Addressing the school social worker’s rant
This weekend my grandson came over to the house to play. Almost two years old, little Isaiah has a firmly set mission in life: To find whatever trouble he can, and thoroughly get into it. In our yard, he made a bee-line for the leaky water hose.
“You see what he’s doing?” I asked my daughter.
Moriah shrugged. “It’s just water . . . and mud. He’ll come clean.”
Isaiah picked up the hose and leaned over for a better look, inadvertently squirting himself in the face. He looked up at us, streams of water pouring from his fine blond hair. We were smiling, so he smiled back. He stared at the stream for a moment, and then started lapping at it like a puppy. We laughed while he drenched himself, eventually muddy up to his knees.
According to Catoosa County school social worker Sue Mason, we laughed because we are homeschoolers. We don’t know that children are not supposed to play in the dirt. In her scathing two-part article “My thoughts on homeschooling” and “Homeschooling: the dark side,” Mason presents an alternate reality in which parents homeschool their children just to sleep late and avoid responsibility while their children play in the dirt. I suppose she has never seen all those children on the school playground at recess, playing in the dirt.
I was reluctant to leave the county paper lying around, with columns like these. My teens were really miffed to discover that other homeschooled kids are allowed to sleep late and play in the dirt all day. They had some hard questions about why I made them come to history class at 7:00 a.m. for so many years.
Mason attempts to deflect any objections to her column with the caveat that there are some good homeschool families, and she is not talking about them. Yet, for the length of two articles she goes on about homeschool families who live in trailers, are unemployed, and allow their children to play in the dirt all day long.
In seventeen years of homeschooling, I have never met the homeschool families Mason describes. In fact, Mason’s first homeschool column does not feature a single homeschool family. Instead, she writes about public school parents who cannot make it to school on time, who pay the cable bill but neglect the power bill, and who buy tattoos instead of shoes. If these accusations are drawn from actual cases in our county, Mason should be under fire for printing them in the county paper rather than adhering to confidentiality. If they are not actual scenarios, then they are just lies.
If the stories are true, they are stories of public school parents. When these parents are threatened with court action for their children’s tardies, they remind the county social worker that public education is not mandatory; they can always homeschool their children if they so choose. Mason thinks it is terrible that parents have this freedom and “there is nothing I can do.”
Is it really a bad thing that parents have a way to push back? They are our children, after all. The public school system sometimes behaves like a bureaucratic bully, running over individuals. I have a daughter in public school this year. She's a straight-A high school student working a year ahead of others her age. I still have to stand up for her to get her needs met. I am nice about it, but it goes without saying that if the school system does not offer this brilliant student the opportunities she deserves, they will lose her back to homeschooling.
Homeschooling is not a privilege. Rather, the public school is the one enjoying the privilege of having my talented daughter among their students. Granted, it is not too much to ask that she be to school on time! And she is. But the principle is the same: Families who do not get what they need and want from the public school system have the right to use private or homeschooling instead.
If a particular family needs a different schedule than the public school offers, homeschooling is one way to do that. So long as the child is learning, why should it matter whether classes are held during the morning, afternoon or evening? Learning is organic, and is not really confined to hours or classrooms.What we sometimes forget in this whole discussion is that homeschooling isn't some novel idea. As in the breastfeeding/formula debate, homeschooling IS normal and has been practiced for thousands of years. Sending your kids off to school is the novel idea.
Even today, every parent on the planet homeschools for the first weeks, months or years of the child’s life. We teach our children to walk and talk, processes far more complex than anything learned in grades K-12, and no one suggests that ordinary parents are incapable of teaching their own children to do these things.
The school social worker does not like that public education is not mandatory. Education is mandatory, but not public education. Before homeschooling became popular again, parents did not know they had that option. Parents like the ones she describes (that is, poor) could not afford private education, so they were at the mercy of the public school system. Now, suddenly, parents who are pushed around are pushing back. They are saying, "No, you can't bully me, because the truth is my child doesn't have to be in your school in the first place." And on that score, they are correct.
#
Showing posts with label Catoosa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Catoosa. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Why I'm still here
And why I’m not alone
I finally took the social networking plunge. I depend daily on Internet searches and email, and obtain most of my news about the world online. Like many people, I haven’t opened a paper phone book in years. I order videos from NetFlix, and watch my favorite TV shows online. And I blog. Of course I blog. Still, I’ve long been hesitant to throw my social fortunes to the winds of MySpace and FaceBook.
In connecting with old friends from high school, the first topic that comes up is often geography. Many of my schoolmates – especially those who showed great promise – have moved to Atlanta or some far-off metropolis to pursue a successful career. Economists and sociologists tell us to expect as much. Bedroom communities like Ringgold, Georgia, simply do not retain most of the talented young people who graduate from their schools. They go off to college and discover they have outgrown their own community. The place they called home does not offer employment opportunities that stimulate their interests and allow them to access (and afford) the lifestyle they became accustomed to at the university.
What is it, then, that holds some of us here when it would seem a relief to pack it up and move away? Some, perhaps, lack motivation. Most of us are just sentimental.
It is that curve in Chickamauga Creek that holds me, like a mother restraining a baby in the crook of her arm. I drive past it more often than not, failing to leave the comfort of my vehicle and my shoes and my dignity. I pledge to stop more often and stand on those wide, flat stones while the ice-cold water runs over the tops of my bare feet – all the while praying the moss doesn’t glide beneath my soles like a banana peel and send me flying backward to land in a splash of green water and lost dignity.
The train, too, holds me here rather than moving me on. I love to hear it thunder past the Depot on an opry night, the great wooden shutter doors trembling in their ancient track. Sometimes the musicians join the rhythm; other times they stop and listen to a mournful solo as the horn blows and the beast moves by. I place my hand flat against the stone walls and feel the pulse of that locomotive roaring northward only a few feet from my fingertips, moving us without taking us away.
I love the old things, like that hodge-podge of tin and wood over by Callaway’s store. I have been looking at that structure my whole life, and it occupies the frame of my existence. Business may take me to the shiny, neoclassic city hall, but my eye is always on that crazy quilt of tin sheets. I’m remembering a hundred indistinguishable Saturdays when my father backed up to their pickup-height loading dock, and familiar men with friendly faces tossed sweet corn into the back of our old Dodge while I went inside to ask a question about my horse or my lamb or my dog.
Yes, it’s really the people who keep me here. I do not want to live in a place where there is no one like Moses in the grocery store. He grins, golden tooth gleaming, and you know right away that a flame burns so brightly in his soul that it could never be snuffed out by bad weather or a squeaky grocery cart wheel. He sings his way through life, blessing everyone who comes near him with what he enthusiastically calls his “black magic.” Just watch sometime and see the shoppers walking into the grocery store tired, cranky and worried about what to make for dinner – then coming out with a lighter step despite the heavy sacks in their hands. Moses is not a bag boy or a grocery worker; he’s the town healer.
My family, too, is here. If I moved away, they would cook me sumptuous dinners on those holidays I breezed in from some far-away metropolis. But who would pick up popsicles and ginger ale when I am sick? Who would teach my son the patient care of tending tomatoes and rounding up cows? What would it mean to him, growing up without the pungent Georgia clay inside the grooves of his soccer cleats?
I suppose we could live someplace exciting. My five-year-old always prays “I wish we lived on the beach and never got sick.” Yet if we did, she would not know the way that wide green creek meanders lazily past our yard, and then ruffles into a hundred giggles before it disappears past the island. I could show her a picture, but somehow it just wouldn’t be the same.
#
I finally took the social networking plunge. I depend daily on Internet searches and email, and obtain most of my news about the world online. Like many people, I haven’t opened a paper phone book in years. I order videos from NetFlix, and watch my favorite TV shows online. And I blog. Of course I blog. Still, I’ve long been hesitant to throw my social fortunes to the winds of MySpace and FaceBook.
In connecting with old friends from high school, the first topic that comes up is often geography. Many of my schoolmates – especially those who showed great promise – have moved to Atlanta or some far-off metropolis to pursue a successful career. Economists and sociologists tell us to expect as much. Bedroom communities like Ringgold, Georgia, simply do not retain most of the talented young people who graduate from their schools. They go off to college and discover they have outgrown their own community. The place they called home does not offer employment opportunities that stimulate their interests and allow them to access (and afford) the lifestyle they became accustomed to at the university.
What is it, then, that holds some of us here when it would seem a relief to pack it up and move away? Some, perhaps, lack motivation. Most of us are just sentimental.
It is that curve in Chickamauga Creek that holds me, like a mother restraining a baby in the crook of her arm. I drive past it more often than not, failing to leave the comfort of my vehicle and my shoes and my dignity. I pledge to stop more often and stand on those wide, flat stones while the ice-cold water runs over the tops of my bare feet – all the while praying the moss doesn’t glide beneath my soles like a banana peel and send me flying backward to land in a splash of green water and lost dignity.
The train, too, holds me here rather than moving me on. I love to hear it thunder past the Depot on an opry night, the great wooden shutter doors trembling in their ancient track. Sometimes the musicians join the rhythm; other times they stop and listen to a mournful solo as the horn blows and the beast moves by. I place my hand flat against the stone walls and feel the pulse of that locomotive roaring northward only a few feet from my fingertips, moving us without taking us away.
I love the old things, like that hodge-podge of tin and wood over by Callaway’s store. I have been looking at that structure my whole life, and it occupies the frame of my existence. Business may take me to the shiny, neoclassic city hall, but my eye is always on that crazy quilt of tin sheets. I’m remembering a hundred indistinguishable Saturdays when my father backed up to their pickup-height loading dock, and familiar men with friendly faces tossed sweet corn into the back of our old Dodge while I went inside to ask a question about my horse or my lamb or my dog.
Yes, it’s really the people who keep me here. I do not want to live in a place where there is no one like Moses in the grocery store. He grins, golden tooth gleaming, and you know right away that a flame burns so brightly in his soul that it could never be snuffed out by bad weather or a squeaky grocery cart wheel. He sings his way through life, blessing everyone who comes near him with what he enthusiastically calls his “black magic.” Just watch sometime and see the shoppers walking into the grocery store tired, cranky and worried about what to make for dinner – then coming out with a lighter step despite the heavy sacks in their hands. Moses is not a bag boy or a grocery worker; he’s the town healer.
My family, too, is here. If I moved away, they would cook me sumptuous dinners on those holidays I breezed in from some far-away metropolis. But who would pick up popsicles and ginger ale when I am sick? Who would teach my son the patient care of tending tomatoes and rounding up cows? What would it mean to him, growing up without the pungent Georgia clay inside the grooves of his soccer cleats?
I suppose we could live someplace exciting. My five-year-old always prays “I wish we lived on the beach and never got sick.” Yet if we did, she would not know the way that wide green creek meanders lazily past our yard, and then ruffles into a hundred giggles before it disappears past the island. I could show her a picture, but somehow it just wouldn’t be the same.
#
Monday, January 26, 2009
Obama inauguration offers living history lesson
Many Georgia educators let the opportunity slide
On a Sunday afternoon, I watched via Internet as Barack Obama roared toward Washington, D.C. to the take the oath of office. Styling himself as a modern Abraham Lincoln, our new president retraced the pre-inauguration train journey traveled in 1861. At every stop, huge crowds braved sub-zero temperatures to catch a glimpse of the new leader of the free world, or to shout “Yes, We Can!” as the train rolls by.
As I watched that train roll toward the capitol, I thought of my friend Martha Archie. At birth she was named Martha Moss, and she grew up here in Ringgold, where her family is well-known and well-respected in the community. She graduated in 1964, the same year as both my parents. Yet even in this small town, my parents never met Martha Moss when they were teens. As an African-American, Martha Moss could not attend Ringgold High School.
Wilson High School was the school designated for students with darker skin. Situated down the hill from Ringgold High School (now the Middle School), Wilson offered education that was supposed to be “separate but equal.”
We were decorating a float for the Christmas parade the first time I heard of Wilson High School. Martha pointed out where Wilson High was housed, in what is now the ROTC building. Standing in the frigid wind with balloons in both hands, I cast my gaze from one school toward the other, and tried to imagine how two worlds could be so close and yet so segregated.
I should have realized there would have been two schools in my hometown, just as there were all across the South. I knew my parents lived through segregation and desegregation. My mother had told me about the separate drinking fountains in public places. As a child too young to understand, my mother had begged to drink from the fountain labeled “COLORED.” She thought the water would be tinted all the colors of the rainbow.
It is easier to imagine those things happened in Chattanooga, or down in Atlanta, or somewhere off in Alabama or Mississippi. We tend to downplay the history of racial tensions in our own hometowns. Certainly we would rather focus on the positive, like the gymnasium at Ringgold High School which is named after a black athlete. Neither do we like to remember that the KKK marched these streets not so long ago, and that black families in Ringgold were threatened in the 1960’s and even subjected to domestic terrorism that killed a mother in her bed.
We thirty-somethings do not go back that far. It’s difficult for us to comprehend how bad things really were. Today students of every skin tone mingle in the school yards. We have a city council that cares about all citizens, enough to remove a symbol that offends the black community. Then we see Barack Obama waving from the train car, and placing his hand on Lincoln’s inaugural Bible.
“Young people don’t understand how significant this is,” Martha told me the night of the parade. “They don’t remember what it was like, when you couldn’t even walk into a place and eat dinner.”
One reason young people don’t remember is because we, as a society, do not teach them. During all my years in Ringgold High School, no one ever spoke of Wilson High School. It was as if the black school had never existed, never left any imprint on this community, and did not even deserve acknowledgement.
No wonder American education lacks relevancy. We focus on the distant past that can be sanitized and analyzed, while ignoring the messy situations and overlapping voices that form real human history.
Students learn about Columbus every single year, but rarely are they taught about Clinton or Bush. Other powerful political figures like Nancy Pelosi, Karl Rove, Jesse Jackson and Dick Cheney hardly enter the classroom conversation, even though they have an enormous impact on our society and our world. Students learn how to calculate the height of a flag pole by measuring its shadow, but not how the World Trade Towers could have been protected from terrorism. They learn that the Civil War was about states’ rights and not just slavery, but they do not learn how to articulate both sides of the Iraq controversy.
Individual teachers cannot be blamed for a problem that is systematic. Georgia public education requires that every student in Georgia pass the same end-of-course tests. The advantage of the testing is that it standardizes Georgia education so that a diploma from one school is roughly equal to a diploma from another. The disadvantage is that it pressures teachers to neglect creativity and relevancy in favor of homogeny and “teaching to the test.” Standardization seeks to make all students the same, not better.
Students need to learn what is going on in the world right now. They need to read newspapers in the classroom. They need to have sources like National Geographic at their disposal –not just buried in the library, but open on their desks. NPR and CNN should be played in the classroom from time to time.
The inauguration of Barack Obama was a watershed moment in American history. Whether you love him or hate him, he has changed the face of American politics forever. In Washington, millions gathered to experience it.
Around the country, many homeschool parents seized the opportunity to teach their children about the political process all year long. They printed maps for their children to color as the state-by-state election results came in. They took their children on the campaign trail for one of the candidates. Not constrained by having to board a school bus at dawn, many homeschooled students stayed up to watch the election results rolling in at midnight. On January 20th, most of those families turned on the TV to witness America once again transfer power without violence.
Likewise, in a few public and private school classrooms, resourceful teachers do make a point of teaching students about politics without indoctrinating them. On Tuesday, some of those teachers recognized the importance of the moment, and turned on the TV. Sadly, others did not. In fact, some Georgia schools were forced by parents to offer an alternative activity, because parents protested that the inauguration was not educational. Other schools just failed to see the significance of the event and did not plan accordingly.
Nothing else that happened on Tuesday, January 20, 2009, held more educational significance than the inauguration of a new American President. How could printed words in a textbook compare to watching history unfold before us? The speeches delivered at the inauguration contained compelling history lessons, even as they became part of that recorded history. Art, music, poetry, prose and architecture were on display. Most of the important political figures whose names are not being taught at these schools were standing in the audience with their families. The event presented a massive array of teaching opportunities on politics, history, culture, literature, science and math.
Of my six children, only one attends public school. She is the only one who was prevented from watching the inauguration. Next election, I will be keeping my children home so they can learn.
#
On a Sunday afternoon, I watched via Internet as Barack Obama roared toward Washington, D.C. to the take the oath of office. Styling himself as a modern Abraham Lincoln, our new president retraced the pre-inauguration train journey traveled in 1861. At every stop, huge crowds braved sub-zero temperatures to catch a glimpse of the new leader of the free world, or to shout “Yes, We Can!” as the train rolls by.
As I watched that train roll toward the capitol, I thought of my friend Martha Archie. At birth she was named Martha Moss, and she grew up here in Ringgold, where her family is well-known and well-respected in the community. She graduated in 1964, the same year as both my parents. Yet even in this small town, my parents never met Martha Moss when they were teens. As an African-American, Martha Moss could not attend Ringgold High School.
Wilson High School was the school designated for students with darker skin. Situated down the hill from Ringgold High School (now the Middle School), Wilson offered education that was supposed to be “separate but equal.”
We were decorating a float for the Christmas parade the first time I heard of Wilson High School. Martha pointed out where Wilson High was housed, in what is now the ROTC building. Standing in the frigid wind with balloons in both hands, I cast my gaze from one school toward the other, and tried to imagine how two worlds could be so close and yet so segregated.
I should have realized there would have been two schools in my hometown, just as there were all across the South. I knew my parents lived through segregation and desegregation. My mother had told me about the separate drinking fountains in public places. As a child too young to understand, my mother had begged to drink from the fountain labeled “COLORED.” She thought the water would be tinted all the colors of the rainbow.
It is easier to imagine those things happened in Chattanooga, or down in Atlanta, or somewhere off in Alabama or Mississippi. We tend to downplay the history of racial tensions in our own hometowns. Certainly we would rather focus on the positive, like the gymnasium at Ringgold High School which is named after a black athlete. Neither do we like to remember that the KKK marched these streets not so long ago, and that black families in Ringgold were threatened in the 1960’s and even subjected to domestic terrorism that killed a mother in her bed.
We thirty-somethings do not go back that far. It’s difficult for us to comprehend how bad things really were. Today students of every skin tone mingle in the school yards. We have a city council that cares about all citizens, enough to remove a symbol that offends the black community. Then we see Barack Obama waving from the train car, and placing his hand on Lincoln’s inaugural Bible.
“Young people don’t understand how significant this is,” Martha told me the night of the parade. “They don’t remember what it was like, when you couldn’t even walk into a place and eat dinner.”
One reason young people don’t remember is because we, as a society, do not teach them. During all my years in Ringgold High School, no one ever spoke of Wilson High School. It was as if the black school had never existed, never left any imprint on this community, and did not even deserve acknowledgement.
No wonder American education lacks relevancy. We focus on the distant past that can be sanitized and analyzed, while ignoring the messy situations and overlapping voices that form real human history.
Students learn about Columbus every single year, but rarely are they taught about Clinton or Bush. Other powerful political figures like Nancy Pelosi, Karl Rove, Jesse Jackson and Dick Cheney hardly enter the classroom conversation, even though they have an enormous impact on our society and our world. Students learn how to calculate the height of a flag pole by measuring its shadow, but not how the World Trade Towers could have been protected from terrorism. They learn that the Civil War was about states’ rights and not just slavery, but they do not learn how to articulate both sides of the Iraq controversy.
Individual teachers cannot be blamed for a problem that is systematic. Georgia public education requires that every student in Georgia pass the same end-of-course tests. The advantage of the testing is that it standardizes Georgia education so that a diploma from one school is roughly equal to a diploma from another. The disadvantage is that it pressures teachers to neglect creativity and relevancy in favor of homogeny and “teaching to the test.” Standardization seeks to make all students the same, not better.
Students need to learn what is going on in the world right now. They need to read newspapers in the classroom. They need to have sources like National Geographic at their disposal –not just buried in the library, but open on their desks. NPR and CNN should be played in the classroom from time to time.
The inauguration of Barack Obama was a watershed moment in American history. Whether you love him or hate him, he has changed the face of American politics forever. In Washington, millions gathered to experience it.
Around the country, many homeschool parents seized the opportunity to teach their children about the political process all year long. They printed maps for their children to color as the state-by-state election results came in. They took their children on the campaign trail for one of the candidates. Not constrained by having to board a school bus at dawn, many homeschooled students stayed up to watch the election results rolling in at midnight. On January 20th, most of those families turned on the TV to witness America once again transfer power without violence.
Likewise, in a few public and private school classrooms, resourceful teachers do make a point of teaching students about politics without indoctrinating them. On Tuesday, some of those teachers recognized the importance of the moment, and turned on the TV. Sadly, others did not. In fact, some Georgia schools were forced by parents to offer an alternative activity, because parents protested that the inauguration was not educational. Other schools just failed to see the significance of the event and did not plan accordingly.
Nothing else that happened on Tuesday, January 20, 2009, held more educational significance than the inauguration of a new American President. How could printed words in a textbook compare to watching history unfold before us? The speeches delivered at the inauguration contained compelling history lessons, even as they became part of that recorded history. Art, music, poetry, prose and architecture were on display. Most of the important political figures whose names are not being taught at these schools were standing in the audience with their families. The event presented a massive array of teaching opportunities on politics, history, culture, literature, science and math.
Of my six children, only one attends public school. She is the only one who was prevented from watching the inauguration. Next election, I will be keeping my children home so they can learn.
#
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Confederate flag represents both heritage and hate
City of Ringgold stands strong against pressure
In recent weeks, news outlets have carried the story of a battle between the city of Ringgold, Georgia and “Southern rights” groups. I use quotes because these groups seem to be concerned about the rights of only some Southerners -- namely those who are white and cling to the notion that “the South’s gonna do it again.” Their concern for the rights of black Southerners is particularly underwhelming.
The American Civil War is unique in that the federal government sought to restore rather than destroy the rebels. The winners chose to honor the losers. It’s true that plenty of exploitation went on following the Civil War, including political corruption and “carpetbaggers” who came down from the North to prey on the disaffected southerners and snap up failing estates. Still, the Union pursued an overarching theme of reconciliation. Men who raised arms against their country were granted a presidential pardon. Even the generals, who resigned their position with the Union army in order to fight against it, were pardoned in full.
The United States immortalizes soldiers who fought on both sides of the conflict, erecting monuments in honor of both Confederate and Union victories. As such, the Confederacy has been venerated rather than condemned in American history.
It’s no surprise that many Georgians still cling to the image of a noble Confederacy. Georgia is the home of die-hards. We value independence. We mistrust Big Government. We are proud and we are stubborn – and we consider it an honor when someone tells us so.
We are also a family-oriented people, bound to revere the blood that once spilled on the grass, yet still flows through our own veins. It is natural that we want to honor and defend our Confederate ancestors – who probably never even owned slaves, and fought valiantly for what they believed was right.
As Lincoln famously stated when dedicating the battlefield at Gettysburg, “It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.” And we do. Thousands of acres of fields and monuments, numerous museums, battalions of re-enactors, along with dozens of country tunes, ghost stories, and an entire genre of literature ensure that we will never forget.
But is it altogether fitting and proper to continue flying the Confederate flag – and indeed, not just any Confederate flag but the actual battle flag – over public buildings in Georgia today? Can white Georgians claim the right to keep waving that emblem in the face of other Georgians who experienced attacks and demonstrations, feared lynching, and faced every kind of discrimination?
Perhaps we can, legally –but that does not mean we should? I applaud the City of Ringgold for taking a stand back in 2005 when the city council voted 3-2 to remove the flag. I applaud the city again today for standing firm against pressure and even lawsuits from radical extremists.
As for historical accuracy, the city has done its homework and determined that the blue and white flag of General Patrick Cleburne was the flag flown at the depot during the Civil War. At the Battle of Ringgold Gap, no flag was flying; it was an ambush.
If historical authenticity is the goal, the city already has the right flag flying. But what if the goal is something else? Consider the battle over Georgia’s state flag, for example.
Those who pine for “the real Georgia flag” are not aiming for historical accuracy. The flag of 1956 had never before been a Georgia state flag. In fact, no previous Georgia flag featured the Confederate battle cross. The flag of 1956 was introduced as an act of resistance against Civil Rights progress – especially Brown v. Board of Education, which declared segregated education unlawful. Adding the Confederate battle cross to the Georgia state flag was clearly a slap in the face of black Georgians, and many still feel its sting.
Ironically, the United Daughters of the Confederacy spoke against the adoption of the 1956 flag, warning that it would cause strife. They upheld the then-current Georgia flag as a more pure commemoration of the Confederacy. In fact, the pre-1956 flag was almost a replica of the “stars and bars” flown as the first national flag of the Confederacy. The Perdue flag that we fly today is also based closely on that Confederate flag.
If Georgians ever want a historically accurate flag that does not stir up racial tensions, one is available. The original Georgia flag depicted the state seal on a field of deep blue – no stars, no bars, and no battle emblems.
Does the Confederate battle flag represent heritage or hatred? The answer is yes. It represents a heritage that included hatred. Humans were bought and sold like livestock – and our culture declared that such practices were condoned or even mandated by God. Hatred also reigned during the 50’s (and before and after) when crosses were burned and bombs were detonated in Catoosa County. Hatred still clings to the Southern culture today. Hatred is not always passionate and fiery. It may manifest in simple disregard. Hatred may say, “This is my right, and I don’t care who it hurts.”
For some people, waving that rebel flag is way to curse the present times when they must compete alongside people of color in the job market. Their romanticism of the Old South knows no bounds. It’s as if these people watched “Gone with the Wind” and believed that life was really like that. They imagine debutante parties on big plantations, black slaves who loved their bonds and were considered part of the master’s family – well, the cotton-picking part of the family anyway.
Perhaps these would-be Confederates imagine that if the North had not intervened, they would be standing on a balcony with a woman in a big hoop skirt while a black person stood by silently fanning them, like a human appliance. Of course, this reality existed only for a few. The truth is that there were as many poor white people in Georgia as there were black slaves.
If these “Sons of Confederates” want to get back the Good Ole Days, they ought to climb into their overalls and start picking cotton. That’s what most of our Southern ancestors did. They worked the land, they scraped by, and they were lucky if they had a pair of shoes on their feet. In many ways, their life was not much different than the black slaves who worked the fields of the rich. But at least they were free.
The rest of us are happy to honor dead Americans on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line – once in a while and with historical perspective. We can appreciate the ideals behind the struggle and the bravery of those involved without condoning the more sinister agendas that propelled both sides into battle. We know the history, and we have no desire to turn back the clock.
For those who insist on flying the Confederate flag – just fly it on your own property. Fly the Bonnie Blue secession flag bearing a single star. Fly the battle flag with Saint Andrew’s cross. Fly the 1956 segregation flag. Fly a swastika if you prefer. But do not pretend that your actions don’t hurt or anger some of your neighbors, and embarrass the rest of us.
copyright Jeannie Babb Taylor
www.JeannieBabbTaylor.com
In recent weeks, news outlets have carried the story of a battle between the city of Ringgold, Georgia and “Southern rights” groups. I use quotes because these groups seem to be concerned about the rights of only some Southerners -- namely those who are white and cling to the notion that “the South’s gonna do it again.” Their concern for the rights of black Southerners is particularly underwhelming.
The American Civil War is unique in that the federal government sought to restore rather than destroy the rebels. The winners chose to honor the losers. It’s true that plenty of exploitation went on following the Civil War, including political corruption and “carpetbaggers” who came down from the North to prey on the disaffected southerners and snap up failing estates. Still, the Union pursued an overarching theme of reconciliation. Men who raised arms against their country were granted a presidential pardon. Even the generals, who resigned their position with the Union army in order to fight against it, were pardoned in full.
The United States immortalizes soldiers who fought on both sides of the conflict, erecting monuments in honor of both Confederate and Union victories. As such, the Confederacy has been venerated rather than condemned in American history.
It’s no surprise that many Georgians still cling to the image of a noble Confederacy. Georgia is the home of die-hards. We value independence. We mistrust Big Government. We are proud and we are stubborn – and we consider it an honor when someone tells us so.
We are also a family-oriented people, bound to revere the blood that once spilled on the grass, yet still flows through our own veins. It is natural that we want to honor and defend our Confederate ancestors – who probably never even owned slaves, and fought valiantly for what they believed was right.
As Lincoln famously stated when dedicating the battlefield at Gettysburg, “It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.” And we do. Thousands of acres of fields and monuments, numerous museums, battalions of re-enactors, along with dozens of country tunes, ghost stories, and an entire genre of literature ensure that we will never forget.
But is it altogether fitting and proper to continue flying the Confederate flag – and indeed, not just any Confederate flag but the actual battle flag – over public buildings in Georgia today? Can white Georgians claim the right to keep waving that emblem in the face of other Georgians who experienced attacks and demonstrations, feared lynching, and faced every kind of discrimination?
Perhaps we can, legally –but that does not mean we should? I applaud the City of Ringgold for taking a stand back in 2005 when the city council voted 3-2 to remove the flag. I applaud the city again today for standing firm against pressure and even lawsuits from radical extremists.
As for historical accuracy, the city has done its homework and determined that the blue and white flag of General Patrick Cleburne was the flag flown at the depot during the Civil War. At the Battle of Ringgold Gap, no flag was flying; it was an ambush.
If historical authenticity is the goal, the city already has the right flag flying. But what if the goal is something else? Consider the battle over Georgia’s state flag, for example.
Those who pine for “the real Georgia flag” are not aiming for historical accuracy. The flag of 1956 had never before been a Georgia state flag. In fact, no previous Georgia flag featured the Confederate battle cross. The flag of 1956 was introduced as an act of resistance against Civil Rights progress – especially Brown v. Board of Education, which declared segregated education unlawful. Adding the Confederate battle cross to the Georgia state flag was clearly a slap in the face of black Georgians, and many still feel its sting.
Ironically, the United Daughters of the Confederacy spoke against the adoption of the 1956 flag, warning that it would cause strife. They upheld the then-current Georgia flag as a more pure commemoration of the Confederacy. In fact, the pre-1956 flag was almost a replica of the “stars and bars” flown as the first national flag of the Confederacy. The Perdue flag that we fly today is also based closely on that Confederate flag.
If Georgians ever want a historically accurate flag that does not stir up racial tensions, one is available. The original Georgia flag depicted the state seal on a field of deep blue – no stars, no bars, and no battle emblems.
Does the Confederate battle flag represent heritage or hatred? The answer is yes. It represents a heritage that included hatred. Humans were bought and sold like livestock – and our culture declared that such practices were condoned or even mandated by God. Hatred also reigned during the 50’s (and before and after) when crosses were burned and bombs were detonated in Catoosa County. Hatred still clings to the Southern culture today. Hatred is not always passionate and fiery. It may manifest in simple disregard. Hatred may say, “This is my right, and I don’t care who it hurts.”
For some people, waving that rebel flag is way to curse the present times when they must compete alongside people of color in the job market. Their romanticism of the Old South knows no bounds. It’s as if these people watched “Gone with the Wind” and believed that life was really like that. They imagine debutante parties on big plantations, black slaves who loved their bonds and were considered part of the master’s family – well, the cotton-picking part of the family anyway.
Perhaps these would-be Confederates imagine that if the North had not intervened, they would be standing on a balcony with a woman in a big hoop skirt while a black person stood by silently fanning them, like a human appliance. Of course, this reality existed only for a few. The truth is that there were as many poor white people in Georgia as there were black slaves.
If these “Sons of Confederates” want to get back the Good Ole Days, they ought to climb into their overalls and start picking cotton. That’s what most of our Southern ancestors did. They worked the land, they scraped by, and they were lucky if they had a pair of shoes on their feet. In many ways, their life was not much different than the black slaves who worked the fields of the rich. But at least they were free.
The rest of us are happy to honor dead Americans on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line – once in a while and with historical perspective. We can appreciate the ideals behind the struggle and the bravery of those involved without condoning the more sinister agendas that propelled both sides into battle. We know the history, and we have no desire to turn back the clock.
For those who insist on flying the Confederate flag – just fly it on your own property. Fly the Bonnie Blue secession flag bearing a single star. Fly the battle flag with Saint Andrew’s cross. Fly the 1956 segregation flag. Fly a swastika if you prefer. But do not pretend that your actions don’t hurt or anger some of your neighbors, and embarrass the rest of us.
copyright Jeannie Babb Taylor
www.JeannieBabbTaylor.com
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Homeschooling grows up
Self-educated families enjoy more options than ever before
If the term “homeschool” conjures images of identically-dressed elementary students filling out workbooks around the kitchen table and later winning the state spelling bee, your ideas about the practice are outdated. That’s not to say there are no kitchen tables or spelling bees involved, but there are as many ways to homeschool as there are families who fill out the Declaration of Intent each fall.
In some families, homeschool literally means school at home. You’ll find the walls lined with shelved textbooks and dry-erase boards. Carefully designed curriculums and meticulous schedules guide the students from one grade to the next, following a scope-and-sequence much like that found in public schools. A transcript is steadily assembled which looks very much like a public school transcript, with standard classes listed, a GPA calculated, and extra-curricular activities noted to the side.
In other homes, learning is far more organic. The textbooks are still around, but are currently being used for reference guides, booster seats, or anatomical models for a budding artist. Students may be found lying on the floor playing with a scientific calculator, hunched over a laptop writing a novel, or out in the driveway on rollerblades. More likely, the students won’t be home at all. The parents have become facilitators, relinquishing their teaching roles to spend their time obtaining requested materials or driving their students around town. These kids direct their own education without regard for whether it can be articulated in the common language of transcripts and GPA’s.
While some homeschool families are learning outside the box, others are finding innovative ways to recreate the box. The array of classes, co-ops and alternative learning groups continues to grow. Students can take classes ranging from core subjects like Algebra to extra-curriculars like fencing or writing fantasy literature. They can dress up for the homeschool prom and even participate in a graduation exercise.
Many of the efforts are student initiatives. Consider the Homeschool Shakespeare Troupe, for example. Originally launched by parents, the eight-month-long endeavor is now led mostly by homeschool graduates. They conduct auditions in February so the actors will have months to learn their lines. During the summer, organizers host a week-long Shakespeare camp where students learn stage terms and participate in drama workshops. The actors sew their own costumes and speak to each other in Elizabethan English, creating their own Shakespearean culture. The week culminates with dress rehearsal and then a very professional performance in a packed theatre. The troupe is growing so rapidly, organizers have decided to schedule two shows this year.
In every sizable town, classes and tutoring are offered by homeschool parents who are especially proficient in a specific area such as foreign language. Sometimes the tutoring becomes a lucrative business or even a small school with multiple teachers offering weekly classes to area students.
Other times it happens the other way around: The parents join together to form a cooperative and bring in a teacher. One of the most successful area co-ops is right here in Catoosa County.
On Friday mornings, students from all over the tri-state area converge on Poplar Springs Baptist Church in Ringgold. The parking lot is filled with mini-vans. Teenagers mill around the yard with backpacks slung over their shoulders, greeting each other and talking to the younger children who stream past. Some of the students carry musical instruments. Another has a basketball tucked under his arm.
The range of electives offered by the co-op continues to grow, including foreign language and upper math classes at the request of parents, and a journalism class at the request of students. The kids at the co-op form their own coalitions, organizing pickup basketball games and Friday night bowling plans.
One day a girl brought her fiddle to the co-op. The next week, a viola and a harp appeared on campus. Soon the students had formed their own Celtic ensemble called The Revelations.
Today’s homeschooling families are less rigid than in the past. Some make occasional use of public and private schools, as well as participating in the aforementioned co-ops and classes. Many families have some children in school and others learning at home.
As the homeschool population has grown, expanded, and become more mainstream, colleges have become more accepting of students educated at home. Some colleges actively recruit them. Covenant College, for example, boasts that 17% of new admissions are homeschooled students.
Homeschoolers are not so different from other kids. They grow through the same ages and stages, finding their identity and ferreting out their interests like anyone else. Some of them are brilliant, and others struggle with basic math.
Still, these students are growing up in a different paradigm. Their world is structured to meet their needs and help them grow. Public and private schools attempt much the same thing, but with the necessary assumption that most kids need the same things at the same times. The homeschool world is far more individualized.
Homeschooling is not new. Throughout history, families have educated their own children for numerous reasons. Pioneers taught their own children when schools were not available. Author Louisa May Alcott recounts in the autobiographal “Little Women” how her mother pulled her little sister out of school in response to a teacher’s cruelty. Thomas Edison, Benjamin Franklin, Virginia Woolf and other well-known geniuses received their educations at home. Figure-skaters, child actors and other prodigies have often been tutored privately.
Ansel Adams, arguably the greatest photographer of the twentieth century, was educated at home. In his autobiography, Adams wrote, “I often wonder at the strength and courage my father had in taking me out of the traditional school situation and providing me with these extraordinary learning experiences. I am certain he established the positive direction of my life that otherwise, given my native hyperactivity, could have been confused and catastrophic. I trace who I am and the direction of my development to those years of growing up in our house on the dunes, propelled especially by an internal spark tenderly kept alive and glowing by my father.”
Nurturing the internal spark inside each student is the true goal of home education. It is a goal shared by quality educators everywhere, whether they teach students in a two-story public school house, around a kitchen table, or in the church gymnasium.
If the term “homeschool” conjures images of identically-dressed elementary students filling out workbooks around the kitchen table and later winning the state spelling bee, your ideas about the practice are outdated. That’s not to say there are no kitchen tables or spelling bees involved, but there are as many ways to homeschool as there are families who fill out the Declaration of Intent each fall.
In some families, homeschool literally means school at home. You’ll find the walls lined with shelved textbooks and dry-erase boards. Carefully designed curriculums and meticulous schedules guide the students from one grade to the next, following a scope-and-sequence much like that found in public schools. A transcript is steadily assembled which looks very much like a public school transcript, with standard classes listed, a GPA calculated, and extra-curricular activities noted to the side.
In other homes, learning is far more organic. The textbooks are still around, but are currently being used for reference guides, booster seats, or anatomical models for a budding artist. Students may be found lying on the floor playing with a scientific calculator, hunched over a laptop writing a novel, or out in the driveway on rollerblades. More likely, the students won’t be home at all. The parents have become facilitators, relinquishing their teaching roles to spend their time obtaining requested materials or driving their students around town. These kids direct their own education without regard for whether it can be articulated in the common language of transcripts and GPA’s.
While some homeschool families are learning outside the box, others are finding innovative ways to recreate the box. The array of classes, co-ops and alternative learning groups continues to grow. Students can take classes ranging from core subjects like Algebra to extra-curriculars like fencing or writing fantasy literature. They can dress up for the homeschool prom and even participate in a graduation exercise.
Many of the efforts are student initiatives. Consider the Homeschool Shakespeare Troupe, for example. Originally launched by parents, the eight-month-long endeavor is now led mostly by homeschool graduates. They conduct auditions in February so the actors will have months to learn their lines. During the summer, organizers host a week-long Shakespeare camp where students learn stage terms and participate in drama workshops. The actors sew their own costumes and speak to each other in Elizabethan English, creating their own Shakespearean culture. The week culminates with dress rehearsal and then a very professional performance in a packed theatre. The troupe is growing so rapidly, organizers have decided to schedule two shows this year.
In every sizable town, classes and tutoring are offered by homeschool parents who are especially proficient in a specific area such as foreign language. Sometimes the tutoring becomes a lucrative business or even a small school with multiple teachers offering weekly classes to area students.
Other times it happens the other way around: The parents join together to form a cooperative and bring in a teacher. One of the most successful area co-ops is right here in Catoosa County.
On Friday mornings, students from all over the tri-state area converge on Poplar Springs Baptist Church in Ringgold. The parking lot is filled with mini-vans. Teenagers mill around the yard with backpacks slung over their shoulders, greeting each other and talking to the younger children who stream past. Some of the students carry musical instruments. Another has a basketball tucked under his arm.
The range of electives offered by the co-op continues to grow, including foreign language and upper math classes at the request of parents, and a journalism class at the request of students. The kids at the co-op form their own coalitions, organizing pickup basketball games and Friday night bowling plans.
One day a girl brought her fiddle to the co-op. The next week, a viola and a harp appeared on campus. Soon the students had formed their own Celtic ensemble called The Revelations.
Today’s homeschooling families are less rigid than in the past. Some make occasional use of public and private schools, as well as participating in the aforementioned co-ops and classes. Many families have some children in school and others learning at home.
As the homeschool population has grown, expanded, and become more mainstream, colleges have become more accepting of students educated at home. Some colleges actively recruit them. Covenant College, for example, boasts that 17% of new admissions are homeschooled students.
Homeschoolers are not so different from other kids. They grow through the same ages and stages, finding their identity and ferreting out their interests like anyone else. Some of them are brilliant, and others struggle with basic math.
Still, these students are growing up in a different paradigm. Their world is structured to meet their needs and help them grow. Public and private schools attempt much the same thing, but with the necessary assumption that most kids need the same things at the same times. The homeschool world is far more individualized.
Homeschooling is not new. Throughout history, families have educated their own children for numerous reasons. Pioneers taught their own children when schools were not available. Author Louisa May Alcott recounts in the autobiographal “Little Women” how her mother pulled her little sister out of school in response to a teacher’s cruelty. Thomas Edison, Benjamin Franklin, Virginia Woolf and other well-known geniuses received their educations at home. Figure-skaters, child actors and other prodigies have often been tutored privately.
Ansel Adams, arguably the greatest photographer of the twentieth century, was educated at home. In his autobiography, Adams wrote, “I often wonder at the strength and courage my father had in taking me out of the traditional school situation and providing me with these extraordinary learning experiences. I am certain he established the positive direction of my life that otherwise, given my native hyperactivity, could have been confused and catastrophic. I trace who I am and the direction of my development to those years of growing up in our house on the dunes, propelled especially by an internal spark tenderly kept alive and glowing by my father.”
Nurturing the internal spark inside each student is the true goal of home education. It is a goal shared by quality educators everywhere, whether they teach students in a two-story public school house, around a kitchen table, or in the church gymnasium.
Monday, November 5, 2007
GREAT big sales tax, GREAT big power grab
Remember when Republicans were against big government? At least that’s what they said. Georgia GOP House Speaker Glenn Richardson is revising our tax system to centralize power into the hands of Big Government. This power grab will be funded by a high sales tax that will drive business out of Georgia, hike up the cost of living, and tax the daylights out of everything that breathes.
This week, I’ll explain how Richardson’s plan hurts taxpayers and local governments. Next week, we’ll look at the effect on Georgia businesses and unemployment.
Richardson calls it the GREAT Plan: Georgia’s Repeal of Every Ad valorem Tax. (The acronym should be GREAVT, but perhaps that sounded too much like grave or gravy.) He says he will make it illegal for counties to tax property, automobiles and boats. He says he will make up for lost county revenue with sales tax. Of course, that’s not mathematically possible without either raising the sales tax rate outright (which he claims he won’t do) or hiding additional sales taxes other places. By focusing on the repeal, Richardson hopes you won’t notice his funny math, and all the tax he’s adding elsewhere.
Richardson wants to expand the sales tax to cover anything that can be bought and sold, including services. Imagine paying sales tax for groceries, prescriptions, yard work, and even doctor visits.
But that’s still not enough revenue. In order to replace $9 billion in property taxes, Richardson must squeeze an extra $1,000 out of every man, woman and child in Georgia. At 4%, each Georgian would have to spend $25,000 in services per year. It just won’t work. Georgians only average $24,000 total spending per person. They can’t spend more on services alone than they spend altogether.
Rest assured, Richardson is not willing to give up one dollar of tax revenue. Georgia’s big government still has the same bills as before, and Richardson claims that local schools and municipalities will not be short-changed by the new system. All of the funds to operate Georgia will still come from taxes – that is, from us taxpayers.
Richardson has creative ways to extract these funds from you: multiple sales tax charges on every item. Currently the consumer pays sales tax just once, when an item is purchased at the store. Under the GREAT big tax, business-to-business transactions and raw materials will also be charged. Although he claims he will hold the line at 4%, the sales tax is much higher than that when you factor in the multiple instances of taxation before a product reaches the end user.
Imagine, for example, a loaf of bread. Under the GREAT big tax, bread and other groceries are no longer exempt from sales tax. Neither are raw materials or freight. The bakery will pay sales tax on the flour, the yeast, the packaging, and also the freight to get those goods to the bakery. Then the retail store will pay sales tax when purchasing the bread from the bakery. The same loaf of bread will get taxed at least three times. With most products, there are even more distribution and manufacturing layers.
All of this additional sales tax ends up tacked onto the final retail price – and taxed again at the checkout. Business-to-business taxes do not escalate in a straight line because of the tax on tax. When a product goes through several steps to reach the consumer (as nearly everything does), a so-called 4% sales tax may cost the consumer 20%.
Still other new taxes are concealed in the loaf of bread. What about the sales tax paid through the marketing firm who wrote the advertising campaign, and the sales tax paid through the newspaper who ran the ad? The store will also pay sales tax through the companies that clean its rugs and trim its lawn. All of these additional taxes end up in the price of a loaf of bread, where they are taxed yet again.
GOP House Speaker Glenn Richardson may not be trying to bankrupt consumers. His real goal is to take the reigns from local government. By eliminating property taxes, the Speaker can micro-manage every county.
Property taxes are paid to the county and used in the county. Property taxes support our local government and our county schools. Under the new plan, counties and municipalities lose the ability to set, collect, and disburse property tax monies. Instead, the lost revenue will be replaced with sales tax collected by the state. And guess who’s holding the purse strings? The Georgia House of Representatives, which Richardson rules with an iron fist.
In other words, Richardson wants to eliminate a tax which is locally controlled and replace it with a tax that he controls. The state gives up nothing, and gains control over everything. Counties, municipalities, and schools will have to go begging to the General Assembly for every dime. The goal of local elections will be finding Richardson cronies who can stay on the volatile Speaker’s sunny side.
The GREAT big sales tax does not eliminate programs like SPLOST which add local sales tax on top of state sales tax. In fact, Richardson wants to expand local option sales tax so that counties can use the money for maintenance and operation. Now, why would counties need operating funds if he were really going to make sure that local governments receive the same funds as before?
It is easy to see what will happen. As local governments and schools cower at Richardson’s feet begging for funds, they will be forced to cover shortfalls. Since property taxes will be illegal, local governments will demand even more local option sales tax on the top of the GREAT big sales tax. By this time consumers may not be able to afford a cup of coffee.
Understandably, local government officials all over Georgia oppose the plan. In fact, many of them dispute the figures. Tom Gehl, spokesman for the Georgia Municipal Association put it like this, “The speaker has a right to his own opinion, but he doesn’t have a right to his own math.”
Citizens should oppose the plan, too. We may not agree with every decision that our local officials make, but we elected them. They work right here in our county, where we can drop in to talk to them about problems, stand up to speak at a local public meeting, and tell our friends to help us boot them out if they do us wrong. That is more difficult to do with state officials who have a broad voter base, work in Atlanta and often operate beneath a veil of secrecy.
State Reps Ron Forster (Catoosa/Whitfield) and Martin Scott (Dade/Walker) seem to be caught in the Speaker’s spell. State Senator Jeff Mullis is more lucid, even citing the local control issue -- yet he also praises Richardson for introducing the proposal.
The GREAT big sales tax is a great big disaster looming in Georgia’s future. It will strip local sovereignty and put entirely too much political power in the hands on one man.
Stay tuned next week to learn how Richardson’s GREAT big tax will result in a mass exodus of Georgia jobs.
Jeannie Babb Taylor
This week, I’ll explain how Richardson’s plan hurts taxpayers and local governments. Next week, we’ll look at the effect on Georgia businesses and unemployment.
Richardson calls it the GREAT Plan: Georgia’s Repeal of Every Ad valorem Tax. (The acronym should be GREAVT, but perhaps that sounded too much like grave or gravy.) He says he will make it illegal for counties to tax property, automobiles and boats. He says he will make up for lost county revenue with sales tax. Of course, that’s not mathematically possible without either raising the sales tax rate outright (which he claims he won’t do) or hiding additional sales taxes other places. By focusing on the repeal, Richardson hopes you won’t notice his funny math, and all the tax he’s adding elsewhere.
Richardson wants to expand the sales tax to cover anything that can be bought and sold, including services. Imagine paying sales tax for groceries, prescriptions, yard work, and even doctor visits.
But that’s still not enough revenue. In order to replace $9 billion in property taxes, Richardson must squeeze an extra $1,000 out of every man, woman and child in Georgia. At 4%, each Georgian would have to spend $25,000 in services per year. It just won’t work. Georgians only average $24,000 total spending per person. They can’t spend more on services alone than they spend altogether.
Rest assured, Richardson is not willing to give up one dollar of tax revenue. Georgia’s big government still has the same bills as before, and Richardson claims that local schools and municipalities will not be short-changed by the new system. All of the funds to operate Georgia will still come from taxes – that is, from us taxpayers.
Richardson has creative ways to extract these funds from you: multiple sales tax charges on every item. Currently the consumer pays sales tax just once, when an item is purchased at the store. Under the GREAT big tax, business-to-business transactions and raw materials will also be charged. Although he claims he will hold the line at 4%, the sales tax is much higher than that when you factor in the multiple instances of taxation before a product reaches the end user.
Imagine, for example, a loaf of bread. Under the GREAT big tax, bread and other groceries are no longer exempt from sales tax. Neither are raw materials or freight. The bakery will pay sales tax on the flour, the yeast, the packaging, and also the freight to get those goods to the bakery. Then the retail store will pay sales tax when purchasing the bread from the bakery. The same loaf of bread will get taxed at least three times. With most products, there are even more distribution and manufacturing layers.
All of this additional sales tax ends up tacked onto the final retail price – and taxed again at the checkout. Business-to-business taxes do not escalate in a straight line because of the tax on tax. When a product goes through several steps to reach the consumer (as nearly everything does), a so-called 4% sales tax may cost the consumer 20%.
Still other new taxes are concealed in the loaf of bread. What about the sales tax paid through the marketing firm who wrote the advertising campaign, and the sales tax paid through the newspaper who ran the ad? The store will also pay sales tax through the companies that clean its rugs and trim its lawn. All of these additional taxes end up in the price of a loaf of bread, where they are taxed yet again.
GOP House Speaker Glenn Richardson may not be trying to bankrupt consumers. His real goal is to take the reigns from local government. By eliminating property taxes, the Speaker can micro-manage every county.
Property taxes are paid to the county and used in the county. Property taxes support our local government and our county schools. Under the new plan, counties and municipalities lose the ability to set, collect, and disburse property tax monies. Instead, the lost revenue will be replaced with sales tax collected by the state. And guess who’s holding the purse strings? The Georgia House of Representatives, which Richardson rules with an iron fist.
In other words, Richardson wants to eliminate a tax which is locally controlled and replace it with a tax that he controls. The state gives up nothing, and gains control over everything. Counties, municipalities, and schools will have to go begging to the General Assembly for every dime. The goal of local elections will be finding Richardson cronies who can stay on the volatile Speaker’s sunny side.
The GREAT big sales tax does not eliminate programs like SPLOST which add local sales tax on top of state sales tax. In fact, Richardson wants to expand local option sales tax so that counties can use the money for maintenance and operation. Now, why would counties need operating funds if he were really going to make sure that local governments receive the same funds as before?
It is easy to see what will happen. As local governments and schools cower at Richardson’s feet begging for funds, they will be forced to cover shortfalls. Since property taxes will be illegal, local governments will demand even more local option sales tax on the top of the GREAT big sales tax. By this time consumers may not be able to afford a cup of coffee.
Understandably, local government officials all over Georgia oppose the plan. In fact, many of them dispute the figures. Tom Gehl, spokesman for the Georgia Municipal Association put it like this, “The speaker has a right to his own opinion, but he doesn’t have a right to his own math.”
Citizens should oppose the plan, too. We may not agree with every decision that our local officials make, but we elected them. They work right here in our county, where we can drop in to talk to them about problems, stand up to speak at a local public meeting, and tell our friends to help us boot them out if they do us wrong. That is more difficult to do with state officials who have a broad voter base, work in Atlanta and often operate beneath a veil of secrecy.
State Reps Ron Forster (Catoosa/Whitfield) and Martin Scott (Dade/Walker) seem to be caught in the Speaker’s spell. State Senator Jeff Mullis is more lucid, even citing the local control issue -- yet he also praises Richardson for introducing the proposal.
The GREAT big sales tax is a great big disaster looming in Georgia’s future. It will strip local sovereignty and put entirely too much political power in the hands on one man.
Stay tuned next week to learn how Richardson’s GREAT big tax will result in a mass exodus of Georgia jobs.
Jeannie Babb Taylor
Friday, November 2, 2007
Local government runs over produce stand
Nine years ago, Catoosa County residents Brenda and Ronnie Norris had a bumper crop of tomatoes. In a stroke of inspiration, Brenda set up two tables underneath a big shade tree on the corner of Three Notch and Poplar Springs.
“Do you have any squash?” customers would ask. Brenda would run over to the garden to see what she could find. “What about okra? Can you get any okra?”
Soon Shadetree Produce became a frequent stop for many Catoosa and Walker residents who pass that way. Ikey Land helped the Norrises construct a shelter of PVC and tarps. Ronnie Norris purchased the fruits and vegetables they could not grow, and the little business developed a loyal customer base. Many Shadetree customers are elderly and depend on the produce stand for fresh foods close to home.
Then someone decided that Shadetree Produce was in the way. The Norrises say they were informed by the county that a turn lane would be installed along the right-of-way in about three weeks. One week later, the roadwork team appeared, paving an 18-foot turn lane right over their driveway.
Ronnie Norris was at the market when they came, buying $700 of produce. All of it spoiled. In fact, the Norrises say they lost approximately $6,000 in revenue while the county was installing the turn lane. Brenda says the county would not let customers stop at the produce stand. “They were just waving them past.”
The workers left behind a black stretch of asphalt where the parking lot had been, with a guard rail nearly blocking entrance to the produce stand. “People started coming by, asking ‘Who’d you make mad?’” Brenda recalls.
Eva Hatcher, who lives on Poplar Springs Road and works at the produce stand, says that traffic is much worse now than before the turn lane was installed. Another possibility existed for the county – that of buying a nearby house that is for sale directly across from the Poplar Springs and Three Notch intersection, and accessing the new Heritage schools through that piece of property. This is a natural place to install a traffic light.
This is just another tale of how the county government walks on those it ought to serve. Rather than working with the Norrises to complete the turn lane without damaging their income, the county simply bulldozed them. They were not consulted – just as the fire departments were not consulted before Catoosa County Commissioners voted to advertise for a consolidated fire chief. They were merely informed, and not in time to react.
Fortunately, that’s not the end of the story for Ronnie and Brenda Norris. Shadetree Produce customers rallied to their support, encouraging them to revamp rather than close the stand. They took down the old PVC-and-tarp structure, and bought a metal building to replace it. Bobby Swanson Construction made them a good deal for construction of a small parking lot. Johnny Coots and Charles Simerley provided doors and windows for the new building.
Commissioner Bobby Winters, a frequent customer, brought in gravel to set the new building, and put in a Poplar Springs access drive. But when Ronnie suggested the Catoosa County should reimburse Shadetree for part of the business loss and cost of moving, he says Winters smiled and asked, “How would you prove it?”
Shadetree Produce is open seven days a week. Pumpkins are of course in season, as well as a variety of crunchy apples trucked in from Virginia due to the Georgia drought. They also have oranges and honeybells, which are a type of tangelo. The bell peppers were especially good last week. I served mine stuffed with corn chips, ground beef, tomato paste and rice, topped with parmesan and croutons.
Take some time this week to stop at a local produce stand. Eat in a restaurant where the name is not printed on the napkins, and where the woman who sets your plate on the table is likely the owner, or at least a cousin or a friend.
Buy a gift at a locally-owned shop, where the owner selects every item and places it lovingly on the shelf. The extra dollar you may spend builds up your county and makes it a better place to live. When we buy locally, we support our friends and neighbors instead of shifting jobs to underpaid workers in foreign countries. When we support local businesses, we are really giving back to ourselves.
“Do you have any squash?” customers would ask. Brenda would run over to the garden to see what she could find. “What about okra? Can you get any okra?”
Soon Shadetree Produce became a frequent stop for many Catoosa and Walker residents who pass that way. Ikey Land helped the Norrises construct a shelter of PVC and tarps. Ronnie Norris purchased the fruits and vegetables they could not grow, and the little business developed a loyal customer base. Many Shadetree customers are elderly and depend on the produce stand for fresh foods close to home.
Then someone decided that Shadetree Produce was in the way. The Norrises say they were informed by the county that a turn lane would be installed along the right-of-way in about three weeks. One week later, the roadwork team appeared, paving an 18-foot turn lane right over their driveway.
Ronnie Norris was at the market when they came, buying $700 of produce. All of it spoiled. In fact, the Norrises say they lost approximately $6,000 in revenue while the county was installing the turn lane. Brenda says the county would not let customers stop at the produce stand. “They were just waving them past.”
The workers left behind a black stretch of asphalt where the parking lot had been, with a guard rail nearly blocking entrance to the produce stand. “People started coming by, asking ‘Who’d you make mad?’” Brenda recalls.
Eva Hatcher, who lives on Poplar Springs Road and works at the produce stand, says that traffic is much worse now than before the turn lane was installed. Another possibility existed for the county – that of buying a nearby house that is for sale directly across from the Poplar Springs and Three Notch intersection, and accessing the new Heritage schools through that piece of property. This is a natural place to install a traffic light.
This is just another tale of how the county government walks on those it ought to serve. Rather than working with the Norrises to complete the turn lane without damaging their income, the county simply bulldozed them. They were not consulted – just as the fire departments were not consulted before Catoosa County Commissioners voted to advertise for a consolidated fire chief. They were merely informed, and not in time to react.
Fortunately, that’s not the end of the story for Ronnie and Brenda Norris. Shadetree Produce customers rallied to their support, encouraging them to revamp rather than close the stand. They took down the old PVC-and-tarp structure, and bought a metal building to replace it. Bobby Swanson Construction made them a good deal for construction of a small parking lot. Johnny Coots and Charles Simerley provided doors and windows for the new building.
Commissioner Bobby Winters, a frequent customer, brought in gravel to set the new building, and put in a Poplar Springs access drive. But when Ronnie suggested the Catoosa County should reimburse Shadetree for part of the business loss and cost of moving, he says Winters smiled and asked, “How would you prove it?”
Shadetree Produce is open seven days a week. Pumpkins are of course in season, as well as a variety of crunchy apples trucked in from Virginia due to the Georgia drought. They also have oranges and honeybells, which are a type of tangelo. The bell peppers were especially good last week. I served mine stuffed with corn chips, ground beef, tomato paste and rice, topped with parmesan and croutons.
Take some time this week to stop at a local produce stand. Eat in a restaurant where the name is not printed on the napkins, and where the woman who sets your plate on the table is likely the owner, or at least a cousin or a friend.
Buy a gift at a locally-owned shop, where the owner selects every item and places it lovingly on the shelf. The extra dollar you may spend builds up your county and makes it a better place to live. When we buy locally, we support our friends and neighbors instead of shifting jobs to underpaid workers in foreign countries. When we support local businesses, we are really giving back to ourselves.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Govenor's Cup inhibits SAT participation
The Governor’s Cup is empty. In 2003, newly elected Governor Sonny Perdue instituted the “Governor’s Cup Challenge” to reward schools for bringing up the average senior SAT score. He was trying to fulfill a campaign promise to bring Georgia’s average SAT up from “dead last.”
What Perdue didn’t tell us is why Georgia was dead last. Georgia has a 24% higher SAT participation rate than the national average. The side-effect of higher participation is a lower state SAT average, which is not necessarily a bad thing. It means that Georgia is committed to educating youth to face the challenges of tomorrow.
Other states do not have the HOPE Scholarship, which was instituted back in 1993 when Georgia was led by Democrats. HOPE offers a full-tuition scholarship to every Georgia student who graduates high school with a “B” average and is accepted to a state college.
In Georgia, HOPE has given over a million additional students the incentive to take the SAT and the ability to follow through with a college education. Because we have HOPE, about 66% of our high school seniors take the SAT, compared to 42% nationally.
Higher participation rates correlate with lower average SAT scores. This is because students from wealthier, college-educated families tend to score higher. In states without something like HOPE, those are the students taking the SAT because those are the students who can afford to go to college. In states like Georgia where college tuition assistance is readily available, a wider variety of students take the SAT, bringing down the average score.
In 2001, well before Perdue promised to raise Georgia’s SAT average, experts had already pronounced state SAT rankings “worse than meaningless.” Ball State University conducted a study of state SAT rankings and discovered that the numbers revealed almost nothing about the quality of education or the college-readiness of a particular region.
The SAT is voluntary by nature. Not all students take it. Thus, an SAT score can only measure the scholastic aptitude of one student at a time. It was never intended to measure the academic prowess of a school, a region, or a state.
Yet Perdue instituted a policy that pits neighboring schools in competition for the highest SAT average. Why? We already have standardized tests, given to every student rather than just the brightest and best. These are the tests designed to measure the annual yearly progress of our schools.
A cynical person might think Perdue chose to use the SAT precisely because schools can manipulate participation in order to control the average result. Because the SAT is not required of all students, school faculty may wield influence over which students take the test. By encouraging only the best and brightest to take the SAT, school averages improve, our state ranking climbs, and Perdue can pretend that he is “the education governor.”
Perdue’s contest allows school participation if even twenty seniors take the test. To tweak the average, some schools exert influence over potential SAT-takers. They can encourage smart seniors to take the SAT, and discourage or ignore those who are likely to bring down school scores. They can offer test training in upper level courses to help the “winners” – and let the mediocre students slip through the cracks.
One principal said he made high math and English grades a “prerequisite” for taking the SAT. There is no real prerequisite for taking the SAT. Students can take the SAT as early and as often as they like, no matter what courses they have completed. Last spring my twelve-year-old took the SAT.
In fact, course grades are not necessarily indicative of how well a particular student will perform on the test. The SAT measures not only what a student has learned, but also her ability to engage in problem-solving. Many students with mediocre course performance find their saving grace (and college admission) in the SAT.
The other reason schools cannot create a legitimate prerequisite is that they have no right to control who takes the SAT. The SAT is not affiliated with the public school system. It is designed and administrated by The College Board to offer colleges an independent view of a student’s academic abilities. While schools can and should encourage students to take the SAT, they were never intended to be the gate-keepers of SAT registration. Perhaps this is why students register by mail or online, not through their schools.
So what is the result of hindering students from taking the SAT? Five years after Perdue’s campaign promise, Georgia is basking in the glory of ranking #46 in the nation, tied with Florida and better than three other states. Georgia’s average SAT actually fell this year, but we held onto our #46 ranking, and some individual school averages do look better.
The governor travels around the state and presents the winning schools with a big empty cup. Yes, the students who actually took the SAT scored higher than last year’s SAT-takers – but does that prove anything? Not when fewer students were encouraged to take the test. Not when the administrators admit to using selectivity to tip the odds. They used their influence to change out the test-takers. They helped smart kids, but perhaps they “left behind” those who most need an SAT score to secure college admission.
This is exactly the strategy encouraged by Perdue’s contest. It is good for the school’s reputation and it is good for the state ranking, but it is bad for many of the students. The Governor’s Cup website does not list SAT participation rates, but Georgia Department of Education (GaDOE) provides some clues. According to the GaDOE website, four out of five Governor’s Cup Class Winner schools had significant drops in the number of students taking the SAT between 2005 and 2007. The only school with increasing SAT participation is a new school that is rapidly growing.
Schools should improve education for all students. How would we know if that happened? Assessing true progress requires measuring academic achievement of all students, not just those chosen to represent the school in the best light. Standardized testing of all students is already in place, if the governor cares for an accurate measure. Other indicators include graduation rates, college entrance rates, and college success over the long term.
A word of advice to high school students, from the 1990 Star Student of Catoosa County: Take the SAT. Take it early, and take it often. It’s not your job to either plump up your school’s ratings or take one for the team. It’s not about your school. It’s about your future.
What Perdue didn’t tell us is why Georgia was dead last. Georgia has a 24% higher SAT participation rate than the national average. The side-effect of higher participation is a lower state SAT average, which is not necessarily a bad thing. It means that Georgia is committed to educating youth to face the challenges of tomorrow.
Other states do not have the HOPE Scholarship, which was instituted back in 1993 when Georgia was led by Democrats. HOPE offers a full-tuition scholarship to every Georgia student who graduates high school with a “B” average and is accepted to a state college.
In Georgia, HOPE has given over a million additional students the incentive to take the SAT and the ability to follow through with a college education. Because we have HOPE, about 66% of our high school seniors take the SAT, compared to 42% nationally.
Higher participation rates correlate with lower average SAT scores. This is because students from wealthier, college-educated families tend to score higher. In states without something like HOPE, those are the students taking the SAT because those are the students who can afford to go to college. In states like Georgia where college tuition assistance is readily available, a wider variety of students take the SAT, bringing down the average score.
In 2001, well before Perdue promised to raise Georgia’s SAT average, experts had already pronounced state SAT rankings “worse than meaningless.” Ball State University conducted a study of state SAT rankings and discovered that the numbers revealed almost nothing about the quality of education or the college-readiness of a particular region.
The SAT is voluntary by nature. Not all students take it. Thus, an SAT score can only measure the scholastic aptitude of one student at a time. It was never intended to measure the academic prowess of a school, a region, or a state.
Yet Perdue instituted a policy that pits neighboring schools in competition for the highest SAT average. Why? We already have standardized tests, given to every student rather than just the brightest and best. These are the tests designed to measure the annual yearly progress of our schools.
A cynical person might think Perdue chose to use the SAT precisely because schools can manipulate participation in order to control the average result. Because the SAT is not required of all students, school faculty may wield influence over which students take the test. By encouraging only the best and brightest to take the SAT, school averages improve, our state ranking climbs, and Perdue can pretend that he is “the education governor.”
Perdue’s contest allows school participation if even twenty seniors take the test. To tweak the average, some schools exert influence over potential SAT-takers. They can encourage smart seniors to take the SAT, and discourage or ignore those who are likely to bring down school scores. They can offer test training in upper level courses to help the “winners” – and let the mediocre students slip through the cracks.
One principal said he made high math and English grades a “prerequisite” for taking the SAT. There is no real prerequisite for taking the SAT. Students can take the SAT as early and as often as they like, no matter what courses they have completed. Last spring my twelve-year-old took the SAT.
In fact, course grades are not necessarily indicative of how well a particular student will perform on the test. The SAT measures not only what a student has learned, but also her ability to engage in problem-solving. Many students with mediocre course performance find their saving grace (and college admission) in the SAT.
The other reason schools cannot create a legitimate prerequisite is that they have no right to control who takes the SAT. The SAT is not affiliated with the public school system. It is designed and administrated by The College Board to offer colleges an independent view of a student’s academic abilities. While schools can and should encourage students to take the SAT, they were never intended to be the gate-keepers of SAT registration. Perhaps this is why students register by mail or online, not through their schools.
So what is the result of hindering students from taking the SAT? Five years after Perdue’s campaign promise, Georgia is basking in the glory of ranking #46 in the nation, tied with Florida and better than three other states. Georgia’s average SAT actually fell this year, but we held onto our #46 ranking, and some individual school averages do look better.
The governor travels around the state and presents the winning schools with a big empty cup. Yes, the students who actually took the SAT scored higher than last year’s SAT-takers – but does that prove anything? Not when fewer students were encouraged to take the test. Not when the administrators admit to using selectivity to tip the odds. They used their influence to change out the test-takers. They helped smart kids, but perhaps they “left behind” those who most need an SAT score to secure college admission.
This is exactly the strategy encouraged by Perdue’s contest. It is good for the school’s reputation and it is good for the state ranking, but it is bad for many of the students. The Governor’s Cup website does not list SAT participation rates, but Georgia Department of Education (GaDOE) provides some clues. According to the GaDOE website, four out of five Governor’s Cup Class Winner schools had significant drops in the number of students taking the SAT between 2005 and 2007. The only school with increasing SAT participation is a new school that is rapidly growing.
Schools should improve education for all students. How would we know if that happened? Assessing true progress requires measuring academic achievement of all students, not just those chosen to represent the school in the best light. Standardized testing of all students is already in place, if the governor cares for an accurate measure. Other indicators include graduation rates, college entrance rates, and college success over the long term.
A word of advice to high school students, from the 1990 Star Student of Catoosa County: Take the SAT. Take it early, and take it often. It’s not your job to either plump up your school’s ratings or take one for the team. It’s not about your school. It’s about your future.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Catoosa accomplishments: the good, the bad and the funny
Last week the Catoosa County News printed a list of accomplishments cited by Catoosa County Chairman Bill Clark. Some of these accomplishments are indeed good news. A few of the listed accomplishments seem rather dubious, while others reek of hypocrisy.
Positive accomplishments include the sale of three county-owned industrial buildings just outside the landfill on Shope Ridge Road. This is good news because the buildings sat empty for two years, costing taxpayers around $15,000 per month in principle, interest, insurance and utilities. The bad news is that we lost money on the sale. The county constructed the industrial spec buildings for $1.4 million (including land) in 1997, and sold them for $1.2 million in 2007. Although property values have risen during the last decade, the county lost hundreds of thousands of dollars on this venture.
Now that we have finally cut our losses, you would think that Catoosa County government would want to stay out of the speculative construction business. Not so. They are dreaming of constructing a 100,000 square foot industrial building in the hope that someone can be found to occupy it. Even if they choose a better location (and any location is better than the county dump), industrial spec buildings are a terrible risk. Manufacturing facilities often require very specific concrete works and large equipment that cannot be easily retrofitted into an existing building. For this reason, manufacturers prefer to install the concrete and large equipment first, then build the building around it. The only time industrial spec buildings are appealing is when they sit for ten years and then sell for a song.
The first loss may have been an honest mistake. I believe it was Benjamin Franklin who said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Isn’t it interesting how an all-Republican board of commissioners whines about funding the Colonnade and the fire departments, yet happily throws a couple of million dollars of taxpayer money into a bad gamble? I thought Republicans were supposed to be fiscally conservative.
Speaking of the dump, another positive accomplishment is the completion of the county’s five-year probation for landfill violations. Most of us had forgotten that our county government is a convicted felon.
Although the landfill is partially closed, hair-brained management ideas continue. The latest misstep (also touted as an accomplishment) is the purchase of adjacent land from a county resident who was complaining of methane migration. Is this really the proper way to deal with pollution, buying out those who might squeal? A better idea is to clean up the environmental problems.
In another real estate accomplishment, Department of Family & Children’s Services moved into the old Ringgold Telephone Company Building. The county spent ridiculous sums renovating the “new” building, while the old (much newer) building sits empty. If DFACS has more space for less money – and if we are not still paying for the vacated building – then this could be an accomplishment. Such answers are not readily available.
Another alleged accomplishment is the $1 charge for riding the Trans-Aid bus. If this is an accomplishment, then why does Chairman Clark feel the need to cite federal and state pressure as a reason for doing it? The charge seems small – almost nominal, really – until you consider who rides that Trans-Aid bus. The bus mainly benefits the elderly and low-income families. People who cannot drive for medical reasons or perhaps cannot afford a car use Trans-Aid to go to work, shop for groceries or attend appointments. This is another example of how we are losing services without a corresponding tax break. Republicans love to slash programs that help the poor and the elderly.
Chairman Clark also touted the opening of the amphitheatre as a county accomplishment. The amphitheatre will certainly benefit the county, but it is difficult to understand why the government imagines they should get credit for it. Looking at the records, it seems the county’s only contribution was the acquisition of prison labor – for which the amphitheatre foundation must reimburse the county. The county will own the amphitheatre, which is on county land at Benton Place, even though the funds to construct and maintain it were raised from the community. I suppose that is some kind of accomplishment, when the county gets something for nothing.
Although Chairman Clark brags about denying new subdivision development, they seem to be sprouting up everywhere. His own ideas for residential growth are bizarre. He claims that narrow, curvy streets and houses closer to the road will make better homes for children. In reality, this plan will result in more accidents involving children and vehicles.
Clark calls for “conservative subdivisions” which have twice as many houses per acre. How is that conservative? Logic suggests that such tactics will result in lower property values, because people will not pay as much for an identical house on a smaller lot. Building lower-value houses is also a recipe for worsening the bedroom community problem, because less property tax is collected on lower-value homes. The cost of putting a child through school remains the same regardless of the size of that child’s yard. The greenspace initially achieved by spacing houses closer together will be swallowed up by new growth in subsequent years – and then there will be twice as many under-funded students.
The sewer grants for Lakeview, on the other hand, are a good start. The sewer interceptor is also positive in that it will allow for commercial and industrial expansion. The trade-off is some loss of local control.
Sewers are only one component of the infrastructure needed to draw businesses into the county. By infrastructure I don’t mean 100,000 square foot spec buildings. Rather, we need to offer build-to-suit sites with full utility services. Companies also consider fire insurance ratings when looking to site a business. Cutting fire service funds (in some cases completely) ensures that commercial growth cannot happen. Neither will we attract businesses by charging exorbitant impact fees for the construction of a factory, or by shutting out all expansion.
It takes hard work to bring in new businesses. Currently we do not even have one paid staff-member at the Economic Development Agency. We have some good people who serve as volunteers in a part-time capacity, during their spare time. That’s all.
Rather than working to attract new businesses, our current leadership works to fend them off, and then brags about it. Included in the Catoosa accomplishments list was a pat-on-the-back for rejecting construction of two asphalt plants. Wait a minute – I thought everyone wanted to correct the residential to commercial ratio. It is often repeated that our tax base is 2:1 residential to commercial, when the ratios should be reversed. How will we ever reach this goal if we turn away industrial growth? Sure, asphalt plants are smelly and yucky. Nobody wants to live next-door to one. But the reality of capitalism is this: Land-owners have the right to develop that land as they choose, within applicable laws and according to the limits of zoning. The commission’s refusal to find a good, safe location for these plants cannot be considered an accomplishment; it is a failure.
There were a few items on the list that made me laugh. “Appointed a committee on open government.” How can a watch-dog committee have any teeth against the official who appointed them? This is worse than the fox guarding the henhouse. It’s more like the fox asking the dog to guard him while he guards the henhouse. It does nothing for the hens.
Repeated episodes of committee-dissolving and buddy-appointing demonstrate that anyone who opposes the chairman will be sacked. We saw this with the abolition of the Planning Commission. The Board of Commissioners reconstructed the Planning Commission with hand-picked members who do not represent every district in the county and can be removed any time at the whim of the commissioners. Only a public uproar has delayed a similar fate for the area fire departments. Clark retaliated against the backlash by cutting fire departments funds. If they won’t go quietly, he will starve them out. Could the “new management of animal control” accomplishment be another example?
In his State of the County Address, Catoosa County Chairman Bill Clark stated that he would give the county a grade of 60. Who then is responsible for the county’s failure?
Jeannie Babb Taylor
Positive accomplishments include the sale of three county-owned industrial buildings just outside the landfill on Shope Ridge Road. This is good news because the buildings sat empty for two years, costing taxpayers around $15,000 per month in principle, interest, insurance and utilities. The bad news is that we lost money on the sale. The county constructed the industrial spec buildings for $1.4 million (including land) in 1997, and sold them for $1.2 million in 2007. Although property values have risen during the last decade, the county lost hundreds of thousands of dollars on this venture.
Now that we have finally cut our losses, you would think that Catoosa County government would want to stay out of the speculative construction business. Not so. They are dreaming of constructing a 100,000 square foot industrial building in the hope that someone can be found to occupy it. Even if they choose a better location (and any location is better than the county dump), industrial spec buildings are a terrible risk. Manufacturing facilities often require very specific concrete works and large equipment that cannot be easily retrofitted into an existing building. For this reason, manufacturers prefer to install the concrete and large equipment first, then build the building around it. The only time industrial spec buildings are appealing is when they sit for ten years and then sell for a song.
The first loss may have been an honest mistake. I believe it was Benjamin Franklin who said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Isn’t it interesting how an all-Republican board of commissioners whines about funding the Colonnade and the fire departments, yet happily throws a couple of million dollars of taxpayer money into a bad gamble? I thought Republicans were supposed to be fiscally conservative.
Speaking of the dump, another positive accomplishment is the completion of the county’s five-year probation for landfill violations. Most of us had forgotten that our county government is a convicted felon.
Although the landfill is partially closed, hair-brained management ideas continue. The latest misstep (also touted as an accomplishment) is the purchase of adjacent land from a county resident who was complaining of methane migration. Is this really the proper way to deal with pollution, buying out those who might squeal? A better idea is to clean up the environmental problems.
In another real estate accomplishment, Department of Family & Children’s Services moved into the old Ringgold Telephone Company Building. The county spent ridiculous sums renovating the “new” building, while the old (much newer) building sits empty. If DFACS has more space for less money – and if we are not still paying for the vacated building – then this could be an accomplishment. Such answers are not readily available.
Another alleged accomplishment is the $1 charge for riding the Trans-Aid bus. If this is an accomplishment, then why does Chairman Clark feel the need to cite federal and state pressure as a reason for doing it? The charge seems small – almost nominal, really – until you consider who rides that Trans-Aid bus. The bus mainly benefits the elderly and low-income families. People who cannot drive for medical reasons or perhaps cannot afford a car use Trans-Aid to go to work, shop for groceries or attend appointments. This is another example of how we are losing services without a corresponding tax break. Republicans love to slash programs that help the poor and the elderly.
Chairman Clark also touted the opening of the amphitheatre as a county accomplishment. The amphitheatre will certainly benefit the county, but it is difficult to understand why the government imagines they should get credit for it. Looking at the records, it seems the county’s only contribution was the acquisition of prison labor – for which the amphitheatre foundation must reimburse the county. The county will own the amphitheatre, which is on county land at Benton Place, even though the funds to construct and maintain it were raised from the community. I suppose that is some kind of accomplishment, when the county gets something for nothing.
Although Chairman Clark brags about denying new subdivision development, they seem to be sprouting up everywhere. His own ideas for residential growth are bizarre. He claims that narrow, curvy streets and houses closer to the road will make better homes for children. In reality, this plan will result in more accidents involving children and vehicles.
Clark calls for “conservative subdivisions” which have twice as many houses per acre. How is that conservative? Logic suggests that such tactics will result in lower property values, because people will not pay as much for an identical house on a smaller lot. Building lower-value houses is also a recipe for worsening the bedroom community problem, because less property tax is collected on lower-value homes. The cost of putting a child through school remains the same regardless of the size of that child’s yard. The greenspace initially achieved by spacing houses closer together will be swallowed up by new growth in subsequent years – and then there will be twice as many under-funded students.
The sewer grants for Lakeview, on the other hand, are a good start. The sewer interceptor is also positive in that it will allow for commercial and industrial expansion. The trade-off is some loss of local control.
Sewers are only one component of the infrastructure needed to draw businesses into the county. By infrastructure I don’t mean 100,000 square foot spec buildings. Rather, we need to offer build-to-suit sites with full utility services. Companies also consider fire insurance ratings when looking to site a business. Cutting fire service funds (in some cases completely) ensures that commercial growth cannot happen. Neither will we attract businesses by charging exorbitant impact fees for the construction of a factory, or by shutting out all expansion.
It takes hard work to bring in new businesses. Currently we do not even have one paid staff-member at the Economic Development Agency. We have some good people who serve as volunteers in a part-time capacity, during their spare time. That’s all.
Rather than working to attract new businesses, our current leadership works to fend them off, and then brags about it. Included in the Catoosa accomplishments list was a pat-on-the-back for rejecting construction of two asphalt plants. Wait a minute – I thought everyone wanted to correct the residential to commercial ratio. It is often repeated that our tax base is 2:1 residential to commercial, when the ratios should be reversed. How will we ever reach this goal if we turn away industrial growth? Sure, asphalt plants are smelly and yucky. Nobody wants to live next-door to one. But the reality of capitalism is this: Land-owners have the right to develop that land as they choose, within applicable laws and according to the limits of zoning. The commission’s refusal to find a good, safe location for these plants cannot be considered an accomplishment; it is a failure.
There were a few items on the list that made me laugh. “Appointed a committee on open government.” How can a watch-dog committee have any teeth against the official who appointed them? This is worse than the fox guarding the henhouse. It’s more like the fox asking the dog to guard him while he guards the henhouse. It does nothing for the hens.
Repeated episodes of committee-dissolving and buddy-appointing demonstrate that anyone who opposes the chairman will be sacked. We saw this with the abolition of the Planning Commission. The Board of Commissioners reconstructed the Planning Commission with hand-picked members who do not represent every district in the county and can be removed any time at the whim of the commissioners. Only a public uproar has delayed a similar fate for the area fire departments. Clark retaliated against the backlash by cutting fire departments funds. If they won’t go quietly, he will starve them out. Could the “new management of animal control” accomplishment be another example?
In his State of the County Address, Catoosa County Chairman Bill Clark stated that he would give the county a grade of 60. Who then is responsible for the county’s failure?
Jeannie Babb Taylor
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Problems in the bedroom community
Again and again, it comes up: “We’re really just a bedroom community for Chattanooga.” The sentence is spoken in commission, commerce, and planning meetings. It is spoken with a sigh and a sense of sad resignation. Politicians springboard from it, officials vow to battle it, and residents moan about it in the shadow of every tax hike.
A bedroom community is a region characterized by residential rather than commercial growth, so that most people who live there must commute to a nearby metropolis for work. Sometimes this occurs because of an industry shut-down. Along I-75 in north Georgia, it happens the other way around: Chattanooga and Dalton attract employees, who then search for nearby communities where the living is easier. Catoosa County, for example, saw 16 percent population growth from 2000-2006.
Is living in a bedroom community really a problem? And if so, what should be done about it?
Life in a bedroom community has many perks. The focus on suburban life generally leads to better schools, more community involvement, and lower crime rates. For the residents moving to a bedroom community, life is grand.
It is the existing residents who feel the pinch. An overbalance of residential development creates a strain on every public system from sewers to schools. With too few businesses in the tax base, the community relies on residents to foot the bill. Existing residents complain as tax rates continue the inevitable upward trend. They find themselves paying more money for the same services.
Potential new residents weigh these increasing costs before they buy. Existing residents do not have that luxury. They are already established here, and have little choice but to keep paying taxes. They watch as more farmland is converted to housing all around them, resentment building faster than the development itself.
Assuming that being a bedroom community is a problem, what is the solution? The reactionary response is to clamp down on building. Officials saddle builders with impact fees to discourage the construction of new subdivisions. They turn down the developer who appears at a county meeting, plans in hand for a 200-home development. Sometimes they simply place a moratorium on homebuilding, or abolish the zoning and planning board.
These “solutions” only create further problems. A moratorium on homebuilding essentially shuts down the largest industry in a bedroom community. It puts contractors and subcontractors out of work, forcing them to look outside the community for jobs –further skewing the residential overbalance. It also robs lenders, realtors and hardware stores within the community. If the moratorium continues, those businesses move out of the community or shut down altogether. Thus, instead of curing the ills of a bedroom community, the moratorium actually feeds the problem.
A prolonged attack on developers results in falling home values. Growing families will not find newer, larger homes to move into. They will be forced to remain in “starter homes.” Since many middle and upper income families are unwilling to stay in small or outdated homes, they will move to houses in outlying areas. As the homes grow older and wealthier citizens move away, the standard of living in the community falls, the median income falls, property values fall, and the tax base fails. Instead of living in a bedroom community growing too fast for their comfort, residents now find themselves in a slum or a ghost town.
It is time to approach the problem from the other end. If we have two many houses compared to the number of jobs, then we need more jobs, not fewer houses. If our tax base relies too heavily on residential properties, then we need to add business properties, not attack our largest tax revenue source as though it were an enemy.
A slum will not attract the businesses we need. A ghost town will not entice them to site their next location here. Businesses are attracted by healthy, growing communities. Perhaps we will not attract many billion-dollar manufacturing plants. That’s okay. Ninety percent of Georgians are employed by small businesses. The clientele for small businesses already exists right here in this bedroom community. The land is here, ready to be developed into prime business property. The lenders are here, ready to extend funds to anyone with a strong business plan.
All the energy spent battling the “bedroom community” demons should instead be spent leveraging our strengths. We could be launching new businesses and strengthening existing local companies.
One way to support new ventures is through a publicly supported business incubator like the Business Development Center (BDC) in Chattanooga. The BDC houses 53 start-up businesses who benefit from cheap space and shared overhead like office equipment and clerical support. Eighty-seven percent of incubated businesses survive the five-year mark (compared to 20% of businesses founded without incubator support), and 85% remain in the community where they were founded.
In 2004, the Catoosa County Chamber of Commerce commissioned a study to determine if the county was ready for such an incubator. The study group concluded that Catoosa residents were highly entrepreneurial, with over 2,500 microbusinesses (companies with 1 to 4 employees) in the county. However, the study also found that no strong connection existed between Catoosa governments and businesses to foster growth within those Mom-and-Pop shops and make them larger employers tomorrow. The Chamber was advised not to launch the incubator, on the premise that the county was happy being “just a bedroom community.”
Interestingly, the study revealed that the largest sector of microbusiness in Catoosa consists of construction companies. We should be strengthening this sector, not seeking to destroy it with impact fees, moratoriums, and the boast that not a single new subdivision has been approved in the last year. How will we ever grow beyond our status as a bedroom community? Certainly not by blowing up the bedroom.
A bedroom community is a region characterized by residential rather than commercial growth, so that most people who live there must commute to a nearby metropolis for work. Sometimes this occurs because of an industry shut-down. Along I-75 in north Georgia, it happens the other way around: Chattanooga and Dalton attract employees, who then search for nearby communities where the living is easier. Catoosa County, for example, saw 16 percent population growth from 2000-2006.
Is living in a bedroom community really a problem? And if so, what should be done about it?
Life in a bedroom community has many perks. The focus on suburban life generally leads to better schools, more community involvement, and lower crime rates. For the residents moving to a bedroom community, life is grand.
It is the existing residents who feel the pinch. An overbalance of residential development creates a strain on every public system from sewers to schools. With too few businesses in the tax base, the community relies on residents to foot the bill. Existing residents complain as tax rates continue the inevitable upward trend. They find themselves paying more money for the same services.
Potential new residents weigh these increasing costs before they buy. Existing residents do not have that luxury. They are already established here, and have little choice but to keep paying taxes. They watch as more farmland is converted to housing all around them, resentment building faster than the development itself.
Assuming that being a bedroom community is a problem, what is the solution? The reactionary response is to clamp down on building. Officials saddle builders with impact fees to discourage the construction of new subdivisions. They turn down the developer who appears at a county meeting, plans in hand for a 200-home development. Sometimes they simply place a moratorium on homebuilding, or abolish the zoning and planning board.
These “solutions” only create further problems. A moratorium on homebuilding essentially shuts down the largest industry in a bedroom community. It puts contractors and subcontractors out of work, forcing them to look outside the community for jobs –further skewing the residential overbalance. It also robs lenders, realtors and hardware stores within the community. If the moratorium continues, those businesses move out of the community or shut down altogether. Thus, instead of curing the ills of a bedroom community, the moratorium actually feeds the problem.
A prolonged attack on developers results in falling home values. Growing families will not find newer, larger homes to move into. They will be forced to remain in “starter homes.” Since many middle and upper income families are unwilling to stay in small or outdated homes, they will move to houses in outlying areas. As the homes grow older and wealthier citizens move away, the standard of living in the community falls, the median income falls, property values fall, and the tax base fails. Instead of living in a bedroom community growing too fast for their comfort, residents now find themselves in a slum or a ghost town.
It is time to approach the problem from the other end. If we have two many houses compared to the number of jobs, then we need more jobs, not fewer houses. If our tax base relies too heavily on residential properties, then we need to add business properties, not attack our largest tax revenue source as though it were an enemy.
A slum will not attract the businesses we need. A ghost town will not entice them to site their next location here. Businesses are attracted by healthy, growing communities. Perhaps we will not attract many billion-dollar manufacturing plants. That’s okay. Ninety percent of Georgians are employed by small businesses. The clientele for small businesses already exists right here in this bedroom community. The land is here, ready to be developed into prime business property. The lenders are here, ready to extend funds to anyone with a strong business plan.
All the energy spent battling the “bedroom community” demons should instead be spent leveraging our strengths. We could be launching new businesses and strengthening existing local companies.
One way to support new ventures is through a publicly supported business incubator like the Business Development Center (BDC) in Chattanooga. The BDC houses 53 start-up businesses who benefit from cheap space and shared overhead like office equipment and clerical support. Eighty-seven percent of incubated businesses survive the five-year mark (compared to 20% of businesses founded without incubator support), and 85% remain in the community where they were founded.
In 2004, the Catoosa County Chamber of Commerce commissioned a study to determine if the county was ready for such an incubator. The study group concluded that Catoosa residents were highly entrepreneurial, with over 2,500 microbusinesses (companies with 1 to 4 employees) in the county. However, the study also found that no strong connection existed between Catoosa governments and businesses to foster growth within those Mom-and-Pop shops and make them larger employers tomorrow. The Chamber was advised not to launch the incubator, on the premise that the county was happy being “just a bedroom community.”
Interestingly, the study revealed that the largest sector of microbusiness in Catoosa consists of construction companies. We should be strengthening this sector, not seeking to destroy it with impact fees, moratoriums, and the boast that not a single new subdivision has been approved in the last year. How will we ever grow beyond our status as a bedroom community? Certainly not by blowing up the bedroom.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Thumbs up, thumbs down
THUMBS UP to all readers who grow their own vegetables. I admire your hard work and tenacity. Your labors benefit not only those who enjoy the sweet, succulent produce of your garden – but also the rest of us who share this planet. Every juicy, ripe tomato and fat zucchini you carry to the supper table arrives there without the consumption of fossil fuels which contribute to smog and deplete the ozone. Those of us who lack a green thumb can do our part by purchasing more locally-grown produce.
THUMBS DOWN to those who waste thousands of gallons of water on shrubbery during the worst drought Georgia has faced in decades. The blueberry crop is devastated and cattlemen are struggling feed their herds. Our flower gardens can stand to suffer a few days a week. Buy some mulch; it prevents evaporation.
THUMBS UP to everyone who celebrated Independence Day responsibly. Officials responded to the drought fire risk by limiting the height of fireworks displays, while American patriotism roared full steam ahead. The support for Lance Cpl. Will Chambers’ family was especially moving.
THUMBS DOWN to local churches that used Independence Day and/or Memorial Day as an excuse to bring political agendas into the church. Patriotism is good and proper – but the stock slideshow a Republican-affiliated “prayer” group sent out for churches to show on Sunday morning was not proper. Aside from the fact that it is illegal for non-profits to engage in party politics, the content itself was inappropriate. Tanks and rocket-launchers should not be splashed across the sanctuary walls coupled with music and text designed to instill feelings of triumph. The faces of victims are decidedly absent from these deceptive displays. Some politicians pretend that American soldiers are in Iraq by invitation, opposed only by a handful of insurgents. Yet even this week, a Marine testified in a court-martial that his unit routinely beat Iraqi civilians when told to “crank up the violence.” Marines executed the wounded to avoid offering them medical care. Shooting an unarmed Iraqi man and planting an AK-47 near his body was a standard procedure in a venue where “all Iraqi men are considered insurgents.”
THUMBS UP to Wes and Scott Smith at Northwest Georgia Bank for giving Catoosa County the beautiful new amphitheatre at Benton Place. Last year it seemed half the county wanted to burn the Colonnade, and I wondered how Catoosa would ever regain some kind of cultural credibility. It’s wonderful to see local business step up to the plate. Thanks also to the unnamed individuals who worked behind the scenes to make this happen – including Georgia prison crews.
THUMBS DOWN to the Catoosa County Commissioners for their unilateral decision to advertise for a county Fire Chief and combine two or three local fire departments into one -- without consulting those departments. Good thing they still know how to back-peddle and utter “Nothing is set in stone.” Apparently their standard operating procedure is to make decisions without consulting those who are affected by the decision. The fire department faux pas is just another example of this isolationist mentality. It was bad enough when the commission threw away $19,000 for a fire study that yielded the same results Chief Chuck Gass and Chief Bruce Ballew had already worked together to provide. Do we really need to add insult to injury by putting out an ad for a new fire chief? Personally, I don’t think the commission will find better leadership than we have now.
THUMBS UP to Whitfield and Catoosa County law enforcement for protecting our children. It is wonderful to see the sheriffs of neighboring counties working together. Thank you for arresting the 1890’s Days attacker and also cleaning up Stephenson’s Park. We know that creeps lurk where children play, awaiting an opportune moment to make their move. Safe parks and safe festivals require the vigilance of citizens and law enforcement alike.
THUMBS DOWN to the slack attitude of officials in surrounding counties. Corruption has become a regular scandal in these parts. One police officer was arrested for false statements regarding a murder, while another officer was fired after explosives were reportedly found in his locker. An off-duty officer, and city police chief and a judge have all made recent news for driving drunk. Those who are trusted with enforcing the law should also remember to obey the law.
THUMBS DOWN to those who waste thousands of gallons of water on shrubbery during the worst drought Georgia has faced in decades. The blueberry crop is devastated and cattlemen are struggling feed their herds. Our flower gardens can stand to suffer a few days a week. Buy some mulch; it prevents evaporation.
THUMBS UP to everyone who celebrated Independence Day responsibly. Officials responded to the drought fire risk by limiting the height of fireworks displays, while American patriotism roared full steam ahead. The support for Lance Cpl. Will Chambers’ family was especially moving.
THUMBS DOWN to local churches that used Independence Day and/or Memorial Day as an excuse to bring political agendas into the church. Patriotism is good and proper – but the stock slideshow a Republican-affiliated “prayer” group sent out for churches to show on Sunday morning was not proper. Aside from the fact that it is illegal for non-profits to engage in party politics, the content itself was inappropriate. Tanks and rocket-launchers should not be splashed across the sanctuary walls coupled with music and text designed to instill feelings of triumph. The faces of victims are decidedly absent from these deceptive displays. Some politicians pretend that American soldiers are in Iraq by invitation, opposed only by a handful of insurgents. Yet even this week, a Marine testified in a court-martial that his unit routinely beat Iraqi civilians when told to “crank up the violence.” Marines executed the wounded to avoid offering them medical care. Shooting an unarmed Iraqi man and planting an AK-47 near his body was a standard procedure in a venue where “all Iraqi men are considered insurgents.”
THUMBS UP to Wes and Scott Smith at Northwest Georgia Bank for giving Catoosa County the beautiful new amphitheatre at Benton Place. Last year it seemed half the county wanted to burn the Colonnade, and I wondered how Catoosa would ever regain some kind of cultural credibility. It’s wonderful to see local business step up to the plate. Thanks also to the unnamed individuals who worked behind the scenes to make this happen – including Georgia prison crews.
THUMBS DOWN to the Catoosa County Commissioners for their unilateral decision to advertise for a county Fire Chief and combine two or three local fire departments into one -- without consulting those departments. Good thing they still know how to back-peddle and utter “Nothing is set in stone.” Apparently their standard operating procedure is to make decisions without consulting those who are affected by the decision. The fire department faux pas is just another example of this isolationist mentality. It was bad enough when the commission threw away $19,000 for a fire study that yielded the same results Chief Chuck Gass and Chief Bruce Ballew had already worked together to provide. Do we really need to add insult to injury by putting out an ad for a new fire chief? Personally, I don’t think the commission will find better leadership than we have now.
THUMBS UP to Whitfield and Catoosa County law enforcement for protecting our children. It is wonderful to see the sheriffs of neighboring counties working together. Thank you for arresting the 1890’s Days attacker and also cleaning up Stephenson’s Park. We know that creeps lurk where children play, awaiting an opportune moment to make their move. Safe parks and safe festivals require the vigilance of citizens and law enforcement alike.
THUMBS DOWN to the slack attitude of officials in surrounding counties. Corruption has become a regular scandal in these parts. One police officer was arrested for false statements regarding a murder, while another officer was fired after explosives were reportedly found in his locker. An off-duty officer, and city police chief and a judge have all made recent news for driving drunk. Those who are trusted with enforcing the law should also remember to obey the law.
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Monday Morning
It’s 9:00 on a Monday morning. On Chapman Road in Ringgold, an elderly woman is slowly boarding the Trans-Aid bus for her daily ride to the Nutrition Center. At the Nutrition Center, she’ll enjoy good conversation, a lively activity and a hot meal. That bus is her life-line. It is the key to her independence. It’s what allows her to go on sleeping each night under her own heavy quilt inside her own cozy yellow house.
Did I mention that she is boarding slowly? A minivan pulls up behind the Trans-Aid bus, but not too closely. The driver of the minivan (that’s me) is watching the little old lady board. I’m also watching a silver-haired pedestrian walking down the road in the other lane, wondering whether she’s strolling or boarding.
I’m not impatient. In fact, I am thinking what a blessing Catoosa Trans-Aid has been to my own family. Just a few years ago when Granny was still in her 90’s, the Trans-Aid bus was Granny’s lifeline, too. That bus allowed family members to keep her in our homes even though we all worked full time.
I watch the elderly woman put one foot on the step. The bus is not just for the elderly, I remember. My cousin, who cannot drive due to visual impairment, depended on the Trans-Aid bus during her high school years for trips to the library and appointments. She graduated with honors, and then went on to earn her degree in psychology from Lee University. She is currently pursuing her master’s degree. This bright young woman is a success because of her own hard work – but also because the community stood behind her in the form of supportive teachers and counselors and, you guessed it, Catoosa County Trans-Aid.
A car pulls up behind my minivan, and perhaps another. The pedestrian weaves and continues walking. The elderly woman is still, slowly, boarding the Trans-Aid bus.
It’s 9:01 on a Monday morning. The Fed Ex driver pulls out of the apartment complex parking lot, but in his mind he is already approaching his next stop, and the next, and the next. He is already walking into the sheriff’s office and a dozen other Ringgold locations, with an envelope or a tube in one hand and his digital clipboard in the other.
The FedEx driver sees the line of cars stopped in front of him. He sees the bus and the double-lined stretch of road that falls out of sight in front of the bus, the dip creating a blind spot to oncoming traffic. He sees the elderly woman boarding and the pedestrian walking in the other lane.
But it’s 9:02 on a Monday morning. He has places to go, packages to deliver. He steps on the accelerator and swerves into the other lane, barreling past the line of cars, past the pedestrian who steps quickly into the grass, past the little old lady and the Trans-Aid bus. As he tops the hill, a horn sounds. His pulse quickens, but then he breathes a sigh of relief – There are no cars coming up the blind hill and no one pulling out of the blind driveway on the way down. Grinning, he makes his way to the next stop.
His day is pretty ordinary, racing from here to there delivering his sturdy red-white-and-blue packages – until he walks into an office he knows well, package in hand, and someone asks, “Were you on Chapman Road at 9:02 this morning?”
He knows exactly why I am asking. He never admits he was on Chapman, yet he rushes into a torrent of defense: the pedestrian stepped out of the road, he passed “only” three vehicles at a time, and besides that he ran the scenario past the sheriff right after it happened and received the okay from him.
I call Sheriff Summers myself, and he assures me the conversation never took place. Further, the sheriff states that no driver should pass a bus with flashing lights, and that Georgia law allows drivers to pass only one vehicle at a time, not three or four.
A call to Trans-Aid confirms my understanding that their buses are to be given the same courtesy as a school bus. A call to FedEx produces an apology from an anonymous operator, but three weeks later, no manager has yet bothered to return my call.
We must not allow the busy-ness of the American business culture to trump compassion for the weak and the frail. Overnight packages are not more important than pedestrians, or elderly women boarding the Trans-Aid bus.
Whether we are professional drivers or just ordinary class C drivers trying to get around town, we could all stand a dose of patience, especially when it comes to the school bus or the Trans-Aid bus. It will not kill you to be 30 seconds late. It may even save your life some Monday morning.
Did I mention that she is boarding slowly? A minivan pulls up behind the Trans-Aid bus, but not too closely. The driver of the minivan (that’s me) is watching the little old lady board. I’m also watching a silver-haired pedestrian walking down the road in the other lane, wondering whether she’s strolling or boarding.
I’m not impatient. In fact, I am thinking what a blessing Catoosa Trans-Aid has been to my own family. Just a few years ago when Granny was still in her 90’s, the Trans-Aid bus was Granny’s lifeline, too. That bus allowed family members to keep her in our homes even though we all worked full time.
I watch the elderly woman put one foot on the step. The bus is not just for the elderly, I remember. My cousin, who cannot drive due to visual impairment, depended on the Trans-Aid bus during her high school years for trips to the library and appointments. She graduated with honors, and then went on to earn her degree in psychology from Lee University. She is currently pursuing her master’s degree. This bright young woman is a success because of her own hard work – but also because the community stood behind her in the form of supportive teachers and counselors and, you guessed it, Catoosa County Trans-Aid.
A car pulls up behind my minivan, and perhaps another. The pedestrian weaves and continues walking. The elderly woman is still, slowly, boarding the Trans-Aid bus.
It’s 9:01 on a Monday morning. The Fed Ex driver pulls out of the apartment complex parking lot, but in his mind he is already approaching his next stop, and the next, and the next. He is already walking into the sheriff’s office and a dozen other Ringgold locations, with an envelope or a tube in one hand and his digital clipboard in the other.
The FedEx driver sees the line of cars stopped in front of him. He sees the bus and the double-lined stretch of road that falls out of sight in front of the bus, the dip creating a blind spot to oncoming traffic. He sees the elderly woman boarding and the pedestrian walking in the other lane.
But it’s 9:02 on a Monday morning. He has places to go, packages to deliver. He steps on the accelerator and swerves into the other lane, barreling past the line of cars, past the pedestrian who steps quickly into the grass, past the little old lady and the Trans-Aid bus. As he tops the hill, a horn sounds. His pulse quickens, but then he breathes a sigh of relief – There are no cars coming up the blind hill and no one pulling out of the blind driveway on the way down. Grinning, he makes his way to the next stop.
His day is pretty ordinary, racing from here to there delivering his sturdy red-white-and-blue packages – until he walks into an office he knows well, package in hand, and someone asks, “Were you on Chapman Road at 9:02 this morning?”
He knows exactly why I am asking. He never admits he was on Chapman, yet he rushes into a torrent of defense: the pedestrian stepped out of the road, he passed “only” three vehicles at a time, and besides that he ran the scenario past the sheriff right after it happened and received the okay from him.
I call Sheriff Summers myself, and he assures me the conversation never took place. Further, the sheriff states that no driver should pass a bus with flashing lights, and that Georgia law allows drivers to pass only one vehicle at a time, not three or four.
A call to Trans-Aid confirms my understanding that their buses are to be given the same courtesy as a school bus. A call to FedEx produces an apology from an anonymous operator, but three weeks later, no manager has yet bothered to return my call.
We must not allow the busy-ness of the American business culture to trump compassion for the weak and the frail. Overnight packages are not more important than pedestrians, or elderly women boarding the Trans-Aid bus.
Whether we are professional drivers or just ordinary class C drivers trying to get around town, we could all stand a dose of patience, especially when it comes to the school bus or the Trans-Aid bus. It will not kill you to be 30 seconds late. It may even save your life some Monday morning.
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Bad for Business
Bad for Business
Georgia Republicans are poised to reject any raise in state minimum wage, claiming that such an increase will hurt small businesses. Yet these same legislators are vying for a hefty increase in the state sales tax – a move that affects local businesses far worse than a minimum wage increase.
Inflation has eroded the real minimum wage to a level 30% below the 1968 minimum wage. Last legislative session 39 states at least entertained raising their minimum wages. Georgia alone attempted to drop the minimum wage. Our state senators passed a bill to cut young workers down to $4.25 an hour for their first 90 days of employment – a move that encourages retailers to install a revolving door of job instability.
Senator Jeff Mullis, who voted in favor of the cut, has recently hedged the issue by claiming he would favor an increase if it could be made “palatable to businesses.” In Georgia, the minimum wage law is already made palatable to businesses by exempting those with fewer than six employees or revenues under $40,000 per year. Georgia minimum wage law does not cover high school or college students, newspaper carriers, domestic employees, farm workers, or anyone who receives tips.
State Representative Ron Forster not only opposes a raise in minimum wage; he would like to eliminate the minimum wage altogether. Like many other Libertarians who call themselves Republicans, Forster claims minimum wage laws hurt small businesses, damage the economy, and cause job loss. This mantra is outdated and demonstrated faulty by years of empirical data. Employment grows 1-2% more quickly in states that have a higher minimum wage. Annual and average payroll growth is also faster in those states. Further, the number of small business establishments grows twice as fast in states with higher minimum wage standards. Businesses absorb wage increases through higher productivity, decreased turn-over costs, lower absenteeism, and improved worker morale. In fact, 75% of business owners in a Gallup survey said they would be unaffected by a minimum wage increase of 10%. Nearly half favored a minimum wage increase.
What happens when these supposedly pro-business legislators encounter the threat of a sales tax increase? On March 7th Senator Mullis told the Catoosa County News he would “wholly support the idea and the legislation” of a 1 cent sales tax increase. That’s a jump of 25%, coming from a legislator who promised in December that with Republicans in charge, we should expect “no new taxes.” (He forgot to preface the statement with “Read my lips.”) Mullis admits that the proposed sales tax increase represents billions of dollars of additional tax payments. Who will be footing the bill for this increase? Every Georgia citizen, rich or poor, will feel the impact.
Sales tax increases also hurt the small businesses Republicans claim they want to protect. Consider an area like Catoosa County. Currently we undercut Tennessee’s sales tax by 3 cents (closer to 2 cents when you consider local taxes.) Catoosa has enjoyed that tax advantage as an incentive for Tennessee consumers to spend billions of dollars in North Georgia. Despite Chattanooga’s wider range of offerings, Tennesseans will drive across the state line for that tax savings. As that tax difference levels off, local businesses can expect to lose both Tennessee customers and Georgia customers to Chattanooga.
Politicians who truly want to protect local businesses should stand against a sales tax increase. Use your weight to maintain a pro-growth business environment, not to step on the grocery bagger who is still subsisting on $5.15 per hour.
-- Jeannie Babb Taylor
Published March 20, 2007
Georgia Republicans are poised to reject any raise in state minimum wage, claiming that such an increase will hurt small businesses. Yet these same legislators are vying for a hefty increase in the state sales tax – a move that affects local businesses far worse than a minimum wage increase.
Inflation has eroded the real minimum wage to a level 30% below the 1968 minimum wage. Last legislative session 39 states at least entertained raising their minimum wages. Georgia alone attempted to drop the minimum wage. Our state senators passed a bill to cut young workers down to $4.25 an hour for their first 90 days of employment – a move that encourages retailers to install a revolving door of job instability.
Senator Jeff Mullis, who voted in favor of the cut, has recently hedged the issue by claiming he would favor an increase if it could be made “palatable to businesses.” In Georgia, the minimum wage law is already made palatable to businesses by exempting those with fewer than six employees or revenues under $40,000 per year. Georgia minimum wage law does not cover high school or college students, newspaper carriers, domestic employees, farm workers, or anyone who receives tips.
State Representative Ron Forster not only opposes a raise in minimum wage; he would like to eliminate the minimum wage altogether. Like many other Libertarians who call themselves Republicans, Forster claims minimum wage laws hurt small businesses, damage the economy, and cause job loss. This mantra is outdated and demonstrated faulty by years of empirical data. Employment grows 1-2% more quickly in states that have a higher minimum wage. Annual and average payroll growth is also faster in those states. Further, the number of small business establishments grows twice as fast in states with higher minimum wage standards. Businesses absorb wage increases through higher productivity, decreased turn-over costs, lower absenteeism, and improved worker morale. In fact, 75% of business owners in a Gallup survey said they would be unaffected by a minimum wage increase of 10%. Nearly half favored a minimum wage increase.
What happens when these supposedly pro-business legislators encounter the threat of a sales tax increase? On March 7th Senator Mullis told the Catoosa County News he would “wholly support the idea and the legislation” of a 1 cent sales tax increase. That’s a jump of 25%, coming from a legislator who promised in December that with Republicans in charge, we should expect “no new taxes.” (He forgot to preface the statement with “Read my lips.”) Mullis admits that the proposed sales tax increase represents billions of dollars of additional tax payments. Who will be footing the bill for this increase? Every Georgia citizen, rich or poor, will feel the impact.
Sales tax increases also hurt the small businesses Republicans claim they want to protect. Consider an area like Catoosa County. Currently we undercut Tennessee’s sales tax by 3 cents (closer to 2 cents when you consider local taxes.) Catoosa has enjoyed that tax advantage as an incentive for Tennessee consumers to spend billions of dollars in North Georgia. Despite Chattanooga’s wider range of offerings, Tennesseans will drive across the state line for that tax savings. As that tax difference levels off, local businesses can expect to lose both Tennessee customers and Georgia customers to Chattanooga.
Politicians who truly want to protect local businesses should stand against a sales tax increase. Use your weight to maintain a pro-growth business environment, not to step on the grocery bagger who is still subsisting on $5.15 per hour.
-- Jeannie Babb Taylor
Published March 20, 2007
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
