Moderator’s introduction

Illustration by Dean Rohrer/NewsArt

Credit: Dean Rohrer/NewsArt

Credit: Dean Rohrer/NewsArt

Illustration by Dean Rohrer/NewsArt


Today’s moderator: Maureen Downey

Maureen Downey has written about local, state and federal education policy at the AJC for 12 years. She’s also taught college classes in mass communications and journalism. However, she’s learned more about schools from having four children in them.

»Join the discussion online today: Share your opinions and ideas on Maureen's blog Get Schooled.

In many school reform efforts, teachers are cast as the problem. Today, I write about the success of a district that viewed teachers as the solution. In a provocative guest column, Leah Ward Sears, former chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court, disagrees with her friend and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on the efficacy of affirmative action. Sears says affirmative action and its resulting diversity have enriched colleges and the country. Readers shake their heads in amazement over the soap opera in Cherokee County, where a freshman school board member was arrested for allegedly making false allegations about the superintendent.