On 3/10/09 the Georgia State Senate voted to approve SB 239 by a margin of 36 to 18 with 2 Senators not voting. SB 239 - Education; mandatory attendance; provisions; require new residents in a local school system to enroll a child within 30 days, is harmless at first glance. But as you read deeper you will find some very disturbing provisions.
First of all I must tell you that this is one the most poorly written pieces of legislation I have ever read. I cannot believe that a State Body actually voted on this grammatically butchered group of words. Many if the subsections ramble on line after line without having a coherent message to be found. I am ashamed to admit that my Senator actually voted for this bill. I will be telling him how upset I am at the next County Republican meeting.
The First Readers Summary reads like this is just putting into law that which should be common sense. The summary reads as follows:
A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Part 1 of Article 16 of Chapter 2 of Title 20 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to school attendance in elementary and secondary education, so as to revise certain provisions relating to mandatory attendance; to require new residents in a local school system to enroll a child within 30 days; to provide for reporting violations of mandatory attendance requirements; to provide that a local school system official who fails to make certain reports is guilty of a misdemeanor; to provide that a person who fails to enroll a child is guilty of a misdemeanor; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.
Sounds pretty harmless right? Yes. But now let’s look a little deeper. First off the summary says that new residents will be required to enroll a child in school within 30 days of moving into the state. However, when you read the actual text of the bill (SB 239 Text) you will see that the bill does not set the number of days to register your child or children at 30 days, but rather a much shorter 10 days. Not a big deal you say? Read the fine print. Subsection (G – 2) says that any parent or guardian who does not enroll a child within the stipulated 10 days is subject to being imprisoned for up to 30 days. Big deal if you ask me.
Next the nuts and bolts of the Home School or Home Study Program is the Legislature’s attempt to invade your Home Classroom to ensure that you are teaching in a manner that they approve of. In Subsection (H) the bill states:
(h) Nothing in this Code section shall be construed to authorize the State Board of Education, local boards of education, or any officers thereof or appropriate enforcement agencies to impose any additional requirements on private schools or home study programs beyond that specifically included in subsection (a) of this Code section and in Code Section 20-2-690.
This sounds good, right? Well not when you read Subsection (C) which states:
(c) Local school superintendents in the case of private schools or home study programs and visiting teachers and attendance officers in the case of public schools shall have authority and it shall be their duty to file proceedings in court to enforce this subpart.
This Subsection specifically states that local school superintendents have the authority to file proceedings in court to ensure that private schools and home study programs are in compliance with the bill. How will they do this? The superintendents will send Special Teachers to visit you to observe your school day and the superintendents will send truancy officers to investigate your attendance records. And if the superintendents deem that you are not giving your child or children a proper education, they will bring you up on charges under the powers given them under this bill. Then you could face up to 30 days in jail while the state enrolls your child or children in public school.
I know this sounds like I am taking this bill to the extreme, but the Superintendent’s office in our county is very hostile towards home schooling, and she takes every opportunity to harass the families of our county. For her this bill would be a blank check to abridge the rights of the home schooling community in this county.
I urge you to take the time to contact your State Representative to urge him or her to vote against SB 239. On 3/26/09 the House Committee favorably reported on this bill. Unless we speak out and let them know how we feel; they will pass this harmful bill into law. To contact your representative Click Here. Tell the Georgia Legislature that you will not have your rights as a parent taken away. Also I suggest that you call the Governor’s office and ask him to Veto the bill if it is passed. Governor Perdue has supported Home Schooling in the past and we need to ask him to support us again by Vetoing this harmful bill.
Thank you my friends for standing up for your rights.
And remember, if you remain silent, you will be ignored.
Gerald
Friday, March 27, 2009
Monday, February 16, 2009
Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC)
For those of us in the transportation industry just mentioning the term TWIC will get you all kinds of heated responses. From the lack of information put out by the Ports and the Federal Government to the six to eight weeks it takes to get a TWIC Card, this is one of the worst implementations of a government program you will ever find.
First the deadline to register was set and then not announced. It was left to the individual ports to inform Port Employees, Contractors, and Transportation Providers. What the ports did was tell all the Port Employees and Contractors, and then posted a note on the bulletin board with 20 other notices for the Transportation Provider’s employees to read and inform their respective companies. Big surprise, very few trucking companies even knew about the program until less than 60 days until the deadline.
Then once a trucking company knew of the program, getting correct information was even harder. There was nothing on my state DOT web-site, or on the Port of Savannah web-site, or most of the web-sites of the ports my company frequents. Even my state trucking association had no information. So I had nothing, not who the program belonged to, no congressional committee, nothing. Finally I started looking at the web-sites for posts I don’t usually go to, and eventually found a link on the Port of Charleston to the TWIC Program. Three cheers for Charleston, which I must add the Port of Charleston was the only port to properly inform the trucking companies of the TWIC Program.
I then went to work on Washington to get help with expediting the process. Thank you to Congressman Jim Marshall and staff for their assistance in getting me in contact with Denise Krepp at the Sub-committee. Denise was very instrumental in getting my employees enrolled in the program.
Now several weeks later my employees are getting their TWIC Cards, and now I have hit a new problem. It seems that the State of Florida not only is going to require the TWIC Card, but they are also requiring that all truck drivers going into Florida ports will half to have a Florida Port Identification Card. Without both you will not gain entry to any Florida port facility. O Great three to five more weeks of waiting to get this card. And between the two cards I will spend in fees, travel expenses and wages more than $500.00 per employee for the two cards. Talk about REDUNDENCE.
This program has many problems which congress refuses to address. Let them know as I have that it is time to bring this program under control and to address the issues it has caused.
Take friends.
Gerald
First the deadline to register was set and then not announced. It was left to the individual ports to inform Port Employees, Contractors, and Transportation Providers. What the ports did was tell all the Port Employees and Contractors, and then posted a note on the bulletin board with 20 other notices for the Transportation Provider’s employees to read and inform their respective companies. Big surprise, very few trucking companies even knew about the program until less than 60 days until the deadline.
Then once a trucking company knew of the program, getting correct information was even harder. There was nothing on my state DOT web-site, or on the Port of Savannah web-site, or most of the web-sites of the ports my company frequents. Even my state trucking association had no information. So I had nothing, not who the program belonged to, no congressional committee, nothing. Finally I started looking at the web-sites for posts I don’t usually go to, and eventually found a link on the Port of Charleston to the TWIC Program. Three cheers for Charleston, which I must add the Port of Charleston was the only port to properly inform the trucking companies of the TWIC Program.
I then went to work on Washington to get help with expediting the process. Thank you to Congressman Jim Marshall and staff for their assistance in getting me in contact with Denise Krepp at the Sub-committee. Denise was very instrumental in getting my employees enrolled in the program.
Now several weeks later my employees are getting their TWIC Cards, and now I have hit a new problem. It seems that the State of Florida not only is going to require the TWIC Card, but they are also requiring that all truck drivers going into Florida ports will half to have a Florida Port Identification Card. Without both you will not gain entry to any Florida port facility. O Great three to five more weeks of waiting to get this card. And between the two cards I will spend in fees, travel expenses and wages more than $500.00 per employee for the two cards. Talk about REDUNDENCE.
This program has many problems which congress refuses to address. Let them know as I have that it is time to bring this program under control and to address the issues it has caused.
Take friends.
Gerald
Monday, February 2, 2009
Children's Products
Update on the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act.
Over the weekend many Bloggers and Homeschoolers posted about the CSPC granting a one year stay on the implementation of this Act. Be not deceived my friends, this is a “Trojan Horse” offering by the CSPC and Congress to give you and me a false sense of victory. Read the fine print. This so called Stay, only applies to testing of new products imported by large retailers, and does nothing to address Second-hand Stores or the issues involving books.
The Stay states and I quote;
“The stay of enforcement on testing and certification does not address thrift and second hand stores and small retailers because they are not required to test and certify products under the CPSIA. The products they sell, including those in inventory on February 10, 2009, must not contain more than 600 ppm lead in any accessible part. The Commission is aware that it is difficult to know whether a product meets the lead standard without testing and has issued guidance for these companies that can be found on our web site.”
When you check the guidance you will find that the only protection this Stay gives these stores is to exempt them from Civil Action. But, what the CSPC fails to state is that these stores will still be at risk of being fined and imprisoned by the Federal Government for non-compliance.
Do not think we have won. This is a simply the Federal Government making a change to help large retailers during the economic crunch. If Congress really cared they would do the responcible thing, scrap the current Act and start over.
Take care my friends,
Gerald
Over the weekend many Bloggers and Homeschoolers posted about the CSPC granting a one year stay on the implementation of this Act. Be not deceived my friends, this is a “Trojan Horse” offering by the CSPC and Congress to give you and me a false sense of victory. Read the fine print. This so called Stay, only applies to testing of new products imported by large retailers, and does nothing to address Second-hand Stores or the issues involving books.
The Stay states and I quote;
“The stay of enforcement on testing and certification does not address thrift and second hand stores and small retailers because they are not required to test and certify products under the CPSIA. The products they sell, including those in inventory on February 10, 2009, must not contain more than 600 ppm lead in any accessible part. The Commission is aware that it is difficult to know whether a product meets the lead standard without testing and has issued guidance for these companies that can be found on our web site.”
When you check the guidance you will find that the only protection this Stay gives these stores is to exempt them from Civil Action. But, what the CSPC fails to state is that these stores will still be at risk of being fined and imprisoned by the Federal Government for non-compliance.
Do not think we have won. This is a simply the Federal Government making a change to help large retailers during the economic crunch. If Congress really cared they would do the responcible thing, scrap the current Act and start over.
Take care my friends,
Gerald
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Getting Started
The most effective method of contacting your Congressman or Senator is to call their Washington D.C. office and tell a staff member your position. It is very simple, for every E-mail received they believe nine (9) other people share the same opinion. For every letter received in the mail they believe 15 other people agree with you. However for every call stating an opinion on an issue they believe that 27 more people share your opinion. By far this is the most effective method to sway Congress to act.
To find the contact information for your Congressman or Woman go to http://www.house.gov/
To find the contact information for your Senator go to http://www.senate.gov/
This week’s Focus Issue is U.S. Law 110-314 Read Law Here A Bill to establish regulations for lead levels in children’s products. This law was passed in the wake of several problems in 2007 of children’s toys imported from China with lead paint. Congress rushed to pass legislation to stop this from happening again. It was passed so hurriedly that only one Representatives and three Senators realized the ramifications of the bill and voted against it. What Congress did was create a gaggle of problems for thousands of small businesses across America.
For this and every issue I high light I will provide both a narrative and a letter/e-mail form you can use to contact your representatives. Add to it, or take anything away. They will be included as tools for you to draw from.
For the current issue of lead levels in children’s products U.S. Law 110-314 the following is an example of what I re-laid to my representatives.
Hello my name is (give first and last name), and I am form (city and state). I am calling to let the Congressman/Congresswoman/Senator know my opinion on the recent bill passed regulating the level of lead in children’s products. I feel that Congress has in a rush to appear concerned to the American people, they have passed a law which is unfair to millions of people. I understand the need to protect children for toxic materials, however I feel that Congress did not fully consider the effects this law would have on Main Street America. First the law is too far reaching in its scope by including products produced prior to the law being passed, and failing to exclude used sales of those items produced before this law was passed. By not including this needed Grandfather Clause which most laws of this kind contain you are going to force thousands of second-hand stores out of business, and prevent millions of families from being able to sell any toys or children’s clothing at yard sales for fear of being fined $100,000.00. Second, the inclusion of books and craft or homemade items will put undue responsibility on the producer. In both of these cases what is produced for adults, sometimes ends up being purchased by the parents for a child thus under this vague legislation makes the re-seller responsible. Third and most important is the fact that Congress passed this law and has made no attempt to disseminate the facts about the law to the retail and re-sale stores across America. No more than ten percent of the effect stores even know about the law and how it will affect them. Congress is negligent in is responsibility to notify those affected by any law passed.
I understand that Congress is reviewing the law to make some clarifications, but they are not addressing the adding of a Grandfather Clause, or the exclusion of books and craft or homemade products.
I am asking that the Congressman/Congresswoman/Senator take action to get this poorly written legislation rescinded before it forces thousands of small businesses to close, and fills our landfills with valuable and needed children’s toys and clothing. Please take action before this law does further damage to the economy, and hurts millions of Americans.
Thank you for your time.
A few things you should know. Yes this is lengthy, but a well thought opinion is given greater weight, and the Staff Member will not see you as giving a reactionary opinion. Also if the Staffer informs you that the representative voted against the bill, thank them for their vote and tell them that the representative should understand the need to act quickly to get this law rescinded.
If you have time and are so inclined it would be helpful to call all of the Representatives from your state to Washington, to give them your opinion. Since you are not from their district your opinion will carry less weight, but they will still see how wide spread the issue is and it will help to encourage action.
The following is the letter form for this issue.
Dear Congressman/Congresswoman/Senator( insert last name),
Hello my name is (give first and last name), and I am form (city and state). I am writing concerning U.S. Law 110-314, which was passed last year, regulating the level of lead in children’s products. I feel that Congress has in a rush to appear concerned to the American people, they have passed a law which is unfair to millions of people. I understand the need to protect children for toxic materials, however I feel that Congress did not fully consider the effects this law would have on Main Street America. First the law is too far reaching in its scope by including products produced prior to the law being passed, and failing to exclude used sales of those items produced before this law was passed. By not including this needed Grandfather Clause which most laws of this kind contain you are going to force thousands of second-hand stores out of business, and prevent millions of families from being able to sell any toys or children’s clothing at yard sales for fear of being fined $100,000.00. Second, the inclusion of books and craft or homemade items will put undue responsibility on the producer. In both of these cases what is produced for adults, sometimes ends up being purchased by the parents for a child thus under this vague legislation makes the re-seller responsible. Third and most important is the fact that Congress passed this law and has made no attempt to disseminate the facts about the law to the retail and re-sale stores across America. No more than ten percent of the effect stores even know about the law and how it will affect them. Congress is negligent in is responsibility to notify those affected by any law passed.
I understand that Congress is reviewing the law to make some clarifications, but they are not addressing the adding of a Grandfather Clause, or the exclusion of books and craft or homemade products.
I am asking that you take action to get this poorly written legislation rescinded before it forces thousands of small businesses to close, and fills our landfills with valuable and needed children’s toys and clothing. Please take action before this law does further damage to the economy, and hurts millions of Americans.
Thank you for your time.
(Your name)
We only have until February 10, 2009 to sway Congress to rescind this law. So please my friends call and e-mail as many Representatives and Senators as you can to let Washington know that this law must be rewritten to protect the thousands it will harm.
Please let me know if you have any questions concerning this issue, I will be glad to help in any way I can.
Take care friends, and remember if you remain silent you will be ignored.
Gerald
To find the contact information for your Congressman or Woman go to http://www.house.gov/
To find the contact information for your Senator go to http://www.senate.gov/
This week’s Focus Issue is U.S. Law 110-314 Read Law Here A Bill to establish regulations for lead levels in children’s products. This law was passed in the wake of several problems in 2007 of children’s toys imported from China with lead paint. Congress rushed to pass legislation to stop this from happening again. It was passed so hurriedly that only one Representatives and three Senators realized the ramifications of the bill and voted against it. What Congress did was create a gaggle of problems for thousands of small businesses across America.
For this and every issue I high light I will provide both a narrative and a letter/e-mail form you can use to contact your representatives. Add to it, or take anything away. They will be included as tools for you to draw from.
For the current issue of lead levels in children’s products U.S. Law 110-314 the following is an example of what I re-laid to my representatives.
Hello my name is (give first and last name), and I am form (city and state). I am calling to let the Congressman/Congresswoman/Senator know my opinion on the recent bill passed regulating the level of lead in children’s products. I feel that Congress has in a rush to appear concerned to the American people, they have passed a law which is unfair to millions of people. I understand the need to protect children for toxic materials, however I feel that Congress did not fully consider the effects this law would have on Main Street America. First the law is too far reaching in its scope by including products produced prior to the law being passed, and failing to exclude used sales of those items produced before this law was passed. By not including this needed Grandfather Clause which most laws of this kind contain you are going to force thousands of second-hand stores out of business, and prevent millions of families from being able to sell any toys or children’s clothing at yard sales for fear of being fined $100,000.00. Second, the inclusion of books and craft or homemade items will put undue responsibility on the producer. In both of these cases what is produced for adults, sometimes ends up being purchased by the parents for a child thus under this vague legislation makes the re-seller responsible. Third and most important is the fact that Congress passed this law and has made no attempt to disseminate the facts about the law to the retail and re-sale stores across America. No more than ten percent of the effect stores even know about the law and how it will affect them. Congress is negligent in is responsibility to notify those affected by any law passed.
I understand that Congress is reviewing the law to make some clarifications, but they are not addressing the adding of a Grandfather Clause, or the exclusion of books and craft or homemade products.
I am asking that the Congressman/Congresswoman/Senator take action to get this poorly written legislation rescinded before it forces thousands of small businesses to close, and fills our landfills with valuable and needed children’s toys and clothing. Please take action before this law does further damage to the economy, and hurts millions of Americans.
Thank you for your time.
A few things you should know. Yes this is lengthy, but a well thought opinion is given greater weight, and the Staff Member will not see you as giving a reactionary opinion. Also if the Staffer informs you that the representative voted against the bill, thank them for their vote and tell them that the representative should understand the need to act quickly to get this law rescinded.
If you have time and are so inclined it would be helpful to call all of the Representatives from your state to Washington, to give them your opinion. Since you are not from their district your opinion will carry less weight, but they will still see how wide spread the issue is and it will help to encourage action.
The following is the letter form for this issue.
Dear Congressman/Congresswoman/Senator( insert last name),
Hello my name is (give first and last name), and I am form (city and state). I am writing concerning U.S. Law 110-314, which was passed last year, regulating the level of lead in children’s products. I feel that Congress has in a rush to appear concerned to the American people, they have passed a law which is unfair to millions of people. I understand the need to protect children for toxic materials, however I feel that Congress did not fully consider the effects this law would have on Main Street America. First the law is too far reaching in its scope by including products produced prior to the law being passed, and failing to exclude used sales of those items produced before this law was passed. By not including this needed Grandfather Clause which most laws of this kind contain you are going to force thousands of second-hand stores out of business, and prevent millions of families from being able to sell any toys or children’s clothing at yard sales for fear of being fined $100,000.00. Second, the inclusion of books and craft or homemade items will put undue responsibility on the producer. In both of these cases what is produced for adults, sometimes ends up being purchased by the parents for a child thus under this vague legislation makes the re-seller responsible. Third and most important is the fact that Congress passed this law and has made no attempt to disseminate the facts about the law to the retail and re-sale stores across America. No more than ten percent of the effect stores even know about the law and how it will affect them. Congress is negligent in is responsibility to notify those affected by any law passed.
I understand that Congress is reviewing the law to make some clarifications, but they are not addressing the adding of a Grandfather Clause, or the exclusion of books and craft or homemade products.
I am asking that you take action to get this poorly written legislation rescinded before it forces thousands of small businesses to close, and fills our landfills with valuable and needed children’s toys and clothing. Please take action before this law does further damage to the economy, and hurts millions of Americans.
Thank you for your time.
(Your name)
We only have until February 10, 2009 to sway Congress to rescind this law. So please my friends call and e-mail as many Representatives and Senators as you can to let Washington know that this law must be rewritten to protect the thousands it will harm.
Please let me know if you have any questions concerning this issue, I will be glad to help in any way I can.
Take care friends, and remember if you remain silent you will be ignored.
Gerald
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