Category: Uncategorized

Raises, Roads, and Retirement: What Not To Do

Posted on by Scarlet Hawk

Yesterday the AP released a review of the Governor’s staff raises.   Last Thursday through the weekend, the Governor flew twelve General Assembly members and members of the press corp. out to New Orleans. Meanwhile, the General Assembly has proposed cutting teacher’s pensions, and raising our taxes for transportation.

Protip: Don’t do this all at once.

This is my eleventh legislative session, and while I have so much faith in Georgia’s future and confidence in the talent growing from this red clay, the leadership seems to be horribly out of touch with the basics of tact and honest brokering.  It has led me to question, “Is this legislative session to become a lesson in what NOT to do?” Continue reading “Raises, Roads, and Retirement: What Not To Do” →

Southern Snow Days and Clichés

Posted on by Mensa Dropout

There are two things that we Southerners are famous for:  our aversion to snow and our propensity to speak in endearing clichés.   Saturday Night Live produced a pithy little skit poking fun at both.  Stay with me, folks; you’ll understand this post soon enough.

On February 23, 2015, while we were all heading for home and stocking up on the essentials of bread, milk, eggs, and “beverages,” Senator Hunter Hill and Senator Fran Millar’s Senate Bill 152 was set to read.  In essence, this bill takes away Teacher Retirement System (TRS) for any new teacher hired after December, 2017.   I won’t bore you with the numbers, but if Georgia wants to have teachers who are the best and the brightest, giving them the short end of the stick is a road paved to hell, even though the good intentions are questionable.

The Universe has a lovely way of telling people things, and our friends Senators Hill and Millar may want to take heed.

On January 24, 2014 Senate Resolution 782 was read in the Senate.  Guess what happened on January 28, a mere four days later?  Snowmaggedon.  You know, that day when children were stuck on buses for hours and teachers stayed at school and took care of the young people whose parents couldn’t get to them? Yeah, that Snowmaggedon.  With SR 782, Young Senator Hill wanted to mess with not only active teachers’ retirement, but also that of all retirees in Georgia.  Since those retirees were already home on January 28 with their bread, milk, and beverages, they gave down the country pretty quickly.  I am fairly confident that the four sponsors of SR 782 had headaches from all of those phone calls.

When the teachers actually got home from spending the night with other people’s children, the phones started ringing again.  The resolution never made it to the floor, and teachers thought that it was dead and cold in the ground. We thought Hill and Millar read the writing on the wall, or in the snow as the case may be, and were going to leave well enough alone.  Senators Shafer, Mullis, Bethel and Jones dropped that thing like a hot piece of corn bread, but Hill and Millar?  God love them.  These boys were counting on the fact that even a blind dog finds an acorn every now and again, bless their hearts.

Senate Bill 152 dropped and was read on February 23 this year.  This time, the Senators left off the retirees and only included those of us who are still teaching children.  I guess these Good Old Boys figured that since the retirees don’t have a dog in the race, the bill would be fine and dandy.  Teachers were in school, so Senators Hill and Millar thought they are sitting in high cotton, right?  RIGHT????  Well, on February 24, 25, and 26 these fine gentlemen got another think coming.  Why?  SNOW DAYS! Sorry Senators, but you got caught with your pants down.  Teachers got wind of your shenanigans faster than two shakes of a sheep’s tail, and we were pretty hacked off at the news of your silly little bill. Teachers don’t sit around like bumps on a log even though that seems to be the general gospel for y’all up there in the Dome.

What do teachers do all day “trapped inside” while Satan’s Dandruff swirls around us?  We get on social media.  What did we find on social media February 25?  Lord have mercy, we found A LOT!  The news of SB 152 spread like wildfire, and Hill and Millar were in the middle of it all…again.   Young Senator Hill’s bill dropped at the worst possible time…again.

I think that it’s Jesus’ way of saying, “Boys, that dog won’t hunt.”  Next year may be snow free, but teachers have been bitten way too many times by these gentlemen, and we are a little shy of what might happen less than a year from now; we will be burning the midnight oil to ensure that these boys keep their dogs in the shed, their foxes out of our hen house, and their fingers out of our retirement pie.  Senator Hill and Senator Millar will soon realize that the sun don’t shine on the same dog’s tail all the time.

I hope that these gentlemen will actually speak to those who have reached out to them; otherwise, they are in for a very rude awakening from a sleeping giant.  Hill and Millar may want to talk with former Governor Roy Barnes about the power of the teacher’s vote.  They can take that to the bank.

#teacherretirement

#HunterHill

#FranMillar

#Teachersnowdays

 

The Great School Take Over Debate

Posted on by Mensa Dropout

Schools come in all shapes, all sizes, and all levels from, “Oh my goodness, I want my kid to go there!” to “There is no way on God’s Green Earth that I would let my child darken that door. I don’t care if I live in a hovel; we’re going to private school.”

That being said, I believe that something has to be done to push our bad schools out of business. I also firmly believe that the free market will take care of failing schools on its own.  BUT!  What makes a failing school?  Is it the teachers?  Is it the administration?  Is it the central office staff?  Is it poverty, lack of money going to the school, lack of money getting to the classroom, lack of salary for the best and brightest teachers, lack of__________?  Or is it too much money going to the big dogs’ salaries, too much money spent on things outside of the basic education of our kids like testing, too much of ______________?  Ironically, it’s none of that.

What makes a failing school is this little thing called the Georgia (please note:  not National…Georgia) College and Career Readiness Performance Index (or, what we in the biz like to call the CCRPI Score). The CCRPI Score is based on a lot of factors, and one of those factors is how many kids pass a test.  Another part of it is how many of our most vulnerable and underserved kids grow academically in a year.  You get bonus points if teachers log on to the state system and mess around with it; points for AP classes being offered and taken, especially by minority students.  Although old, this is a user friendly score guide.  For you Education Wonks, check out the DOE Site and dig deeper.

A school that has a CCRPI score of less than a 70 is a big, fat failure.  If that school is a big fat failure for three years, it is taken over by Big Deal and Company.   What are Big Deal and Co. going to do, though?  Is there a plan beyond the “Great Takeover”?  Whom will they hire?  How will those teachers get paid?  Will they be paid more than their peers because they took on the challenge?  What will the class size look like?  What will become of the facilities? What will the Full Time Equivalent (FTE) funding be for the school population? Books? Technology? Supplies?

Here’s my prediction.  I could be wrong, but I doubt it. Big Deal and Co. will take over the school (s).  Student:Teacher ratio will be ideal in all classes and not an average (20:1); facilities will be updated; teachers will be compensated on a higher level; administration will be held to a higher standard; our underserved population will be put into higher level classes and expected to perform at higher levels (because they CAN, and we forget that sometimes). Test scores will jump dramatically because the kids have the best and brightest working with them in smaller classes, lower student teacher ratios and higher expectations.  IT’S a miracle!  And then the best and brightest, the money, and the expectations will move on, and the school goes back to what the government has allotted it in the beginning.  Guess what happens next?

Wouldn’t it be easier to simply hire teachers and administrators who are the best and brightest, pay them well, treat them well, and hold them to a higher standard?  Give them a smaller class size so that they can get to know their kids and personalize learning.  Give them support in areas they need support .  Give them time to collaborate, to plan, and to give everything they have to the kids whom they serve?  I’d say so.  Jim Arnold of Pelham City Schools agrees.  What say you?

Hey y’all!

Posted on by Scarlet Hawk

My name is Lora Scarlet Hawk, and while I reside in Atlanta, I am grateful to have been born in the Classic City and reared in Social Circle, GA.  More (read: boring) of my bio may be found here; follow me on twitter here.  I have assembled this group of writers to offer a different perspective on politics, business, and culture in the South.  I have written for other previous sites and publications, but wished to provide a platform for other writers whose voices may provide clarity on issues, diversity of opinion, and to dispel the notion of the meek and mild Southern woman.

Why? I love my state.

There is a strength that comes from this red clay that does not come from anywhere else.  The blue skies here are just a little clearer, the accents a little slower, and while it is not a place of quick change, everyone knows that even the kudzu will cover you if you’re standing still.  So I invite you to join us as each of the writers speak about the South we love, the places in which we reside, and all of  the challenges in between.

Some points of clarification about me are:

I am not a journalist. 

Politics is my profession (lobbyist, campaign consultant, and fundraiser), and my insights/opinions are based upon the relationships and experiences I have gathered in the last ten years of my work.

I am an Independent.

You are welcome to consider me what you will.  I question and work with candidates from both parties, a few nonprofits and small businesses, and I only work with the people and organizations in which I truly believe.

I am an all-inclusive and accepting kind of Baptist (join me in the pew at Northside Drive Baptist Church), a member of the Black Ring Mafia (ASC c/o ’04), the Cashmere Mafia, the Junior League of Atlanta, Inc., and when I’m not working, I’m volunteering. Everyone who knows me knows I’ve got a bias for girls trying to make in it business/politics for which I make no apologies.

What I hope this may become.

I hope this may become a place where these writers may be taken seriously…to inform, discuss, debate and analyze issues in a bi-partisan manner, with a diversity of writers that has not been seen in Georgia before now.  It is my hope that good policy may be considered, bad politics exposed, and all done with the air of respect that is deserved.  I hope you find the posts we offer worthy of your time and consideration.

“It was this feminine conspiracy which made Southern society so pleasant. Women knew that a land where men were contented, uncontradicted and safe in possession of unpunctured vanity was likely to be a very pleasant place for women to live. So, from the cradle to the grave, women strove to make men pleased with themselves, and the satisfied men repaid lavishly with gallantry and adoration. In fact, men willingly gave ladies