Organizers expect hundreds to gather this weekend in front of the
Valdosta-Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce for a march opposing the
consolidation of city and county school systems.
Scheduled for 9 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 22, the march takes the stand that
“our children are not for sale.”
“We intend to put hundreds of people in the streets,” said the
Rev. Floyd Rose, president of the Valdosta-Lowndes County chapter of the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference. “We know and they know that
this has never been about consolidating the school system.”
Interesting that the VDT neither contradicts that nor finds a counterview
to publish.
Maybe since the VDT did an about-face about consolidation,
it’s been able to see more clearly….
The march will be led by Rose,
Sam Allen, former Valdosta City Schools superintendent,
and Leigh Touchton, NAACP president. Other community
leaders and representatives from both Lowndes and Valdosta high schools
will be present.
9AM Saturday at the parking lot across from the Chamber of Commerce.
Never before in the history of Valdosta have its citizens been met with
a greater challenge. The most powerful business interests in our city
have conspired to deceive us with a scheme to dilute the black vote,
and thereby rob our community of the political and economic benefits to
which we are rightly entitled.
We make up 55 percent of the city’s population. However, we are only 34
percent of the county’s population. If the city and county governments
are consolidated, which is the real goal of the Committee for Educational
Excellence (CUEE), we will lose forever the opportunity to have access to
the millions of federal dollars that will come to Valdosta, with which we
can rebuild our community; monies that we are now going to the North side.
This is, and never has been, about school unification. However, legally
People ask me: why do the NAACP and the SCLC oppose school consolidation?
Well, here’s some recent research that backs up their position, followed
by their positions.
My summary: because it caused great damage last time, and this time would be no different.
…the review of research evidence detailed in this brief suggests that
a century of consolidation has already produced most of the efficiencies
obtainable. Research also suggests that impoverished regions in particular
often benefit from smaller schools and districts, and they can suffer
irreversible damage if consolidation occurs.
Rev. Floyd Rose quizzed Mrs. Ruth Council whether black students
got a better education in black schools.
She said she has taught in all sorts of schools, black and white.
He clarified:
…we were told about the world, where we came from, how we got here.
We have complaints that some people couldn’t understand
what Dr. Mark George was saying in
the previous post of his remarks at Monday’s Lowndes County Democratic Party meeting,
so here’s another version from a different camera.
Feedback, please.
He said the Chamber of Commerce said schools were not its issue.
Dr. George pointed out that it was the Chamber and the
real estate industry that largely produced the current situation
by funelling people to the county schools.
He said the unification project started with a request from
the Industrial Authority, who said it didn’t look good when
potential industry saw there was a black school system and
a white school system.
(The timing of this is interesting, because it comes after
Brad Lofton was hired as VLCIA Executive Director,
and other people formerly associated with VLCIA say they
were never asked by any potential industry how many school
systems we have.)
Dr. George discussed many other interesting points, such as CUEE’s
terminology drift from consolidation to integration to unification.
Camera 2: Dr. Mark George about CUEE @ LCDP 2 May 2011 Part 1 of 2:
Debate between proponents of school system unification (CUEE) and opponents,
at Lowndes County Democratic Party (LCDP), Gretchen Quarterman chair,
Videos by George Rhynes, Jim Parker, John S. Quarterman, and Gretchen Quarterman
for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 2 May 2011.
In this second video from camera 2,
Dr. George noted
that the Valdosta school system is internally segregated.
He said both he and Rev. Rose asked to have somebody put
on the CUEE council, and that that didn’t happen.
There’s more; you can watch it for yourself.
Here’s
Part 2 of 2:
Camera 2: Dr. Mark George about CUEE @ LCDP 2 May 2011 Part 2 of 2:
Debate between proponents of school system unification (CUEE) and opponents,
at Lowndes County Democratic Party (LCDP), Gretchen Quarterman chair,
Videos by George Rhynes, Jim Parker, John S. Quarterman, and Gretchen Quarterman
for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 2 May 2011.
Dr. Mark George pointed out that school consolidation didn’t solve
some problems last time:
In 2011 our schools were more segregated racially than they were in 1968.
He questioned why people should believe that consolidation, even if called
unification, would solve those same problems this time.
Continuing the
debate between proponents and opponents of unification of the
Valdosta and Lowndes County School Systems, organized by
Gretchen Quarterman, chair of the
The Lowndes County Democratic Party (LCDP).
Here, speaking against, is Dr. Mark George.
Where was CUEE and the people working to bring the two school systems
together when local citizens were fighting for change, and seeking
answers to the Hiring of Black Educators and the Federal Court Order
being complied with that was filed decades ago? Where were they then?
And why can’t we find certain people in our community until the blind
god seems to direct them from their hiding place from beneath the clay!
This comment from George Boston Rhynes arrived just now,
on “Talk to my chairman”. -jsq
I was at
the last LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS MEETING when
Chairman Ashley Paulk shared information about the Biomass Project
extension being denied and the alleged secrecy surrounding keeping the
general public ignorant.
“Because certain people won’t share with you and I think it’s
unfair. We were approached about three weeks ago, Mr. (Joe) Pritchard
(County Manager) was, by the Industrial Authority, and we were tentatively
asked to make a move to ask that they not extend the contract.”
(Chairman Paulk!)
Chairman Paulk words prove that there is an apparent pattern and practice
Happy Birthday, Mayor Fretti, and thank you for posting publicly.
However, I wish you would stop trying to pass Mayor and Council’s
portion of responsibility for the biomass incinerator to the Industrial
Authority. I delivered a letter to Mayor and Council Thursday night
outlining 10 reasons your Utilities Director can legitimately give when he
(hopefully) follows Mayor and Council’s recommendation to refuse to sell
gray water to the proposed biomass incinerator. I and many other citizens
are tired of the run-around and the shifting of responsibility for this
“biomess” from one public official or group to another.
A councilmember told me that Council would never vote
Organizers expect hundreds to gather this weekend in front of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce for a march opposing the consolidation of city and county school systems.
Scheduled for 9 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 22, the march takes the stand that “our children are not for sale.”
The march will be led by Rose, Sam Allen, former Valdosta City Schools superintendent, and Leigh Touchton, NAACP president. Other community leaders and representatives from both Lowndes and Valdosta high schools will be present.
