the most lucid thing on the board. rex’s plan is straight out of the soviet union playbook. i weep for my state.

did you pay (or have you ever paid) $12k in taxes to the state of sc in any given tax year? i’m guessing, what with your student loan debt, you did not. nor do the vast majority of south carolinians, especially those with children. all of south carolina’s tax-paying citizens, individual and corporate, pay the price to educate south carolina’s children, however poorly that task is accomplished. public education is a hallmark of a civilized society, and it must not, can not, and will not go away.

so, the question should become, what can we do, as taxpayers, to provide a better public education to our children? i am a parent of 3 school-aged children and they are doing quite well in school. all have met or exceeded state standards (for whatever that is worth). however, more than half of their school’s population qualifies for free or reduced lunch. as many of you may know, socioeconomic status (SES) is the single greatest indicator of academic success and it is within the subsidized lunch program that the highest percentage students score “below basic” and the lowest percentage of students score “advanced.” tied to low socioeconomic status is parental participation- simply put, parents of low SES do not participate in their childrens’ education to the same extent that parents of a higher SES do. are their exceptions? of course. am i saying that no poor parent participates in her child’s education? of course not. i am saying that the majority of low SES parents do not participate to the same degree that higer SES parents do.

why does this matter, you may ask? because children have homework and projects and field trips. children, as a general rule, do as little as they can get away with. even children who are more motivated (i have one that is motivated, one that is not at all motivated, and one motivated when it strikes his fancy), it takes a parent with resolve, resources and time to assist a third or fourth grader with today’s school project. low SES parents simply may not have the resolve, resources, and time to do the job that public education requires they do. heck, i didn’t have the time when i was working full-time to make sure my kids were getting their work done, and i certainly know the value of education and their education is a priority with me. how much more difficult can it be for a single mother who is working two jobs and has twice as many children?

so how does a state like south carolina address this, what i consider to be the real problem in public education? how do we encourage and facilitate a parent’s involvement in the academic lives of her children? can it even be done? how much government do we really want? i can tell you that i don’t want that much government. so what is the solution?

(just an aside- there is absolutely no good reason to have hundreds of school districts in south carolina. each school district must support a dozen administrators, secretaries, HR people, custodial staff, and school boards, who take more trips to the beach for “conferences” than Clinton had girlfriends. this is governmental waste at its best.)

this was more long-winded than i had intended….

Vouchers aren’t the answer either, at least not in any of the forms that have been presented. What was the last proposal — $1,200? $2,500? Let’s say it was $2,500, what does a $2,500 education look like, and would you really want that for your kid? Don’t give me the “but the parents would kick in their share” shit. If you qualify for the $2,500 voucher, you don’t have the money to kick in. And please don’t insult my intelligence by insisting that taking money out of the public schools will actually increase public school funding.

Before anyone asks, I don’t know what the answers are. But I certainly know what they aren’t.

It would have to be Mr. Story, I’m pretty sure….but your commentary is much appreciated.

Actually, you and I may agree on more stuff than we might figure. Would love to talk with you about education issues sometime.

Merry Christmas to you and all the family!

“If our average dollars spent is 12k per year the entire amount should follow the child at the parent’s discretion period…”

-Jeffrey Sewell

I’m not sure if I follow you? It seems like you are saying that parents have a right to direct where tax dollars are spent on education. If so, is it by virtue of their status as taxpayers or their status as parents? If parents have a “right” to direct where that $12,000 goes, does that mean that I have a “right” to demand a refund of my $12,000 for the child that I don’t have?

How much do I get back for not wearing an ascot? Those things look so bad, it should be a lot more than $12,000.

Everyone is afforded police protection. If you want a security system or an armed guard at your home, then you pay for it. If you are not satisfied with the education offered at the local public school and you want more for your child, then you pay for it. Most of the problems are more directly related to the parents and the home life than the opportunity offered at school. The cream always rises to the top.

By the way, what are the names of the well regarded private schools in Allendale, Marion, Mullins, Hampton, Dillon or Clarendon? Oh, there aren’t any highly regarded private schools in those places. I guess the people that will really benefit from this are folks that are already paying for private school and don’t like the fact that they pay twice for school. Get over it. Stop acting like you care about the downtrodden and dispossessed. You care about not pulling money out of your pocket to pay for private school tuition. This is about poverty. Ever wonder why the public schools in Iowa and Nebraska always crush those standardized tests? Or why they have excellent public schools?

Hey, Sewell. I don’t have kids, can I have my $12,000 to help pay off my student loans? What makes you think that parents have a “right” to that money? Why just people with children and not all taxpayers? If there is an argument that they have a “right” to direct where that money goes then I have a “right” to demand my $12,000 back for the children that I don’t have. In fact, I don’t have 5 kids; $60,000 will pay off my student loans completely. Of course, I don’t wear those ridiculous looking ascots, either. How much of my tax money do I get back for that? It’s got to be more than $12,000. Look, the police provide security for all of us. If you want an armed guard at the house you pay extra. If you don’t like the education that your child is getting at the local school and you choose to send them to a private school, you pay for it. What’s the name of that highly regraded prep school that all of the disadvantaged kids in Allendale will be attending once we have “real” school choice? How about in Dillon or Marion or Mullins?

It was the single most absurd thing I had read about school choice/vouchers in my first year as a legislator…until this post about Ted Pitts.

In speaking approvingly of Rex’s new “school choice” bill, Ted is simply backing up what he – and I – and others – honestly stated about the bill last year: the open enrollment part was awful, but if it came back again with just the alternative education pieces (Montessori, single-gender schools), we would consider supporting it.

For me, that does nothing to undermine Ted Pitts’ conservative credentials. Here is a guy who rated 94+ on the BIPEC scorecard last year, and an above-average “C” on the flawed SC Club For Growth ratings. (He, as did I, apparently paid a heavy price for supposedly voting “for” a gas tax increase which, in reality, was a tax swap that — as I tried unsuccessfully to point out to Josh Gross — would have saved SC taxpayers millions of dollars.) He also voted solidly for educational scholarships every chance he had, even as other weaker souls were abandoning ship.

Neither does support for this bill have anything to do with the merits of the educational scholarship program. The two have no more connection than did open enrollment and vouchers, as so sheepishly suggested by my local school board member last year.

Inserting competition into the educational arena, and allowing kids in failing schools to leave – and have their money follow them — is still the best solution offered so far for educating those kids. Could you punch holes in that — there aren’t schools willing to take them, they aren’t “accountable”—? Sure you can. But not nearly the Freightliner sized holes you can punch in an educational system decimated by 40 years of monopoly/union domination.

And requiring school districts to evaluate Montesorri and single-gender programs doesn’t change that one bit.

Ted Pitts is the best kind of legislator. He is principled, but not close minded. He is well versed on issues important to him, but not a know-it-all. He is collegial and well-liked, but not afraid to speak sharply and firmly when it matters. He is, by any measure, a credit to himself, to the House, and to his constituents.

This post is, quite simply, just wrong.

Rep. Mick Mulvaney

PS: Baker Maultsby rocks. Part of me wishes that (the retiring) Doug Smith’s district was Democrat. Baker (or his good buddy Chris Story) would make admirable additions to the state Legislature. We probably wouldn’t agree on issues about 90% of the time, but gentlemen such as themselves would immediately raise the level of erudition, thought and consideration on the opposite side of the aisle. He also plays a nice guitar, which is a plus, as Don Bowen is looking for an accompanist.