A Tale of Two Gurneys

Two murderers were recently executed in Georgia and Texas.

One murderer was white, the other black.

The white murderer killed a black man, the black murderer killed a white police officer.

The white murderer dragged his victim behind his truck killing him and scattering his corpse. The black murderer shot his victim at point blank range when he tried to intervene in the beating of a second victim.

There was significant physical evidence against the white murderer, but no witnesses except the victim and two conspirators. There was significant eye witness evidence brought against the black murderer but little physical evidence.

The execution of the white murderer went virtually unnoticed, while the execution of the black murderer elicited a media circus.

The question this juxtaposition raises regards the sincerity of those who claim so publicly to be opposed to the death penalty. Is it about the convict or the protestors' fifteen minutes in the spotlight? Does it really have anything to do with the moral and ethical issues surrounding the death penalty?

Those truly committed to abolishing the death penalty need to understand that low hanging fruit will not suffice. While their protests that may inspire tears over the plight of a Karla Faye Tucker they also create a dark little comic theater that does little but suggest that adorable murderers ought not be put to death simply because they're attractive.

To be effective, death penalty abolitionists need to reach higher where the strange fruit are harder to grasp. They must present a compelling argument for those convicted of even the most heinous crimes.

They must successfully argue that the likes of Ted Bundy, described as "the very definition of heartless evil" and "a sadistic sociopath who took pleasure from another human's pain and the control he had over his victims, to the point of death, and even after", should be rotting in jail rather than the grave.  If they can convince us all that a civilized society cannot morally apply the death penalty to such a force of evil, who is yet a human being, then there will never again be a need to grandstand and glad-hand over the likes of Troy Davis.

Too Big To Succeed

The DeKalb County School System is simply too big to succeed:

• A huge budget allows significant graft to get lost in the fine print
• It is so large, by any measure, that finding a superintendent from an equivalent system is nearly impossible
• Based on their website they have seven administration positions from Principal to Superintendent, and this does not include the made-up position of "Assistant Superintendent" of which there are at least five
• The system is divided into five regions each headed by one of these "Assistant Superintendents"

And there-in lies a solution: break DCSS into five separate school systems, each with its own school board and superintendent. Of course there are other structural and organizational changes to be made:

• School board is limited to three members, with one being elected each year by elections held at each school on the last day of the school year
• Board meetings are held at district High Schools, rotating with each meeting
• All board members are "at-large" and subject to voter approval from across the district
• Board chair is a rotating position held by the board member in their third year, falling to the next most senior in the unusual case of no third-year board member
• All board decisions must result from a unanimous vote, with a quorum of three
• Eliminate, even if by phasing out over a five year period, defined benefit retirement programs for all employees

That should take care of the school board.  Central office administration is next:

• The superintendent's office is located in a trailer and rotates on an annual basis amongst the High Schools in the district
• High School principals report directly to the superintendent
• Middle School and Elementary School principals report to the HS principal whose school they feed
• Curriculum is handled by a central office staff of one, directed to coordinate in-the-field curriculum assistants
• Curriculum assistants are in each school
• HR is handled by an outside organization, including stack-ranking personnel and dealing with outplacement and remediation plans
• Currently in-sourced support services are outsourced, including fleet management and contract administration

Staying away from "just how (un)qualified are classroom teachers", there is still much to do at the school level.

• Eliminate "School Resource Officers", they are cops by another name, so just call the cops--let them contact the parents
• Contract for janitorial and facility management services
• Contract for cafeteria services
• In fact, contract for everything but teaching

These changes will result in smaller, more manageable and more transparent systems, and best of all...this will create four new positions for aspiring superintendents of failing one-high-school districts who want a promotion and a relo.

Peace

Betty Lee Hinson was born on September 10, 1932 many miles from the nearest hospital. She was born prematurely and if family lore is to be believed began cooking the same way, stirring a pot as soon as she was old enough to stand on a chair at the stove. There began a lifetime of aromas, good food and nurishment for body and soul alike--Sunday meals were a weekly communion.

She died on a Sunday--the day before her 69th birthday. Standing before his mother's casket her son said to those who came to pay their respects:

Peace be with you.

Most things in this life, especially our time in it, belong to a Higher Power and we enjoy them according to a greater, universal plan not of our own making. But we are entrusted with two gifts. We have the ability to tell right from wrong--our moral compass, and we have free will to choose a path that gives our life meaning and value within the context these universal truths.

I learned these things from my mother by the way that she lived her life. When confronted with life's challenges she chose the path of tolerance, of forgiveness, and of self-sacrifice.

She chose Peace.

While her time in this life is over she lives on in the hearts of those she loved and who loved her. And so I say to those gathered here to celebrate such a life, so well lived,

May my mother's Peace be with you all.

That Tuesday morning in a small church in Dentsville, Betty Lee Hinson embraced the peace she longed for in life.

Park It

Please quit with the "we need more green space" blather. It is unadulterated crap. And we probably don't even need the baseball fields we have let alone any more so let's just cut to the chase.

The Mr. Hyde side of the City seems consumed by lust over other people's money and getting their chance to spend it. A city councilman was quoted in the AJC referring not only to the pre-committed purchase but others as well saying, "With $27 million left [...] we can go shopping." Wow! Did someone elect a pre-pubescent teenage girl to city council and does she think she's at the mall with daddy's credit card?

Our version of Dr. Jekyll in the land grab debate argues this is a buyer's market, and we should act before the situation changes though it doesn't look like it will for some time. Acting soon doesn't mean you cannot or should not negotiate a better price nor does it mean that every bit of property is a good buy. And Bill Grant, who knows a thing or two about buying up Dunwoody property, has suggested that as the "only buyer" Dunwoody could negotiate a better price and shouldn't rush into anything. While he does have a vested interest in the availability of undeveloped property in Dunwoody, he also has a point. 

But timing the market is not the real issue at hand. A high ranking city official was once quoted by one of his friends as saying "We formed the city too late. Too many apartments are already here." Well, maybe, and maybe not.

Clearly the Pipe Farm purchase was to prevent the completion of an already in-progress apartment complex. The Shallowford Hospital property is most appropriate for high density housing rather than upscale dining, technology incubators, Rodeo Drive retail, or even parks. But god and voting taxpayers willing, Dunwoody will take that off the market as well.

Now is a perfect time to put it to a vote. Homeowners, even in Dunwoody, cannot quickly turn their property and certainly not at the price they want. Imagine if they could. Wouldn't any sane homeowner sell, move out and up, to an area where prices have not held up, and get a bigger, newer home and better schools? Since they cannot or will not move, paying to build a moat, albeit a green space moat, is suddenly an attractive alternative, even given you would be instituting a tax that will never go away and eliminating other sources of revenue.

So the referendum for purchasing property presents a simple question to folks in Dunwoody:

"How much will you pay to keep those other people out"?

The Persecution Rests

As soon as the solo finalist for DCSS Superintendent was announced the boo-birds came out with a fury that would have frightened Hitchcock himself. Most of the complaints are firmly rooted in a lack of appreciation for what it takes to position oneself to be the superintendent of a large, failing urban school district. To aid in that understanding there is a technique used by the "what I hear you saying" crowd that nonetheless can be effective. It is a mind's eye view--a virtual "walk a mile in their shoes". This is an exercise that will not only help you understand the candidate but also understand the thinking behind choosing this individual.

This is best done with an assistant to read what follows while you, with eyes closed, imagine--mentally visualize--the story of another person and what they really are.

Start by considering a youth, already committed to a life of service, convinced that by helping children achieve their potential they can be of the greatest service to their community. This is a person driven to prepare for and become a great teacher.

Can you see it?

With hard work and perseverance this comes to pass. But it is not enough. There are clearly opportunities to help even more children, but this requires not only giving 110% to the incredibly difficult job in the classroom, but also taking on the challenge of acquiring the capabilities and credentials required to become a principal.

Can you see it?

As a principal you're seeing hard work pay off in success for the school, the parents, and the children, but you do not see a complacent individual. You now see someone even more driven to improve the prospects of greater numbers of students. Someone who, while doing the heavy lifting of running a school, also takes the next step, concurrently seeking a PhD in a challenging program that provides the necessary tools to take their commitment to service to the next level.

Can you see it?

Now envision a successful former classroom teacher, a top notch principal taking a record of success to central administration. Moving around and moving up, but always building on the theme of turning failed classrooms, schools and districts into recognized successes that pay off in student performance.

Can you see it?

You see a person with a life-long addiction to helping children learn. A successful administrator poised to take their mission to the highest level, to meet the greatest need. This is a person that attracts and warrants the attention of distressed systems throughout the country.

Can you see it?

Now. Imagine this person is a white male.

Failing Higher Ed

If the APS scandal has taught us anything it is that "educators" are not the noble, self-sacrificing purveyors of knowledge they have so loudly claimed. Quite the contrary. They have diligently and successfully worked to ensure never-ending pay increases, even after retirement and this addiction to "money above all else" has been supported by fearful and pliant politicians and delusional parents who simply will not address the failure of local public schools. This private jet liner crashed into a mountain when someone put in place objective tests that unmasked the charade.

Total destruction requires just these kinds of paradigm shifts.

Georgia's University System is not quite as far along on this ultimate path towards greed fueled destruction but it is headed that direction. And it is accelerating. Since Georgia instituted state sanctioned gambling the supply of our Universities' drug of choice, other people's money, has seemed limitless. And, as proven by our K-12 experience, this drug is potent and these junkies will do anything, to anybody, in order to feed their ever-growing addiction. To date this has been facilitated by adding as many HOPE-funded students as possible regardless of their past educational history, current capabilities or future educational prospects. Remediation is highly profitable and does no damage to the institute's reputation as these "students" almost never graduate.

The next step towards ultimate destruction has been planned and is being executed by our Governor and Chancellor. With the previous policy having saturated our collective college student bodies with intellectually lame remedials it is now time for the crippling shift in policy. Now, rather than packing freshman classes with grade inflated victims of self-esteem, Guv & Co. intend to immediately change the rule to "Dollars for Diplomas". That's right, instead of paying for "Asses in Classes" we'll immediately shift to paying only for those that graduate.

And we should expect our colleges and universities to be no less resourceful, efficient and compliant with this new goal than they have been with any previous "funded mandate". These folks are no less a moral windsock than the K-12 teachers and administrators that they trained and can be expected to feed their greed by "any means necessary". And the easiest way to satisfy this mandate? That's right, print diplomas faster than the Treasury prints dollars.

Once the destruction is complete we can expect the Guv to hand out diplomas at Georgia Welcome Centers to everyone who stops to use the restroom. The Chancellor will be found dancing with the devil on Jan Kemp's grave.

Wimpy

I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.




Did you notice in the recent Beltway kerfuffle that only one thing is certain: before the week is out Washington will borrow trillions of dollars. Sure, they claim they'll cut their overspending by a similar amount. Over TEN YEARS. Seriously, does anyone of voting age really believe even this pathetic charade will actually play out and these politicians will make any meaningful attempt to curtail spending?

Looking closer to home, voters in Dunwoody will be asked in 2 separate referenda to raise their taxes. Why? So our local politicians can spend between 33 and 66 million dollars. Again, we know one thing: they will incur the debt immediately, get the money now, and spend it quickly. On well identified needs? Not really, just a "vision".

And isn't it interesting how the numbers are manipulated. Yes, we know the bond amount, and yes we know the millage increase and based on current valuation can guess at today's tax revenue for the city. And, if we knew the bond rate, we could calculate the true cost of this loan, but a conservative estimate puts it at around $175 million so our "leaders" can get their hands on $66 million today. But that's not what we hear from proponents. Instead we hear how this is "only" a few extra dollars a month for the "average homeowner". This is the same kind of snake-oil salesmanship that caused our recent financial meltdowns.

But what about that tax revenue? Do you really think the digest is now at its highest point or do you suppose that property in Dunwoody might appreciate over the next 30 years? As properties appreciate, will the City adjust the millage rates down so the tax covers the "mortgage on our parks" and nothing else? Do you think they would use the surplus to "pay down the principal" or otherwise retire the debt early? Are either of these fiscally prudent actions written into the referenda? If you believe politicians, any politicians, will do either of their own accord, then you haven't been paying attention.

At the end of the day these bonds are supported by the notion that we need more parks because Minneapolis has more than we. This is clearly a waste of our money and a perfect example that even when created with the best of intentions more government simply does more harm.

T E A C H E R

It has now been pretty convincingly proven that "teacher" is a synonym for "cheater", but those with just a bit more than a public "education" have noticed teacher is also an anagram of cheater. Coincidence? Hardly.

So just what put all this "cheat" in "teacher"? First let's not forget this glass arrived half-full as this system has been cheating folks through for over forty years. Budding teachers have been knocking on College of Education doors with little to recommend them beyond themselves -- these are the students who cheerfully inform instructors on the first day of class that they are "A Students".

This is a pretty good start for a career in cheating and colleges do no more to dissuade them than the public schools where they will work.

Once they get that job we the taxpayers foot the bill for "training". In exactly what? Were they not prepared at the college level with a knowledge base at least equivalent to high school? Did they not take enough college courses where everyone puts their chairs in a circle to handle the feel-good, smarmy aspects of the daily battle against childhood and adult ignorance? About all that is left for these hardworking self-sacrificing scholar educators to learn is the system. How it works and how to work it.

And they learn it well. The next to the last thing these "teachers" will do is reform a system providing exhaustive "due process", guaranteed seniority raises and gold plated benefits. The last thing they'll ever do is put a child's education ahead of their own interests.

Revolutionary Forces Beaten Back

With apologies to the Beatles and all their fans...

You say you want a revolution
Well you know
We all want to change the world

You tell me that it's evolution
Well you know
We all want to change the world

But when you talk about destruction
Don't you know you can count me out

This was the message sent by the citizens of Frederick County, MD and apparently received by their local Board of County Commissioners. While some of the uproar is sure to have come from "self-serving county employees" for whom privatization meant loss of pay and benefits if not a job, there were broader concerns about how the BoCC was conducting business.

You say you got a real solution
Well you know
We'd all love to see the plan

You ask me for a contribution
Well you know
We're all doing what we can

But if you want money for people with minds that hate
All I can tell you is brother you have to wait

As it should be in all government contracted services, transparency was a real issue. From the beginning the BoCC not only conducted much of their business in a way that came under criticism on this point, but they neglected to address transparency concerns when their revolutionary new outsourcing plan took effect.

You say you'll change the constitution
Well you know
We all want to change your head

You tell me it's the institution
Well you know
You better free your mind instead

But if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao
You ain't going to make it with anyone anyhow

The situation started as an "electoral mandate", not unlike any election in the U.S., especially when an incumbent loses. It also created a single-party BoCC led by a recently elected Chairman who became the public face of local government outsourcing.

Don't you know it's gonna be alright

At the end of it all, reason overcame revolution. A hastily prepared report was reviewed by the University of Maryland after which this report was given the disposition it merited based upon that review. A consensus was reached to "make haste slowly" putting Frederick County on a path of optimizing services and reducing cost structure while retaining transparency and accountability. This approach to addressing the misalignment between public and private payroll and benefit structures is much more like what Atlanta is doing and Dunwoody has done than what Sandy Springs did.

It bears watching.

A Culture of Cheating

A recently released report accuses Beverly Hall of "ignoring a culture of cheating". Perhaps, but how could she not? It isn't like she created it.

Let's be clear when we talk about "cheating" as revealed by the recent investigation into APS CRCT results. In this context cheating is defined as:

lying about the actual performance of one of more students

This cheating of students has been going on for over thirty years and the "culture of cheating" has long been well established and entrenched in our Public Schools.

In its earliest form it was called "social promotion" and coincided with educator's adoption of "self esteem is more important than actual learning" as a model for modern schools. When called upon to explain the value of social promotion the educrats whipped up studies justifying the compromise of schools' original and heretofore primary mission by claiming more harm is done to failing students by keeping them back than by pushing them along and hoping for the best. Of course this comes with utter disregard for the negative impact on those students who were performing and who now must slow down so the laggards can appear to keep up.

When it turned out that not only the intellectual door-stops were being socially promoted educators found it necessary to advance to "grade inflation" as a mechanism for processing students without actually teaching anything. Grade inflation removed significant friction from the entire process since it was universally applied and not subject to question. After all which student or parent will complain about 'A's?

And this worked well...until some idiot, obviously not well aligned with the education industry, came up with the idea of testing students' knowledge.  Even worse, these tests are driven by real, highly acclaimed curriculum standards. We have long known that public school graduates are not prepared for college work, if only by the incredible growth in college remediation, but these tests reveal that remediation is needed at every step in the K-12 process.

The extent and duration of this cheating cannot be over stated. This has been going on for decades in every Public School in America. This means that most, if not all, of the current crop of teachers, administrators, principals, counselors, Board Members and superintendents have been "cheated through" the system. One only has to look at the relative percentage of "education majors" graduating magna or summa to realize they've been "cheated through" college, and probably graduate school as well. As the product of cheating it should come as no surprise that they create a "culture of cheating" with which they are quite familiar and comfortable.

And there really is no surprise. It is not surprising that many teachers leave the field within the first few years, nor is it surprising why. The entrenched "culture of cheating" defends itself from non-cheaters by driving them away, leaving only those who embrace that culture to join and grow that culture. Like toxic bacteria in a petri dish.

Don't believe it? Suppose there were a newly minted teacher who escaped the gauntlet of corruption and entered a position believing that students should work hard for a good grade, that a "B" is good, an "A" is outstanding and the average student's work merits a "C". How would this teacher react when informed of the "No 'F'" policy? Or when told the most commonly awarded grade is an "A" and a "B" is the new "D"? Or that no child fails, some just move to the next level with "excess potential"? Would a person of integrity embrace this insanity or flee in terror?

Again, this has been going on for decades. We're on our second or third generation of those "cheated through" and these folks are now cheating others through. The cycle is complete.

And what will the collective "we" do about this?

Most likely, we'll punish a few scape goats, pay for "ethics training", make a couple of "policy changes" and call it "job well done". We'll trot out public figures to proclaim "we have tossed out all the bad apples" and further declare "our educators are of the highest ethical and moral character". Right. And the public will fall for it because when it comes to Public Schools they have an amazing ability to believe what they know is not true.

But most importantly we'll stop the "high stakes tests" insinuating that it was the tests themselves that caused the cheating and it is only by eliminating these tests that we can fully restore the integrity of our educators and our schools. This will return us to the glory days of grade inflation enhanced by fuzzy evaluations that elevate intangible "skills" like "critical thinking". It won't matter that your child's ignorance of arithmetic means he will never be able to balance a checkbook because he will be a "critical thinker"--just ask his teacher.

But under no circumstances will parents demand that their children learn, especially if they receive 'A's without what we now all know is optional effort. Taxpayers, for whatever reason, show no signs of demanding an end to this fiscal fraud. And "educators" will maintain dominance over the political landscape of Public Schools thereby advancing their interests ahead of students'.

If Beverly Hall is to be blamed for anything then let it be for triggering this tedious charade by inadequately covering up Public Schools' longstanding and incurable culture of cheating.