\nSharah Denton wrote for the VDT,\n\nCUEE focuses on academics<\/a>:\n \nSo what was this CUEE meeting about?\n \nAlso this:\n \nFor that matter, how about CUEE and the Chamber and the Industrial Authority\n\n \n\n \nOh yeah: the VDT previously examined the evidence and\n\nturned against biomass.<\/a>\nThe local newspaper of record could still look at the evidence and\nturn against CUEE’s\nreferendum.<\/a>\nYesterday’s VDT article could be the start of that return\nto investigative reporting.\n \n-jsq\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While many other people, such as Friends of Valdosta City Schools (FVCS), are trying to prevent the damage to education CUEE is trying to cause through its “unification” referendum, CUEE had a meeting of its educational committee yesterday. Sharah Denton wrote for the VDT, CUEE focuses on academics: Anyone attending the CUEE meeting expecting a […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[97,40,1376,14,15,49,3305,72,1105,1106,133,178,332],"tags":[1636,8829,8705,1484,904,8869,8701,8730,8815,7,3475,1486,3842,1635,6,8816],"class_list":["post-1548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-community","category-cuee","category-economy","category-education","category-elections","category-fvcs","category-incarceration","category-lcboe","category-vboe","category-vdt","category-vlcia","category-vlcoc","tag-consolidation","tag-cuee","tag-education","tag-election","tag-finland","tag-fvcs","tag-georgia","tag-incarceration","tag-lcboe","tag-lowndes-county","tag-parents","tag-referendum","tag-shanghai","tag-unification","tag-valdosta","tag-vboe"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-oY","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1548\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\nAnyone attending the CUEE meeting expecting a plan for how unification of\nthe city and county school systems would work left disappointed. Instead\nof discussing how the school systems might merge if CUEE’s campaign to\ndissolve the Valdosta school charter succeeds during the Nov. 8 election\nreferendum, the Education Planning Task Force focused on its primary\nobjective: improving academics for area students.\n<\/blockquote>\nSo they have no plan, and of course they also have no control over academics.\nIf “unification” passes, that control would lie with\n\n\n\n
![](\"http:\/\/farm7.static.flickr.com\/6069\/6098057660_20c3b66a25_m.jpg\")
<\/a>\nthe Lowndes County\nBoard of Education, which Tuesday unanimously resolved that\n\nit doesn’t want consolidation<\/a>,\nsupporting \nthe Valdosta Board of Education statement against consolidation<\/a>\nof the previous day.\n\n\u201cHow can we change the environment to help stimulate personal\ninterest? The attitude that child leaves home with is critical. What can\nwe do to support them so they can rise above what they see already?\u201d\nhe asked.\n<\/blockquote>\nI have \nseveral answers to that:<\/a>\n
\n
![](\"http:\/\/farm7.static.flickr.com\/6014\/5914821761_f55e76fd5a_o.png\")
<\/a>\nHow can you expect parents to be attentive to students when they’re\nlocked up or trying not to get locked up again?\nEnd the War on Drugs so we can ramp down the ridiculous incarceration\nrate in this country, and especially in Georgia, where\n\n1 in 13 adults are in jail, prison, probation, or parole.<\/a>\n<\/ol>\nWe can’t change national policy all at once, but we can refuse\nto let the Industrial Authority site a private prison in Lowndes County.\n\n\u201cWorld preparation, I believe, is the most important. Making sure\nthat they (students) can understand what is expected of them before they\ngraduate,\u201d the teenage student said.\n<\/blockquote>\n\n
<\/a>\nMaybe like in \nShanghai<\/a> or\n\nFinland<\/a>, teach students to think,\nnot to pass rote tests.\n
![](\"http:\/\/i4.ytimg.com\/vi\/KV_8PWv0_so\/default.jpg\")
<\/a>\nstart acting like adults, and\n\nhave some real debates<\/a> instead of holding fake forums\nto foist their plans on us?\nThat would set a good example for students.\n![](\"http:\/\/i2.ytimg.com\/vi\/alDZDiuH1CM\/default.jpg\")
<\/a>\nThe only real discussion or debate I’ve seen about “unification” was organized\nby none of CUEE, the Chamber, or the Industrial Authority. It was organized\nby the Lowndes County Democratic Party back in May.\nVideos of it\n\nare available on youtube via LAKE.<\/a>\n