Past and present Georgia Association of Educators, ( l. to r. ) Effie Carr, Jerri Alligood and Lillie Hobbs rode up to Atlanta with Carol to join in the protest against the destructive policies of Governor Perdue and his friends. Educators, and all friends of education, know DuBose Porter has always been there for them, defending education at every turn. DuBose knows without a well-educated citizenry Georgia will not be able to attract the jobs we need to get our economy back on track nor will we be able to prosper in the future. Strong public schools are and must continue to be the bedrock of a strong economy for Georgia's future.
There were hundreds of pro-education supporters at the GAE rally. Many speakers gave lists of reasons why education is not a luxury but a necessity for Georgia. One speaker did say that friends of education needed to make the right vote for education in the upcoming elections. He said, "We couldn't keep what we had, and we couldn't go back to the politician we know did not work before. We needed to move forward."
We could not agree more. Vote for education. Vote for DuBose.
This young man's poster says it all. Last year Gov. Perdue and his friends kicked our veterans out of their War Veterans Home in Milledgeville and built a fish pond in Perry instead. This year they are slashing education to unsustainable levels and building a horse barn in Perry instead. Does that represent your values? What message does this send to industry looking to come to Georgia? One of the first things an industry asks is, "Show us your demographics on education." Georgia must be able to show we have a well-educated workforce, one that is easily trainable, to compete in the high tech job market.
Small government is a good thing when it works. To reduce government down to the size where it does not educate our public is a plan for disaster. Georgia is already number one in the percentage of our population in the prison system. Roy Barnes wants to increase prison beds. The current Governor, along with the elected Republican leadership, hopes to privatize prisons (they have already started this process by closing some state prisons, which is resulting in packing prisoners into local jails. More on this in a future blog.) There is a lot of money to be made in donations for those politicians at the top who choose to cater to the developers who build prisons and to those who hope to run them when they are privatized. Not so much for politicians, like DuBose, who do not want to build more prisons, but to prevent the need for more prisons, by educating our children instead. If Georgia will elect DuBose Porter governor, Georgia will be safer and more competitive in the job market. Instead of imprisoning entire segments of the population at a rate that is financially unsustainable to the tax payer, we will be employing entire segments of the population who will help our citizens pay taxes instead of taking taxes. DuBose has a working plan to prevent the need for more prisons.
When DuBose was Chairman of Education and Chairman of Higher Education he saw that it was the Governor's office that drove policy and made the difference in education in Georgia. It will take the will and power of the Governor's office to drive the correct educational policy that will create taxpayers instead of prisoners. Prison populations are predicted using third grade reading scores. It costs $8,000 to educate a child and up to $50,000 to imprison one, not to mention the cost to the victims of crime, the loss of a bread winner to the prisoners' families and the financial cost of the displaced prisoner to our society. You do the math. The citizens of Georgia are the ones that are paying for our undervalued education system in lives and money.
Education works. It is in Georgia's Constitution that our primary goal is to educate our public. The United States is now 27th in the world in educational rankings and Georgia is in the bottom 40s among states. Add those numbers up and you can see Georgia is not positioning our students to take their rightful places in the global economy. China has more honor students than the United States has students. We cannot afford to lose another generation. We also cannot afford to elect another Governor who uses teachers as the scapegoats when it is the system that needs help. Quite simply, Georgia cannot afford another Governor who runs the state on the interests of wealthy campaign donors instead of on the interest of the people.
If we are to compete for the jobs of the future, if we are to keep our state and this nation great, we must make education our top priority. Our children deserve no less. Our taxpayers cannot afford to keep incarcerating instead of educating, just because politicians make more money building prisons than they do educating children. DuBose Porter knows that a good education, combined with job training, will prevent the financial drain caused by continuing to be number one in the percentage of our population in the correctional system.
Education increases the number of taxpayers, easing the tax burden on us all, and it also attracts industry and jobs. Education is a much better plan for Georgia's citizens than using prisons as our number one growth industry. A well-educated citizenry reduces taxes on us all. It is time to elect a politician who will not run Georgia based on the money he receives from wealthy donors, but on the money he saves the taxpayer. DuBose Porter works for you.
Put your voice back in your government
and your money back in your pocket.
and your money back in your pocket.
Vote for DuBose Porter,
an independent mind
in the Democratic primary, July 2010.
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