What's Wrong With Dekalb County? (Atlanta, Tucker: apartments, renters, crime)

[demonta4]

Originally Posted by LovinDecatur

Except for Decatur...and Druid Hills...and Lake Claire...and North Druid Hills...and Oak Grove/ Sagamore...and North Briarcliff...and Dunwoody...and Tucker...and Brookhaven...and LaVista Park...*sigh*

You should know that I'm talking about the upper middle areas in a thread about what's wrong with Dekalb.

[bu2]

Originally Posted by Tammy_West

I appreciate you providing this information. But someone will read this and automatically assume that every school in Dekalb county is bad. This is not true. Since you mentioned Decatur (which is in Dekalb county btw) I will compare DATE to the top great schools rated public middle school in North Decatur. These are the 8th grade test scores from 2014

English Language Arts
DATE 100% Proficiency
Renfroe Middle School (North Decatur) 97%

Math
DATE 82%
Renfroe 89%

Reading
DATE 100%
Renfroe 99%

Science
DATE 78%
Renfroe 86%

Social Studies
DATE 89%
Renfroe 93%

These numbers are basically splitting hairs, but to be exact that's Renfroe 3, DATE 2. However, on Great Schools Renfroe is rated a 9, and Dekalb Academy is rated a 4. Why is that?

High Schools

Decatur High School (top rated high school in what you're describing as the top rated district in the state)
Arabia Mountain High School (a top rated high school in what you're describing as the lowest rated district)

9th Grade (other grades are not available on Great Schools for these schools. Don't know why)

Literature
Decatur 96%
Arabia 96%

Integrated Math 2 (2013 numbers)
Decatur 77%
Arabia 65%

Biology
Decatur 94%
Arabia 87%

Economics
Decatur 89%
Arabia 98%

Now to be fair, Decatur high School is rated a 9, Arabia Mountain an 8. But again, when you lump that school in and just say Dekalb county is the worst, people will not even look at individual schools. And those numbers certainly don't look like one school is in the worst school system in Georgia.

Decatur is NOT part of the DeKalb County School System. It is a separate city district.

[bu2]

Originally Posted by WannaBeinBoston

Generally I laughed at how completely moronic the people that are in leadership positions in DeKalb County are - black or white - this is not about race. How stupid do you have to be to shake down a vendor (Burrell), ask your subordinate for a loan (May). What about the Commissioner from Dunwoody who charged thousands of dollars on the County's credit card for personal expenses. Lack of judgement = morons!!

Yes, we have white, black, Republican and Democrat elected officials from DeKalb in jail.

[bu2]

Arabia Mountain is a "theme" school. Which means not everyone can get in there. DeKalb School for the Arts is very good. Again its a specialty school. Lakeside HS and Druid Hills HS are viewed as two of the best regular HSs and last numbers I saw both had 62% graduation rates.

[residinghere2007]

I personally feel people view DeKalb negatively due to the frequent government issues with the county and due to the demographics. Contrary to what people want to admit, "diverse" equals black to many people and black equals bad to many people. It is what it is.

I never lived in DeKalb but worked there in property management for quite a few years and we had very nice properties there compared to other metro areas in Fulton county and CoA.

Originally Posted by bu2

Arabia Mountain is a "theme" school. Which means not everyone can get in there. DeKalb School for the Arts is very good. Again its a specialty school. Lakeside HS and Druid Hills HS are viewed as two of the best regular HSs and last numbers I saw both had 62% graduation rates.

On this, I remember seeing that both the high schools you mention above have about a 70% graduation rate as of 2013, which is approximate to the state average for GA. Arabia Mountain has a 95% graduation rate.

The US average is 81%

Fact Checker - DeKalb County Schools

[Newsboy]

Originally Posted by LovinDecatur

Except for Decatur...and Druid Hills...and Lake Claire...and North Druid Hills...and Oak Grove/ Sagamore...and North Briarcliff...and Dunwoody...and Tucker...and Brookhaven...and LaVista Park...*sigh*

Originally Posted by demonta4

You should know that I'm talking about the upper middle areas in a thread about what's wrong with Dekalb.

Well, if we're talking about PARKS ... residents of "upper middle" (central) DeKalb have a 3,200 state-owned park with a big rock in the middle at their disposal, and residents of south DeKalb have two other large nature preserves / recreation areas centered on two smaller rocks. Just saying.

[Newsboy]

Originally Posted by Tito_d

DeKalb residents pay the highest taxes in the metro area and get the worst services and one of the worst school system in the state. Some areas in Dekalb such as LaVista Hills don't have any parks worthy of the name, bike paths, side walks or amenities that correspond to the taxes they pay. News cities that separated from Dekalb like Dunwoody, Brookhaven saw an immediate improvement in services and quality of life with new parks, bike paths, amenities, faster services. The school system remains a problem even for the new cities and the only solution for the new cities will be to join an existent county with a better school system such as Gwinnett. The GA constitution does not allow the creation of a school system or a new county, but there is a possibility of joining a new county if a majority of the citizens elect to do so.

SAY WHAT?! Don't know what part of the country you're from, but in the State of Georgia, THERE ARE NO INDEPENDENT CITIES. All cities in Georgia are under the GOVERNING AUTHORITY of a home county, and in fact four of Georgia's largest cities -- Augusta, Columbus, Macon and Athens -- have in recent years abandoned their charters and consolidated with their home counties. Just as there is NO LEGAL MEANS by which a city can "vote" to break away from a county, There is NO LEGAL MEANS for a city in one county to "vote" to break away and "join" a school district in an adjacent county, unless that city was to be LEGALLY DE-ANNEXED from one county and ANNEXED into the other county. AND THAT'S NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN!

Further, while Georgia grants county commissions, city councils and school boards the authority to SET property tax rates within their jurisdictions, the job of billing, collecting, and distributing those funds lies with the elected COUNTY TAX COMMISSIONER. In other words, SCHOOL REVENUE is COUNTY revenue. There's absolutely NO LEGAL WAY to live in one county and pay school taxes to another. End of story.

[Iconographer]

Originally Posted by demonta4

You should know that I'm talking about the upper middle areas in a thread about what's wrong with Dekalb.

How should I know that if you didn't say so in the first place? You made a very general statement about conditions in DeKalb County and then cited Decatur as the only exception.

[Tito_d]

Originally Posted by Newsboy

Just as there is NO LEGAL MEANS by which a city can "vote" to break away from a county, There is NO LEGAL MEANS for a city in one county to "vote" to break away and "join" a school district in an adjacent county, unless that city was to be LEGALLY DE-ANNEXED from one county and ANNEXED into the other county. AND THAT'S NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN!

Further, while Georgia grants county commissions, city councils and school boards the authority to SET property tax rates within their jurisdictions, the job of billing, collecting, and distributing those funds lies with the elected COUNTY TAX COMMISSIONER. In other words, SCHOOL REVENUE is COUNTY revenue. There's absolutely NO LEGAL WAY to live in one county and pay school taxes to another. End of story.

The Georgia Constitution of 1983 caps the number of counties to 159, but it does not prevent a region from separating from one county and join another if a majority of citizens in the affected region vote yes. The citizens of the cities of Dunwoody, Doraville and the proposed cities of LaVista Hills and Tucker could vote to separate from Dekalb and join Gwinnett and switch to the better performing Gwinnett school system and enjoy the exellent parks and recreation facilities. It will a win-win situation for the cities and Gwinnett county.

[cwkimbro]

Originally Posted by Tito_d

The Georgia Constitution of 1983 caps the number of counties to 159, but it does not prevent a region from separating from one county and join another if a majority of citizens in the affected region vote yes. The citizens of the cities of Dunwoody, Doraville and the proposed cities of LaVista Hills and Tucker could vote to separate from Dekalb and join Gwinnett and switch to the better performing Gwinnett school system and enjoy the exellent parks and recreation facilities. It will a win-win situation for the cities and Gwinnett county.

They can not do that....

The reason they are forming cities, is once they take over a service... like police service, they can negotiate their taxes back from Dekalb County for that service. For areas that are more affluent this typically helps insure more money is spent locally. Additionally, some people honestly want to pay a touch more and have more control on some local improvements they haven't seen in decades.

But, a city can not simply vote itself out of a county and into another.