What a bizarre and silly article! Very sad for our community and especially our children. I am a business person with children that were raised in this system. My interest is maintaining a strong school system to attract people and businesses to Gwinnett County.

After sensational stories about the Atlanta Public Schools and land deals by a couple of our county commissioners, the AJC set its sights on Gwinnett County Public Schools attempting to create a story about questionable land acquisitions. After an extensive independent investigation it was revealed that no illegal or criminal activity was found. Yet this article still comments on questionable land deals. in a fairytale sort of way.

I am very proud of our school board and the work they have done. We now have many new classrooms for our children without added debt due to the past ESPLOSTs. In fact much of these classrooms have been paid for by visitors from outside Gwinnett who come here to shop.

Amanda's fairytale math does just not work. She suggest the short term borrowing to begin school construction of $200 may not be repaid due to low revenues from the EPLOST. The projections for the ESPLOST are approximately $860 based on the current economy. To reduce shopping as Amanda suggests to a level of $125 would imply that we all stop buying anything in Gwinnett.

I am very proud of our school board and urge everyone to vote for ESPLOST IV.

Is it me or does Warren's fourth paragraph in response to Amanda's economic assessment of a household budget, which by the way is spot on, make absolutely no sense? This naivety of economics is exactly why our country is in the shape it's in. Can anyone say $16 TRILLION in debt? 9% Unemployment? "To reduce shopping as Amanda suggests to a level of $125 would imply that we all stop buying anthing in Gwinnett." What? I, as most of you reading this, live in Gwinnett County and do most of my shopping in Gwinnett County so to suggest that "much of these classsrooms have been paid for by visitors from outside Gwinnett" doesn't ring true. It continues to amaze me how willing some people are run off to the poles and vote themselves more taxes yet fail to hold their elected politicians accountable for the money they are already intrusted with!

Education splost is about jobs and economy, High tech companies that are viewing Gwinnett County as a potential place to relocate their business and bring high tech, high paying jobs will be watching this vote, Vote YES to splost, it is all about JOBS

and how many will they create for you personally Mr. Murphy?

Warren, since GCPS created its own investigation of the land deals to avoid a grand jury, I would not have expected the outcome to be any different.
I have volunteered countless hours at my students’ schools over the past 13 years and will continue to do so because I know my work benefits the children at those schools. I have always supported the E-Splost but this year I say NO! On Nov 8 I will vote NO for E-Splost for one reason and one reason alone…IE2...because this VOTE is really about the children! I doubt that your children have been a part of IE2 since this is only its second or third year in existence so when your children went through the system things may have been better. The goals GCPS have set for our children through the IE2 contracts are discriminatory and frankly appalling...but for you to find any of this out you need to look for yourself to media outside of Gwinnett. Warren, take time to investigate this for yourself, don't just read the local newspapers who share only one side. Are you aware that the achievement goals set for each elementary school in IE2 are different? Are you aware that they have different goals for each race classification? There are many, many, many students of all races and needs that have no goal to increase achievement since they are already higher than the Ga. standard. [Or an increase that is so small (.1) you can tell it is just for show]. End of part 1.

Beginning of part 2. Some student race classifications are actually allowed to drop! Again, because they are already higher than the Georgia standard. We all know Warren that Georgia ranks 49 or 50 among the states so why is GCPS using Georgia as our standard to set our goals for student achievement? The IE2 contract achievement goals are set low to create success when in fact they are nothing but smoke and mirrors...I don't trust my school board anymore because they are using the children. This is appalling and hopefully will be found to be illegal. Get informed about IE2 by asking your school’s principal to show you a copy of their IE2 contract. Go to WSBTV.com and google the feds-investigate-civil rights-claim-against-gwinnett.
If I can’t trust GCPS to care about all students’ achievement, then I can not reward them with my money. Warren, please get informed about this and write back if you have questions. I think you will be very surprised at what you learn.

J I don't have any data on the % of revenue generated by people living outside of Gwinnett County. Just a personal observation based on the shopping patterns of myself, family and friends. I, too, would be interested in knowing the breakdown of the revenue. Unfortunately it never seems to be about what's in the best interest of the kids. Be it the splost or redistricting. If we follow the money trail and the contracts awarded, I'm sure we'll find some interesting answers to some intriguing questions.

Sean Murphy is the guy who is personal friends with Seckinger. He is the one who spoke at the meetings about how P'tree Ridge should get everything and Duluth should be made to suffer.

A vote against the ESPLOT is NOT a VOTE against Education or kids or jobs. It is a vote AGAINST poor money management and taking on more debt to finance things that could wait a few years. The quality of education is not going to decline if my kid's school doesn't have an air conditioned gym.

To say that voting for higher taxes (regarless of where the money goes) is a way to generate more jobs shows a lack of understanding of Economics. Firms are enticed to move to areas in a large part due to the tax concessions that they receive for doing so. (There is a great quality of life here, good schools, nice neighborhoods -- all the things that make coming here attractive -- but companies FOLLOW THE MONEY.) If they were coming here for good schools -- a State that ranked 49th in the Nation on education would not be inclined to get many new firms headed there way.

You had to love King Alvins message today.... THANKS TO SEAN MURPHY.... Give me a break.... another crook just like Alvin and his court.... time for my family to pack up and leave Gwinnett..... I am so tired of this crap and mismangement.....