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What
SPLOST means to Gwinnett
By Richard Tucker
President/CEO
Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce
Special to GwinnettForum.com
SEPT. 11, 2001 - - When we were young, most of us
deposited pennies into a piggybank to help purchase bicycle parts
or baseball cards. Buying on credit was frowned upon. Certainly,
in my family my banker mother would do anything possible to keep
from assuming long-term debt at the expense of our future.
Our generation, and those before us, understood the perils of a
heavy debt. The Special Purpose Local Option Penny Sales Tax (SPLOST)
for education in Gwinnett is based on exactly the same principals
- save a little along for big-ticket items and keep the future debt-free
whenever possible.
This fall as a community we will be asked to renew the 1997 five
year SPLOST. It is critical that we all understand what is at stake.
The magnitude of this vote cannot be underestimated. Anyone familiar
with the prosperity and growth of Gwinnett is aware that our schools
have seen a tremendous increase in enrollment. Yet, Scholastic Aptitude
Test (SAT) scores released in August of this year ranked Gwinnett
students among the highest not only in the state, but also in the
nation, in spite of the large numbers taking the test -- an almost
unheard of accomplishment!
To truly appreciate the accomplishment, let's talk numbers for
a moment. "We are nearing a crisis point in housing children,"
according to Superintendent Alvin Wilbanks. The numbers show a system
growing by 6,000 students every year.
Many school systems in the United States do not have 6,000 students
total, according to Dr. Cindy Loe, Gwinnett County Public School
--- much less grow by that number. Gwinnett County is in effect
building a new school system each year just in sheer numbers.
To put Gwinnett schools in perspective, one must realize that there
are 180 school systems in Georgia, which together educate 1.4 million
students across the state, or an average of 7,700 students per system.
Gwinnett County Public Schools, one of the largest employers in
the metro area, educated over 110,000 students this past school
year.
If these numbers are not sobering enough, consider that there were
10,000 live births in Gwinnett County in 2000. Without adding one
additional newcomer to the rolls, 10,000 native Gwinnett children
will enter kindergarten in five years.
But, when it comes to government spending of any kind, the question
always is, "Can I trust them to do what they say they will
do with the money?" This is a fair question; one we should
always ask of our officials. I am a believer in looking at past
performance for answers.
The Gwinnett County school board has been a good steward of our
money over the last five years. Using that one extra sales tax penny,
an estimated 40 per cent of which comes from non-residents of Gwinnett,
the school system has done the following:
* Built seven new schools.
* Expanded or renovated 34 existing schools.
* Constructed two new high school gymnasiums with four more under
construction.
* Added 940 classrooms, by the end of the building program.
The existing one-penny has also funded the purchase of sites for
15 new schools. All this was done debt-free and within budget. That's
powerful! That's responsible! Gwinnett County has been able to do
what other counties have been unable to do it; Gwinnett County has
opened schools under budget and debt-free time and time again, thanks
to SPLOST.
Let's see that we do it again. Vote YES on the November 6, 2001
SPLOST for education vote. Those of you who have followed the public
television special, "School: The Story of American Public Education"
will recall the profound words of Thomas Jefferson, "If a nation
expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never
will be."
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