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is not turned around, public support will erode to the point that people will no longer be
willing to invest more money in it. They will demand alternatives. Now, I personally don't
want to see this happen, but you're going to leave these folks with no alternatives. I know
you can't do some of the things recommended, but when you talk about what you can and
can't do because of governmental mandates, I want to see some sparks flying. I want you to
challenge these things. If you run into some legal problems -- if you have some legal
expense, you can ask me for a donation and I'll give you money to do it. What I see is a
group of people too content with the status quo. Often times we say these things and
classroom teachers take offense, but the fact of the matter is that public education is top-
heavy. It is unresponsive to the needs of the teachers and the customers. You need to start
looking at the parents and students as your customers. Then you need to respond to their
concerns. If you don't, you're going to be out of business. I'm trying to be your friend;
I'm not beating up on you. I'm trying to advise you of the trend I see coming.
Long: Steve, I agree you with 100%.
McCall: You want us to correct a problem that didn't occur overnight. It has developed
over the last 15-20 years. The school board is committed to providing a better system. It's
difficult to expect that this school board, that has only been in office three years, can make
miracles overnight. We are trying to rum the ship around. It's going to cost money to put
these recommendations into effect. Considering what we have inherited, it's not going to
happen.
Long: I think the committee makes a good point. I would like to say one thing on where
we are with religious law. There are laws out there that we have to abide by. An example
is our Bible classes.
Williams: I didn't take this job for the money. I have a desire and a concern for this school
board. We struggled with the budget. If we could all get along, we could do something as a
team.
Boone: I would like to make a few comments. I take issue with the assertion that somehow
this was the wrong group. You have to keep in mind that the school board appointed three
people and the commissioners appointed three people and then these six appointed three
members. Our appointees were subject to a veto by the school board and three were vetoed.
We only vetoed one school board appointee. By this arrangement, you probably had about
as unbiased committee as you could possibly obtain. Initially, several members of the
committee had a positive opinion of the system. One or two perhaps had a negative opinion.
Several didn't have an opinion one way or the other. It's been alleged that baggage has been
left over from school consolidation. One of our appointees was Mr. Turner, and he fought
about as hard in favor, of school consolidation as anyone in the county. We were on opposite
sides on this matter. I went along with his appointment, because I thought he would be fair
and do a good job. I think this committee was about as good and objective as could be
found. I think this report comes to about as good an assessment as we could find. I am not
saying it's perfect because nothing is perfect. I really think if you got any group of citizens
that were unbiased to begin with, and they heard and studied all the information, they would
probably reach a similar conclusion. I appreciate this committee's hard work. There are
one or two recommendations that I don't agree with, but by -and -large, it's on the mark.
I don't know what you feel would be a better approach if you hired an expert. It depends on
who the expert is. If they came from NCEA, they're going to have one bias and say one
thing. An expert like Robertson would probably say something different. There was
something said about rhetoric and I would like to quote, "I am dismayed with the
inaccuracies and bias of the report." This was Dr. Register's quote. This was using pretty
strong language. I think that what's happened in this nation -- not just in this county -- is
that for the past 30 years the progressive educationalists have had their way. Politically
correct people have had their way, and funding and real inflation adjustment has increased.
As far as problems in society, we've had Lyndon Johnson. We've had the Great Society.
We've had welfare. We've had all these social experiments. In other words, the liberal left-
wing philosophy has held this county by -and -large for the past 30 years. We've had one or
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