The People News, a free newspaper serving Cleveland Tennessee (TN) and Bradley County Tennessee (Tn).





Of Bradley County Tn.


FEBRUARY  2008

                            The People News, a free newspaper serving Cleveland and Bradley County Tn.

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by pete edwards

Editorial for THE PEOPLE

Govern or Governed

It is nothing new for Bradley County tax payers to be bombarded with demands for new money to fuel the ever increasing size and number of government services. But, considering the county population tends to be conservative and almost all of its elected representatives run as republicans who are supposed to believe in smaller and less intrusive government, I wonder why this is so. If a county like Bradley, with its long history of frugal and sensible living, cannot control runaway spending by the people who are supposedly its public servants, then what likelihood is there for the state or country in general to live within its means?

The reason for excessive spending can only be that our leaders are not as conservative or republican as they would have us believe and it may be long overdue for us to call them on the fact by questioning their political ideals. Being branded a liberal is tantamount to political death in Bradley County, that is why most of them hide behind the republican facade to get elected.

Much of the Bradley County Commission and the Cleveland City Council act like they live in a socialist country, and almost without exception, those responsible for educating our children seem to have gained their view of public service from behind the iron curtain. Take the recent actions of the Director of Schools, Bob Taylor. It would be hard to justify his behavior had he been employed in American industry, making a public attack on the shareholders and board members, then picketing with his subordinate coworkers to demand subservience from his employers. It would be unheard of if he wanted to stay employed. But not for our school system. In America, it is the people who decide how much government they want and what portion of their earnings they supply for the services they want, (or that is how it is supposed to be). The majority of the rest of the world is the other way around. Government takes your earnings and decides what services you are entitled and how much of your earnings you get back.  The Bradley County Board of  Education, our elected representatives, have become subservient to school administrators and teachers, the people they employ. When Taylor says jump, they beat each other up trying to jump the highest. If that is not topsy-turvy government, I don't know what is.

This phenomena is not restricted to education, it has spread to law enforcement and even to the bastion of democracy, the Bradley County election office, who have also sued the

Pete Edwards
Editor - Publisher

citizens for more money.

When it comes to government spending a person is either conservative or liberal, and it seems that much of Bradley County government conveniently forget that fact.

That's what I think. What do you think?


Tell the truth Bob

At a recent meeting, Bradley County Commissioner, Roy Smith held up a copy of the annual report distributed by the City of Cleveland school system and asked Bradley County Director of Schools, Bob Taylor why his office couldn't produce something similar? The booklet in question contains information on student demographics, administration demographics and operation budget allocations for all of Cleveland schools and is quite an impressive and useful document, as is their official website:
www.clevelandschools.org.
Taylor replied with his stock answer when his performance is questioned - if I have more funding I could do it.

The fact is, Taylor's administration operates on the principle of secrecy and silence, only divulging information which supports his agenda. The free flow of information is non-existent to the point of violation of the Tennessee Open Records Act. A tactic that ultimately does immeasurable damage to how his administration is perceived by the commission and the public, hence the continual conflict.

He was also asked by the commission to explain why Bradley County was educating 901 students from other systems. His answer again was for more funding. He said each student brings in additional state and federal funding which if lost would be detrimental to the system.  He said they bring into the school system in excess of $5 million annually but only cost 10 extra teachers.

This does not make sense if the system is overcrowded unless it means double funding.

By my rough calculations,  901 students divided by a class size of 20  would translate to 45 extra classrooms needed to house them and 45 extra teachers to instruct them, and all the support facilities like restrooms and gymnasium space and cafeteria room and extra administration and, well you get the idea. 901 students could translate to two whole schools full of children Bradley County taxpayers were not required to educate. The same number of schools Taylor says he needs to alleviate overcrowding at the cost of $39 million to taxpayers, plus extra staffing, heating and so-forth.

Also, because those living in the city pay county taxes, it is reasonable that Cleveland schools should receive a pro-rata portion of any money borrowed for education capital outlay projects.  Cleveland's portion has historically been one third to the county's two thirds. In this case a third of $39 million. But the way students are distributed, Cleveland has less than a third of the children in its system. In 2007 Cleveland had 4,683 to the county's 10,088, so the county system is losing here too, but not by Taylor's reckoning.

Unfortunately, Bob's answers to questions by commissioners cannot be relied on to reflect reality, and of course he can only distort reality if he withholds vital pieces of the puzzle, which he has been doing to commissioners.

Over the years, with the exception of the use of unreliable geothermal heating systems and the time taken to replace Mayfield School, it would be hard to fault the Cleveland School Board, or Director Dr. Rick Denning's performance. I wish that could be said of Bradley County's counterparts.

That's what I think. What do you think?

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