Manilow Music Project
benefiting Gwinnett County Public Schools
Barry Manilow has donated a new Yamaha
piano to kick off a music instrument drive for Gwinnett County Public
Schools. Anyone who donates a new or gently used musical instrument to
The Arena at Gwinnett Center will receive two (2) complimentary tickets.*
When: Now-April 27
Where: The Arena at Gwinnett Center Box Office
Times: 10:00AM-5:00PM (Monday-Friday)
*Tickets are valid for
pre-selected seat locations. Not valid with any other offer. Subject to
availability.
Click here to purchase your tickets! |
 April 27 7:30PM |
I believe that the cancelled show last year may have been several blessings in disguise.
First, the three venues at Gwinnett Center are very hospitable to fundraisers and other charitable events. (Case in point: the Tripp Halstead fundraiser night hosted by minor-league hockey Gwinnett Gladiators. This event raised money for a toddler who was hit in the head by a fallen tree branch during Sandy last year.)
Second, Gwinnett County is one of the few counties in metro ATL with a focus on student achievement and not adult politics.
School systems in Georgia are mostly based at the county level, rather than individual cities. For most of the state, that works as most of Georgia is very rural. In 1995, a clause was added to the state constitution that fixes the number of school districts (current city-based systems were grandfathered in) and none could be created. Creating new school districts would be racist, you see. (Do NOT get me started on that one.)
So with few exceptions, school districts are mired in adult politics with devastating consequences. Clayton County, south of Atlanta, lost its accreditation a few years back. That meant a cut off of some government funding and a loss of not only college scholarships, but college acceptances for many high school students. DeKalb County is on its third superintendent in as many years, each of which was not qualified for the position. The parade of stories about race baiting, nepotism, and spectacular financial waste reads like a low-budget horror flick. A former DeKalb superintendent was indicted under RICO for contract manipulation. The most recent disgrace is City of Atlanta Public Schools, recently indicted by the Grand Jury in the largest standardized test cheating scandal in American history. That former superintendent is also under indictment for RICO charges and almost three dozen teachers and other admin staff are expected to be arrested today for systematically instructing children to cheat on annual standardized exams. There were even "test changing parties" to "correct" tests in groups. All for the financial benefit of the school admins.
There's more, but you get the picture.
If Barry had kept his previous gig (Chastain Park), that would have put him squarely in Atlanta Public Schools. He would have had to make the choice between not having the drive at all, and holding a drive for a school system that was deliberately cheating their students. When a school system is in the kind of distress described above (which, by the way, is NOT an exaggeration by any means. I wish it was. Google it.) no donation or material support of any kind will be of any benefit to the families they serve. They have to get their house in order first, no matter how difficult or painful that process is. No donation to Atlanta, DeKalb, Clayton, or other school systems in crisis is going to benefit the students because the adults are not in a place to put the gifts to use for the students. Because the students are not their primary focus and education is not the primary goal.
Gwinnett County has, to date, avoided these quagmires. With a diverse and continually evolving population in terms of race, socioeconomic status, religion, etc, Gwinnett educates more students than either Atlanta or DeKalb with less money and less conflict among the school leadership. Not to say they don't have problems, there's always something to be chased down in one schoolhouse or another. But unlike their neighbors, you don't have school board members threatening to hit a reporter in front of their crew with the cameras rolling, or having a meeting at someone's house to fill in students' annual tests for them. That actually happens here.
Got my tickets for 4/27, dead-center of the arena so the sound should be *perfect* - not too close that you can't appreciate the stage show, not so far away that Barry is a dot on the stage. Contact info for Arena at Gwinnett Center for instrument donations is above
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