The students and many teachers know who do not belong. Offer a reward to anyone who turns in a someone living out of the county. When I was teaching, another teacher and I followed an unruly student home to prove he was out of district.

It doesn't take much effort to take roll after school to see who is still there long after the buses leave. Many of those students have to wait until 5:30 or 6:00 for a parent to get off work and come for them. Since high school doesn't offer after school programs, they have to wait in the front of the building. An old joke around was that "the Clayton County bus hasn't come yet".

The quality of the education our Fayette students are receiving is entirely attributable to the exemplary teachers instructing them. The Fayette County teachers simply are some of the best in the business. They are helping our students excel in spite of the utter complacency/mismanagement of the Fayette County School Board. The school board, collectively, have their heads stuck in the sand on this issue of illegal students. I believe they should become more adept/proactive in finding these cheaters/thieves, or they should promptly RESIGN! Inaction is absolutely not the way to go if you desire to keep your present position. Shame on you School Board! When each of these members is up for re-election, they should be shown the door! And the administration had better wake up too!

A couple of years ago, I discovered in the files of the Probate Court for Cobb County (Georgia) a way to get students in our schools legally. A woman in New Jersey (who held a job as prison guard) sent her teenage son to her sister's home, in Cobb County, because the son (who must have been living in a bad neighborhood) was associating with unsavory characters. The sister made application for legal guardianship of her N.J. nephew, and then enrolled him in a Cobb county school. (The sister had no children of her own, and she paid school taxes like everybody else. Who's to say this result is totally unfair?)

Actually, if an employee of the county finds 4 students illegally in our school system they have paid for their 1st year salary. Therefore, taxes shouldn't be raised. For that matter, if we're talking over $700,000 being saved there will be lots left over.

If you think about it for a whole second... you might realize that the money per student is not out of your pocket into the school. Last time I checked, those evil Cowetians and Fultonians weren't over-run with excess cash in their school system from their kids coming here. Those kids coming here actually bring more money here. Yes, they do bring over crowding and other issues, but the money isn't given on a per resident to the county divided up by student in the county. If concern is with the over crowding, then apparently no one has been looking in Tyrone these days. With Tyrone Elementary already using trailers, where are the students for all the new housing they're building going to go? Personally, I think developers should have to pay to build new schools before they're allowed to build houses. That way, if they bail on the housing project, at least we'll have some new facilities, and they can recoup most of the costs in the prices of the new houses.
If it was purely a "where is my $7000+ dollars being spent", and "I don't want my tax money being spent on educating other children". I guess I'm entitled to get my money back right? I send my 2 kids to private school. They're not in the public system, but my tax dollars are paying for Fayette county kids to go to school - how is that fair? What about all of the people without children? They're paying for your kids to go to school too. Maybe they should get their money back? No, most people think they have a better idea. "Let's raise taxes again, for everyone, so that we can hire a full time police force to check 1st graders for their ID's." Education is the fundamental best investment we can make in our future. So I'll keep paying for yours to go to school, if you don't raise my taxes to hunting down the rest - deal?

BOE-hire some more help and go out and physically check on these people who are being reported.

Let me get this straight ....

The FCBOE solicits the help of county residents to forward the vehicle tag numbers of those that do not have county tags so that Mr. Campbell’s office can conduct a residency check. However, Mr. Campbell’s office only conducts one (1) residency check annually, just prior to each school year because Mr. Campbell says he’s not in the business of “kicking students out of school, but to keep them from coming here illegally.”

Alrighty then …..

Well that’s just swell Mr. Campbell, but doesn’t it beg the larger question, “how do you address those complaints that have been turned over to your office during the school year on someone that fraudulently falisified documents initially before the school year started in attempt to satisfy the current prerequisite? I’m willing to bet there are at least 100 parents or legal guardians from surrounding counties that have “gamed” your vanilla "one time only" system and have their kids currently enrolled in the Fayette County school system illegally.

If my math is correct, using your cost figure of $7303.18 per student, that amounts to nearly three quarters of a million dollars that is not being directed toward my 2 children as a county taxpayer! ($730,318 to be exact). I’m sorry, but as a county taxpayer I’m somewhat appalled by that figure. I’m well aware of how desperate some schools are for supplies and I know what that kind of money could do to adequately provide for them.

Mr. Campbell, do the county residents a favor and don't make statements like, “We take the residency of our students very seriously to ensure that taxpayer dollars are being spent to educate students who are legal residents.” It's an insult to our integrity and to the level of responsibility to which you are protecting the taxpayers interests, which ultimately hurts our childrens learning.

Here’s a suggestion for the FCBOE. Please add the word, “ETHICS” to Mr. Campbell’s nice long title so that it should correctly read, Coordinator, of Safety, Discipline, Athletics, Attendance, and Ethics and get into the business of kicking the kids of unethical parents out of our county schools.

Illegal students in our school system have been an issue for quite some time now. The problem only seems to be getting worse each year and your current once per year litmus test just isn’t cutting it.

I called Arlene Law on 1/11 and offered to give 2 tags that were out of county. She refused to take the tag #'s from me and said "The majority of the out of county tags are actually residents in the county but had already renewed there tag in the previous county they lived in and dont want to pay a transfer fee." I then found on the Fayette County Tax Commissioners webpage this information: "New residents moving to Fayette County from other Georgia counties must register their vehicles within 30 days of establishing residence." My mother called on 1/13 and tried to speak with Arlene but she was leaving the office due to an emergency. My mother then spoke with Mr. Campbell's secretary(Mr. Campbell is Arlene's boss) and was promised that Mr. Campbell would be back in touch with her on 1/17. My mom did not receive a call from Mr. Campbell until 1/23. He basically told her the same thing that was written in his artical but my mom decided she would go to the monthly FCBOE meeting on 1/23 and share with the board how she felt. She was told by a board member that the students residency is only checked when they enroll in school for the first time or if they change schools. This means my child who is in Kindergarten at Hood Ave Primary will not have to show proof of residency until he starts Fayette Intermediate. Alot can change in 3 years and if its a student that goes to any other Elementary school in the county there residency will not be rechecked until they start Middle School. This is how the students are getting in and staying in because nobody is checking the residency every year like they should be. Starting next month I will be going to the monthly FCBOE meetings and asking if anything has been done or resovled. The next board meeting is on 2/13 @ 7:00. Further dates can be found on www.fcboe.org under the school board section. Please come to the meetings and voice your opinion. This is the only way we can keep them investigating this.

Parents have 15 days from the beginning of the school year to provide proof of residency or risk having their children withdrawn from school until proof of residency can be satisfied. A current gas or electric bill showing the name and address of the parent or guardian is required.

Anyone else notice the glaring stupidity in this? It's twofold: first, you can get your kid into the school system without actually proving this until 15 days later. It's like letting a prospective buyer of your home to live there for two weeks before you close. I refuse to accept that Fayette County cannot perform even a mediocre residency verification before anyone sets foot in our schools. Second, and we're seeing this with the absurd folly over voter ID's, the one thing that enables someone to get thousands of dollars of free education for their children is nothing more than an easily-doctored and/or procured gas or electric bill?!? What is exactly is that evidence of? Residency? This is like US Customs letting people into the US with a passport printed by Little Orphan Annie's decoder ring club.

Guess we'll wait until our schools start lagging and suffering from overcrowding before we do something- oh wait... we're getting there already. Well, nothing like money-and-time wasting reaction when a little common-sense proaction solves these silly problems.

I will contact you tomorrow and offer my services for free in tracking down the 34 pending people. It will be done by the weekend and you will have a full report Monday AM. After that, if you want to hire me to track down the ilegal students, I will do it for $500 per illegal student and $0 for legal ones.

Is that a good deal or what?

Signed,
Crusty old former detective

Residency Officer Arlene Law, 770-460-3990, ext. 221, or by e-mail at law.arlene@fcboe.org.