Finally, someone had the courage to write what many Fayette residents knew a long time ago. The Fayette County schools are not all top-notch. Mainly, the south complex schools, McIntosh High, Booth Middle and Braelinn Elementary prop up the total Fayette scores. Take them out of the mix. The rest would be lucky to have scores that could compete with Coweta and Henry County schools. Just because you have a very expensive house for sale in North Fayette or Tyrone. A smart buyer will see through this and notice the individual school scores. Fayetteville and Tyrone will decline evermore. PTC will not be too far back.

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As a teacher at one of the schools failing science on the CRCT, I would like to provide your readers with some information they may not know. Your article did not point out that the schools mentioned as “failing” science have a large number of students not reading on grade level. Some of these students are the first generation in their family to speak English. Others have moved to Fayette County from districts both in and out of state and are not on grade level according to Georgia standards. Yet, they are all expected to be on grade level by April when the test is given. The urgency of bringing children up to grade level expectations drives instruction. If a child is in third grade and reading at a kindergarten or first grade level, that child will probably be given extra help by support teachers during the time science and social studies are being taught in the regular classroom. Instruction is missed and those content scores show it. Because of its priority, third grade teachers across the state of Georgia focus on making sure they are doing all they can do to prepare their students to “meet or exceed expectations” in reading on the CRCT. Math is added to this bar in fifth grade. If they “fail,” they are not promoted to the next grade. They must attend summer school or arrange for other tutoring before taking the reading or math test again prior to the next school year. Some still do not pass. An argument could be made that the CRCT is a test of reading ability in all content areas. Many people do not realize that in first and second grades, students are read all the questions and choices in each academic area. On the reading section, they do have to read the passages independently. Once in third grade, students must read all questions and all choices on their on. I can’t help but wonder what the science and social studies scores for the schools listed would have been if teachers had been allowed to read the questions and choices. My guess is they would have been much higher. Since science in the elementary schools is supposed to be primarily hands-on instruction as opposed to paper and pencil, many students who have difficulty reading on grade level understand the subject content and do well. The CRCT, however, requires independent reading. Students who enjoy science and grasp the concepts become very frustrated during the CRCT because of reading limitations and sometimes give up instead of trying. For those who do attempt to answer the questions, they often run out of time. I hope your readers will not read your article and infer that the teachers in the “flunking” school are not doing their job. If anything, the teachers at these diverse schools have to work harder than many of the teachers in the higher performing schools. Perhaps a follow-up article could list the numbers in each school being served in ELL and EIP. Many readers might then realize that the schools with the greatest number of students meeting or exceeding expectations on the CRCT are also the schools with the fewest number of “at-risk” learners. With Georgia moving away from a spiral curriculum, there are bound to be gaps in knowledge that will be difficult to fill as children are brought up to grade level. Some children will be able to fill those gaps in and outside the classroom. For others, they may never have the content knowledge their “average” classmates possess. Will Fayette County teachers do all they can to help them meet expectations? Definitely!

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To my neighbors in The Colonnade Neighborhood, will you please have your children and all their friends stop riding their skateboards and skateboard ramps in the middle of Colonnade Drive. Every time I drive by, I have to wait for them to get out of the road (and the children are not in a hurry to move out of the way), [and] I get a very angry look from your two children.

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Ladies who walk the bike paths in Peachtree City, drop the hand weights; you’re driving me crazy. If you don’t feel the stress you are putting on your upper arms, fine, but you’re going to hurt your back if you carry those hand-helds while you walk. The walk serves a different purpose; work the weights at home. You will enjoy the walk so much more. From a serious walker.

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When did Peachtree City become xenophobic? In response to three entries in the July 11th Citizen that blamed illegal aliens for Grady’s bankruptcy, implied their responsibility for Mexico’s poverty, and celebrated the refusal of their U.S. citizenship, I would like to ask when did Peachtree City become a gang of grumbling xenophobes? Will there be packs of pudgy Peachtree suburbanites trolling the putting greens with pitchforks and torches? No, it seems as if we are content to sit back and casually label the people who have built our stucco houses and spread our pine straw as simply users who are leaching our economy and are just too lazy to return to their respective countries and “fight for better living conditions.” Those entries were both surprising and disappointing to me, as I assumed I lived in a relatively well-educated and diverse community which celebrated culture and put a spin on the adage that the South is backwards. Turns out you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. Some people would rather be dogmatically ignorant, but let’s give it a shot nevertheless. Illegal aliens are not responsible for Grady’s bankruptcy (and just in case I need to clear it up, they also aren’t responsible for the plague of 1918, JFK’s assassination, or seasonal pollen). 46 million Americans are without health insurance, because the U.S. health system is based upon an antiquated employee-based model which does not account for today’s reality of multiple careers in multiple giant corporations that would rather we work part-time to avoid paying for health insurance. Plus the government will only assist the very poor with health insurance. If you Peachtree City grumblers feel the need to blame someone for Grady, blame the working poor Americans who are employed at two to three part-time jobs to try to make ends meet. Blame America’s health system which encourages expensive ER use rather than cheap primary healthcare by forcing people who can’t afford insurance to ignore small illnesses and precautionary check ups (mammograms, cholesterol levels) until they have progressed to an emergency. These working poor are the result of a broken American system just as immigrants are victims of their own country’s system. Its called structural violence, and you would know that if you had bothered to educate yourself in contemporary public health. You preach about illegal immigrants’ responsibility to return to their respective countries to tidy up their civil rights, and you harp on America’s proud “freedom and good living conditions because of our willingness to fight for them.” But have you? Have you bothered to venture beyond the verdant golf courses to see that 46 million Americans don’t have “good living conditions”? Have you fought for them? Have you volunteered at a free clinic (there is one in Peachtree City off of Hwy. 54, behind Smokerise), or read up on the history of American health care or Mexico’s structural violence? I am not saying I know what the answer is to the flood of illegal aliens in America. But I know the answer is not to scapegoat them for every societal ill or to remain willfully ignorant of their situation. We should be proud to be American, not smug, and continue to shine a critical eye on our society to see faults in the system and continue to fight for their remedy. Here is some great summer reading to start with: “Uninsured in America” by Sered and Fernandopulle, “Pathologies of Power” by Paul Farmer, and “The Death of Ramon Gonzalez” by Angus Wright.

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When was the last time y’all heard one of our neighbors from south of the border openly complain about the way Southerners talk? When was the last time y’all heard a Southerner living in New York openly complain about the way Yankees talk? When was the last time y’all heard a Yankee living in the Georgia openly complain about the way Southerners talk? See what I mean? The problem is Yankees. And a lot of ’em, too. Delta might have been ready at one time, but not now. It would take 10 years of substantial growth and two mega-mergers for Delta to be able to clear out the west side of PTC. Here’s the grind. Yankees don’t want to be here, but this is where the money is. And that rubs them raw in a tender spot. So, y’all just be nice to them. They can’t help the way they are. After all, that’s the way they were raised. Besides, if they hang around PTC another year or so, they will learn how to say y’all in Spanish.

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The person who responded to my letter of 7-4-07 complaining about the bullying of the local police, PTC and Fayetteville, that I was probably doing something wrong and didn’t like being caught. You missed the key phrase in my letter: “Law-abiding citizens.” If I had been doing something wrong I could not have complained about being confronted. This was not a one-time occurrence. It has happened several times. There is a pattern that makes it obvious why this happens and I am not the only victim but I will not go into that.

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I agree with Mayor Steele needing to be replaced. His developer friend’s Fayette Pavilion is a dump for criminals. The traffic is the worst I’ve ever seen in Fayette County. Councilman Paul Oddo has been a breath of fresh air and his tough stance on taxes and growth is very much appreciated.

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I am a former resident of many years in Peachtree City. I still come to town at least twice a week to visit my mother. She saves the papers for me so I can stay caught up on the local news. I skim through the Free Speech column when I want to be amused, but rarely read it in depth, because I am always appalled at the meanness of some people. I had to respond to the person who wrote in about the 25 mph speed limit in The Marks, which is where I go. I am constantly baffled by the strange things that happen to people when they get behind the wheel of a car. I have gone every route I can think of to get to my mother’s house, and not be subjected to the rudeness of people when they drive. I am no “goody two shoes” but I obey the law, and therefore, go the speed limit, whether I agree with it or not. Sometimes I don’t agree, think it is too slow in places, but not once have I made the trip to PTC, in over five years, and not had someone get on the bumper of my car, make rude gestures, pass me in no-passing zones, or try to run me off the road, not because I was going slow, but because I was going the speed limit. Sadly, it often ruins what started off as a nice drive. So, it comes to no surprise to me that people fail to understand the danger of flying through a neighborhood. We need to remember that these examples of excessive speed, and flagrant ignoring of posted legal speed limits will be something our children will reflect when they get behind the wheel of the car and hit the road. How sad that people don’t see this as an important example to teach and pass on to our children, that cars are merely a means of transportation, a dangerous weapon, and not a toy. Think about that the next time you get in such a hurry to get to the next light and sit just in front of the person you so rudely dealt with a few seconds before. Think about that when you pass a horrible car wreck, that could have been avoided if not for excessive speed and carelessness. I’m just saying!

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There sure is a diversity of people on your free speech website. Some are irritating when they have irrelevant complaints, but the ones with a sense of obvious humor amuse me when people take them seriously. Just mention religion, politics, rasslin’, and Yankees and it is on.

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The July 11 article about a comeback for Fayette Democrats is on target. However, Ernest Broadwell of PTC really does not have to work that hard. Just sit back a few more years, keep cultivating. The more Clayton and DeKalb blacks and Hispanics that keep moving in automatically bring their Democratic vote with them regardless who the candidate is. In a few years, with this population increase and the decrease of Republicans moving out from Fayette County, this will seal Democratic victory and county government in the same fashion as in Fulton, Clayton, DeKalb.

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I had to laugh when “Our Man Dan” Tennant tried to refute the last letter in the newspaper from Steve Brown on the local website. In fact, all Dan could do was make personal attacks on Steve instead of challenging him on the content of his letter. Dan smugly announced his reason for trashing Steve was, “I never stopped caring about this community.” You don’t have to be a practicing attorney for 18 years to know Dan was AWOL and out of sight on the Wilshire big box, TDK, development authority payoff and the last two tax increases. But don’t forget he never stopped caring. As if lambasting the former mayor was not enough, Dan embarks on a lying binge too. He says Harold Logsdon was responsible for widening Hwy. 54. Give us a break. Seeing how the road construction began at least a full year before Steve Rapson and Steve Brown left office, I don’t think anyone is going to be buying what Our Man Dan has to sell.

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Comedian Flip Wilson used to say, “The devil made me do it.” You can bet Mayor Logsdon will say, “GRTA made me do it.” He told us he would never make TDK four lanes, but then his track record ain’t so great. This one is right out of the Bobby Lenox sewer deal/tennis center handbook.

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Oh, how rich. The lowly Fulton County government is issuing a tax rollback to their citizens and they are losing revenue to several new cities. How come the Logsdon crew can’t give the taxpayers a rollback as promised and they haven’t lost a single dime in revenue? If things are so bad for Peachtree City, then why hasn’t the city told us anything? Exactly how much is the annexed West Village really going to cost us? And why did the Logsdon crew choose to pay back the development authority thugs instead of issuing us a tax rollback as promised? I’m sick of the lies and the excuses; do something.

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My family and I went to the newly formed breakaway church that claims 240 members. They only had a seating capacity of 90 chairs in their new facility. It was very deceitful and we consider it to be the same as false advertising. Shame on a church for not telling the truth.

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Tyrone Town Manager Barry Amos is assembling his hand-picked lackeys once again for the November election. Tops on his list is previously defeated Chip Young for mayor. Chip has announced his candidacy and is truly a “chip off the old Amos block.” Mr. Young says his idea for mayor is simple. Just be the Welcome Wagon for Tyrone. “I do not wish to run the day to day operations of town. Barry does a great job.” However, Barry just happens to be the most hated and despised official in Tyrone. He was hated in Peachtree City, didn’t last long in Senoia, and has lead the destruction of property rights in Tyrone. And there is a petition currently circulating to remove him as town manager. The Welcome Wagon platform is the same old, same old: Don’t bother Barry’s dictatorial power. Tyrone desperately needs a chief executive that will fulfill the mayoral duties enumerated in its charter. Section 3.103 states that the mayor shall see that all ordinances are faithfully executed, appoint and remove all officers and employees, supervise all executive and administrative work, prepare a budget, require written reports of the duties of all employees, cause to be inspected the proper upkeep of all public records, sign contracts, and do anything proper and necessary to protect citizens rights. And that’s only 8 of the 20 listed duties. Welcome Wagoning is not mentioned. Don Rehwaldt is another candidate for mayor with 23 years in the Air Force as logistics manager, 22 years in private business as office manager for a fortune 300 company and operations, manager at Hartsfield International Airport. As a private citizen, Mr. Rehwaldt has already done an extensive analysis of Tyrone’s 2007-2008 budget and made a written report of numerous errors. Who do you think would make the best chief executive, Chip “Welcome Wagon” Young? or Don Rehwaldt?

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Why would I want to vote for someone running for mayor of Tyrone who rides around town on a golf cart with a full-size Mickey Mouse aboard?

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Virgil Fludd is right. Education is the key to “arresting” the foreclosure problem. He states in his letter, “Most importantly, we can better educate homeowners so that they know that there’s always somewhere to turn for help — starting with their lenders.” He goes on to mention an additional $20 billion from Freddie Mac. One would assume that this is a mere drop in the bucket compared to the funds already available. The crux of Mr. Fludd’s letter implies that education means depending on someone else for help, developing the entitlement mentality and learning how and where to get free money from the government. There was a time in this country when education meant learning right from wrong, living within one’s means, determination, self-reliance, responsibility, ingenuity, creativity, basic common sense and grasping how not to get into trouble in the first place. It seems to me that one of us is dramatically failing to understand and disseminate the true meaning of education. What concerns me the most is that Mr. Fludd’s implied definition of education is the one that is accepted.

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Since the war or terror started, American citizens have been treated like criminals and the terrorists are treated like special privileged people. Now that we have tippy-toed around and fought with restraint, these fanatic animals in al Qaeda have regained their strength with the aid and support of all Muslims and their ultimate purpose is to detonate nuclear bombs in all the major cities of the United States. If we don’t go after them with everything we have at our disposal right now, they will ultimately achieve their goal because they are not restrained by humane feelings.

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The same “intelligence” that advised GWB about WMD in Iraq must have advised him that the American people were dumb enough to swallow his folksy open-borders line that giving millions of illegal aliens and illegal employers a pass wasn’t an amnesty.

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Under federal law, a single conviction for a “crime of moral turpitude” like incest doesn’t warrant deportation for a legal permanent resident alien. And our glorious lawmakers wonder why we mistrust their “comprehensive” immigration law reform.

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GWB is averaging 18 acts of clemency a year, compared to 57 for Clinton, 19 for GHB, 51 for Reagan, 142 for Carter, 164 for Ford, 168 for Nixon, 237 for LBJ, 192 for JFK, 145 for Ike, 264 for HST, and 301 for FDR.