Democracy for America: Georgia's Coastal Empire

Rescue Public Education

A. Commit ourselves to being the party that will ensure Glynn County, Georgia and America has the finest public education system in the world. Public education is a bedrock institution of Democratic civil belief. If Glynn County is to encourage new investment, we will need a well educated work force. If Glynn County is to alleviate the creeping disease of poverty in our community, public education is the key to the door of opportunity for all citizens.

B. No voters, conservative, centrist or liberal believe that our public schools are in good shape. This is because our public education system is in trouble on all levels. We are not willing to give up on public education. We are not that Party that wants to cut and run from our most at risk classrooms. We are not the Party that will wash our hands of this matter, and leave our public schools in the hands of for-profit entities.

We are the Party that will dive into those troubled waters, and rescue our Public Education system from the deep.


Here’s how we do this:

1. Face realities on the ground. Without understanding and addressing the concerns of citizens, our public schools will continue to sink in both perception and public support. To rescue public education, we must assume the mantle of leadership and begin to address each issue, and work positively with the public for comprehensive solutions. This will require action primarily at both the local and state levels, which are luckily the places where our local Party has more influence.

a. Our budgets are bloated,

b. Our citizens are wary of educational spending due to the overbearing nature and inconsistencies of the property tax system,

c. Our citizens are suspicious of the Teacher’s Unions that are perceived to protect bad teachers at the expense of their children,

d. Our citizens fear that they are sending their children to places where behavior problems detract from the learning environment,

e. Our citizens fear that they are sending their children to school where their ideological and religious beliefs are under attack,

f. Our citizens are weary of promises to deliver results that never come to fruition.

2. Bloated Budgets. In Glynn County especially, we continue to throw money at the schools and continue to have a crumbling infrastructure, problems recruiting educators, and problems providing for adequate supply.

a. Citizens aren’t mad because they are paying for public education, they are mad at localities and municipalities not spending those monies effectively or efficiently.

b. Maintenance costs are most likely the one area where tax dollars are wasted on public schools, and the problems are never apparently fixed. This should be the point of attack.

i. Zero balance budgeting by the state must end. If a school can come in under budget, we must be able to bank that money for capital projects. This will cut down on the spring semester spending frenzy on things that may not be needed, and will allow for more effective yearly maintenance budgeting.

ii. Bidding, development and project completion rules must be re-examined at the local and the state levels so that projects take a shorter amount of time from inception to completion.

iii. Bidders and contractors who fail to deliver within reasonable timeframes and budgets must be removed from the possible pool of applicants for any maintenance or construction
jobs.

3. Educational Spending & the Dependence on the Property Tax. We will never fully address the issue of educational budgets without addressing where we get the money for our schools and how efficiently we spend it.

a. Property taxes generate public ire, especially when collection and appraisal appear as unjust and arbitrary as they do in places like Glynn County because of our archaic and tiered system of exemption.

b. Undeveloped, agricultural and greenspace property must be taxed at a different and lower level than parking lots and subdivisions. Small businesses operating out of owned properties should be under consideration for breaks to encourage small business development.

c. Multiple income streams must be examined. We live in a tourism area where sales tax can prove wildly beneficial to our public education system. Also hotel taxes and property management taxes can be examined.

d. Lowering property taxes increases home ownership potential, providing an influx of investment from outside the community, and equity for lower income families who move from renting to home ownership.

e. Multiple income streams must be examined. It is time we consider creating community trusts and organizations dedicated to raising outside funds to supplement our schools for capital projects and high price equipment.

4. Teacher’s Unions. We will never be able to rescue public education while educators and parents feel at odds with one another.

5. Safe & Positive Learning Environment. Academics and public perception falters when students go to school in fear, when educators go to work in fear and parents fear for their children’s safety while at school.

a. School uniforms?

b. Real and enforced discipline.

c. Early intervention.

d. Common sense penalties.

e. Rewards for good behavior.

f. Encourage half-work days.

6. Ideology & Religion. As long as special interest groups can effectively sell the idea that a student’s core beliefs are in danger by going to school, support for public education will continue to erode.

a. Affirm support for the Pledge of Allegiance, respect a student or educator’s right not to participate.

b. Affirm support for faith based student organizations like the FCA, respect student or staff organizations right not to be religiously affiliated.

c. Affirm support for respectful display of religion, respect the rights of those who do not wish to display their faith. Encourage display of Bill of Rights and First Amendment.

d. Affirm the right of a student to pray in school, especially before math tests, and as long as the method of that prayer does not disrupt class.

e. Reaffirm that Evolution will be taught as part of the science curriculum, and Genesis will be taught at the Church, Temple or Synagogue of the student’s parent’s choice.

f. If a valedictorian wants to turn Graduation speeches into fire and brimstone sermons, the school shall allow an additional speech that does not focus on religion, but on school pride, high school memories, the future, or any number of other appropriate topics for high school graduation.

g. Teachers and Administrators may participate in prayer groups, but may not lead
them.

h. Football games are for football.

i. If any bullying, participation, grades, employment, etc are affected by faith discrimination by the culturally correct, the gloves come off against the offender, not against the folks who have both respect and faith.

7. A Little Less Talk & A Lot More Action. We must constantly re-examine the ways schools are being run so that our practices are the most effective and our spending is the most efficient. If there is a problem, we must never fear to think outside the box to deliver a solution and work towards that solution at all levels.

posted by Cousin Pat from Georgia @ 10:52 PM