The Georgia General Assembly has been hard at work for several weeks now, so it’s time to ask how they’re doing — maybe even have a little quiz.
Especially, we should ask what they’re up to in the realm of education, for education affects virtually every aspect of our lives, including crime, health care and the economy. The most controversial bill currently calls for taking money from the public education budget to subsidize vouchers for students to attend private schools.
This is not a good idea. Ask students of history — or those who have accrued sufficient years to remember the tumultuous days when Georgia was thwarting the court rulings calling for desegregation. In Macon, over a dozen private segregation academies were created to avoid sending white children to school with Black children. These actions, and the accompanying vitriol, resulted in a schism that survives today in spite of the good that exists in many aspects of our community life.
Back in the 1960s and 70s, community leaders realized that it would be a challenge to attract business and industry to our town if they had to explain to prospects that they would need to spend thousands sending their kids to private school. So to bolster the public school system, such organizations as Macon 2000, Parents for Public Schools and others were formed, but yet in the year 2024 we know that the problem has not been solved.