Sam Allen asked in various ways:
“What about the children?”He made it clear he doesn’t think school consolidation will help the children, and it will definitely hurt current Valdosta teachers and staff, so he says don’t do it.
Continuing the FVCS press conference, Sam Allen asked some good questions,
“If the school system was good enough for them, why isn’t it good enough for us?”and
“If there’s not going to be any change, why are we doing it?”
Here’s Part 1 of 9: Continue reading
I remember when Lowndes County consolidated two high schools into one, and the rationale was cost saving and more resources for science classes. What it was really about was football. And it worked: Lowndes High School now often wins the state championship, and Valdosta hasn’t in a decade. While education lags behind.
I think the Lowndes County Board of Education is doing the right Continue reading
Sam Allen, former chair of the Valdosta school board and head of
Friends of Valdosta City Schools (FVCS) held
a press conference
to announce opposition after
CUEE announced 9,000 petitions for a referendum to
combine the Valdosta and Lowndes County school systems..
Why so late with the opposition?
Sam Allen explained:
“We were scared. We were intimidated because we had heard about all these consultants coming down, and all these studies being done. So we just thought that we would just sit back and watch and this thing would eventually go away like a bad dream. But folks I want you to know it’s not going away like a bad dream. It’s becoming a nightmare.Guess they’re not scared any more.Now we stand before you with one purpose in mind: do not sign any petitions. … If it comes to a vote, we want you to vote no.”
He added: Continue reading
Judy Green, a prison policy analyst says:
“The very first contract for the first private prison in America went to CCA, from INS.”Hear her in this video Private Prisons-Commerce in Souls by Grassroots Leadership that explains the private prison trade of public safety for private profit:
A local leader once called private prisons “good clean industry”. Does locking up people for private profit sound like “good clean industry” to you? Remember, not only is the U.S. the worst in the world for locking people up (more prisoners per capita and total than any other country in the world), but Georgia is the worst in the country, with 1 in 13 adults in the prison system. And private prisons don’t save money and they don’t improve local employment. As someone says in the video, who wants to live in a prison colony?
We don’t need a private prison in Lowndes County, Georgia. Spend that tax money on rehabilitation and education.
-jsq
PS: Owed to Jeana Brown.
Georgia is number 1 in something: locking people up,
1 in 13 of adults,
according to the Pew Center on the States.
That costs us more than a billion dollars a year in tax money,
5.9% of the state budget.
That’s up from $133.26 million in 1983, increased by more than a factor of seven.
Meanwhile, the correctional population swelled from around 100,000 in 1982 to more
than 550,000 in 2007.
And while other states have started decreasing their prison populations,
Georgia’s continues to increase.
The state is even coming up with new ways to lock people up,
such as kicking them out of mental institutions.
We seem headed back towards
plantation slave labor
and
prison road gangs
in for minor drug infractions.
How about we reverse this trend? Continue reading
Just for clarification purposes – this will be the “first reading” on this issue. No vote will take place tonight. It will be placed on our next council meeting agenda later this month for the second reading. That is when it will come to a vote.
-Tim Carroll
Thanks for the clarification, Mr. Carroll. At the reading today, I hope to present to you and all of the other fine leaders of our city the signatures gathered thus far.Here is Alexander Abell’s previous letter, which includes a link to the petition.
-Alexander Abell
-jsq
Depending on what City Council decides at tomorrow’s meeting, citizens may get a chance to vote in November whether or not to allow the sale of alcoholic beverages in stores on Sundays. As an American and a strong believer in freedom and democracy, I support this vote. I wonder why some protest even having a vote.Continue readingI cannot think of a single good legal argument for banning the sale of alcohol on Sundays. If you consider alcohol sinful, you are free not to purchase or consume any no matter the day of the week. If it is not against your own morals, why should
Because of increased irrigation from existing ponds in Southeast Georgia due to saltwater intrusion into groundwater aquifers and moratoriums on well drillings along Georgia’s coast, GSWCC, in cooperation with NRCS, developed the Ponds Program. By helping landowners to construct new and renovate existing ponds for irrigation, the Ponds Program has been able to take advantage of rain harvesting to increase landowners’ irrigation capabilities while simultaneously reducing withdrawal from our aquifers, protecting and improving water quality, capturing sediment to reduce downstream transport, and providing wildlife habitats.
-jsq
Kevin Bullis wrote in MIT Technology Review today,
Chinese Solar Companies Thrive on Manufacturing Innovations:
Suntech Power’s CTO argues that the secret to China’s success is not cheap labor but advanced equipment for making solar cells.How about this part: Continue readingFive years ago only one of the 10 largest solar cell producers was based in China. But by last year, four of the top five were based there, and each is growing fast: all four doubled their production last year. It’s widely believed that this success is due to low labor costs, but Stuart Wenham, CTO of the largest solar cell maker in China, Suntech Power, argues that the real causes are advances in manufacturing technology that have improved solar cells’ performance and cut costs.
Soon the people of South Georgia Will see that the old 1860 Valdosta City Chater Mentality is still in force but has been extended to all citiens. That is to keep all citizens deaf; dumb; and blind to what is really going on in South Georgia. But in the end truth, right and equal justice will most certainly win in the end as history always records! http://kvci.blogspot.com
-George Boston Rhynes