Richardson Schools Perdue on Education

In a hard-hitting tell it like it is editorial in today's Telegraph, Charles Richardson is on point as he attacks the myth that Governor Perdue is somehow a friend of public education. You really must read the entire piece, here, but here's a tease:

In 2002 Sonny Perdue was elected governor with the help of teachers who chafed at Barnes’ efforts to improve public education. How do teachers like Sonny now? Instead of raises, teachers receive a $100 gift card. When they do receive raises, they also get hit with increases in health-care costs. Instead of funding increases — to handle the additional students in one of the nation’s fastest growing states — more than $2.5 billion has been sucked out of the K-12 education pipeline. Higher Ed, on its way to national prominence, isn’t feeling good either. Frankly, the state of education in Georgia looks grim. Most school systems have had to face two realities: Raise local taxes or cut programs, many of which can’t be touched because of state mandates.

That's exactly right and exactly why we need a new Superintendent of Schools in Georgia and a Governor who gives more than lip service to public education.

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Democrats Lead Fight to Keep Nurses in Schools

Georgia House Democratic Caucus Pledges fight to keep Nurses in Schools

Children can't learn when they are sick and teachers can't teach when they are running a health clinic

Atlanta -- According to the Governor's FY 2009 amended budget proposal school nurses will soon become a thing of the past. The recommendations submitted by the Governor last week cut $30 million in state funds which would eliminate the school nurse program. The Georgia House Democratic Caucus leaders oppose this cut and have pledged to work to restore the program.

Democrats believe in promoting preventive medicine and supporting nurses in schools so children can focus on learning and avoid complications that arise when health problems go untreated. They also believe every family should have access to a doctor and every school should have a nurse.

"We have a growing number of working families without health insurance and some of those parents rely on school nurses to keep their children safe and healthy while they are in school." said Pat Gardner (D-Atlanta), Chairperson for Health and Human Services Policy Committee for the Georgia House Democratic Caucus.

Georgia House Democratic Caucus Education Policy Chair, Rep. Kathy Ashe (D-Atlanta) said, "We must fight for our children and their right to receive appropriate health care while they are in school. If children don't receive the care they need their medical issues could escalate. It's a short sighted approach that will eventually cost our state additional funds and more importantly, diminish our children's ability to do the job they go to school to accomplish - learning. I am asking our parents and teachers to express your concern about these cuts to your state representative and state senators. Email gadhcissues@gmail.com if you need assistance finding your elected representatives."

Removing school nurses is extremely short-sighted. Georgia House Democratic Leader, Rep. DuBose Porter (D-Dublin) added real life examples. "In Dublin, we have one nurse for four elementary schools. Numerous daily school-age related illnesses aside, our nurse manages diabetic children who must undergo daily blood sugar testing; she takes care of a child on a feeding tube, and has a student going through stage 4 cancer. The management of these health issues takes a trained professional." said Porter. "In one of the four schools alone there are 38 students on asthma inhalers, students who at times have had to be rushed to the hospital with acute asthma attacks. We should not balance the state's budget by cutting health care to sick children or making our teachers become health care providers."

Georgia House Democratic Caucus Chairman Calvin Smyre (D-Columbus) agreed and pointed out legal questions that may arise, regardless of safeguards designed to protect the school. "The governor should be asking, who will administer this care... the teachers? The liability on untrained school employees administering health care could easily become an issue. Teachers in Georgia schools now are not allowed to administer medications. Nurses in our schools give out over 5 million doses per year. There are approximately fifteen million annual visits to the office or school health room for illness, medication and injury in Georgia," said Smyre. "Children can't learn when they are sick and teachers can't teach when they are running a health clinic."

In conclusion Porter noted, "We are willing to fight to stop this cut that will directly damage our schools and our children, but it will take a great effort to get the message to this Governor. Now is the time for Georgians to engage in the political process. Times are changing and Georgians can no longer assume basic services will continue. Georgians must become involved in the process."

The Georgia House Democratic Caucus has an Email to handle issues that relate to the Governor's proposed cuts. To voice your concern email gadhcissues@gmail.com Together we can continue to protect our children's future.

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Don't Forget the Social Infrastructure

President Obama has an ambitious and necessary plan to create jobs and stimulate the economy by investing in infrastructure repair and development. That's all well and good, but shoring up the social infrastructure-access to basic health care, good school etc.-is just as important as roads and bridges. Without that, we will not have the skilled, healthy workforce needed to do those jobs, now or in the future.

Take for example the much-discussed lab that went to Kansas rather than Georgia. While folks are focused on the group protesting the plan in Georgia, we have just sort of skipped over one of the other key reasons the Georgia site lost out: a less skilled workforce. And why is that? Years of neglect and a current Governor who brags when our schools move from 49th to 48th. Woo-hoo! Let's have a party! Maybe even a prom at the Governor's mansion. Maybe we can play "Go Fish." Embarrassing, isn't it?

Seriously, protests or not, do you really think a company would locate a lab here if they found the workforce lacking? That's not a problem you can solve in 9 months, but it is an indication of the long term neglect of public education in Georgia and misdirection of our schools. I guarantee you one thing: if Georgia schools were a bridge, you'd take one look and refuse to drive across. Yet, we depend on our schools to be the bridge for our children to their future and the engine that drives economic development. But, with more cuts looming, we sure don't act like it.

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Isn't it Worth it?

If you had to dip into your savings to make sure your child was able to get the best start possible-the best chance to live the American Dream-you'd do it, right? Of course you would. I would. But, according to The Southern Education Foundation, the State of Georgia won't.

While the Georgia Lottery Reserve Fund sat at $879.1 million, ($309.5 restricted, $569.6 unrestricted) and our rainy day fund reached an historic one billion dollars in 2007, half of Georgia's four year olds were shut out of "universal" Pre-K. We once led the nation in creating "universal" Pre-K, but over the last ten years, enrollment in Georgia has basically flat-lined and spending has declined by about $400 per student, this according to a report titled, "Time to Lead Again: The Promise of Georgia Pre-K," and published by The Southern Education Foundation. And, they're just counting the children whose parents want them to attend Pre-K. There are, no doubt, invisible children whose parents never added their name to a waiting list.

In Bibb County, only 49.1% of children who entered 5K were enrolled in a Georgia Pre-K program. More than half of children who attend 4K in Bibb County are considered "at risk."

In 1993, Georgia's leaders demonstrated great vision by declaring that every child in Georgia would have access to Pre-K, but over the years, we have lost our vision and our will. Now, we spend a whopping 1.6% of the state's annual budget on Pre-K, even though we know that every $1 invested in Pre-K returns $5.12 to the state's economy. In fact, if we committed today to make space available for 80% of Georgia's four year olds, the program would pay for itself by 2026.

How? Students who participate in quality Pre-K are more likely to succeed in school and in life. Children who participated in a Georgia Pre-K program are much less likely be retained in 5K (2.8%) than those who attend a private Pre-K (4.4%) or those who attended no Pre-K (5.9%). And, as adults, children who attend a high-quality Pre-K are more likely to own their own home and more likely to earn more than $2,000 per month. Perhaps, most impressive, 41% of children who attend a high-quality Pre-K will never be on welfare as adults.

The bottom line is that we can do better, and we already have the resources we need to improve. It's time for Georgia's leaders to again embrace the vision that every single child should have access to excellent Pre-K education. It's not just the right thing to do, it makes good economic sense.*

*All of the statistical information in this post is from "Time to Lead Again: The Promise of Georgia Pre-K," published by The Southern Education Foundation. And, about that, I have good news and bad news. I got a copy of the report at a presentation in Atlanta tonight, but I don't think that it is posted on the net yet. That's the bad news. The good news is that the SEF is taking the presentation on the road in an effort to build public will to insist that every child whose parents want it should have access to quality Pre-K. They'll be coming to Macon soon, and to a city near you!

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Cox, Perdue: Duck and Cover

Maybe all the schools in Georgia should be private. At least, then, the incompetent CEO, Kathy Cox, would be fired. Seriously, can you imagine parents at a private school allowing an administrator to remain who failed to align curriculum with the ( not standardized, per Tina) test required for advancement to the next grade? Me neither. But, in this case, Cox thinks that she should face no scrutiny what-so-ever, and says that those who think otherwise are just being partisan.

I work with children every day. Many of them are attending summer school because of Cox's failure. These families cross the political and demographic spectrum-and they are all fighting mad, as they should be. Are they angry that their child is being held accountable? No. They're angry that their children were short-changed and that taxpayers are being forced to fund the solution.

The reality is that our schools are not private (though that is, in truth, the goal of these Atlanta republicans) and our state school superintendent is elected not employed. So, in two years, it's going to be the voter's job to fire her and the rest of the republican team that thinks leadership in education includes the fluff while neglecting the basics. From teacher gift cards to "parental involvement coaches," Perdue and company have systematically funded the icing on a cardboard cake. And, when they're asked to account for their actions-or in Cox's case, her silence, her failure to advocate for children and her preference for political sound-bite over actual reform-they cry foul. They are happy to hold teachers, parents and children accountable, but accountability stops at the door to the gold dome. It's up to the voters to say otherwise.

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I'm Back-Open Thread

I've been in D.C. this week and have MUCH to report, but I was so busy that there was no time to post. My in-box is full. Here are my briefs:

• John McCain really shouldn't take FDR's words and put them in a commercial.

• Cutting the mental health budget just after learning that patients are dying in our mental hospitals is about the dumbest thing I have ever heard.

• You will be shocked to learn that Bibb County is considered a "high wealth county" by the state. As a result, 5 mils of our state funds for public schools are redistributed to poor counties like, say, Houston. Shocked? Well, you'll be even more shocked to learn that our failure to complete our property revals doesn't stop the state from deciding our property is worth more than what's on our books. The result? We are actually having to contribute about 7 mils. The impact? We just cut more than 20 teaching positions in a county with summer school classes overflowing as a result of CRCT failure. What a (word I will not use here.)

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Shipping and Handling

On the not-so-GREAT Plan, now aimed at schools, my husband said:

"If we send tax dollars up the road to Atlanta, just for politicians to send them back down to us, we'd better be prepared to pay the shipping and handling."

That's right.

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Hide Your Children and Your Silver: Richardson is at it Again

Glenn Richardson is perfectly happy to make your child into a lab rat. If the experiment doesn't work out so well, not to worry, he promises not to make your city and county follow suit. He won't be able to fix things for your child, but it's all for a good cause-shifting more of the tax burden to the middle class and giving Atlanta politicians control of funding for our neighborhood schools while creating a statewide voucher system for private schools. It's really a cool idea. Rich kids in private schools will get vouchers, and middle class families will pay for it.

Almost exactly as predicted, Glenn Richardson has narrowed his tax plan to target public funding of education, letting municipalities and counties off the hook-for now. He is also leaving medical services off the list of newly taxable items, thus possibly gutting well-funded opposition to the Glenntax. He is still imposing a sales tax on food and other services. Including private school tuition, Glenn?

Here's my favorite line from Galloway's article in today's AJC: "If there's not enough money we won't go on to the next level." Uhm, Glenn, how will you fix the mess you're about to create for schools? This is a constitutional amendment, actually, two constitutional amendments. You can't just twitter your little rat nose and change it back to the way it was.

This republican-led legislature has zero credibility on school funding. Why should we in Macon, for example, send our school tax money up the road to Atlanta and trust them to send it back? Where is the cost savings in that formula? I thought republicans were supposed to be all about local control, yet they now want to centralize education funding for all of Georgia in Atlanta. I don't know about you, but personally, I like the idea that the people who set the school budget live in my community and their children attend the public schools. There's a different kind of accountability that comes along with running into your constituents at the grocery or at the Little League game. I like the fact that they have to deal with all of us directly. They have to look us in the eye. Atlanta politicians, not so much.

I'm hearing that the cities and the counties are not yet abandoning the schools systems, but that the Georgia Chamber has gone quiet. This is going to be an expensive, difficult, high stakes fight, and I question whether the education lobby is up to the challenge. The agenda is to centralize education funding in Atlanta, so that a statewide voucher system is possible, and simultaneously reduce the tax burden for the richest Georgians.

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Richardson Shows His Hand

It's no accident that Glenn Richardson has been long on rhetoric and short on details of his "GREAT" tax plan. This man may be a lot of things, but dumb is not on the list. When it comes to triangulation, he's about to make Bill Clinton looks like an amateur. I've thought for a long time that his sweeping tax proposal was a red herring. Now, Richardson is beginning to show his hand. Here's what I think Glenn Richardson is really up to.

• By waiting to finalize the plan, he is giving the opposition less time to organize an effective response. Smart.
• His "shotgun" approach-targeting every service industry and every local taxing authority-has created a lot of enemies and a whole lot of people who will be perfectly happy to trade silence for the opportunity to protect their own interest.
• In Macon last week, faced with increasing opposition from municipalities and county governments, Richardson began to show his hand.
• Now, Richardson says that he may just focus on taken tax authority away from school boards.
• That's both brilliant and evil. Brilliant because he's likely to win that battle. Evil because if he wins, public schools are DOA.
• That's fine with him. Richardson has repeatedly expressed his dislike for local boards of education, even questioning the value of their existence.
• By letting city and county governments off the hook, Richardson is betting they will stay out the his fight with school boards-and he's probably making a good bet. The "public schools lobby" will fight alone.
• Richardson and his cohorts have repeatedly spanked the "public schools lobby." We've lost battle after battle with the republican-led General Assembly. Think about it: we lost the 65% "solution" battle, the Charter Schools/Charter Systems battle, the SB 10 battle. Yep, they've pretty much beaten us at every turn.
• By focusing on school boards, he tosses red meat to republicans-Cagle and Perdue will have a hard time opposing this scaled-back plan. Why?
• Because the only way to implement a true state-wide voucher system is for all the education funding to be centralized in Atlanta.
• The goal is not to just disempower school boards, but to dismantle public schools.

This is going to be an expensive battle for public school advocates, one that we will not win unless we fight differently than we have in the past. An organized, well-funded plan is needed to defeat this legislation and keep the Glenntax off the 2008 ballot.

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This Seems Like a Bad Idea

Because of new construction, the Bibb County School Board has the unenviable task of redistricting. One portion of a plan being discussed includes busing kids past a brand new middle school near their neighborhood, down the interstate to a different middle school. That doesn't make much sense to me, especially if the school they are being bussed passed has empty seats, and the school they will be attending is pushing capacity. Yet, this would be the reality of one plan the Bibb County School Board is considering. Without boring you to tears, what I am talking about is a possible plan to send children from Bruce Elementary to Rutland Middle School instead of to Bloomfield or Ballard Hudson. Based on the numbers I have seen, it is projected that, under this plan, Rutland would be full, but Bloomfield and Ballard Hudson would have more than 400 empty seats.

What could possibly justify such a plan?

In Bibb County, our public schools are 70+% African-American. Because of "white flight" to private schools, our public schools do not reflect the demographics of our community. If proximity were the determining factor, then despite the overall demographics of the system, Rutland Middle School would be majority white. I, personally, do not believe that it is a good idea to "re-segregate" our schools; however, I also think that, given the choice, most parents would choose to send their children to a quality neighborhood school rather than having them bussed across town. I also think that as a result of "white flight," we essentially already have two separate, largely segregated school systems in our community.

This is a potentially nasty, divisive issue, but perhaps in it there is an opportunity to think creatively. In Bibb, about 20% of our children attend private school. We lose many of those families at the transition to middle school. What if we did something truly bold? What if we created attendance zones for our middle schools but also gave parents choice about which school they wanted their child to attend, provided space was available and they were willing to provide the transportation if the school was outside their zone? Parents would feel more control, more invested and schools would be competing for students. And maybe, just maybe, more families who can afford to send their children to private school would instead choose to stay in public system. This may not be "the" solution, but I do believe that this is the time for "out of the box" thinking. I hope that as discussion on this continues, our school board will do just that.

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Macon History

Lynn Farmer, Bibb School Board president, called me this afternoon to say that this is an historic day in Bibb County. A federal judge declared the Bibb County Public Schools unitary and released the district from the 43 year old deseg order. Judge Owens, in fact, said that the system has been unitary for thirty years. The ruling reflected an agreement by the parties and provides for a two year transitional period.Read more here

Farmer said that two cases are pending before the U.S. Supreme Court on the issue of whether or not race can be used as a factor in school assignment/redistricting etc. The outcome of those cases could impact the redistricting process in Bibb County.

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Georgia Superintendent of the Year

Sharon Patterson, Bibb School Superintendent and Georgia Superintendent of the Year will be the featured speaker for this month's "Politics and Lunch." Politics and Lunch is a monthly 'lunch and learn' series that seeks to connect the dots between politics, public policy and quality of life in our community. Patterson will talk about the challenges that face public schools and the progress that has been made in Bibb County. The luncheon is this Friday, February 23rd at noon at The Power Station, formerly Nashville Station, on Riverside Drive in Macon Georgia. The luncheon is open to the public and the cost, which includes lunch, is $10.00. Reservations can be made by contacting Amy Morton at 478-741-1138 or AmyMorton@aol.com.

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Childbirth Creates Education Experts

Hallelujah! The Georgia General Assembly has stumbled on the solution to the education crisis in our state. Staggering dropout rates, scarce resources, bottom-of-the-barrel SAT scores and all other ills that plague Georgia schools will be resolved if only we put parents in charge. Professional training and schooling are not necessary to become an expert on education. Either election to the General Assembly or childbirth, both equally painful, will do the trick.

Just ask Georgia Republicans. This year, the common thread through several controversial bills is that when Republicans say "local control", they're not talking about locally elected boards of education, or even the teacher in the classroom. They're talking about parents. Speaker Richardson made that perfectly clear last session when he chastised members of GPTA as they packed the gallery in opposition to the 65% Deception. Maybe if they'd just been "GPA" he would've been a bit more hospitable. The nasty little secret Republicans don't want to tell you is that all of this has nothing at all to do with making our schools more successful. If they cared about that they would fully fund public schools. The real agenda is shifting public funds to the private sector thus splintering and dis-empowering a powerful voting block-educators and public school advocates-with whom they are often at odds. This is all about the Political Prime Directive: Re-Election.

The bills that limit the power and authority of locally elected boards of education, superintendents and other professional educators abound. For starters, HR 1 and HB 14, sponsored by Clay Cox (you will see his name again) calls for a constitutional amendment (HR1) or new law (HB 14) to allow local school superintendents to be elected rather than appointed. Why stop there, Rep. Cox? Let's also elect Medical Directors for local hospitals.

And how about Rep. Chuck Martin's brilliant idea to reduce the required number of school days from 180 to 170. That's what HB 262 would do. Apparently, families need more time to be together and "a shorter school calendar would give students who struggle with their studies more time for tutoring and summer school. It would also allow those who have a hard time focusing in the classroom to spend more time on homework and studying at home." Magic. Students will learn more by spending less time at school. Don't worry, you are not alone. Editorial boards around the state have failed to see the logic, too.

In a particularly petty and transparent attempt to teach his own unruly school superintendent in his home county of Gwinnett a lesson, Rep. Clay Cox (I told you that you would see his name again) has also sponsored HB13, a bill that takes the power to set a local superintendent's salary out of the hands of local boards of education. You see, Gwinnett Superintendent Wilbanks was a vocal opponent of last year's 65% Deception and also made the mistake of supporting Cox's opposition during the last election cycle. Tell you what, Rep. Cox, how about giving voters the authority to decide what your salary and compensation should be for your part time job as a legislator?

Of course, the two bills that have gotten the most attention are SB10, the voucher bill for children with disabilities and SB 39, the Charter Systems bill. As both of these bills head for the Georgia House, remember that both re-distribute your tax dollars to the private sector with little oversight or control by anyone you elected. Apparently, for this Republican-led legislature, increased accountability is a necessity for professional educators, but, for parents and the private sector, it is but a nuisance. As is often the case with "education reform" these bills are sound-bite friendly but severely lacking in data to support the effectiveness of the proposed strategies. They have an air of "truthiness", if you will.

The real truth is that education is more science than art. No doubt, parents are critical partners in the fight to more effectively educate children. They are the experts on their children, but professional educators are the experts on education. And politicians? Generally, they're just experts on getting re-elected.

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Accountibility Be Damned

Somebody get a choir director for the General Assembly. After seizing control from local school systems in 2006 with the 65% "Solution" and a one-size-fits-all class-size reduction law, both of which leave teachers and local school officials zero wiggle room, this year, the legislature is singing off a completely different sheet of music. With SB10, Georgia Republicans want to hand tax dollars (state and federal) to private schools and require zero accountability for the education of our most vulnerable students. And today, when the Georgia Senate passed the Charter Schools bill, Sen. Dan Weber (R) said:

"The belief is the people closest to the school ... they know the needs of that school. If they need an intensive writing class for 10 students, they ought to be allowed to do that."

At least the Charter Schools would have to comply with NCLB. Not so with SB 10.

Here's the thing, I agree with Weber on this, but here's my question. Why is it a good idea to increasingly regulate public schools to the point that teachers have virtually no authority to control their classrooms or to make decisions about curriculum and at the same time propose creating a parallel system where virtually anything goes? If local control is a good thing, then why is it not a good thing for all schools? What's more local than the teacher who is in the classroom with the students? The proposed new laws create a dual system, extra layers of administrative expenses and an uncertain future for Georgia students.

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Guest Post: SB10 NOT a Good IDEA

Today we have a guest-post from Ronald Cloud, a parent and an advocate for public schools and for citizens with disabilities. Below, with his permission, I have posted a letter Mr. Cloud sent today to Sen. Eric Johnson, Sen. Robert Brown and Rep. Allen Peake and copied to ten members of the Senate Education Committee regarding SB10, the bill that seeks to offer "scholarships" (read: vouchers) to children with disabilities who elect to attend private schools. Sen. Johnson claims that parents of disabled children are behind this bill. That's just not entirely accurate. The more parents learn about the protections they will forfeit under this legislation, the less they like it.

In reality, this legislation is nothing more than a wedge in the fight to create a voucher program for private schools in Georgia, an initiative that will siphon critical dollars away from already-cash-strapped public schools. I have written about this bill before, and my husband who sometimes represents students with disabilities has also offered his take on the bill. SB 10 is bad news for children with disabilities and, just as they did with the "65% Solution", the Republicans are skewing data to support their purpose. Here's Ronald's excellent letter.

To: eric.johnson@senate.ga.gov
Cc: robert.brown@senate.ga.gov,allen@allenpeake.com
Date: Thu, 25 Jan 2007 01:57:04 -0500Subject: SB 10 - NOT a good IDEA, Please Withdraw and Reconsider


January 24, 2007
The Honorable Eric Johnson
Georgia State Senate
eric.johnson@senate.ga.gov

Regards: SB-10 is not a good IDEA

Dear Senator Johnson:

Your attempt to import Florida’s McKay Scholarship program with SB-10:is not worthy of support from your colleagues, does not responsibly address Georgia’s public education challenges,and is a means of abandoning the historic public commitment to accommodate and include children with disabilities in the public schools with their community peers.

Today’s parents of children with disabilities, including myself, owe a great debt to the generation of parents and advocates that secured that commitment from their fellow Americans with the passage of public law 94-142, known today as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, IDEA.

In re-authorizing the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the US Congress found that “the implementation of this title has been impeded by low expectations, and an insufficient focus on applying replicable research on proven methods of teaching and learning for children with disabilities” and that“the education of children with disabilities can be made more effectiveby--`(A) having high expectations for such children and ensuring their access to the general education curriculum in the regular classroom, . . . ”

Also, in the lead up to the most recent re-authorization the President’s Commission on Excellence in Special Education found that “General education and special education share responsibilities for children with disabilities. They are not separable at any level . . . ”

Yes there are shortcomings, unrealized promises, in the educational services provided, or not provided, to children in public schools. IDEA explicitly recognizes that, offers a path toward improvement, and secures student and family standing to negotiate better special educational programs.

The No Child Left Behind laws have helped raise expectations for
students with disabilities by insisting that schools report and are held
accountable for their test scores. I have directly observed some significant changes in special needs placement and instructional practices as a result of recent federal
education reforms and widespread advocacy.

Research and implementation of proven teaching methods, higher expectations, more access to the general education curriculum, monitoring and accountability for results . . .

So, what exactly do you find wrong here?

SB-10 is an instrument of separation and segregation that proposes the expenditure of public funds in private schools or service centers while emphatically prohibiting any added public accountability of their effectiveness.

It is an inducement for disappointed, frustrated, even intimidated parents to sign away the safeguards of federal protection and move away from their child’s rightful place in the community school.

On the school side of the table, where they are required to provide appropriate services as needed and they cannot explicitly refuse to do so because such services are not adequately funded, SB-10 caps the expense and allows them to present the choice to take what we offer or take the state’s money and leave us alone.

I have read SB-10, read your blog entry on peachpundit.com defending it,and read the Manhattan Institute’s “study” of Florida’s McKay scholarship program that you cite in support of it. I will endeavor to share relevant observations about the contents of those documents with you in another letter.

In the meantime, I ask that you withdraw SB-10 from consideration. Public education deserves public support and involvement from all of us. It would be an encouraging gesture for the Senate Majority Leader to reconsider this ill advised program.

Please try to find a more constructive means of supporting students,families, schools, and communities in collaborative efforts to realize the ambitions and ideals of IDEA and NCLB.
Sincerely,


Ronald Cloud publiuserc@juno.com

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Whoops

Okay, so I was premature. That historic hearing that I referred to earlier today didn't happen. The Bibb County Schools had to ask for a continuance because they failed to give proper notice to parents. Not the system's best moment.

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Historic Hearing Today on Bibb School Desegregation Order

There's a little bit of history being made over that the Bootle Federal Court building in Macon today. In the courtroom of Judge Duross Fitzpatrick, a hearing is being held to determine what steps the school system has taken to desegregate Bibb schools in the thirty years since the Federal Court got involved and the M to M transfer policy, as an alternative to mass busing, was implemented. Per Judge Fitzpatrick's ruling last year, the school system no longer utilizes the M to M system, and at the 2 pm hearing today, the plaintiffs and the school system will have the opportunity to present testimony to the court. It is my understanding that Judge Fitzpatrick, in his original ruling, left this case open for a year to see how things went and to have the opportunity for public input. Ultimately, the school system is all but certain to come out from under the deseg order.

I find the ironies of this situation almost too many to count. This hearing is happening in a building named for the Judge who was instrumental in causing schools to become desegregated in Bibb County, and the current hearing and, even the initial ruling of the court, barely caused a ripple. The M to M policy was working poorly in Bibb because it was not subject to any capacity issues, so many parents favored this change. The school system is now majority black, yet this is not a reflection of the demographics of the community. Today, we struggle to fund and make successful a public education system (from which both of my children graduated) that increasingly must deal with the impact of poverty and what the Telegraph a number of years ago dubbed "white flight." In many ways the challenges now are greater than they were thirty years ago.

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Eric Johnson Should Say What He Means

Sen. Eric Johnson has prefiled legislation that would offer scholarships (read: vouchers) to disabled children who wish to attend private schools, and he has already embarked on a public relations campaign advocating for his idea. Well, it's really not actually his idea. They have tried a similar program in Florida. (Yes, that's right, Florida, the state whose school voucher law was declared unconstitutional.) What Johnson really wants is a broad school voucher program, so why doesn't he just say that? Well, because Georgia is "politically"not ready for school vouchers, or so he has said. So, he's hoping that folks will not look too closely at this seriously flawed bill, and he is hoping to pit parents against teachers and administrators- an all too familiar battle that parents of disabled children face.

Consider this: as this bill is written, for a private school to qualify as a place taxpayers would pay for a disabled child to be educated, the school does not have to demonstrate that they have an appropriate program for a given child. They only have to demonstrate one thing: that the school is financially solvent. That tells me all I need to know about this legislation. Sen. Johnson is using disabled children as a smokescreen in his attempt to make vouchers a reality in Georgia, and that's just wrong.

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Guest Blogger: Co-Opting Disabled Children

My husband, Daryl Morton, practices disability law, and I asked him to comment on the attempt by Georgia Republicans to slip vouchers in the door under the guise of helping disabled children. He reviewed the proposed, very troubling law, and his comments are below:

Various news outlets reported today that State Senator Eric Johnson, (R-Savannah) has pre-filed a bill that would require the state of Georgia to pay for disabled students to attend private schools. See, http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/news/local/16216548.htm.

The full text of the bill, Senate Bill 10, is available at
http://www.legis.state.ga.us/legis/2007_08/fulltext/sb10.htm.

The bill states that “students with disabilities have special needs that merit educational alternatives which will allow students to learn in an appropriate setting and manner”. The bill also characterizes the payments to private schools as being “scholarships” and claims that they are not vouchers. The “scholarship” amount is equal to the amount of the services the disabled child is receiving in their current public school or the cost of private school tuition, whichever is less.

Existing federal special education law, namely the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), can already require public schools to pay private school fees where the district cannot or will not provide the services the disabled child needs. Normally, such “private schools” would be institutions that help children with severe disabilities. Once the child was there, the public school system would still have an obligation to monitor to progress of the child to make sure his or her needs were being met. However, as a general rule, the generic “private school” is not subject to IDEA.

Under the proposed law, the student must already have been determined to have a qualifying disability under IDEA. At that point, the state must pay for that student to attend a qualifying private school upon request from the parent.

No doubt a parent of a disabled child would assume that the private school would provide the special education services the child needs. However, the proposed law provides no such assurances.

First, the law makes clear that the acceptance of the “scholarship” would constitute a “parental refusal to consent to services pursuant to the Individuals with Disabilities Act”. Therefore, accepting the scholarship seems to require the parent to declare that their child is no longer in need of special education services. Further, to be an “eligible private school” that could receive disabled students, the proposed law requires little more than the school be solvent enough to expect to be able to operate during the upcoming school year. In fact, there is no requirement that the private school provide any special education services, and the law contains the ominous proviso that “ the creation of this program shall not be construed to expand the regulatory authority of the state… to impose any additional regulation of nonpublic schools beyond those reasonably necessary to enforce the requirements of this article”.

It is clear that Senator Johnson wants to introduce vouchers disguised as “scholarships” and is counting on its purported purpose of helping “disabled” children as making it unpopular to oppose. Moreover, the bill creates the illusion that private schools are truly willing and capable of providing adequate services to disabled children. I have always said that if private schools agreed to subject themselves to the provisions of IDEA in order to receive funds, I would gladly give them a shot. This law does nothing but drain valuable resources from our public schools that do the often thankless job of attending to our most vulnerable children, and entice parents to abandon good special education programs for the lure of private schools that will probably offer nothing of substance.

Remember the source of this legislation, Georgia Republicans. All you need to know about their commitment to disabled children is their callous removal of 2000 families of disabled children from the Katie Beckett Medicaid program with no safety net for those families. Why should their intentions be any different now?

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