He’s a husband, a father and a chef. He’s a giver, a teacherand an educator’s educator currently pursuing his PhD. Mark Williams is your democratic candidatefor Gwinnett County School Board District 4.
Currently Mark Williams serves as a high school counselor inthe Dekalb County School system. Hailing from the state of Michigan, Williams hasbeen passionate about education since he began mentoring and tutoring, oftentimes for free, in high school and continued throughout college and tothis day. I met with Mark a few weeks ago for a free-flowing conversation oneducation. A replay of that conversationfollows below.
Williams on runningfor District 4:
“I’m a parent and I bring realworld experience in the field of education to the table. I’ve been in educationby mentoring, tutoring, teaching and counseling for over 20 years. This can’tbe said about most members of the school board.” According to the school boardsite’s profile page, only one board member is an educator by trade.
Williams on what he’snot interested in hearing anymore:
“When people come up to me and say,‘I’m so glad you’re running so that the board will be more reflective of thecommunity.’ It would be impossible for the school board to be absolutelyreflective of the community. For example, every person who is deemed ‘black’ isnot African-American, every Asian is not Korean and so on. The community is so diverse that a truereflection of the community on the board cannot happen.”
Williams on criticalareas that would be changed/addressed if he were on a member of the board:
“1)All school board decisions wouldno longer be unanimous decisions.; 2)Research and practice would come togetherin education – A lot of what professors/educators are researching reallydoesn’t filtered down to K-12; 3)Increasing student support services likecounseling and mental health services. When used as preventive measures we don’t have to use intervention laterdown the line; 4)Growth in the area and overcrowding in schools; 5)findingbetter ways to reach students whose second language is English, doing so couldhelp improve test scores county-wide. ”
Williams on questionsabout his qualifications:
“How could my qualifications bequestioned when the only qualification to run is to be a resident of GwinnettCounty?”
Williams on the“handling” of stakeholders at public meetings:
“Stakeholders, residents ofGwinnett County who attend these meetings should be treated respectfully andhave their questions and concerns addressed.”
The Takeaways
Mark Williams is a man who is passionate about education forall children. Each child should have allthe resources necessary to be successful. Williams is not one who believes that existing ideas or programs arenecessarily bad because everyone has said so, he prefers to tweak what is goodthan to throw the baby out with the bathwater. At the same time, he has a keenability to recognize when the current model isn’t working and is not afraid totake bring a new idea to the table and travel down a path that has not beentravelled before. There is freshnesshere, there is a relentlessness here that might just be exactly what is neededon the Gwinnett County Board of Education.
For more information on Mark Williams please go to his fanpage on Facebook.
On Monday August 10, 2009 I attended GA-4thCongressional District Representative HankJohnson’sHealthcare Reform Townhall at Georgia Perimeter College inClarkston. This particular townhall was larger than any I’d seen covered in themedia with approximately 2000 people attendance with main seating in ColeAuditorium and additional seating in overflow areas.
The townhall was moderated by Dekalb County District 3 CommissionerLarry Johnson andwas divided into three parts. Part 1 began with remarks from two constituents whowere supporters of the current bill HR3200 going through the house. The firstCathy McClure, has a son with type 1 diabetes and a daughter with epilepsy, shehas health insurance but her premiums are $3000 a month, in addition she’s atthe mercy of her insurance company when it comes to getting tests and otherneeded services for her children. Thesecond speaker was Dr Debra Greenwood a, licensed psychologist, RN and businessowner who supports HR3200 because she is unable to provide quality affordablehealthcare to her employees, a direct knock at opponents who say that reformand its costs will put small business owners out of business.
Part 2 featured comments from the healthcare panel made upof both supporters of HR3200 and opponents. The first speaker was Dr Sandra Ford,pediatrician and Dekalb County’s district health director. Dr Ford gave some damningstatistics on childhood obesity, chronic disease, infant mortality and AIDS inthe US, Georgia and Dekalb Countyand stressed the importance of healthcare forall. She is a reformer supporter and andadded that she’d like to see included in reform emphasis on preventative care,a reward system for those who take personal responsibility for their health andan outreach and education component.
The second speaker was Dr PatriceHarris, from the American Medical Association (AMA). She is a supporter of HR3200but would like to see included more protection of the patient/physicianrelationship as well as a revision that would ease the bureaucracy involved inMedicare physician payments.
Third was DrArthur Kellermann of Emory University. He is a former emergency roomphysician, who while practicing in an ER in TN witnessed a patient being turnedaway from the ER because they had an outstanding bill with the hospital. Hesaid that when seeking care a patient should not have a “wallet biopsy”performed on them before they get care and that patients should not be turnedaway for emergency care because they don’t have insurance, ever. He supportssome combination of private and public funding of healthcare.
Fourth was EricNorwood, CEO of Dekalb Medical Center, he also believes in healthcare forall with a combination of public and private funding. He’d also like to see thehigh cost of medical malpractice insurance go down. He gave an example ofdoctors refusing to deliver babies due to the high cost of medical malpracticeinsurance which they could not afford.
Fifth was Jeffrey Taylor,CEO of Oakhurst Medical Center which serves uninsured an underinsured patientsin the Oakhurst Section of Decatur, GA. Heemphasized personal responsibility for healthcare and is opposed to governmentrun healthcare.
Sixth was Dr. M. Todd Williamson,President of the Medical Association of Georgia who was not shy about hisopposition to HR3200. His belief is that HR3200 and the public option wouldeventually evolve into a single payer government run system like Medicare whichhe believes doesn’t work well in part because it is government run. He also ranthrough several GOP talking points on the failure of national systems like Canada’sand said that he believes the government should provide some assistance butshould otherwise stay out of the way of any healthcare policy execution.
Last was Michael Young,CEO of Grady Health System. Young is a staunch supporter of a nationalizedhealthcare system and let it be known that he was opposed to some of the thingsthat he was hearing from other experts on the panel. His believe is thatleaving the states to run a system will only result in cost shifting. Patients will have to go state to state toget the best healthcare and the best rates. He is the only one who wasabsolutely explicit in his support of HR3200 and that it the reform could notwait. He also discuss the high cost of providing the free services that Grady providesto uninsured patients.
Part 3 was Q&A and Commissioner Johnson laid down thegauntlet when he said that anyone who was disruptive would be escorted out ofthe townhall by police and that protestors would be confined to a designatedprotest area. Some of the standoutcomments and questions include a gentleman holding a baby. A baby born byC-section whose doctor recommended that his wife/mother of child and baby stayin the hospital an extra day. They were unable to do so because insurancewouldn’t cover it and he didn’t have the money to pay for it out of pocket. Hesupports HR3200. Another standout was awoman who indicated that she had filed bankruptcy as a result of mountingmedical bills because she could not get coverage for herself due topre-existing conditions, she had several chronic diseases. A third was a seniorcitizen, a supporter of reform who had questions regarding reform effects onMedicare. He was assured by Representative Johnson that there would be nochanges in benefits.
The Q&A continued in a respectable fashion andthroughout the entire program there were no outburst to speak of, onlyapplause, cheers and boos. The Q&A portionground to a halt with 10 minutes to go in the program however when Congressman Johnsonlaunched into the lies the GOP were telling about reform and how the insurancecompanies were only getting rich under the current failing system. As the ladysitting next to me at the forum stated to me,, she believed that Rep. Johnson’sheart is in the right place but this was not the forum for him to launch into aspeech. I agree with her, especially since this portion of the townhall was forconstituents/attendees and because his argument really lacked the bitenecessary.
Overall from what I could hear and see from the overflow I’dsay that the attendees of this townhall were supporters of HR3200. The overflow area where I was seated I’d estimatethat the numbers were closer to half and half. The entire forum was wellplanned and executed but I left with the feeling that the Democrats have a lotmore work to do in terms of messaging, especially debunking the myths generatedby the right as well as being able to answer more succinctly questions from thosewho are riding the fence on reform.

I didn’trealize how serious the water wars with Florida and Alabama were until now.Before I thought it was all foolishness, shortages, potential shortages, tryingto save wildlife and all the rest. Welljust as we get released from the drought and all the water restrictions. We getthis; U.S.District Court Judge Paul Magnuson ruled that Georgia must discontinue allwithdrawals from Lake Lanier unless congress gives permission to do so. As an immediate discontinuance of thesewithdrawals is not practical, we’ve been given three years to secure thispermission from Congress to continue. Heindicated in his findings that withdrawals from the Lake were not a part of itsoriginal purpose and the Army Corps of Engineers overstepped its bounds inallowing the withdrawals to happen. The most telling about the judge’s remarkson this decision were his remarks on growth. “…local governments allow uncheckedgrowth because it increases tax revenue, but these same governments do notsufficiently plan for the resources such unchecked growth will require…” the largest growing county until recently hasbeen Gwinnett County and it just so happens that Lake Lanier is the ONLYsource of water for the county.
At a rateof nearly 90 million gallons per day being used, county officials contend thatthere are really no other viable alternatives than to withdrawal from the Lake. The metro area has received a commitment fromSenators Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson that they would do all they can toreach a suitable agreement with Florida and Alabama, but considering that thebattle over the Lake has been going on since the 1970s and this most recentruling, it’s unclear to me how this can happen. That said the question is whatcan citizens of the County do to ensure that we continue to have water in 2012and beyond? I’d like to hear yourthoughts.

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Dear Georgia Autism Advocate, We have received word that Senate Bill 161, "Ava's Law", sponsored by Senator Johnny Grant will be heard on Tuesday afternoon, March 3, 2009 before the Senate Insurance and Labor Committee. We have also learned that House Bill 426, the House version of Ava's Law sponsored by Representative Katie Dempsey, will be heard on Wednesday morning, March 4, 2009 before the House Committee on Insurance. Over the next few days, we will need your help in contacting the legislators who sit on these committees to let them know that you want their support on this very important measure! This is your chance for coverage for your children with autism Georgia! It's time to act now! | ||
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For more information on Ava's Law, visit www.AutismVotes.org/Georgia. Happy Dialing! Shelley Hendrix |