Gwinnett Co. School Superintendent blasts governor on education

[Charlie Brown]

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/metro/gwinnett/stories/0414gwxwilbanks.html

The superintendent of Georgia's largest school district is blasting Gov. Sonny Perdue and other elected officials, claiming they have been putting politics before students.

J. Alvin Wilbanks, superintendent of Gwinnett County Public Schools, said Thursday that education bills passed by the Legislature and signed by Perdue are "demoralizing and disappointing." Wilbanks said the new laws will force schools to cut back programs designed to help students who are struggling in school.

"This is not a Republican or Democrat complaint," Wilbanks said. "This is an election year, and they're trying to get votes. ... I have never seen education be the political football it is today."

His comments highlight long-standing divisions between local educators and state policy-makers. His complaints found support among some Georgia educators while drawing criticism from state officials.

Wilbanks said raising teachers' salaries and lowering class sizes will win votes, but elected leaders should focus on improving teacher quality and finding ways to restore state money for education. He said the state has cut about $103 million from Gwinnett's student funding in the past five years.

Wilbanks first publicly expressed these comments during a meeting with parents and community members Tuesday evening. He criticized the state for usurping local control of schools, a frustration shared by other Georgia education leaders.
-----------------------------------
EDIT: COPYRIGHT..PLEASE POST ONLY 4 OR FIVE
PARAGRAPHS FROM THE COPYRIGHTED NEWS SOURCE
PER DU RULES.

[bunkerbuster1]

1. Cry me a river, Alvin.

I got yer "Democrat complaint" right here, bud.

You lay down with dogs, you get up with fleas, and they're bitin you now.

[CottonBear]

2. Wilbanks can't speak correctly: Democrat is a noun not an adjective.

:grr:

[bunkerbuster1]

3. Wilbanks also cannot pronounce "kindergarten."

He pronounces it "Kindygarten."

(I wish I were kidding. I'm not. guy lords over a billion-dollar annual budget, and that's how he talks.)

[CottonBear]

4. That is awful. My stepdaughter is in the Gwinnett school system.

:scared:

[bunkerbuster1]

5. What's really awful is, for as lousy as the Gwinnett school board is

it's considered just about the best school system in the state.

I weep for this state, if this group of thieves, fundies and hacks is the best it can be.

[CottonBear]

6. Oconee County claims to be one of the "best" in the state,

which isn't saying much when you claim to be the best school system in the state with the 49th ranked school system in the nation.

My goddaughters got a fine education in Athen-Clarke County which is a school system scorned by the white, self proclaimed upper-middle class (read in debt up to their freeper fundy eyeballs) who've fled to outlying countys like Oconee. When the white fundy-freeper types leave, then the non-fundy, reasonable, whites, Hispanics, Blacks and Asians of all classes from lower to upper-middle class are left.