A Message from State Rep DuBose Porter

Here is a message from State Representative DuBose Porter (picture to the left):

Congratulations Nurses and Friends of Georgia’s Children,

Thanks to our combined efforts and money from the stimulus package, school nurses are included in the 2009 supplemental budget. (However things are still up in the air for the 2010 budget, so we need to keep fighting.)

This session’s effort on behalf of nurses has created a last minute change in key Republican talking points. This change is a good indication that our efforts had an impact. I am urging you to continue to make your voices heard so that the fight will not have to be as intense next year.

Here is a short synopsis of the sea change we were able to create with your help:
At the beginning of the 2009 session, the Republican Leadership’s strategy was to go after nurses’ jobs and children's healthcare with a vengeance. In a group setting at the capitol when asked, “How can you take nurses away from our school kids?” the talking points delivered by a key Republican leader to the group was verbatim as follows: ”You know, these kids are just soft. These kids need to just toughen up. They used to take kids out west on wagon trains and they did fine... Today’s kids will just have to toughen up. We just need to focus this money somewhere else.”

As you know nurses spend untold hours becoming qualified to administer health care services. Often they have given up higher paying jobs to help take care of our state’s schoolchildren. School Nurses are vital to our state’s future and our Republican Leadership was ready to toss them aside.

Thanks to your efforts in voicing your concern and by our Democratic House Caucus keeping this issue in the foreground, a few key Republicans in Leadership are starting to publicly change their tune. This was a great indicator that we would win the battle. Some key Republicans even posted pro nurses in schools videos on their websites this week when they realized the nurses would be added back into the budget- just as if they have been for nurses all along. We welcome each and every one of them on board. Nurses must stay in public schools, and united, our voices are making a difference. Now that they have come forward we must make sure they do not revert to their original views next year. To insure this I ask you to stay engaged in the process.

Without a majority of votes in the House and Senate our job is to hold that majority party accountable. Our strongest allies in doing this are the voices of fellow Georgians who understand the damaging effects across the board cuts have on healthcare and education. As you know, even when times were good and Georgia had surplus money in the budget, our Republican State Leadership cut 1.6 billion from public education and as much as they could from Public Health. These short sighted efforts have and will continue to greatly damage Georgia’s ability to bounce back from this recession. A healthy and well educated public is key to our economic recovery.

Once again, thank you for your efforts. Your voices have helped us to hold the Republican Leadership’s feet to the fire. With this year’s supplemental budget we have started to win the fight. I ask you to stay engaged and continue your efforts. With a school nurse’s care, more of Georgia’s children can stay in the classroom, more parents can stay at their jobs and more teachers can spend their time teaching. By working together we can secure a more healthy future for Georgia.

State Representative Calvin Hill is Pointing His Finger

I'm going on mini-tirade. I ask that you read all the way through. Please and thanks!

A powerful state lawmaker believes Georgia’s university system must not be too bad off financially if it can afford to employ experts in such subjects as oral sex and male prostitution.

Rep. Calvin Hill (pictured to the left) (R-Canton) said the university system has resisted accepting the budget cuts that nearly every other part of state government has absorbed as lawmakers fill a $2 billion hole in the budget.

Meanwhile, he said, Georgia State University is touting its faculty as experts on issues that are outside what he believes to be the university’s mission.

“I’m saying we all need to pull together and when we have things that are extraneous and outrages, which I don’t think should be discussed with our tax dollars, maybe some of this will come to mind when we have to make budget cuts,” said Hill, vice chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. Click here to read the rest of the AJC article. I owe a thank you to friend, poet, and blogger Robin Kemp for sending this info my way.


Dr. Mindy Stombler is one of the professors who has Senator Hill pointing his fingers. I checked out Dr. Stombler's course offering for Fall '08 and Spring '09, and I am here to tell you that she did not teach Blow Jobs 1101 as the AJC article would make it seem; however, Dr. Stombler did teach multiple classes of SOCI 3156: Sexuality and Society.

What is this Sexuality and Society course? I'm glad you ask. Here is GSU course listing for Sexuality and Society:

Social construction and social control of sexuality. Examining trends in sexual attitudes and behaviors across the life course and how they are influenced by social interaction and social institutions. Topics may include sex research methods, representations of sexuality, sex education, sexual health and infection, sexual violence, and the commodification of sex.

I think people from the 700 Club would even admit that course description sparks some interest. I also know, as student who attended Georgia State University, that Sexuality and Society is a very popular class, and it fills quickly. I have only heard positive reviews of the course. If Rep Hill wants to talk money, I hope he realizes a class that fills each semester equals money. I think Dr. Stombler should invite Rep Hill to audit one of her classes, since Rep Hill wants to criticize. The Capitol is only a couple of blocks from GSU, so it isn't like it would be out of his way.


I want to share information on Dr. Stombler's research because I find it interesting.

"Her latest research project involves unraveling the power dynamic embedded in the practices of oral sex, particularly cunnilingus, and connecting conceptualizations of cunnilingus to public discourse (particularly messages about oral sex sent through music and other media). Key questions include how people view cunnilingus and how individual and public conceptualizations of cunnilingus are mitigated by race, gender, class, and sexual orientation," and I have pulled this from her faculty page at GSU.

Also, according to her faculty page, Dr. Stombler did a three-year study of Black and White Fraternity Little Sister programs that focused on the different ways that men exploited women in these organizations and the different ways the women resisted exploitation. All thanks to Google for your being able to read an article titled Resistance in Sweetheart and Little Sister Programs, which was written by Stombler and Padavic. Maybe I should mail a copy to Rep Hill; however, I doubt it would be do any good, and I'd rather use my stamp to send the article to someone who would actually read it and have an intellectual conversation about it.

I want to read what Dr. Stombler is currently writing up. Her current project is writing up her results from a second three-year study of gay fraternities that focuses on how men in gay fraternities negotiate the dual identities of being Gay and being Greek. Now, I think it would be stupid to question if Senator Hill wants to know about this study. I'm not a betting man; however, I would bet that Senator Hill doesn't even know that gay fraternities exist. OHHHHH....... maybe we could talk a gay fraternity into asking Senator Hill to pledge. Or, here is an even better thought: a gay fraternity could name Rep Hill a honorary member.


Rep Hill needs to turn his finger to the Governor's recommended continued cuts to the QBE education formula that go to operate schools, the elimination of 10 conservation rangers and 18 staffers at the Environmental Protection Division, cuts for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation crime labs and arson investigators at the Georgia Forestry Commission, reduction of case workers at the Child Protective Services Division, the closing of four prisons, and elimination of nurses in Georgia's schools. And that, my friends, is just the beginning of what I think are important issues.

Representative, quick wasting taxpayer's money by spending time "investigating" and talking about distinguished GSU professors when you could be working on some of the issues I listed above and many other.

Perdue Says School Nurses Are NOT Needed

FROM THE ASHE ADVOCATE, a newletter written by State Representative Kathy Ashe.....

House Democrats fight to keep nurses in schools
According to the Governor's FY 2009 amended budget proposal school nurses will soon become a thing of the past. The recommendations submitted by the Governor last week cut $30 million in state funds which would eliminate the school nurse program. The Georgia House Democratic Caucus opposes this cut and has pledged to work to restore the program.

Democrats believe in promoting preventive medicine and supporting nurses in schools so children can focus on learning and avoid complications that arise when health problems go untreated. They also believe every family should have access to a doctor and every school should have a nurse.

"We have a growing number of working families without health insurance and some of those parents rely on school nurses to keep their children safe and healthy while they are in school." said Rep. Pat Gardner (D-Atlanta), Chairperson for Health and Human Services Policy Committee for the Georgia House Democratic Caucus.

Georgia House Democratic Caucus Education Policy Chair, Rep. Kathy Ashe (D-Atlanta), said, "We must fight for our children and their right to receive appropriate health care while they are in school. If children don't receive the care they need their medical issues could escalate. It's a short sighted approach that will eventually cost our state additional funds and more importantly, diminish our children's ability to do the job they go to school to accomplish - learning. I am asking our parents and teachers to express your concern about these cuts to your state representative and state senators. Email gadhcissues@gmail.com if you need assistance finding your elected representatives."

Removing school nurses is extremely short-sighted. Georgia House Democratic Leader, Rep. DuBose Porter (D-Dublin) added real life examples. "In Dublin, we have one nurse for four elementary schools. Numerous daily school-age related illnesses aside, our nurse manages diabetic children who must undergo daily blood sugar testing, she takes care of a child on a feeding tube, and has a student going through stage 4 cancer. The management of these health issues takes a trained professional." said Porter. "In one of the four schools alone there are 38 students on asthma inhalers, students who at times have had to be rushed to the hospital with acute asthma attacks. We should not balance the state's budget by cutting health care to sick children or making our teachers become health care providers."

Georgia House Democratic Caucus Chairman Calvin Smyre (D-Columbus) agreed and pointed out legal questions that may arise, regardless of safeguards designed to protect the school. "The governor should be asking, who will administer this care... the teachers? The liability on untrained school employees administering health care could easily become an issue. Teachers in Georgia schools now are not allowed to administer medications. Nurses in our schools give out over 5 million doses per year. There are approximately fifteen million annual visits to the office or school health room for illness, medication and injury in Georgia," said Smyre. "Children can't learn when they are sick and teachers can't teach when they are running a health clinic."

In conclusion Porter noted, "We are willing to fight to stop this cut that will directly damage our schools and our children, but it will take a great effort to get the message to this Governor. Now is the time for Georgians to engage in the political process. Times are changing and Georgians can no longer assume basic services will continue. Georgians must become involved in the process."

The Georgia House Democratic Caucus has an e-mail address to handle issues that relate to the Governor's proposed cuts. To voice your concern, e- mail gadhcissues@gmail.com. Together we can continue to protect our children's future.

Governor's Proposed Budget

Fellow Georgians:

I know many of you are excited about the change happening in Washington; however, in our Obama excitement, we can't forget about the change that is needed in Georgia. I hope you will keep your eyes on what is happening in the '09 Georgia General Assembly, and I especially hope that you will keep an eye Governor Perdue.

Are you curious about the budget? If not, you should be. Click here for information regarding Perdue's proposed budgets.

A few items from the Governor's budget include:
1. Continued cuts to the QBE education formula that go to operate schools.
2. Elimination of 10 conservation rangers and 18 staffers at the Environmental Protection Division.
3. Cuts for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation crime labs and arson investigators at the Georgia Forestry Commission.
4. Reduction of case workers at the Child Protective Services Division.
5. Closing of four prisons.


*Thanks to Representative Benfield's weekly updates for this information.*