I began to recognize that

Paquin had a command of the education funding issue when

I read his letters to the editor on the subject.

Unfortunately, the Board of Education and the committees

shunned his views. Perhaps the reason the official bodies

did not want to entertain his arguments was the fact that

nearly every county in the metro area had jumped on the

SPLOST bandwagon and it looked like the way to go. His

presentation on July 27 merely confirmed my earlier

assumption. He is a superb number cruncher.

School Superintendent John

DeCotis allowed Paquin, a lawyer and actuary by

profession, to give an impressive presentation on the

subject of sales tax (SPLOST) versus bonds for school

funding. He beautifully transformed an incredibly

complicated subject into an easy to understand lesson on

protecting the taxpayer, the basics of property tax, the

two separate taxes for schools, defining what a new

school costs in property tax and the effects on the

senior citizen population. He went on to reveal that the

news media did not have an appropriate knowledge of the

tax system and millage rates in their 1999 reporting on

school funding.

Paquin concluded by showing

the committees how to pay for five new schools without

raising taxes above their current level. Hopefully the

news media will reprint exhibit 19 from his lecture that

contains a list of his 12 recommendations to the School

Board.

After personally speaking

with four school administrators from four different

counties currently using the SPLOST, I contend that it

was truly a blessing that our 1999 SPLOST vote did not

pass. The administrators explained to me that the

recently passed House Bill 1187 seriously damaged their

SPLOST programs since class sizes had been forced

downward, thus their projections were reduced to ruin.

Gwinnett County raised

$105.2 million in SPLOST funds for 1999 alone. They

currently have 850 trailers. Gwinnett like most of the

other metro boards is extremely dependent upon passing

one SPLOST initiative after another just to avoid

disaster.

Gwinnett claims that 40

percent of their SPLOST dollars come from residents

outside their county. Of course about the only

restriction to getting a commercial zoning and a site

plan approved in Gwinnett is the seven-month wait in line

to get a hearing. I dare say that is why we in Fayette

County do not live in Gwinnett.

The administrators in

Gwinnett admit that they do not anticipate catching up

with the increasing student demand any time in the

foreseeable future.

The Clayton County Board of

Education had a balloon payment due and had to pass the

SPLOST or be critically wounded. Fortunately for Clayton

County, the $9 billion producing Hartsfield International

Airport is in their county and it helped them collect a

grand total of $46.3 million in 1999. Without the

airport, a SPLOST might be a useless endeavor in Clayton

County.

A pertinent question at

this point would be to ask do we in Fayette County want

to focus our efforts on attracting more out-of-county

shoppers along with the additional traffic and crime to

fuel a SPLOST effort?

All of the county board of

education administrators I spoke with mentioned that the

unceasing flow of new apartments in their counties is a

dilemma because of the large number of students that

follow.

All of them agreed that

zoning decisions made in their counties took almost no

consideration of the impact upon the school system. All

of them agreed that most budgetary expenditures in their

counties take priority over educational funding. As to

why education funding is on the back burner in people's

minds they could not say.

Interestingly, I presented

a thought to the administrators and said imagine if it

were possible to not allow the county or a municipality

to change the zoning of any residential property to a

higher density without first making sure that the school

system could absorb the new students. Then I asked if

under those circumstances they would then be able to

sustain their systems without constant bond or SPLOST

initiatives. All of them stated that they probably could

sustain the system under those conditions.

According to the polls,

Fayette County is probably the only metro county that

would even have a chance of imposing such zoning

constraints. I have to wonder why we would not be looking

into such restrictions in order to protect the quality of

our school system and avoid the threat of always being

behind.

Then again, I am pondering

why the Fayette County School Board chairman is

supporting the high density version of annexation in

Peachtree City that would add enough school children to

require yet two more schools that we cannot fund.

Hopefully, the Board of

Education will continue to work with Mr. Paquin with

objective hearts and minds. To increase public awareness

of the debate with bonds vs. sale tax, perhaps the School

Board could post Paquin's lecture points on the Board's

web site. Open debate is essential to making smart

decisions.

Environmental advocate

Dennis Chase is also trying to get the Board of

Education's ear on some important subjects. Hopefully,

the Board's recent move towards inclusion and debate will

allow Mr. Chase the opportunity to speak as well.

Steve Brown

Peachtree City

[email protected]