{"id":1519,"date":"2011-09-11T14:05:12","date_gmt":"2011-09-11T18:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/09\/chamber-of-commerce-berates-school-boards.html"},"modified":"2011-09-11T14:05:12","modified_gmt":"2011-09-11T18:05:12","slug":"chamber-of-commerce-berates-school-boards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/09\/chamber-of-commerce-berates-school-boards.html","title":{"rendered":"Chamber of Commerce berates school boards"},"content":{"rendered":"Even the Chamber of Commerce Board may no longer be unanimous\nin support of “unification” after losing both school boards and\n\n<\/a>\nthe newspaper of record. But that doesn’t stop “itself” from speaking for local business leaders and berating the school boards for not doing what “itself” hasn’t done.\nThat’s the sort of “high road” we’ve come to expect from proponents of “unification”.\n

\nThe Chamber sent the appended letter to two tax-funded\npublicly-elected bodies, making it a matter of public record.\nI’m sure the Chamber has the resources to host their own copy\nof their own letter, so here I’m publishing it with my commentary\nin red in the boxes on the right.<\/span> Bold text<\/strong> marks what the comments refer to. -jsq\n

\nDate: Fri, 9 Sep 2011 16:46:29 -0400 (EDT)\n
\nFrom: Tom Gooding \n
\nSubject: School System Unification Message\n

\n

\nDear Chamber Members:\n

\nBelow is a letter that the Chamber Board of Directors would like to\nshare with all of our members. The letter is being sent today to all\nmembers of the Valdosta City and Lowndes County School Boards and both\nSuperintendents. In a meeting yesterday of the Chamber Board, there was\nstrong consensus<\/strong>\nto maintain our commitment to school system unification\nand to CUEE.\n
\nBoth school boards voted in open meetings, with the vote of each\nmember recorded on video.\nYet the chamber just has “strong consensus” and we don’t know who\nvoted which way for what.\nThat’s the kind “high road” we’ve come to expect from\nproponents of “unification”.\n<\/td><\/tr><\/table>\nMost important, the Board members were firm in their belief\nthat the Chamber’s role in the upcoming discussions regarding school\nsystem unification must remain “on the high road.”<\/strong> Thank you for your\nsupport of the Chamber in this effort.\n

\nTom Gooding\n
\nChairman of the Board\n
\nValdosta-Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce\n

\nSeptember 9, 2011\n
\nTO: Valdosta City and Lowndes County School Board Members and Superintendents:\n

\nThe mission of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce is to\nserve as a unifying force, a focal point for enhancing the economic,\nsocial and cultural well-being of the communities it serves. In this\nrole, the Chamber has been a leading voice for many of the critical\nissues facing Valdosta and Lowndes County, including the ongoing debate\naround unification of our separate local school systems.\n

\nThe Chamber does and will continue to energetically support school\nunification. Our Board of Directors voted unanimously<\/strong>\nto support unification\n
\nUnanimously?\nBut your chairman says it was “strong consensus”.\nMaybe we’re talking about some previous unanimous vote.\nIn which case apparently even the Chamber’s board is no longer\nunanimous in support of “unification”.\n<\/td><\/tr><\/table>\nand polling showed the overwhelming support of some 78% of\nour membership (over 1,500 strong) for unification as well. The Chamber\ndid not take on this effort lightly and would not have done\nso without the belief that the unification of the two school systems would far\noutweigh any perceived disadvantages.\n

\nThe business leaders of our community<\/strong> are disappointed\n
\nReally? The Chamber speaks for all business leaders of our community?\nFunny how I’ve run across quite a few who don’t agree with the Chamber\non this issue.\n<\/td><\/tr><\/table>\nthat the\ndebate around school unification has recently become divisive and more\nimportantly misleading, based on emotional and fear arguments rather than\nfacts. As you know the Chamber has been a long-time community advocate\nfor children and believes a unified school system is the first step to\nensuring equal opportunity, improving educational achievement, and thus\nenhancing the economic well-being of our entire community.\n

\nIt has been said that “business” is behind the Chamber’s unification\nefforts, as if making our city and county increasingly attractive to\nbusiness and industry, which can provide jobs to both the parents of\nour children and, upon graduation, the children themselves, were a\nnegative. It isn’t.\n

\nOur existing businesses and industries are disappointed that our local\npublic schools are not producing graduates who are qualified for today’s\nworkforce, not to mention the substantial number of students who drop out\nwell before graduation. The statistical reality is that Valdosta High\nSchool has not met the State of Georgia’s AYP (annual yearly progress)\nstandards for five consecutive years. It is likely that when the state\nreleases its graduation rates this year using the new, more accurate\nfederal standard for measuring graduation rates, both of our school\nsystems will show significant decreases in graduation rates.\n

\nHere in 2011 we continue to\n
\n\n<\/a>\nUm, how about stop using “County Schools” as a selling point for\nsubdivisions?\n<\/td><\/tr><\/table>\nendure schools that are essentially segregated by economic status. Unless\nsomething\n\nchanges dramatically,\n<\/strong>\nthis community will continue to travel\n\na path\n<\/strong>\n
\n\n<\/a>\nSuch advertising has helped get us so far down that path that there’s\n\nnot a lot further to go.<\/a>\n<\/td><\/tr><\/table>\nof racial and economic resegregation.\n

\nThe Chamber is disappointed in the recent actions taken by the two School\nBoards and also by Dr. Cason and Dr. Smith for blurring the facts<\/strong>\nin their recent letters to the editor of the Valdosta Daily Times.\n
\nThat’s pretty rich considering\n\nthe VDT’s own editorial<\/a>\n\n<\/a>\napologized to Dr. Smith that the VDT had “unintentionally fanned the flames”,\nand the same editorial provided a list of questions it said\nconsolidation proponents haven’t answered.\nTell me again who’s blurring the facts?\n<\/td><\/tr><\/table>\nYes, there indeed have been improvements in our schools and for that the\nSuperintendents should be commended — but the overall pattern has not\nchanged significantly and the overall outlook for all of our children is\nnot encouraging. The Chamber also realizes school unification, by itself,\nwill not be the sole answer to every challenge. But the data<\/strong>\nclearly\n
\nWhere are these data?\nAll the letter cites\n\n<\/a>\nis a poll of the Chamber’s own members.\nThat’s not data: that’s wishful thinking,\nas\n\nSam Allen of FVCS pointed out at the VBOE meeting<\/a>.\n<\/td><\/tr><\/table>\nshows that communities of our size with a single, unified school system\nare more successful in planning and implementing school reforms, have\ngreater parent and community involvement, and build stronger professional\nprograms for teachers and principals — all of which are critical factors\nin raising student achievement and sustaining academic gains over time.\n

\nThe citizens of Valdosta<\/strong>\nclearly want the opportunity to vote on\nunification.\n
\nToo bad the Chamber doesn’t think the citizens of the rest of\n\n<\/a>\nLowndes County deserve a vote,\nor at least the Chamber can’t even be bothered to mention that in CUEE’s\nscheme we don’t get a vote.\nEven though\n\nthe Georgia Constitution says we should.<\/a>\nCUEE has made it pretty clear\n\nthey don’t care about county voters.<\/a>\n<\/td><\/tr><\/table>\nMore than 7,000 voters — more than those who have voted\nin recent City elections — signed the petition calling for the upcoming\nreferendum.\n

\nAs we go forward, the Chamber urges both School Boards to support and\nencourage an\n\nopen and fair dialogue\n<\/strong>\nabout this issue.\n
         <\/td>\nYou first, CUEE and Chamber (is there a difference, by the way?).\n\n<\/a>\nOh, wait, CUEE did go first, with that\n\ndog-and-pony Kick-off thing back in March,<\/a>\nin which they conveniently\n\nran out of time to answer\nquestions about how “unification” would improve education for the\nleast fortunate.<\/a>\nThey don’t have a plan to improve education, and\n\n“unification” won’t do anything to improve education.<\/a>\n

\nThe only real dialog about school consolidation I’ve seen\n\n<\/a>\nwas at the\n\nMay Lowndes County Democratic Party meeting<\/a>,\nwhere proponents and opponents gave their positions,\nand then stood side by side and answered questions from the audience.\n<\/td><\/tr><\/table>\nMore importantly,\nrather than simply saying no<\/strong>\nto unification as both School Boards and\nboth Superintendents have recently done,\n
\nDid the Chamber read the school board statements?\nEach of them spelled out their reasoning at some length.\nHere they are:\n