Silence from leaders who backed Beverly Hall
As an educator who had kids in APS when Beverly Hall was first named, I have questions. Where are the questions for the leaders who pushed her as inevitable? The trend at that time was that test scores were everything. I felt that focus was because it was an area in which private, for-profit schools excelled since they cherry-picked who was tested and eliminated outliers. The educators did wrong in APS, but blame goes deeper to civic leaders who have deprived public education while championing any means to assist private, for-profit schools. The “powers that be” brought forth Hall as the only possible solution to APS problems.
Now we have the results of the focus on testing and a trial. The leaders who pushed Beverly Hall’s regime are silent or missing from the debate when they created the problem’s intensity. Public education was the great equalizer in the 19th and 20th centuries, but in the 21st century it has been perverted to serve the ends of the oligarchs in increasing social inequality.
PATRICK EDMONDSON, ATLANTA
EV Tax credit and fuzzy math
Rep. Chuck Martin’s reasoning skills in eliminating Georgia’s EV tax credit and dramatically increasing EV registration fees are in need of serious improvement. Instead of using tax policy to punish those of us who are trying benefit our pocketbooks and planet, it would be wiser to discourage the use of gas-guzzling SUV’s, which tear up our roads, increase our health-care costs and accelerate global warming. Instead of using admittedly “fuzzy” math to determine registration fees, it would be far wiser to use actual math. I note with amusement that Martin ended up voting against his own proposal because he believed the bill into which it was incorporated raised taxes. It has apparently escaped Martin’s attention that he himself is now a tax-raiser.
RICHARD NIKONOVICH-KAHN, ATLANTA
City versus county services
I just spent an hour and a half trying to either contact DeKalb County code compliance or submit an online complaint about a vacant, abandoned house on my street. The online form kicked me out because I didn’t enter an “area” from a drop-down menu that made no sense to me. I got so lost and trapped in phone numbers, press 5s, call this number and “hold for the next available representative” to help me that ended up with a busy signal and two dropped calls. This scenario plays out 98 percent of the time I try to contact any Dekalb office. This is why I want a city structure closer, responsive and accountable to where I live. I have called the cities of Brookhaven and Dunwoody before and a human being actually answered the phone. It was awesome!
KELLEY MCMANAMAN, EMBRY HILLS
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