In District 18, incumbent Republican Kevin Cooke, 32, a Carrollton real estate appraiser, will face Democrat Pat Rhudy, 61, Carrollton, a Census employee and substitute teacher, in the Nov. 6 general election. In District 69, incumbent Republican Randy Nix, 60, a LaGrange minister, is being challenged by Democrat Herbert Giles, 57, Carrollton, a courier.
Both districts include portions of Carroll County
The forum, sponsored by the League of Women Voters Carrollton and Carroll County, will be held from 7-9 p.m. in the commission chambers auditorium of the David Perry County Administration Building on College Street in Carrollton.
“The moderator will open the forum,” said local LWV President Robin Collins. “Candidates will give their opening remarks. The moderator will seek questions from the audience, with the questions being written on note cards. Audience questions may be directed to a particular candidate or all candidates. The assistant moderator will combine any audience questions that are similar.
“The moderator will close the question portion, and each candidate will be given time to deliver closing remarks.”
“We won’t have panelists at this forum and we’ll only take audience questions,” Collins said. “This is something we’re trying new and may go back to having panelists in the Oct. 15 District 30 state Senate forum.”
Collins said the League reserves the right to adjust the format of the candidate forums when it is in the best interest of informing the voters, with advance notice given to the candidates.
She noted that the League of Women Voters is a non-partisan, issue-driven organization that supports voters as active participants in the democratic process, but does not support or oppose any specific political party or candidates.
Voters will get a chance to hear from local education leaders and ask questions on a constitutional amendment at a forum also sponsored by the local League of Women Voters.
The panel discussion will be held at the Carrollton Cultural Arts Center on Thursday, Oct. 11, at 7 p.m.
The amendment, to be voted on in the Nov. 6 election, asks voters if charter school applications should be approved by a new state commission instead of local school boards and the state Board of Education.
Scheduled to appear at the forum are Scott Cowart, superintendent of Carroll County Schools; Dr. Kent Edwards, superintendent of Carrollton City Schools; Dr. David Hicks, superintendent of Bremen City Schools; and Tom Upchurch, former superintendent of Carrollton City Schools and president emeritus of Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education. Dr. Bruce Lyon, a member of the LWV, will facilitate the panel discussion.
“Two weeks ago, we invited our four legislators who have constituents in Carroll County and the school superintendents in the same west Georgia areas to speak,” said Collins. “Unfortunately, three of our local legislators have prior commitments on this date, and one has not replied. Our local superintendents have accepted our invitation.”
The four panelists have all expressed a negative stance toward the amendment, but Collins stressed that none of the panelists were asked about their positions on the amendment before they were invited.
“It is a primary goal of the League of Women Voters to inform voters and to provide them opinions and views from those who are believed to be the most professional and knowledgeable speakers available without regard to political parties,” Collins said. “We place particular emphasis on citizen engagement with elected or appointed officials by providing opportunities for members of the community to attend public programs in which they may ask questions about issues.”
A couple of weeks ago, Elizabeth Poythress, president of the Georgia League of Women Voters Board of Directors, announced that the state organization has voted to oppose the amendment and urged all members to vote no on the issue.
“We believe this proposal is not in the best interest of the children of Georgia or the taxpayers of Georgia,” Poythress said. “It is unwise, wasteful and not in the best long-term interests of the state of Georgia. We believe it is bad public policy to create a duplicate school system that will, in the words of the Georgia Supreme Court, ‘compete with locally controlled schools for the same pool of students education with the same limited pool of tax funds.’”
In a press release from Poythress, the president goes on to say the League of Women Voters of Georgia is “firmly committed to public education for all the children of Georgia.”
Collins said the local position statement is an offshoot of the state league’s position, which itself is born out of the national league’s stance.
“The national league positions become the state and local league positions, and the state league positions become the local league positions,” Collins said. “These positions are updated by further study, including public events such as this.”
We began planning this event in early September. We particularly wanted local speakers. We invited the four House of Rep legislators who have constituents in Carroll County. We invited our local superintendents.
We chose to invite the local legislators and superintendents without regard to political party ties because they are believed to be the most professional and knowledgeable speakers available. The League places particular emphasis on citizen engagement with elected or appointed officials.
The League does not ask people their opinions before we ask them to speak. We invited these speakers before we knew their position on the amendment, except for Mr. Upchurch who, besides being a former superintendent, is a League member.
We invited these speakers because, other than being voted into office or officially appointed to their positions, we hoped they would present a variety of opinions. Again the League does not ask people their opinions before we ask them to speak.
All four of the legislators replied that they had other plans. Mr. Cowart and Dr. Edwards replied immediately that they would be able to speak. Dr. Hicks was added later after the legislators had declined. He was asked to round out the panel.
We did not feel the need to search out speakers other than those who are local legislators or appointed officials. The League generally asks those in official capacity to speak on important issues like this.
After we found out the position of the superintendents, the League did not feel the need to search out others who support the amendment because our League has a position on public education as I have said. We were well within League 'best practices' to only have speakers who are against the amendment, especially after the state League issued a press release statement against the amendment.
However in the spirit of a full education for the voters the League respectfully asked the speakers not to directly instruct the audience on how to vote. Panelists were asked to present facts which will enable the audience to reach their own conclusions.
If you have any other questions, you are welcome to email me, Robin Collins, president of the League of Women Voters Carrollton - Carroll County, at Carrollton@lwvga.org.
LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS OF GEORGIA ANNOUNCES OPPOSITION TO CHARTER SCHOOL AMENDMENT
Elizabeth Poythress, President of the League of Women Voters of Georgia, announced today that the state organization has voted to oppose the proposed constitutional amendment on charter schools that will appear on the ballot this November, and is urging all its members to vote NO on the issue.
Poythress said, "We believe this proposal is not in the best interest of the children of Georgia or the taxpayers of Georgia. It is unwise, wasteful, and not in the best long term interests of the State of Georgia. We believe it is bad public policy to create a duplicate school system that will, in the words of the Georgia Supreme Court, 'compete with locally controlled schools for the same pool of students educated with the same limited pool of tax funds.'"
The League of Women Voters of Georgia is firmly committed to public education, and equal access to quality education for all the children of Georgia. We also believe that locally elected officials are best suited to decide matters of local policy that so directly affect their constituents and their communities.
This proposal is unwise and wasteful, and we urge the voters of Georgia to vote NO in November on this proposal to amend the state constitution.
The League of Women voters is far from non partisan if they can make statements like this: “We believe this proposal is not in the best interest of the children of Georgia or the taxpayers of Georgia,” Poythress said.
Also interesting is the fact that the "moderator" will select the audience questions to answer rather than allowing an open forum for discussion and facilitating response from both sides. This is clearly intended to shut down proponents of the amendment and to shield the public from seeing the issue from both sides.
The public needs to beware of participating in forums like this where a balanced view from both sides is not openly provided.
The League provided two microphones and instructed in the opening comments that audience members could write questions on notecards and turn them in or go to an open microphone. One audience member chose to go to the microphone.
If you have any other questions, you are welcome to email me, Robin Collins, president of the League of Women Voters Carrollton - Carroll County, at Carrollton@lwvga.org.