Tag Archives: Lowndes County Democratic Party

A community united! —Gretchen Quarterman

LTE in the VDT today. -jsq

In the last few weeks, our community has seen an unprecedented effort from
left, right, and center, city and county, town and gown, all working

Let us not focus on the things that have divided us in the past,
but rather use this opportunity to build a stronger community,
a stronger education system.

together as a community to achieve a goal that the overwhelming
majority see as in our best interest.
We have an opportunity that we should not squander.
It doesn’t take a lot of money. It takes dedicated people, calling their
friends and neighbors, canvasing every neighborhood, holding open and honest
forums, and answering questions to the very best of their ability.

Let us not focus on the things that have divided us in the past,
but rather use this opportunity to build a stronger community,
a stronger education system.
Let us find opportunities to work together to benefit our students,
teachers, police, firefighters, farmers, small local businesses and
all the rest of us who call this community home.

We have an opportunity that we should not squander.


Let us work as one community for the benefit of all our
citizens; students, seniors, family, friends, urban, rural,
conservatives, progressives, Wildcats and Vikings.

One community out of many,
with liberty and justice for all.

Gretchen Quarterman

Chairman

Lowndes County Democratic Party

Revenue Disbursement Summary —Mary Nell Robertson

At a talk she did last night at the Lowndes County Democratic Party (LCDP)
(videos of that will follow later),
I asked Mary Nell Robertson,
Tax Commissioner for Lowndes County, Georgia,
how much taxes went to each organization.
She said she didn’t have that with her, but would send it.
Here it is:


Click on the link to see the entire table, including the
“Disburse Total” column on the right.

Continue reading →

Five Points Steering Committee presentation by Mara Register @ LCDP 1 August 2011

Mara Register gave a very interesting presentation about
the Five Points Steering Committee (FPSC) last night
at the monthly meeting of the
Lowndes County Democratic Party (LCDP).



She sent her slides to me this morning for publication by LAKE.
Here they are

on the LAKE web pages,
in PPT, PDF, and HTML formats.

She said there is no FPSC web page, but their meetings are shown in the
calendar of events on Valdosta’s city website.
The next FPSC meeting shown there is for 18 August 2011.

Date: 8/18/2011 5:00 PM
Location: Valdosta City Hall Multi-Purpose Room

300 N. Lee Street

Videos of her talk will appear on the LCDP youtube channel.

I will probably post some more here about what she said
and some of the Q&A that ensued.
Meanwhile, you can see the slides for yourself.

-jsq

School consolidation report: can cause irreversible damage

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.



Craig Howley, Jerry Johnson, Jennifer Petrie wrote 1 February 2011,

Consolidation of Schools and Districts: What the Research Says and What it Means:

…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.

Isn’t such irreversible damage what

Rev. Floyd Rose got Mrs. Ruth Council to admit?

Rev. Rose: “…we were told about the world, where we came from, how we got here.”

Mrs. Council: “I think we did receive a better education.”

They are referring to black schools before desegregation in the 1960s.

Rev. Floyd Rose is president of the local SCLC,
and here is a statement by
Leigh Touchton, president of the local NAACP:

Continue reading →

A real education dialog @ LCDP 2 May 2011

The only real public dialog about unification or education that


I’ve heard of
was at the May 2011 Lowndes County Democratic Party (LCDP) meeting,
organized by LCDP Chair Gretchen Quarterman.
You can see it either of two ways:

  1. Through the LCDP 2 May 2011 LAKE blog topic,
    which has all the relevant posts, newest first.

  2. Through the YouTube video

    playlist.
    Each video has a link to the relevant blog post.




    School unification dialog at Lowndes County Democratic Party (LCDP)

    Videos by John S. Quarterman, Jim Parker, Gretchen Quarterman, 2 May 2011.

At that LCDP meeting I pointed out
that the CUEE education committee was not scheduled to report back
until after the proposed referendum vote, and nobody had any rebuttal.

-jsq

Ashley Paulk, Corey Hull, and Norman Bennett on T-SPLOST



Jane Osborn pointed us at
a detailed list of T-SPLOST projects.

T-SPLOST regional executive committee chairman
Ashley Paulk


gave his opinion on T-SPLOST at a Lowndes County Democratic Party
(LCDP) meeting a few months ago:

He’s against it
because he doesn’t like

a law with a stick in it.

At the same LCDP meeting, Corey Hull of VLMPO explained T-SPLOST,
which LAKE videoed in six parts,




  1. T-SPLOST Explained


  2. T-SPLOST Business plan


  3. T-SPLOST Project Lists

  4. T-SPLOST Penalties and LMIG

  5. T-SPLOST Projects to GDOT

  6. T-SPLOST referendum in 2012

Before that, Corey Hull explained T-SPLOST to VLCIA,


and got

a very interesting question about penalties from Norman Bennett.

VLMPO held

an extended public participation period for T-SPLOST in May.
Maybe some of you who went can report back on that.

-jsq

Everyone agrees there’s a problem with education — pro and con CUEE @ LCDP 2 May 2011

Pretty much everyone agrees there are problems with the two local
school systems in this county, those of Lowndes and Valdosta.

Proponents and opponents of school unification even agree on many
of the details.
They just don’t agree on the solution.
CUEE believes that unification will somehow lead to solutions to all this,
and

believe is the word they use,
because they have no evidence.
Opponents such as me

don’t see any plan to get to better education, and some think that unification
will cause problems that CUEE is not even considering,

just like integration did in 1969.

Here’s a pair of pie charts from 2008 from

Who’s losing in Winnersville?
a project unification opponent Dr. Mark George was involved in:


And here is a similar comparison

from CUEE using data from 2009-2010.:

Continue reading →

Where are the students in this decision? —Karen Noll

This comment by Karen Noll came in last night on
“I don’t see a separation”. -jsq

I completely agree with Alex Rowell. What is the purpose of
consolidation/’unification’? Is the purpose to desegregate the two school
districts? If so, how will the new school district deal with the issues
that Leigh Touchton brings up with regard to education not serving black
male students. How will a larger school district better meet the needs of
a much more diverse student body? Furthermore, What do the parents in the
county think about desegregation of their distict? (Because if they don’t
want it, there is no doubt that ‘unification’ will be a disaster for ALL)

OR is the purpose to reduce cost by reducing administrators in the head
office? If that is the purpose where are the students in this decision.

-Karen Noll

CUEE’s

own study says unification wouldn’t save money and

CUEE’s own expert consultant said:

“If you believe in the end that running one system is cheaper than
running two school systems. If in the end you are going to cast a vote
for a single system because you think it would save money, I wouldn’t
cast my vote. I do not think it will save money.”

And, indeed, where are the students in this decision?

-jsq

Consolidation won’t be the magic bullet —Leigh Touchton

This comment by Leigh Touchton, President,

Valdosta-Lowndes NAACP,
came in last night on

“I don’t see a separation”. -jsq

What NAACP has advocated for is cultural competency from our teachers,
this is not necessarily a black or white issue. Often it’s more a matter
of class than race; for example, far too many middle class teachers
expect middle class behavior from children who are living in poverty
and this is an unfair expectation. There are also deep-seated issues
regarding black males that cultural competency won’t address: namely,
that many black teenaged males don’t see any benefit to a high school
education because so many of their family members cannot find work here
in Valdosta. What’s the point to an education if one is still shut out
of most successful careers?

Consolidation won’t be the magic bullet that solves these problems,
there aren’t even any CUEE representatives speaking to these issues. To
most of our members, we think these issues will get worse rather than
better if the two systems were to merge.

-Leigh Touchton

This is not representative of the people —John S. Quarterman on CUEE @ LCDP 2 May 2011



I didn’t intend to say anything Monday, but since

Rev. Bennett named me in his introduction
I thought it necessary to stand up and make it clear that
I do not support CUEE’s plan for school system unification.

After some examples of things on which I agreed or disagreed with
Ashley Paulk, the VDT, the Chamber of Commerce, and VLCIA,
I mentioned that after an SCLC meeting Rusty Griffin told
me that nobody who was not for unification would be accepted
on the CUEE board.

I praised

the upcoming Thursday meeting about education,
but pointed out that commitee would not report back before
the proposed unification vote,
and the CUEE board still had only one member from the county
outside Valdosta, so:

This is not diversification,
this is not representative of the people,
this a small pressure group,
and nothing personal against you,
a small pressure group that is trying to decide
for the rest of us.

Once again, why I’m opposed to CUEE’s unification scheme:

Continue reading →