link to this

Teacher pay in our state is rather good for advanced degrees. But a problem exists in the way these advanced degrees are far too often earned. The Professional Standards Commission decides,basically, how and where these teachers earn their degrees. Both my husband and I hold advanced degrees from a state university. Two other teachers in our county hold a corresponding degree from a state university. We have qite a few though who hold their reunions at the local post office because their degrees, from a basic four-year to EDS, come from the mail order degree mills that equate spending large amounts of money by completing busy work with a degree earned from a ‘real’ school.

We as a state are spending huge sums of money each month on these inflated degrees both on current teachers and those who have now retired while we are also spending huge sums of money to support our institutions of higher learning. These colleges and universities could benefit from the monies spent for advanced degrees who our students could benefit from better classroom teachers.

By Wanda Barrs

February 20, 2009 1:43 PM | Link to this

Mr. Wooten, Thank you for focusing on what I do everyday. Mainly, policies which guide effective delivery of a rigorous continuously improving curriculum to every student in Georgia. If effectively implemented and achieved by students, these foundational standards will propel our students, teachers and state to a level of achievement unknown to us.

There has been significant work to this end and we must stay constantly focused on strategic implementation, evaluation and improvement. In addition, the Georgia Board of Education with the support of Supt. Cox, D0E and other education partners will be developing Georgia Local Board Standards with the help of a task force which will convene in a few days.

Our goal is to bring clarity to what local boards need to know and be able to do in order to successfully support superintendents, teachers, students, parents, and communities in accessing the highest quality learning opportunities. I look forward to reporting on that work as we move forward and believe it will greatly enhance our strategic efforts in systems across our state.

We are all accountable for the success of our systems and I encourage leaders to prepare to deliberate and embrace the forthcoming Georgia Local Board Standards.

With high regard, Wanda Barrs Chair, Georgia State Board of Education