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<\/a>\nI didn’t intend to say anything Monday, but since\n<\/a>\nI didn’t intend to say anything Monday, but since\n\nRev. Bennett named me in his introduction<\/a>\nI thought it necessary to stand up and make it clear that\nI do not support CUEE’s plan for school system unification.\n\nAfter some examples of things on which I agreed or disagreed with\nAshley Paulk, the VDT, the Chamber of Commerce, and VLCIA,\nI mentioned that after an SCLC meeting Rusty Griffin told\nme that nobody who was not for unification would be accepted\non the CUEE board.\n
\nI praised\n\nthe upcoming Thursday meeting about education<\/a>,\nbut pointed out that commitee would not report back before\nthe proposed unification vote,\nand the CUEE board still had only one member from the county\noutside Valdosta, so:\n \nI made a point that of all the metropolitan areas in Georgia,\nof which there are about a dozen, not one has a unified school\nsystem throughout the entire area.\nI think that was misunderstood.\n \nI didn’t say throughout the county: I said throughout the area.\nFor example, the largest metropolitan area in the state,\nAtlanta, has at least five school districts (one for Atlanta\nand one for each of its counties), and probably more, since\nI stopped counting at five.\n \n\n \nThis is relevant to my last point, which was that\nthe fastest growing local county (by far)\nbetween 2000 and 2010 was Lanier.<\/a>\nSchool unification would provoke bright flight to Lanier\nand to private schools, just like school desegregation provoked\nwhite flight from Valdosta to Lowndes and to private schools.\n \nHere’s\n\nthe video:<\/a>\n \n\nThis is not diversification,\nthis is not representative of the people,\nthis a small pressure group,\nand nothing personal against you,\na small pressure group that is trying to decide\nfor the rest of us.\n<\/blockquote>\nOnce again, why I’m opposed to CUEE’s unification scheme:\n\n\n
\nIf we’re going to have school unification,\nI don’t want to do it because I hear someone say “I believe”.\nI want to hear their plan for how they will improve\neducation throughout the city of Valdosta and the county of Lowndes.\nAnd there is no plan.\n<\/blockquote>\nCUEE’s own research says unification won’t save money and it won’t\nimprove education.\n
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<\/a>\nFor another example, if CUEE’s unification plan gets on\nthe ballot and passes, the Valdosta MSA will still not have\na unified school district throughout the entire MSA because\nBrooks, Lanier, and Echols counties will still have their\nown school systems.\n