Sam Allen of Friends of Valdosta City Schools (FVCS) tells us
what CUEE didn’t.
“You can read the billboards, you can look at the pretty brochures, but that’s all your going to get.”So what haven’t we been told? Continue reading
The Quitman 10 started out as activists, and now they’re
taking it a step further: they hosted an
organizational meeting for an NAACP branch in Brooks County.
George Boston Rhynes was there and made this video
of students singing about
education, not incarceration:
Education, not Incarceration
Organizational Meeting, Brooks County NAACP,
Quitman, Brooks County, Georgia, 18 July 2010
Videos by George Boston Rhynes for K.V.C.I.
George videoed the whole meeting and posted it on his blog. He wrote in his introduction to this series of videos: Continue reading
Continue readingQuestions abound: Why is it that Lowndes County residents will not be voting on the most important issue to face their school system since its inception in 1950?
If I lived in the county I’d be mad that CUEE and the Chamber of Commerce chose to leave my vote out of such a very important decision.
Quick fact: Consolidation alone will not save money & Consolidation alone will not improve academic success, according to the Vinson Institute report commissioned by CUEE and the Chamber.
Further Query: Why would CUEE and the Chamber of Commerce spend $50 grand to collect the signatures for the petition causing the City of Valdosta to spend thousands of tax dollars (2 staff dedicated to task & 4 temps hired) to verify the signatures on the petition?
Outgoing chairman Jerry Jennett asked nominating committee chair Tom Call
to read the slate of officers discussed
last time
to server for FYE 2012.
They were:
Roy Copeland Chairman, Mary Gooding Vice-Chairman, and Norman Bennett Secretary-Treasurer.
The board voted unanimous to approve that slate, and Jennett
practically threw the Here’s Part 1 of 3: Continue reading
This is typical of all elected & appointed government bodies locally. The common opinion is citizens are only valuable for voting. After we vote we are to go home, never ask questions, never complain, & never comment until it is time to vote again. The common consensus is we are not capable of understanding what our elected/appointed officials are doing so we need to stay out of the process totally. This is nanny state government via local venues. We the people are reduced to you the unendowed & unimportant. John – Our political views are usually polar opposites, but we are always 100% agreed on shinning the light on government black-outs. Keep up the good work.
-Barbara Stratton
They have a facebook page.Friends of Valdosta City Schools, Inc.
P.O. Box 5514
Valdosta, Georgia 31602
allen306@bellsouth.net
(229) 244-8268
Sam Allen, Chairman
Valdosta City Schools Superintendent EmeritusPUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT
June 30, 2011Press Release:
Friends of Valdosta City Schools, Inc. (FVCS) will be holding a Press Conference on the steps of Valdosta City Hall (216 E. Central Ave) at 10:00 AM on Thursday, July 7, 2011 to formally announce its opposition to the current effort by the “Community Unification for Educational Excellence” (CUEE) group to Consolidate the Valdosta City School System with Lowndes County School System. We are inviting all citizens of both Valdosta and Lowndes County who support the opposition of Unification/Consolidation of the school systems.Sam Allen, Chairman
229-244-8268
While I think FVCS is making one of CUEE’s mistakes in thinking this is all about Valdosta, FVCS’s event is something I can get behind. Maybe FVCS will even come out with what they are for.
-jsq
Catherine E. Shoichet wrote for CNN 28 June 2011 about Paul Bridges, mayor of Uvalde, Republican mayor in the South becomes unlikely advocate for immigrants:
He thinks Governor Nathan Deal got it wrong when he signed HB 87: Continue readingBridges is waging a deeply personal battle.
Enforcement of the Georgia law could put him in prison and tear apart the families of some of his closest friends.
Megan McArdle wrote in the Atlantic 21 June 2011, Georgia’s Harsh Immigration Law Costs Millions in Unharvested Crops. She started by quoting Jay Bookman, who quoted the VDT. She then goes into the economics:
Yes, that would be the problem. A law that benefits private prison company CCA at the expense of Georgia taxpayers while putting Georgia farmers out of business.The economics here aren’t particularly complicated, and I’m sure they won’t be new to the sophisticated readers of the Atlantic, but they are useful to look at and consider explicitly when thinking about issues like this.
It goes like this. If you’re not going to let illegal immigrants do the jobs they are currently being hired to do, then farmers will have to raise wages to replace them. Since farmers are taking a risk in hiring immigrant workers, you can bet they were getting a significant deal on wage costs relative to “market wages”. I put market wages here in quotations, because it’s quite possible that the wages required to get workers to do the job are so high that it’s no longer profitable for farmers to plant the crops in the first place.
She concludes: Continue reading
Chuck Eaton, Georgia Public Service Commissioner,
moderating a panel of Georgia’s Policy Makers at
Southern Solar Summit
said
Solar is great for diversity, independence, research, and business.He said that until recently he had discounted solar, but now he had seen it. Continue reading
We already knew that, but JPI has quantified it: Continue readingYesterday, the Justice Policy Institute (JPI) released a report chronicling the political strategies of private prison companies “working to make money through harsh policies and longer sentences.” The report’s authors note that while the total number of people in prison increased less than 16 percent, the number of people held in private federal and state facilities increased by 120 and 33 percent, correspondingly. Government spending on corrections has soared since 1997 by 72 percent, up to $74 billion in 2007. And the private prison industry has raked in tremendous profits. Last year the two largest private prison companies — Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and GEO Group — made over $2.9 billion in revenue.
JPI claims the private industry hasn’t merely responded to the nation’s incarceration woes, it has actively sought to create the market conditions (ie. more prisoners) necessary to expand its business.