Denis Ian: A Letter to the People of Georgia about Amendment 1

Kiss your schools good-bye.

Unless, of course, you can shake yourself out of your slumber before it’s too late.

I know it’s unusual stuff for a Georgian to take the advice of a Yankee, but … here goes.

Here in New York, we woke up at the last minute … and now we’re in the fight of our lives. The tactics might be a bit different, but the aim is exactly the same: a state take-over of the schools we both pay for … and that our children attend. Now you can sleep-walk through this armageddon-in-the-making … or you can slam on the brakes and tell your governor “No, Deal”.

Read on … http://www.myajc.com/news/news/local-education/school-takeover-plan-draws-fire-deal-didnt-seem-to/nsq2b/

So … if you decide, that you’d like your state politicians to relieve you of this responsibility of managing your local schools, here’s what you can expect for your listlessness. Are you ready?

Your tax dollars will become “casino cash” for politicians. They’ll slurp up your school taxes and play politics with that loot all day long … awarding contracts to pals and getting lots of pocket-cash for themselves. Every ear-whisperer will have a chance to load up politicians with their ideas … most of which will involve experimenting on your own children. They’re the ones who get extra-screwed in this “Bad Deal” take-over madness.

You’ll see your schools change every time the political winds shift. Your kids are gonna be on this educational carpet ride … forever hostages in the game of grungy politics. Every child will be a pawn … a game piece … and you know how politicians love to play games, right?

Expect your schools to morph into unrecognizable messes with teachers more and more replaced by tablets and lap-tops and algorithmic strategies that’ll treat your kids like hamsters stuck on a wheel. I wonder if lunch will consist of pellet-food?

Expect the least qualified teachers to be hired … and for the turn-over rate to match McDonald’s. Teachers will become scripted care-takers and machine-mechanics. They’ll be data-dumpers … keeping an eye on your child’s computerized progress. Your kids’ noggins will be inventories several times a day … because they’ll be part of a living nyghtmarethat you allowed to happen.

Boards of education … those local school-governing bodies that you elect your neighbors to … will become patronage jobs … if they exist at all. They’ll be nothing for them to manage because the state bureaucrats and and legislators will be deciding what’s happening in every classroom in every county throughout Georgia. Let that sink in. Imagine … your schools run by folks who have zero expertise and less-than-zero concern for your children. Is that gonna disturb your sleep at all?

Get ready for carpet-baggers … again. Every soft-ware maker, computer tycoon, on-line executive, and textbook pimp will pitch a tent outside the governor’s bedroom. And they’ll be ready to pay-to-play so they can siphon off some of what’s left of your tax dollars. Isn’t this great fun? You get to work long and hard … and they get to play long and hard. With your hard-earned money. Who wouldn’t want a gig like that?

Let’s talk about taxes a bit more. Once this amendment passes, the fate of your schools passes into someone else’s hands … and so does your tax money. And that tax money is …. we’ll … too important not to grow over time … because the intrigue will grow every year. Do NOT LET YOUR PENS RUN DRY! … you’ll be cutting more checks every year for the rest of forever. These shrewdies will never run out of excuses to pinch your wallets and snatch your bucks.

Now … to the most important reasons to resist this laughably titled “Opportunity School District” lurch. Your children.

You are about to hand over your children’s education to the state government. Let that sink in. That’s the same authority that can barely repair the roads, deal with an ice-storm, paint a bridge, and keep their corruption to a semi-disgusting level. Do you think your kids are gonna be in good hands? Be honest.
Your life cannot be so complicated and so consuming that you can’t carve out time to vote on this asinine Amendment 1. And if it is such a busy life … explain that to your kids. Because it’s their future that’s on the line … and in your hands. Tell them what’s coming … and apologize for being too busy to care. That’ll soothe ‘em. For the rest of their lives.

Nothing … N O T H I N G … sets the course of a child’s life more than parents and schools. That partnership has made public schools the great equalizer in this nation for generations. My Irish grandfather dug tunnels in NYC … his son became a college professor. And all six of his sons … including me … own master degrees and lead professional lives. Why would you hand over your child’s future to political clowns in Atlanta? When have they ever done right by you?

So … there’s your Amendment 1 … your scheming “Opportunity School District” drivel.

It’s yours to accept or reject. One requires energy, the other requires nothing.

A Georgian warrior-mother … Stacey Freeman Gyorgy … left this simple wake-up missive for me last week. It’s about politicians. “They have become pantomime villains whose real job is to make us angry …” and, I would add, dangerously dependent.

Snatch your schools back from the brink. Shine your children’s future. Things don’t have to continue as they have. These are your schools … and your children.

You are in charge.

VOTE NO on Amendment !. It’s a BAD DEAL.

Denis Ian