Closing Schools Won't Head Off Fuel Crunch
So says the title of an editorial in the AJC today.
"...it'll just worsen Georgia's pathetic achievement levels."
Georgia closed it's school system last Monday and Tuesday in order to conserve deisel fuel. Fuel necessary for school buses to transport our children to and from school. The Governor also asked that all non-essential government travel be stopped.
The problem has become so bad that schools are seriously considering not using school buses for extracurricular activities. Can you say, goodbye Friday night football?
"Obviously, that two-day hiatus did nothing to stave off a fuel crisis because districts are now talking about eliminating one day a week of classes. School shutdowns — in any shape or form — cannot constitute the state's long-term energy policy."
Of course this move would do nothing to 'resolve' the crisis. It did however buy the state and school districts some time to seriously think about what needed to be done. Otherwise we could have had school buses full of children stranded because they ran outta gas. I can imagine the AJC's headlines criticizing the Governor's decisions on that one.
"Obviously, that two-day hiatus did nothing to stave off a fuel crisis because districts are now talking about eliminating one day a week of classes. School shutdowns — in any shape or form — cannot constitute the state's long-term energy policy."
Of course this is not a long-term engergy policy. I believe it was a stop-gap measure to ensure that the state had enough gas in the buses to get our kids to and from school. And the AJC is giving the Governor of Georgia super-power heroes if they think he can affact the macro economics of the nation's fuel supply and how it affects prices in Georgia - short of raising/lowering taxes.
"The governor could, for example, at least try to make good on his campaign promise that 25,000 state employees would be telecommuting by 2005. (Not a bad idea. How about a follow up article on this campain promise? Or was this article just an excuse to take the Republican Governor down a notch?) He can begin to unload every gas-guzzling SUV and sedan in the state motor pool and replace them with fuel-efficient hybrids.(At what cost to taxpayers? I like this idea too, but this solution has to be practical.) Perdue could even lead by example and start taking MARTA to work from the Governor's Mansion in Buckhead, not just one morning for the TV cameras, but every day.(I like this too. Would like to see our ruling class rub shoulders with the uwashed masses like myself.) If the governor actually rode MARTA, he'd better understand the need for the state to support and expand the mass transit options throughout the metro region.(But what if the citizen's don't want it? Won't use it? Not to mention, it won't help us NOW because it'll take years to get any form of light rail expanded to the surrounding counties.)"
"If the schools continue to be the fall guy in an energy crunch, the state's going to wind up with a lot of students whose only job skill is pumping the gas we don't have."
The AJC editorial staff seems to have it out for the Governor. Maybe rightly so. But we close schools when we get snow too. They gonna blame that on him too? And what happens when there are too many snow days? We make up the days at the end of the year. So again, why all the fuss? Oh yeah. Republican Governor. Lefty newspaper.
Once again, instead of doing true in-depth reporting that newspapers supposedly can excel at, we get more of the same.
Instead of taking potshots at the Governor, how about doing an in depth analysis on what would be saved by government workers telecommuting/using hybrids? Show how that unused gas would lower prices at the pumps and increase supply for citizens. Show too how easing summer gas regulations would lower our gas prices in Georgia. As it is now, Georgia has to be supplied with an expensive blend of fuel specially (and costly) formulated for our climate. If we could just use regular 'blends', I'm sure the refineries could more easily produce this regular blend in bigger (and cheaper) batches.
Question? Does the AJC delivery 'boys' and trucks all run on deisel or gas? Shame AJC! You too are denying our kids a proper education!
~~~~~ UPDATE ~~~~~
Today, the 6th of Oct, the AJC ran an article saying the Gov. caved to special interests when chosing to close the state's schools.
The special interest? Farmers who are in midst of harvest.
There's a very limited time window for harvesting crops. We can make up school days at the end of the year if necessary. Big friggin' deal!
And, for what it's worth: Governor was reported on radio today saying that the meeting of that industry group/association occurred after he'd made the decision to close the schools for 2 days. I'd like to see the paper do some actual research on this and either prove/disprove this statement.
"...it'll just worsen Georgia's pathetic achievement levels."
Georgia closed it's school system last Monday and Tuesday in order to conserve deisel fuel. Fuel necessary for school buses to transport our children to and from school. The Governor also asked that all non-essential government travel be stopped.
The problem has become so bad that schools are seriously considering not using school buses for extracurricular activities. Can you say, goodbye Friday night football?
"Obviously, that two-day hiatus did nothing to stave off a fuel crisis because districts are now talking about eliminating one day a week of classes. School shutdowns — in any shape or form — cannot constitute the state's long-term energy policy."
Of course this move would do nothing to 'resolve' the crisis. It did however buy the state and school districts some time to seriously think about what needed to be done. Otherwise we could have had school buses full of children stranded because they ran outta gas. I can imagine the AJC's headlines criticizing the Governor's decisions on that one.
"Obviously, that two-day hiatus did nothing to stave off a fuel crisis because districts are now talking about eliminating one day a week of classes. School shutdowns — in any shape or form — cannot constitute the state's long-term energy policy."
Of course this is not a long-term engergy policy. I believe it was a stop-gap measure to ensure that the state had enough gas in the buses to get our kids to and from school. And the AJC is giving the Governor of Georgia super-power heroes if they think he can affact the macro economics of the nation's fuel supply and how it affects prices in Georgia - short of raising/lowering taxes.
"The governor could, for example, at least try to make good on his campaign promise that 25,000 state employees would be telecommuting by 2005. (Not a bad idea. How about a follow up article on this campain promise? Or was this article just an excuse to take the Republican Governor down a notch?) He can begin to unload every gas-guzzling SUV and sedan in the state motor pool and replace them with fuel-efficient hybrids.(At what cost to taxpayers? I like this idea too, but this solution has to be practical.) Perdue could even lead by example and start taking MARTA to work from the Governor's Mansion in Buckhead, not just one morning for the TV cameras, but every day.(I like this too. Would like to see our ruling class rub shoulders with the uwashed masses like myself.) If the governor actually rode MARTA, he'd better understand the need for the state to support and expand the mass transit options throughout the metro region.(But what if the citizen's don't want it? Won't use it? Not to mention, it won't help us NOW because it'll take years to get any form of light rail expanded to the surrounding counties.)"
"If the schools continue to be the fall guy in an energy crunch, the state's going to wind up with a lot of students whose only job skill is pumping the gas we don't have."
The AJC editorial staff seems to have it out for the Governor. Maybe rightly so. But we close schools when we get snow too. They gonna blame that on him too? And what happens when there are too many snow days? We make up the days at the end of the year. So again, why all the fuss? Oh yeah. Republican Governor. Lefty newspaper.
Once again, instead of doing true in-depth reporting that newspapers supposedly can excel at, we get more of the same.
Instead of taking potshots at the Governor, how about doing an in depth analysis on what would be saved by government workers telecommuting/using hybrids? Show how that unused gas would lower prices at the pumps and increase supply for citizens. Show too how easing summer gas regulations would lower our gas prices in Georgia. As it is now, Georgia has to be supplied with an expensive blend of fuel specially (and costly) formulated for our climate. If we could just use regular 'blends', I'm sure the refineries could more easily produce this regular blend in bigger (and cheaper) batches.
Question? Does the AJC delivery 'boys' and trucks all run on deisel or gas? Shame AJC! You too are denying our kids a proper education!
~~~~~ UPDATE ~~~~~
Today, the 6th of Oct, the AJC ran an article saying the Gov. caved to special interests when chosing to close the state's schools.
The special interest? Farmers who are in midst of harvest.
There's a very limited time window for harvesting crops. We can make up school days at the end of the year if necessary. Big friggin' deal!
And, for what it's worth: Governor was reported on radio today saying that the meeting of that industry group/association occurred after he'd made the decision to close the schools for 2 days. I'd like to see the paper do some actual research on this and either prove/disprove this statement.
posted by Ga Mongrel at 9:25 PM
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