These days, every one of us in Greene County seems to fancy ourselves as armchair economists. Suddenly, were all experts on economic development. Just as the early western settlers gathered around the fancy, bannered wagons of the great cure-all tonic salesmen, weve all flocked to the local traveling slideshow with the novice showman espousing his great cure for our local economic development woes. As much as I would like to trustingly take everyone at their word, there are simply far too many red flags for me to buy into the story that this is primarily an economic development initiative and, as such, critical to our future. Seriously, we might get just a few medical professionals to relocate into Reynolds in the short term but no major employer is ever going to touch us until we demonstrate a commitment to our core school system and the vast majority of the countys students and current residents. Like our BOC chairman, I too have spoken with those experts in Atlanta. What they tell me is that no one will steer any employer our way as long as our county is perceived as being divided socially, racially, economically, educationally, or otherwise. As Chairman Bullard confessed, local BOC funding of a charter school has never been done before and the other 158 counties will be closely watching. The reason they will be watching is because this will be perceived as a blatant power grab and overreach of authority -- infringing on the duties and responsibilities of the BOE. While the Association of County Commissioners of Georgia (ACCG), will applaud the bold move, the State Department of Education will most likely take an entirely different view and do whatever necessary to protect their turf and prevent this from spreading across the state. Injunctions and lawsuits will bring further unwanted media attention and unnecessary legal expense to our county. Economic development really isnt rocket science. You only need be slightly smarter than the average fifth-grader to realize this is much less about economic development and much more about local politics and real estate developer influence. Im really growing weary of the lake versus others argument. Just because one charter school is planted into the closest proximity to existing lake subdivisions, does not automatically entitle it to any special claims to the taxable wealth of the surrounding area. We all live in the same small county and public funds are for the good of all. Its high time we realized it. I could say much more but if you havent figured it out by now, you probably never will.
Posted on: Fri, 31 Jan 2014 03:01:24 +0000
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