Education tops discussion at Houston town hall

WARNER ROBINS -- Education dominated the discussion Saturday in the first town hall meeting by Houston County's delegation to the General Assembly.

The most impassioned comment came from a man on the front line.

Dennis Peavy was an accountant at Brown & Williamson when the Macon plant closed. He now teaches the fourth grade at Lake Joy Elementary. After 11 years as a teacher, he offered legislators a frank assessment of the public education system.

Peavy was among a packed crowd at the meeting with State Sen. Larry Walker III, State Rep. Shaw Blackmon and State Rep. Heath Clark. All are Republicans.

Peavy invited the representatives to visit the school and see it for themselves.

"School is not what it was when you went to school," he said. "It is not what it was 11 years ago when I started teaching. It is vastly broken."

He said he works harder as a teacher than he ever did as an accountant during tax season.

"We have so entitled people that they think just because they come to school, they get an A," he said. "In this system, it's hard to fail kids. I can't give them a grade less than a 50. If they do nothing, I can't give them a zero. I have to give them a 50 because it will hurt their self-esteem. ... I tell them every day, I can't fire you from the fourth grade, but I promise you they will fire you from a job."

His comments drew a loud round of applause.

Merit pay for teachers was discussed at length. The Georgia Education Reform Commission recommended allowing local systems to break away from the rigid state guidelines that base pay primarily on years of experience and education level.

That would allow merit to factor into teacher pay, but how that might be judged is uncertain.

"I'm not sure there is a method that is going to evaluate teachers appropriately," Blackmon said. "So it's going to be very difficult for me to support something on a performance-pay scale."

Clark, whose wife is a teacher, also said he has concerns about merit-based pay. He said basing it on test results would discourage teachers from going to schools that traditionally underperform.

"I just don't know how you would fairly and justly assess across the board with that," he said.

Walker said he believes the recommendations of the education committee have been misconstrued, and he urged people to actually read the report. He said the committee did not recommend basing pay on test results.

"Actually read the report and see what it is talking about and I think it will ease some of your concerns," Walker said.

A wide range of other issues was discussed including Syrian refugees and pay for corrections officers.

A representative of American Bikers Active Toward Education said asked legislators to consider a bill addressing the issue of traffic-light sensors that don't trigger by a motorcycle.

Davis Cosey, of Perry, asked for reconsideration of a law passed last year that allows fireworks to be shot late at night. He said it speaks to a larger of issue of taking control away from local governments.

"I don't know how in the world you can have a Republican-run state and have so many efforts to take local control away," Cosey said.

Blackmon said he believes the fireworks issue will be addressed this year.

The meeting, held at Bare Bulb Coffee Shop, was attended by about 70 people.

It was the first time the three legislators have addressed the public together jointly. Clark is the elder statesman of the group with one year under his belt at the Capitol. Blackmon and Walker, both elected last year, are starting their first General Assembly session Monday.

To contact writer Wayne Crenshaw, call 256-9725.

This story was originally published January 9, 2016 at 9:10 PM with the headline "Education tops discussion at Houston town hall ."