Skip to main content

Rep. Tom Taylor Tells Dunwoody How Economics is Driving His Desire for Changes to Our School System


Transcribed from a Dunwoody coffee talk held by Nancy Jester last year, Rep. Tom Taylor (the sponsor of the bill for Lavista Hills) says that "they" (Dunwoody) have great schools and its the rest of DeKalb that has a problem.

Save Tucker! contends that it is EXACTLY this type of thinking that is preventing our system from improving.  When you have the cream of the crop of 100,000 students to pick and choose from, of course your schools will be better than the ones you plucked them from.  

Rep. Taylor's speech, in part:


 
" ...  I am also on the economic development committee... we were down at Gulfstream in Savannah which is a aircraft manufacturer, just a jewel for the state of Georgia and they have a seven year backlog of orders.  Their average, entry-level aircraft is about $65 million dollars.  They employ a lot of people.  They don't employ a lot of people from Georgia.
 And, at the end of the conversation we had with the top three business executives, we asked, "You've got this beautiful business, what can we do?"
And all three of them said, "Education.  You've got to do something about education."

Kia - We've got a great program in Georgia called  "Quick Start."  It trains workers and basically selects them and actually ... when when I went down to Kia and more than half the license plates in their parking lot are from Alabama. 
Third thing, SB 70, remove the entire school system, a lot of pushback. Atlanta is Georgia.  Worldwide Headquarters, UPS  - they say Atlanta.

HR 46, I dropped last session, pretty well received ... except a few not receiving it well. The last you hear is "we don't have to educate children."

Governor removed the DeKalb County School System.  Out of the 23 member of the the status quo - which was failing.  That is unacceptable.
Back in 1983:  180 school systems in Georgia, which is 159 counties and 21 city school systems...

End of the day, we've got great schools here in Dunwoody, but we're part of a system that's failing.

And it does affect us from an economic development standpoint because we're looking and here we've got:  Great CID, Dunwoody, great place from an economic standpoint, but you've got to do something about  your school system."

So, what does he do?  He plans to abandon it.  He wants Dunwoody to have its own system.  And now he is helping Lavista Hills by sponsoring a bill for cityhood.  Does he really want to help them, or does he just need their votes on his city school system bill?  Can Lavista Hills, Tucker or any other city in DeKalb, besides Dunwoody and possibly Brookhaven, actually support their own school system?   Or, is the promise being made to every community that they, too, can have great things if they jump on board and follow the same plan?

We all know that the rest of DeKalb doesn't have the same kind of income and growth that Dunwoody has experienced with the help of Perimeter Center.  We also know that things have not always been as easy for them as they would like us to believe.

If you plan to vote for a city simply based on the "idea" of getting a school system separate from what we have in DeKalb, then you are taking a big risk ... with other people's money.  Government isn't intended to be something that works just for you.  It is supposed to work the same way for everyone.

Is it?

Labels:
Location: Dunwoody, GA, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Welcome to Smoke Rise, Soon to be Tucker, GA

This could be the change that residents will see if Tucker 2015 is successful in getting its referendum nto a ballot and voters approve it.  The driving force behind the city of Tucker has been the leadership within the community known as "Smoke Rise, GA."  Smoke Rise residents currently have addresses that say "Stone Mountain, GA" and many of them worked hard in order to create a separate identity for themselves, petitioning the U.S. Post Office to change their official name to "Smoke Rise."  While the Post Office did not agree to change the official name, they did agree to allow "Smoke Rise" as a recognized alternative to "Stone Mountain" that could be used interchangeably as long as it accompanied their 30087 zip code. It is important to note that these residents did not ask the Post Office to recognize their use of "Tucker" as an acceptable alternative.  They asked to be called "Smoke Rise." It appears t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Mr. Levitas, Did You Know Where Tucker Was When You Represented It?

From the time of the first announcement ever made about a "Lakeside City" (now called "Lavista Hills), we heard the name "Kevin Levitas" associated with it. It wasn't clear if he was the leader or if it was Mary Kay Woodworth, or possibly both of them together in a typical PTA type of shared credit, deflected blame.  But, what we did NOT know until much later was the very long standing love/hate relationship that Mr. Levitas has with our community. We don't know or understand all the factors that have gone into his crusade to destroy Tucker any more than we can understand a politician who switches parties but maintains that his own philosophy on life has remained the same (which was also something Levitas did, along with others including our own Governor of Georgia). But, what is downright outrageous and possibly even deceptive to our Central Dekalb citizens is the fact that Levitas, who has publicly stated his confusion over what exactly is a...
Post a Comment
Read more

Petition Signers Say They Were Tricked by "Neighbors for Lakeside City"

Sen. Millar Sen. Millar should know better.  When he claimed that 80% of the Livsey precinct wants to be in the City of Lavista Hills (aka Lakeside City), he already knew that there are people claiming the petition takers lied and even harassed them in order to get them to sign.  Some said they were made promises having to do with attendance zones and Lakeside High School.  Some even said they were told the only referendum would be the Lakeside one so it would be the only way to have a vote at all. In short, they were sold a bill of goods by some people whom they can never actually hold accountable and might not ever even see again.  Some of the petition signers spoke limited English and later said they signed just to stop the person from returning to their home every day to ask if they had changed their minds and were ready to sign. High pressure, low morals.  Great combination for disaster.   And, this "Neighbors for Lakeside" group that was tak...
Post a Comment
Read more