This past week, the Dougherty County School Board held a meeting regarding their budget. This is a budget that many people express displeasure over the size of. However, no one showed up at the meeting. In it’s editorial, the Albany Herald seems to think of it as apathy, but is it?
Apparently, this meeting was advertised. I’m having to trust the Herald’s word on this one, because I don’t recall seeing a thing on it myself. So where was it advertised? Not everyone reads the Herald after all, and I don’t remember seeing commercials on TV about it, and I’m a pretty informed guy here in town. If I could miss these advertisements, what about everyone else?
I can’t say how all this was advertised, because I didn’t read the Herald’s editorial until this morning, and I fully intend to call up the school board next week and find out what they did. I also believe that they did things in good faith, rather than running TV commercials at midnight during the work week.
My point though is that it may not be apathy, but simply a matter of poor marketing. Granted, I wouldn’t have been at the meeting anyways because of prior obligations, but others might have been. If not, then we do have a serious problem in this county and we should step up and try and get it resolved.
To the school board itself, next time you advertise a meeting, send us a press release. We’ll run it and we’ll make sure people know about it. Our readership is far more likely to be involved in something like this (percentage wise) than anything else in this area, so clue us in and we’ll see what we can do to help.
You would be surprised how poorly the parent-teacher conferences are attended at some south Georgia schools. Fiscal matters don’t appeal to many citizens while other continue to support their community schools after their children have graduated but you are right because everyone should interest in a quality workforce and the expenditure of tax dollars.
.-= Slyram´s last blog ..Common English Errors =-.
Don’t confuse apathy with disgust.
I don’t think the people at the Dougherty Taxpayers Assn are apathetic, but they are lucid enough to realize the futility of having a dialogue with our local government. Voting them out and/or suing them has a far better prospect of success.
BTW, Maschke is the only competent school board member in my view.
Slyram: Actually, I wouldn’t. My son went to Northside for his first two years of school, and it was practically deserted on Orientation night. This past year, he was at Lake Park though, and that was a much different scenario. Much more involved parents.
Jack: I don’t think it was apathy at all. Like I said, it was supposedly advertised, but I never saw anything on it. I don’t read the Herald cover to cover necessarily, getting most of my news online anymore, but even watching TV yielded me nothing so far as knowledge of this meeting. It sounds like it was poorly advertised and that was a contributing factor for no one showing up.
As for Maschke, I’ve got a lot of respect for him. He seems to try and find solutions to economic problems that don’t involve raising taxes first. That earns lots of brownie points with me.
It was apathy pure and simple. Folks in Albany and DoCo sit back and wait for someone else to do the work so they can get the benefits–the little red hen syndrome as I see it.
I could’t say how it publicized. But it doesn’t matter. Look at all the furor with property tax increases in the recent past. How many people filed appeals? How many people turned up at county and school board millage rollback meetings that were very heavily publicized? If it weren’t for the senior citizens and some effort by the Taxpayer Association, attendence at the hearings would have been even more abysmal.
You can blame it on the school board if you want but the real problem is with the citizens. How many turned out for the TEA party? How many turn out for commission meetings where your money is spent? How many turn out for, well, anything? Let’s put the blame where it should be.
We all have plenty to occupy our time these days. But if our priority interest is to bitch about the price of cable or poor cable service, don’t expect good things to happen in the govermental arena. People need to reevaluate their priorities, get involved, or expect things to get worse.
Masche is doing what the Chairman should have been doing for years and doing it well. He thinks outside that “box” we hear so much about. Tackling a thorny issue is not a problem with him. He has earned my respect and appreciation–I just wish he lived in Lee County.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of apathy as well. But there’s always been a few people who will step up and be heard. Yes, the Tea Party may not have had this huge turn out, but it was a bigger turn out than I really expected. I was there, speaking, and was shocked at really how many people where there and how energetic they were.
There will always be the apathetic majority, but this is hardly new. Only a handful of colonists took to the field during the Revolution. Most couldn’t be bothered to fight for their own freedom. However, it doesn’t require a majority to get involved. Just a vocal few who won’t let things slide easily.