And I guess professional educators and their academic theorists are to be given credit for the great curriculum of today and the now decades long poor outcomes in education? At least be fair in your criticism.

Myra, so what is the madness here that has has you all spun up up this morning? Is it the concept of testing and the sense of competition and merit that comes with it or that you support testing but believe the what and how are not properly administered...your hodgepodge? High stress you say! Give me a break! High stress is spending more and more on education and getting less and kids graduating from high school who cannot read and then wondering why they cannot get a job! Is anxiety provoking, to use your phrase, the criteria for determining whether or not to test students ? Cheers.

The liberal Peoples Republic of ACCC's desire to control everyting is on display again! Heard says "I think 99.9 percent of community gardens are going to work well for our community,” Commissioner Kathy Hoard said. “But I think, if that one-tenth of 1 percent of community gardens was next to me, what options would I have for policing it?” This is another case of government trying to control everything...the new Heard rule is that even if there is only a 1% chance something might happen then we need a way to regulate it since we cannot trust the citizens. Sounds like Obama.

Sanchez writes to blame the pro-life community for the strict requirements placed on abortion mills as the reason for Gosnell's actions. What she and those of the pro-abortion crowd detest here is that this case shines light on what really happens to the unborn life during an abortion whether it be in this place she calls grotesque because of restrictions placed on abortion providers or some other abortion mill. What about the countless lives of the unborn who were dismembered and had their heads cut off ? Where is her concern for them? Nowhere...she does not care. Thompson, the fact that you would print this article which is so callous toward the trauma suffered by the unborn and seeks to blame others for this culture of death perhaps suggests you also do not care or else why would you have been sympathetic enough to the argument to allow it to be placed in the ABH.

Jim, do you really think what this so called doctor did is a "narrow concern?" Clearly the media and perhaps you did not cover the story because to do so exposes what really happens to unborn children during an abortion.

Thank goodness we do not have to depend on the wimps on the ACCC to protect anyone; much rather have a few armed, good ole boy and girl students walking the campus.

So Leon, is it your view that no matter how oppressive the central government becomes, how many individual rights are take away, and how much of our money in our retirements accounts and savings are confiscated...you think we should just roll over and be compliant?

Have been away so did not see your post. I do not believe you answered my question about a solution to the problem you described.

Myra, thank you for acknowledging the fact that spending more and more $ on education is not what is decisive in achieving improved outcomes. This is so refreshing since your commentaries usually are an emotional appeal for more spending! Now that you have criticized the parental trigger, what Is your solution to the problem of disengagement and lack of responsibility on the part of many parents for their children's educational success? Perhaps you did not want to address solutions since that would mean challenging your liberal beliefs about the value of big government and the entitlement culture it has produced that disincentivizes individual responsibility and accountability?

As JaxDawg says...the problem you cite is not the disease to treat...it is the symptom.

Another ill considered use of my taxpapyer $ by the peoples republic of Athens. With all of the artisans in Athens we send tax $ to St. Louis for pieces of metal! I have not yet seen it yet but am told it looks awful!!

@MyraBlackmon: So now Hamby has religion and he wants to work with existing busnesses? Where has he been? Asleep at the switch? To your question of what would a group of conservative business consultants do?...for a start cut the ACCG planning and zoning staff so they cannot create anymore red tape, create loacl tax credits for creating new businesses in the atlanta highway corridor, clean up the blighted areas along the atlanta highway west of the varsity up to the new stake and shake including rundown houses to create an environment for new higher end housing, freeze local taxes then roll them back along with reducing the size of the ACCG government, the ACCG commissions should devote 1 hour of every meeting to working on actions to increase the ACC business base...that is a start.

What to do, you ask? No doubt many of the empty retail store fronts in Athens are in large part the result of years of the anti-business attitudes of local elected offices and zoning zealots come home to roost. Of course you say, bring in another liberal planning group; that will be the solution. The answer starts with the elites of the ACCG deciding to get their hands dirty in working with business and demonstrating that they'd are pro-business over the lomg haul, the Atlanta highway corridor will continue to deteriorate with few exceptions. Thank goodness for Steak and Shake and the new Longhorns.

For liberals, emotion trumps logic and what is financially affordable. Tanner is just spinning the AARP Democratic Party talking points. AARP is just another part of the Obama administration.

@MyraBlackmon: Myra, how long should parents be required tp keep their children in poorly performing public schools? 12 years? Why should poorly performimg public schools get to keep the per student $s payed by parents in taxes when those paremts relocate their children to another school setting to improve their educational outcomes? In your model, you demand that children be forced to stay in poorly performing schools and there is no limit on how much you seem to be willing to spend for that performance. I happened to believe that outcomes are more important than the means. You believe that preserving the means...public education...is what is the most Important objective. If you truly desire that all studemts succeed then you should support allowing taxpayer $ to go with the child to the place that will allow them to achieve success. I am not attacking you personally. I am tired of you insulting people who also believe they are right.

Myra...you say you are tired! Well I and many other taxpayers are also tired...tired of your whinning excuses and arrogance! We along with many millions of others in the U.S. have been paying for ever increasing per capita investments in the public education system model only to see flat to declining results. But you seem to want to perpetuate a one size fits all model of education. Myra, you say that it is a myth that public education is a failure; if public education is such a success as you suggest them why are the national education result trends so terrible after decades of increasing investment? The first law of holes is when you are in one quite digging! There are some public schools that appear to succeed, but more fail than succeed. you just want to spend more and more and more rather than opening that liberal mind to embrace new models for success. The legislature can certainly be criticized just as the education elite. Your arrogance and disdain for many of us who pay the bills and want all children to succeed is one reason why there can never be any constructive comversation and action to systemically improve public education.

Here we go again! James can you tell me why a parent should have to keep their child in a poorly performing public school and pay for the priviledge of doing so? How long should they be forced to keep their children in poorly performing schools? Their entire 12 years? Why should poorly performing public schools financially benefit from having to teach fewer students because some depart to private education but keep the tax $ when quality services were not rendered? How about directly answering the real questions.

@snarkydude: Well said!!!

Why is it that liberals always begin their advocacy of public education by talking about $? Perhaps the belief that more $ equates to improved educational outcomes is hard wired into their DNA which makes it impossible for them to conceive of any other model of education being a desired option by parents. I have yet to hear a rationale argument from liberals about why parents should be forced to keep their children locked up in public schools that they believe are not meeting their children's needs and then have to continue to pay for the priviledge to keep them there! Perhaps the word wasteland used by one contributor in describing public education was a bit over the top, but what adjective do you use to describe a system in which outcomes have declined or remained flat while spending capita continues to escalate? Just because the building says school on its signage does not mean it should get to continue as is when it is failing in the eyes of those who contribute the revenue to keep it going.

[quote][b]Curls[/b] - Fact is, most Athenians do not want development and growth. They got theirs and do not really care about the rest.
[/quote]

Your are on target. The reality is that as long as we have the liberal,ruling class in Athens calling the shots at city hall we will not grow our local economy and create jobs. Why? Because in their hearts they do not really like business and only know and believe in more spending and raising taxes to a achieve their goals for the peoples' republic of ACC.

[quote][b]Curls[/b] - Fact is, most Athenians do not want development and growth. They got theirs and do not really care about the rest.
[/quote]

Your are on target. The reality is that as long as we have the liberal,ruling class in Athens calling the shots at city hall we will not grow our local economy and create jobs. Why? Because in their hearts they do not really like business and only know and believe in more spending and raising taxes to a achieve their goals for the peoples' republic of ACC.

Myra, I have been on travel today so I am late catching up on your musings. Let me ask you a question. You assert that "Parents routinely make major decisions about how their children’s schools will be run."

Really? Please enlighten us with specific examples of the major decisions parents make about how their schools are run? Cheers.

@MyraBlackmon: why should public schools have a monopoly on using taxpayer $ to poorly educate children and parents who pay those taxes not have access to make that choice themselves?

There you go again Myra! You just cannot let go of your continuous attaxk on non-public scholols and school choice by parents. Hey Thompson, why not let Myra cool her jest on this topic and give school choice advocates equal time and space.

The inability to have an informative conversation about the differing views on this topic seems driven by the chicken little attitudes and vocies from the left that seize on this as an opportunity to enforce their central government control theories on people's lives and enforce their solutions for which there is no evidence that confirms that they have any merit. This continual over reach of the left will never allow for reasoned discussion. The earth warms and cools and has gown through these cycles for thousands of years. So what is new?

Another Chicken Little story. What arrogance these three academics demonstrate talking down to others as if no one but the elite can have a valid opinion. I guess when the earth has gone thru cycles of cooling and then getting warmer over thousands of years it was always humankind that was to blame. Perhaps these three UGA academics will next propose eradication of man from the planet or at the least ceding control of everything to the government and rolling us back to riding horses and sitting around a fire..but oh we can't have a fire for obvious reasons. BTW readers, Shepard is the same person the College of Arts and Sciences is taking to Washington D C on February 21st to brain wash UGA alumni at a reception and lecture at the COSMOS Club. What a great use of $!