Thread: Georgia to outsource all state IT - non-US co's can bid

The teachers are stupid

I have to say that my children's teachers are outstanding. I'm VERY pleased with them and greatly appreciative to them for all that they do.

I have three children with an age range of 8-17 yrs. and out of all of their teachers throughout their schooling I have only had one or two at the most that I was displeased with. Even with those couple of teachers, I think it was also the fault of the kid (mine ) in not getting the assignments done. In other words, OFTEN times a teacher isn't "bad or stupid", but the kid is not holding up their part and then the parent just sides with the kid.

NOT ME, boy.....I side with the teacher. Don't try that with me, Kid!! I KNOW who is probably at fault and it "ain't the teacher"!!

I'm happy to report that all of my children are on track to attend universtities, although the youngest has a little more time to go yet.

I think MOST teachers in the USA are OUTSTANDING. That's my opinion based on my family's experience which has been with the public school system.

I know there are some "dummy teachers", but MOST are really good, and very outstanding.

Don't get me wrong, 75% of the problem with students is parenting, or should I say lack of.

In inner city Atlanta most of the teachers I have met are sub par, and those that are good, have given up. Because of shortages, the bad do not get fired.

Dekalb County and Fulton County schoolboards are a joke. Ever go to a meeting?

We spend more per child here, but have the worst rating in the country. They do not finish school. They cannot speak or write.

There are exceptions. Morningside Elementary is Outstanding, and folks move into the neighborhood just for that school.

I am glad you found the exception, too.

The best people I have known were teachers, and they have all left the profession.

Just heard BUSH appointed Perdue to some trade committee.

No wonder he is turncoating. When his term is up for governor, he will have a job bringing more NAFTA BS and mexicans in.

I hope this forum is fairly secure, because I happen to be an employee at GTA and what I'm relating might make a few people angry. On Wednesday Jan 9th, 38 people in the admin section of the authority were released and told they were not to return to work. They have been placed on administrative leave for an interim period where they will be given benefits and the remainder of their pay. This is round one of a multiphase effort. I don't want to get into details about what's going on because I could easily expose myself, but the fact of the matter is that the outsourcing is charging ahead despite objections.

What many of us in GTA find strange is the fact that the governor pushed this as swiftly as he did, and while the legislature was out of session. While he retains executive privilege to do as he wishes with departments under his charge, our legislators still retain the power of the purse and are our advocates in the GA House and Senate. One wonders what the big flippin' hurry was if not to circumnavigate the GA legislature? Commentator Bill Shipp suggests that perhaps Sonny is beholden to some deep pocket business guys who have recently seen the private sector back out of outsourcing, and they're willing to help fund the governor's next political venture...I think Bill might be on to something.

But I digress...back to the topic at hand. There is no argument that GTA was in trouble. Something needed to be done, and being stewards of the taxpayer's money, many of us were tearing out our hair over the utter nonsense we were witnessing. We knew it was bad, and we tried to work within the boundaries provided, but senior leadership frittered away any good will the authority had built over the years, starting with Barnes apointee Larry Singer and eventually culminating with Singer's replacement, Tom Wade. Wade eventually ended up leaving and being replaced by a Purdue insider. But sometimes, the devil you know is better than the one don't know. Don't get me wrong, the guy is good at what he does...he has a youthful energy that we honestly thought was going to re-energize GTA and turn us into the support organ that the legislature originally intended. This turned out to be a pipe dream. With all due respect to Mr. Moore, it's abundantly clear at this stage that the fix was in from the onset, and that the evaluation by the consulting firm TPI was merely a formality designed to provide adequate CYA for Purdue and his posse. Sonny has aspirations beyond his pad on West Paces Ferry, and being able to sit on his proverbial high horse and declare that he is a reformer of government is central to this.

But Georgians need to keep this tidbit in mind as this outsourcing marches onward; there is no provision to keep the IT services that GTA hosts within the confines of the state. Let that soak in a moment. In fact, the chosen vendors will probably have free rein to off-shore services as they see fit. Not to sound alarmist, but do you honestly trust that your sensitive data is secure if it's sitting in a farm of servers in India, Pakistan or the Philippines? And what about quality of service? Have you ever tried contacting a customer service rep for Dell or even BellSouth and gotten anyone that speaks coherent English? I know that sounds bigoted, but to be honest, if I'm going to lose my job due to outsourcing, I'd at least like it to be to an American.

So. There you have it. I could provide more details and so forth, but there's no real need. By this time next year, the bulk of what GTA does will be awarded to a bevy of vendors, for better or for worse. God only knows what will happen to a host of dedicated former state employees that truly did defy the "lazy gub'mint employee" stereotype...some may be offered opportunities with the new vendors, some won't, but one thing is for certain, the face of state government will be changed and that face may be some guy 6000 miles away who couldn't care less if you don't understand what he's saying, nor that he just let his friend walk out the door with a few million Social Security numbers to sell to whoever is willing to fork over the bucks. Yeah...enjoy that $22m a year savings, gang.

Lord Help us all I just hate to see us lose our country as we know it but it is coming and we can't stop it within the goverment or the Law

Sonny is indeed selling Georgians out. He is a redneck Bubba.


Water is going to go up state wide, due to all of the lack of planning, and the insane growth. All of these big corporations he brought in are not paying their fair share, and they are using a lot of water. So are all the folks that commute into Atlanta from all over the state, daily. No one has repaired anything in the infrastructure to any degree, but the boom continues.

He is doing little about illegal immigration. Buford Highway from inside the perimeter to North Georgia is a third world country. Gainesville is Little Mexico. Now his aspirations are National, and he is in bed with Bush, now that he is on his Trade Committee.

This is not what these yo yo's are elected to do. But in their last months of office they pull out all the stops, with the help of the National Leaders and corporations.

In Georgia the middle class pays dearly.