John's Reaction to Governor Perdue’s Education Budget
Recommendations - 30 Jan 06
Hi Georgians!
Yes, it’s been a little over two weeks since
we launched our campaign in Dalton. Things have been extremely busy.
Website visits were unbelievably strong. Requests for interviews
from small town newspapers, a national news service, hosts of a few
political blogs and a magazine were received. Most submitted
questions in writing. Answers had to be submitted by deadlines.
Therefore, they were a priority. Additionally, we received many
emails from across the state. All posing questions or requesting
clarifications/more info on positions, etc. I answered all of them,
which was also time consuming. But, I’m glad I did.
We also
received many well wishes from Georgians, other Southern states and
one from Hawaii!
We also received encouragement from a
Californian. He has been a political junky for 40 years and has
published a newsletter on one specific issue for 20 years. The issue
is third party and independent candidate’s struggles to get on the
ballot. He identified us as one of eight serious independent
candidates in the country. As I recall, two are candidates for the
US Senate, one for the US Congress and the others are for governor
of other states- the most widely known being Kinky Friedman in
Texas.
Lastly, I re-wrote the speech I delivered in Dalton.
The first opportunity to deliver the speech will be on Tuesday, the
14th of February in Augusta. For those of you in the area, it will
be at the Augusta-Richmond County Municipal Building at 10 in the
morning.
All that said to say this. We’ve been busier than
anticipated. Hence, this is the first opportunity I’ve had to
collect my thoughts and begin providing releases in the pyramid.
The following are my thoughts in response to Governor
Perdue’s budget recommendations for education. The next release may
be as early as tomorrow. It is a response to a teacher that was
“highly offended” by my remarks regarding education contained in the
speech I gave in Dalton. I thought there may be some other teachers
harboring similar thoughts that did not communicate them with
me.
John’s Thoughts: Gov Perdue’s Education Budget
Recommendations
Given a break by the special interests that finance Governor
Perdue’s campaign, his election strategy is taking a page from his
failed approach to economic development and job creation. However,
he’s added a few new bells and whistles.
No longer is it just
a plain ole “goodie bag of giveaways” of your tax dollars. Now he’s
throwing lollipops and pacifiers at educators and using a band-aid
approach of throwing small amounts of money at very big
problems.
But, it is an election
year. The special interests that finance him aren’t going to abandon
him. They received so many “goodies” last year, they’re willing to
exercise patience for one year.
Therefore the governor’s
strategy had to take a change in direction. He must rally the voting
block of educators.
What do I think about these new tactics?
At first blush, I was admittedly a little concerned. Then I studied
them and concluded I was not the one that needed to be concerned.
Here’s why.
I loved it. Look at all the
birds he killed with one stone!
- He neutered the Lt. Governor---- again!
- He stole all of the thunder from the
Secretary of State’s campaign! (She just spent the weekend
campaigning on “ethics”. Oh well, when you don’t have a vision for
Georgia, you have to start anew somewhere.)
- He silenced his critics by “restoring funding
to education”.
- And, he made educators happy with pay raises
and no increases in their health care benefits!
It was a great political move. If it succeeds,
he'll get re-elected. Then, we can expect four more years like the
first three. And, let me remind you what they were like:
- To get elected in ’02, he made promises he didn’t keep.
- Then, he spent 3 years building his kingdom of power. He used
the paychecks and taxes of millions of Georgians to repay
political favors to his large campaign contributors and
special interest groups. He boasted that his test of
effectiveness was not how much he would do, but how little
he would do. By his criteria, I guess you would have to
admit he did very well.
Now, in the 4th year, he boasts of how much he
did the previous 3 years and silences his critics by
playing Santa Claus with a “goodie bag” of giveaways.
Four
more years of Governor Perdue means 4 more years of goodies.
Unfortunately, the goodies will go to his political friends
and supporters. Georgians will have to wait another four years for
theirs.
Yes, I loved it. It was a stroke of political genius,
or was it?
Here's what I loved most about it. He
revealed himself for who he really is. He’s a skilled
politician who loves power and his political party more than he
loves 9 million Georgians!
- He has no vision for Georgia’s future. He has
no plan. He has no intention of solving
any problems. He’s had 3 years to do it. He hasn’t. And,
he won't.
- He doesn’t care about
educating Georgia’s children. He
cares about preserving the educator voting
block.
- He doesn’t care about solving illegal drug
and gang problems or making our communities safe. He nor most of
his cohorts have to live in communities where these problems
exist.
- He doesn’t care about reducing adult
literacy, high school drop-outs or poverty. He just cares
about giving the appearance that he cares.
- He doesn’t care about folks that lose their
good paying jobs with benefits. He just cares that there
are plenty of minimum wage jobs to replace those good
jobs so he can boast of all the jobs he’s created under his
administration.
- He boasts of Georgia’s booming economy and how
revenues have risen. He fails to mention the excess sales
taxes from the motor fuel tax. His budget for the previous FY used
$1.25 as the projected price of gasoline at the pump. It was
closer to $2.25/gal, which is nearly twice that estimated. He
failed to mention the great windfall of sales taxes that resulted
from all of the major automobile “fire sale” prices that began
late last spring and continued into the fall. Need I remind you,
it mattered not if you bought, leased or traded and went in the
hole on the deal, you paid 4% sales taxes on those record number
of new autos sold. (Sales tax benefit to the state on a $40,000
SUV is $1,600 dollars that is not tax deductible.) He failed to
mention the benefit of tourist dollars from the conventions and
Sugar Bowl that resulted from Hurricane Katrina. Folks,
Georgia gets 90% of state generated revenue from your
jobs!
Your jobs ARE Georgia’s economy!
Here’s
the bottom line. The sad fact is, he no longer knows the people of
Georgia.
And by his failure to solve
problems that affect your lives, he reveals what he
really cares about.
He only cares about
keeping himself and his party in power. That’s what his
game is and that’s where his leadership skills are spent.
Let
me close by saying two things. First, if Georgia’s public education
is important to you and you haven’t done so yet, visit my website
(http://dashlerforgov.com/index.htm)
and read all that is posted there on the subject of
education. Read the research side (Georgia: Where Are We
Now?) and the vision side (John’s Vision for
Education) and know exactly where I am.
Last, as I
mentioned at the beginning of this release, very shortly, I will
launch another release on education. It is the response to the
teacher that was “highly offended” by my remarks about education in
my announcement speech.
As with all of our releases, please
forward this to your entire contact list/address book. Otherwise,
our email pyramid will not be the effective tool we need it to
be.
Thank you and until the next time,
John
|
