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Robert Wright says National Museum of African American History and Culture … – Columbus Ledger-Enquirer

Posted in News Update on 23rd February 2012

Officials in Washington broke ground Wednesday on the National Museum of African American History and Culture, a project that is “long overdue,” said Columbus philanthropist Robert Wright.

Wright was appointed by former President George H.W. Bush to a committee to push for the creation of a national black history museum and was present at the museum’s groundbreaking.

“It’s long overdue because the story of African Americans coming to this country needs to be told,” said Wright, an optometrist who started a small military logistics business and ultimately sold it to a major defense contractor. He is also chairman of the Columbus Office of Crime Prevention.

Wright said the $1.5 billion museum will be on the National Mall, and will be part of the Smithsonian Institution.

The museum would be “all-inclusive,” Wright said, telling black history from slavery up to the election of Barack Obama, the nation’s first black president. Some exhibits will eventually include a Jim Crow-era segregated railroad car and galleries devoted to military and sports history.

“Nothing will be eliminated, overlooked or left out,” he said.

The museum’s groundbreaking also marks the start of a public fundraising campaign. About $100 million has been raised in private funds, including $5 million gifts from businesses like Wal-Mart, Boeing and Target. Aflac, a Columbus-based insurance company, was the first corporate citizen donor and gave $1 million to the museum in June 2005. Wright sits on the Aflac board of directors.

“We felt it was important to lead the way in contributing to this cause,” said Laura Kane, spokeswoman for Aflac. “The museum will serve as a great way to spotlight American history and highlight the African-American experience.”

The museum is scheduled to be finished in 2015.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Georgia House passes charter school measure – Columbus Ledger-Enquirer

Posted in News Update on 23rd February 2012

Muscogee County School Board chairwoman Cathy Williams calls it a scheme to divert public money to private schools with no accountability.

If so, then the Georgia House of Representatives took a step toward making that scheme public policy on Wednesday when it passed legislation to put a state constitutional charter schools amendment on the ballot for voter approval.

Proponents want a constitutional amendment to set up state-designated charter schools now because the Georgia Supreme Court last May ruled that under the state constitution, the Georgia Charter Schools Commission was illegal.

The resolution aimed at restoring state charter schools passed the House by a vote of 123-48 Wednesday. It now goes to the state Senate.

Constitutional amendments require a two-thirds’ majority. A previous vote in the House failed.

Local board members like Williams fear state-designated charter schools will divert taxpayer funding to entities that are not accountable to the voters. The schools establish their own governance that is not subject to state open meetings laws, unlike local school boards, she said.

Republican state Rep. Richard Smith of Columbus said education is not strictly up to local school boards: It’s a “partnership” between those boards and the state government, which appropriates $7 billion a year to it.

“You know, we develop policies up here that impact every school system, whether it has to do with teachers’ pay, whether it has to do with classroom size, whether it has to do with practically everything that happens,” he said. “You wouldn’t write somebody a check for $7 billion and not have any say-so.”

State-created charter schools are conceived by local communities, with parents who are committed to creating schools for their children, so they do have local control, he said.

“If the community wants it, the parents want it, and they’re willing to make the commitment to it, why should the school board deny it?” he asked.

He said legislators became frustrated with local boards that repeatedly rejected charter school applications, prompting lawmakers to shift approval to the state, before the Supreme Court rejected that.

The state concept is unlike a charter school arrangement currently in place that allows local school boards to approve charter schools within their public school systems, subjecting them to board oversight.

The proposal the House approved is to set up schools outside those local systems and provide their funding directly from the state government.

State Rep. Debbie Buckner, a Democrat from Talbot County’s Junction City, said the latter provision is of little reassurance to her, because funding comes from the taxpayers whether it flows through the state or through a local school board.

“All of the money is taxpayer money,” she said. “You may be taking money from one hand and giving it to the other, but still taxpayers are going to end up paying for two different school systems. I don’t know why we aren’t investing in the school system we have and demanding excellence there.”

Williams said Muscogee County currently has board-approved charter elementary schools at Clubview, Reese Road and Wynnton. The schools are excused from some regulations to give them greater flexibility in achieving their goals.

The difference between charter and magnet schools is that magnets offer specialized courses in a particular field of study.

Charter schools focus on a theme that weaves through the curriculum. In the case of Wynnton, it’s fine arts. Were the school doing a theater production of “The Wizard of Oz,” students might learn a science lesson by investigating the physics of a tornado picking up a house, Williams said.

“When you’re looking at these private charters, you’re talking about a very different animal,” Williams said, but it’s still an animal that would feed at the public trough.

Beyond those schools receiving taxpayer support, “we don’t know how they’re going to fund them,” she said. Only so much money’s available, particularly after repeated state budget cuts, she said.

State Rep. Calvin Smyre, a Columbus Democrat, expressed the same concern. He supports the local board-approved charter school concept, and has favored it since the 1990s, he said.

“But to have the state create charter schools, and have the locals to pay for it? I just think that’s a bit much of a reach,” he said.

Said Williams: “The pie is only so big. It’s not like they’re growing the pie or finding new funding mechanisms. Where is the money going to come from? They haven’t said, ‘This is how we’re going to fund it, and this is how the funds can be used.’ All it is doing is just saying, ‘We are going to allow the state of Georgia to open private schools and fund them.’”

Of the funding mechanism, Smith said: “That’s going to be another piece of legislation, but this would be funded by the state. It would not take any money away from the local school districts where a charter school is formed. It will not impact the budget that particular school system gets.”

Many mark Ash Wednesday – Washington Post

Posted in News Update on 23rd February 2012

Feb. 22, 2012

The Rev. Emanuel Lipscomb, right, of Zion Baptist Church in Washington gives ashes to Juan Juarez, 53, of the District. Roman Catholics and members of other Christians receive the ashes to mark the beginning of Lent, the period of preparation for Easter.