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Politics & Government

Smyrna town hall focuses on education

Sen. Doug Stoner and Rep. Stacey Evans fielded questions from the community Thursday night.

The topic of education took center stage at a Thursday night town hall meeting hosted by Sen. Doug Stoner and Rep. Stacey Evans.

Stoner (D-Smyrna) is serving his fourth term in the Georgia State Senate, representing South Cobb County from Senate District 6. Evans (D-Smyrna) was elected to the State House last November and represents parts of Smyrna, Marietta and Vinings.

Held at the , the sparsely attended event nonetheless was filled with informative discussion.

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“This is just the first of many conversations we are going to have,” said Evans.

And while several issues were discussed, education seemed to be what most of those in attendance came to get answers about. According to Stoner, 56-perent of the state budget is spent on education, which includes kindergarten through college, as well as technical schools.

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He explained that since the governor has ordered no more serious budget cuts for K-12, some elected officials have been trying to come up with creative money saving solutions. One freshman representative, he said, recommended a 10-percent cut in the prison system. This decrease in funds, however, means the state would have to close three prisons.

Stoner said that while closing three prisons is not a smart move at the moment, he acknowledged that too much money is spent in the prison system as a whole. He explained that while $34,000 is spent on each inmate per year, only about $6,000 per year is spent on a child in the education system.

“Georgia has the fifth largest prison population in the country,” he said. “One out of 13 people here are in a prison.”

Evans and Stoner were also asked their opinion about the possibility of teacher “report cards” being made public. While Evans said she had yet to see that piece of legislation, she seemed to think that the idea might not be for the best.

“We need an effective way to evaluate our teachers but we have to be fair about it,” she said.

Added Stoner, “It sounds good for a headline but we have to use judgment. The last thing we want to do is put the scarlet letter on someone.”

When asked later about why they felt that so many parents were choosing to place their children in private school, both Evans and Stoner agreed class size seems to be the main issue.

Stoner said that even though his children are enrolled in a private school, he doesn’t put blame on the school system. While he opted for the smaller class sizes that private school offers, he said that parents should choose a private school wisely. He said he questions the validity of some operating outside of the metro-Atlanta area.

“They are called segregation schools down south,” he said.

Evans stated that smaller class sizes would help, but that every school district is different and that government officials should not try to put a mandate on how many students are allowed in a classroom.

“We should leave that up to the professionals,” she said

Transient students were another problem discussed at the meeting. Many students come and go, transferring from one school to another, each year. According to information shared at the meeting, many of these children are raised by single mothers, who move in and out of numerous apartments based on the first month of free rent that is often times offered. Transient students can drastically effect the performance evaluations that each school receives.

Cobb County District 2 Commissioner Bob Ott was at the meeting and confirmed the commission had recently eliminated free rent offered by apartment complexes in his district.

“You have to fix the area around the school,” he said. “The problem is not in the building.”

Evans went on to explain that fixing the education system comes down to making smart decisions.

“We don’t want to punish all the good school systems and we don’t want to always be operating in crisis mode,” she said.

When asked what is being done to keep teachers fresh, Evans said that the current evaluations do a good job. Stoner, however, said that he would like to see teachers have less paperwork to fill out. This, he reasoned, would take stress off of teachers and help them perform better in the classroom.

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