Video of stealth education panel at Lowndes High last night

Here's George Boston Rhynes' first video from last night's stealth education panel. The VDT covered it, but, presumably due to its bizarre policy of not covering candidates for office, the VDT didn't even mention that J.C. Cunningham, Democrat running for Georgia House District 175, was present, even though the VDT posted pictures and quotes from the incumbent, Republican Amy Carter, who apparently organized the panel. Charter schools were discussed; see below after the video.

Video of stealth education panel at Lowndes High last night
Video by George Boston Rhynes for K.V.C.I and bostongbr on YouTube,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 14 August 2012.

On the panel, left to right:

• Louis Byars, Director of Financial Review for the Georgia Department of Education
• Martha Wigton, Director, House Budget and Research
• State Rep. Tom Dickson, R - Cohutta, District 6
• Amy Carter, R - Valdosta, District 175

Brittany D. McClure wrote in the VDT today, Financial experts try to answer tough questions on education funding,

Tasked with discussing education funding, District 175 Rep. Amy Carter escorted a panel of financial experts — state representative Tom Dickson, director of the House Budget and Research Office Martha Wigton and director of financial review for the Georgia Department of Education Louis Byars — to an open discussion with the Lowndes County and Valdosta City School systems on Tuesday night at the Lowndes High School Lecture Hall.

In attendance from city schools was superintendent Dr. Bill Cason, assistant superintendent of finance Marty Roesch, and board members Bill Love, Trey Sherwood and Dean Rexroth. In attendance from the county schools was superintendent Wes Taylor, assistant superintendent of finance Dr. Troy Davis, and board members Fred Davis, and Dave Clark. Former Lowndes County Schools superintendent Dr. Steve Smith was also present in the audience.

The VDT article has more detail about what was discussed, including this:

A hot topic in public education, the charter school amendment, was also mentioned at this gathering.

“We're talking about money going to private schools,” said [Lowndes County Schools assistant superintendent of finance Dr. Troy] Davis. “That's money we're throwing away.”

Davis stated that it hasn't even been proven that charter schools statistically do better than public schools. After state superintendent Dr. John Barge openly opposed the amendment on Monday, some board members were adamant at getting their point across to Carter, who voted for the amendment.

Last year, Dr. Troy Davis examined what school system "unification" would mean financially, and demonstrated it would be a disaster. About Dr. John Barge, Wayne Washington wrote for the AJC yesterday, Barge comes out against charter schools amendment.

As the VDT noted, incumbent Amy Carter voted for the charter school amendment. Challenger JC Cunningham opposes the charter school constitutional amendment, according to his campaign newsletter:

If approved it would allow the General Assembly to redirect tax funds to any type of special school (charter schools) over the objection of local school boards ans taxpayers. And who would oversee how these funds would be spent? A commission of political appointees (three appointees from the Governor, two appointees from the President of the Senate, and two appointees from the Speaker of the House of Representatives). These political appointees do not have any obligations to a local school board or to the voters/taxpayers. Here we go again with appointed boards/commissions making decisions that will effect us all locally. Public Non-Charter Students Score Higher Than Charter Students On Average.

Cunningham reports on his facebook campaign page:

Beside the 10 representatives from both the Lowndes and Valdosta School Boards there were exactly seven (7) people in attendance and that included the reporter for the VDT and myself.

Topics not mentioned in the VDT article (and maybe not in the meeting) included that:

• Georgia would send much more money per student to charter schools than to public schools
• ALEC is pushing charter schools, just like ALEC pushes private prisons and fossil fuels.

-jsq