Here is the real issue with education today that no one is willing to say. For nearly 100 years, the state had a duel educational system, one for African Americans and one for White students. The one for African American students was barely funded, and in actuality the one for White students was not that much better. The leaders of this state made sure that the all citizens- African American and White- were under-educated so that there would be cheap labor in the textile mills, the cotton fields, tobacco fields, etc. We are just reaping the rewards from those sage leaders of the past who wanted to maintain the status quo and secure their power in society. That is why 56% of students in this state live at or below the poverty level.

It is frustrating to see SC near the bottom of every measure. You need to remember who is doing the measuring and what is their goal.

Sadly, we can’t just waive a magic wand and improve things over night. Change in this state moves at a snails pace. (There are still pockets in this state where the Civil War is still being fought and Jim Crow is alive and well.) Society itself has to change, and I don’t hear any politician talking about that.

Vouchers are not going to make parents value education any more than they do now. Vouchers are not going to make parents turn off the video games, the computers, the televisions, or whatever else there is out there distracting students from doing work for school. Vouchers are not going to make students take pride in the work that they do for school. Vouchers are not the panacea you all think they are.

Any politician who would have the balls to say what I have just typed would certainly get my vote.

Consider, a ‘tax credit’ of this ilk could be made for anything under the sun. This will represent government spending, and the state government will be spending and putting out millions of dollars more under this plan than it currently does for public education. Under your theory, you would have to surmise that there currently is a ‘tax credit’ to every person who currently has a child in public school in S.C. with the catch that the school is mandated. If the state government is funding both public schools and the private schools in S.C. I don’t really see what the difference would be?

How would a tax credit increase government spending?

It’s a conservative issue because it involves taking tax money out of the public coffers and giving it to individuals so they can choose where their children go to school.

Of course this will destroy the public school system so the underlying assumption is that there are enough private schools in every neighborhood to pick up the slack. Even if this were true most of these private schools will resist state involvement in their curriculum and for the relgious ones this resistance will be even more virulent in science classes.

I am sure this may tip off a flurry of discussion, but I have to ask why school choice, i.e. expansion of government funding of education through tax dollars into areas where tax dollars are not currently spent, is a “conservative issue?” I realize it will mean a lot more government spending as well as the attachment of at least some if not the same government oversight of private schools that currently apply to private schools, as well as the institution of yet another governmental department (read more bureacrats) to oversee and run such a program – but I am just trying to understand again how this is a conservative idea?

Keep in mind that 99 and 44/100 percent of political consultants make the others look bad. Like Ivory soap.