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Georgia State Superintendent (R) – Tuesday Election

Posted on July 21, 2014 | Comments Off

Georgia primary runoffs are tomorrow, Tuesday 7/22. Since the single largest appropriation in the state budget is education, let’s take a quick look at the two “Republicans” left in the Georgia State Superintendent race.
Mike Buck and Richard Woods are both educators and were staunchly against Amendment 1, the charter school amendment.

Richard Woods

Richard Woods has softened his stance on charter schools and opposes Common Core.

Mike Buck

Mike Buck, the current State Superintendent’s Chief of Staff, defends Georgia education saying “You’ve heard a lot about the sins of education in Georgia. Just because you say it and repeat it … doesn’t necessarily make it so.”
Mike Buck appeals to the voters who see Georgia doing a “great job”, is on the course to delivering a “world class education” and agree with him that the Georgia Department of Education needs more bureaucrats. On that note, I’ve transcribed the closing statements Mike Buck gave at the 03/12/2014 Cherokee Georgia Superintendent Forum (see video here).

Mike Buck (03/12/2014 – Cherokee Georgia Superintendent Forum)

I’m not a politician, and after tonight I know why. I’m an educator and I’m a parent. I think I want what most parents want. I want a safe and orderly school environment. When I drop my kids off in the morning, I expect to get ’em back in at least the same condition I dropped them off in. I’m no different than any other parent. Everybody wants a safe and orderly environment.
I want a world class education system. Listen, I’m so competitive it hurts. At Rome High School, if there was a tiddlywinks competition, I wanted to be the tiddlywinks champion of the world. I want us to lead the nation in student achievement. I want to know that my kids are going to be educated by caring adults, people dedicated to them. I think every parent wants a teacher that will treat their children as they do at home. Frankly, I think we’ve got a lot of them.
You’ve heard a lot about the sins of education in Georgia. Just because you say it and repeat it, and it gets louder, and you can refer to various pieces of rhetoric doesn’t necessarily make it so. I can tell you some concrete metrics where Georgia is doing a good job. We haven’t hit it out of the park, we have plenty of room to improve.
Education Weekly, a national publication. One of the most respected out there. Recently, 2013, ranked Georgia #1 in connecting early learning to K-12 education, to post secondary and the world work. In 2012, real metrics, national assessments that are given across the country, the SAT, ACT, the NAPE, reading, math, science and advanced placement exams, do you know how many states in the country went up in each of those 5 assessments? There was one that went up in every one of those statements. It was Georgia.
So, I’m tired of public education in Georgia taking a beating. We’ve got room to improve. I fully acknowledge it. But, if you’re going to tell the story, tell the whole story.

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Posted in Charter Schools, Georgia Education

WSB-TV2 Interviews DeKalb's "Friends & Family Jobs Program" Sponsor

Posted on July 18, 2014 | 2 comments

Why does DeKalb Schools hire unqualified Friends & Family? (And, it’s mostly “friends”, not family which makes policing the hiring practices difficult.)

The President of the DeKalb NAACP, John Evans, told Richard Belcher earlier this week, “It helps somebody make some money for Christ’s sake.” Evans went on to say, “The makeup of this board and the makeup of this county almost demands that we have good representation from black law firms … There is no need in having some power, influence, or whatever you want to call it, if you don’t use it.”
Investigative reporter Richard Belcher was following up on FactChecker’s earlier post, NAACP Fuels the Fires of Racial Tensions in DeKalb Schools. Belcher wanted to know why giving contracts based on race is more important than the education of our children. You can see Richard Belcher’s interview here. The following is the transcript of the interview:
Justin Farmer (WSB-TV2 Anchor)
The head of DeKalb NAACP says the DeKalb School Board needs to find a way to guarantee that black lawyers get a piece of the board’s multi-million dollar budget. This tells channel 2’s investigative reporter, Richard Belcher, that in itself this is an admission that the black community is too dependent.
Richard Belcher (WSB-TV2 Investigative Reporter)
The DeKalb school system spent nearly $5 million dollars on legal fees this past school year. This year it will be substantially less but still a hefty $3 million dollars. And the district is about to select a new firm. A long time civil rights figure says the black majority on the school board needs to make sure that black lawyers get a piece of that.
John Evans (President of NAACP DeKalb County Branch)
We have to take what we have and mandate that we want some black firms…
Belcher – The NAACP president used remarkably blunt language to call on the majority black school board to share the wealth.
Evans – The makeup of this board and the makeup of this county almost demands that we have good representation from black law firms.
Belcher – He was equally blunt today.
Evans – There is no need in having some power, influence, or whatever you want to call it, if you don’t use it.
Belcher – Evans told me the reason the board needs to guarantee black participation is that black firms can’t win the work in an open competition.
Black law firms cannot compete? Why is that?
Evans – No. We don’t have it. We’re not big enough. We don’t have the resources. We don’t have the numbers. It’s just pure and simple.
Belcher – But in the same interview today, Evans told me something he did not tell the school board, that black people need to “stop letting people do things for us all the time. It makes you more dependent.”
Evans – Foodstamps and vouchers and this and this and every time you look up it’s a grant or some CID. That’s all they’re doing, is doing the things for us.
Belcher – But isn’t this asking for something you might not win in open competition?
Evans – Yes.
Belcher – How does that help?
Evans – It helps somebody make some money for Christ’s sake.
Belcher
Evans told me he believes he’ll win this fight, but a spokesman for the DeKalb School District emailed me this afternoon to tell me that DeKalb doesn’t have an Affirmative Action policy governing purchasing.
The school board is expected to consider the new legal contract with one single firm early next month.
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