Finally, some truth from the Chamber!
“Unification” has nothing to do with education,
and everything to do with “He who has the gold rules.”
Not any Realtors’ fault of course, “The Realtor doesn’t drive to showings;
she just turns the wheel and hits the gas.”
So they’d rather destroy public education through a proven
failed “unification” than deal with their claimed perception problem.
-jsq

‘No’ Vote May Hit You Where You Live

By Mike Hill

Valdosta resident

Realtor

I’m not qualified to talk about the quality of school systems in Valdosta
or Lowndes County, probably a rare admission these days. I am qualified
to talk about the damage done to Valdosta residential real estate by
the perception that one system is better than the other. It ain’t pretty
and it’s getting worse.

I’ve been a Realtor since 1976, when newcomers couldn’t house hunt
until they rolled in with the kids, dogs and all the furniture looking
for yard signs and a local newspaper, which led them to agents and
property managers, who then sold or rented them a home. Boy, has that
changed!

I’ve got friends teaching or retired from both city and county
systems who tell me that a good education is available from either system
for students who want one. But newcomers concerned about their children’s
education have consistently been getting a different message long before
they ever see a “sale” or “rent” sign here.

Unlike even 10 years ago, Internet magic now allows newcomers to arrive
armed with all the statistical knowledge our two school boards provide,
plus state and federal statistics. And right or wrong, the perception
those statistics create that one system is better or worse than the
other travels like gossip between anybody anywhere in the world with an
Internet connection who has or can create the slightest link to anybody
in Valdosta/Lowndes County with one.

How do I know this? Because families walking into my real estate office
to buy or rent “in the county school district” who have never been here
before has been consistently increasing for years. Newcomers concerned
about their children’s education will sacrifice a garage or fenced yard
from the “wish list” for their new home, plus make higher payments, for a
county location. It irks me that retired city school superintendent Sam
Allen has publicly accused Realtors of adding to a problem that started
well before he retired from the city school system. Realtors, he has
publicly stated, avoid showing houses for sale in city school districts.

Space isn’t available to address the absurdity of that statement,
except to quote the other side of the Golden Rule: “He who has the gold
rules.” The Realtor doesn’t drive to showings; she just turns the wheel
and hits the gas. The client started driving the car the minute he got
into the passenger seat with his checkbook and knew where he wanted to go
before he and his family came to town. Accurate or not, perceptions about
differences in our split school system exist, with serious consequences
in several different directions that aren’t going away. Industries may
avoid us, for instance, and we’ll never know how many jobs we lost. In
real estate, “perception” makes the value of a house on the city side
of a street worth less than an identical house on the county side of
the street.

Neither of those things are good and without change, it’s not going to
get any better, either.