South Carolina Schools: Up In Smoke
THREE UPDATES ON THE WORST EDUCATION SYSTEM IN AMERICAÂ
FITSNews – March 25, 2008 – We’ve got three updates today on the nation’s worst public education system, and amazingly, not one of them is good. Yeah, we couldn’t believe it either, people. You’d think that South Carolina’s cellar-dwelling public schools might make a mistake and actually do something right for a change one day, but lamentably, today isn’t that day …Â
First we have this story on the $11,400 taxpayers are now spending per student in this state. Unfortunately, only $5,051 of that $11,400 actually makes it to the classroom, which last time we checked is where the students are. So what the hell are they spending the other $6,349 per student on?
Well, that question leads us to item #2, which is an idea put forward by the S.C. Policy Council that would place S.C. public school checkbooks online so that voters can see where their money is going. Interestingly enough, the U.S. government recently shelled out $1 million to build a nifty little website that does this for all federal contracts, which we think is a bargain considering the volume of financial information that’s now being made available to the taxpayers.
Of course here in South Carolina, the cost estimate for placing this one slice of our state funding online came in at a whopping $500,000, which is another way of saying the educrats really, really, really don’t want to do this. Well, either that or they’re too stupid to do it because they’re just now figuring out how to work Excel ‘97 … eleven years later.
In fact, “Republican” State Sen. Larry Martin gets our “inbred irony” award for this week after saying at a recent hearing that he couldn’t support the proposal because he’s against “growing government” in South Carolina. Yeah, right. Needless to say, we’ll be looking forward to somebody telling us how much a cost-saving tool like this would really cost, because our guess is that $500,000 is not the actual retail price of this Showcase.
Our third update comes from the ongoing debate in the S.C. Senate over a bill that’s supposed to reform South Carolina’s expensive and ineffective Palmetto Achievement Challenge Test (PACT).
The S.C. House has already passed a bill to reform PACT, the only problem is that their definition of “reform” apparently means slapping a new name on the old test and dumbing down the grading scale so that South Carolina doesn’t have to be held accountable for adequate yearly progress under federal No Child Left Behind standards. What’s interesting is that the Senate will probably take a crappy bill and make it even crappier by reinserting language endorsed by Democratic Superintendent Jim Rex that would refer to failing schools in South Carolina as “Schools of Academic Priority.”
Apparently, rather than working to actually make our public schools better, making them sound better is what’s really important.
Comments
By Hmmm... on March 26th, 2008 at 7:30 am
What you view as “dumbing down the grading scale so that South Carolina doesn’t have to be held accountable for adequate yearly progress under federal No Child Left Behind standards” I view as judging our kids the same way other kids are judged. Think of it this way: Your beloved Gamecocks are playing Georgia. Except South Carolina get four points for a touchdown, while Georgia gets the usual six. Both teams score four touchdowns, so Georgia wins. That’s an oversimplification, sure. And I know the SCRClubforPolicyReformInAction will say it’s wrong, wrong, wrong and that I’m a defender of the failed status quo. But we all know that a level playing field would make their mission more difficult.
By Stephen Garcia on March 26th, 2008 at 8:28 am
#1 Here are the district revenue and expense figures if you actually care to bother to look: http://ed.sc.gov/agency/offices/finance/HistoricalData.html
#2 See number 1. (sorry no pretty pie charts for you)
#3 NCLB lets states choose the test they want to be evaluated by; SC has one of the hardest tests. It sounds to me like SC just wants to compare apples to apples.
By Midlands Mayhem on March 26th, 2008 at 9:10 am
Stephen – your link is to the State Department’s estimates based on their own categorization, and without the inclusion of debt service and capital projects. The 44 cent figure is based on Budget and Control Board’s analysis of what the districts have actually spent. You can get close to the same number using SDE’s in$ite figures (45 cents).
By Ron on March 26th, 2008 at 9:11 am
It’s really sad that even with the dismal scores that we have and the statewide 50% high school dropout rate, our government schools still insist upon spending more time “teaching our kids about condoms than about the constitutions.”
By O'RLY? on March 26th, 2008 at 9:14 am
“compare apple to apples!?”
yeah, sure – if Rex wants to compare apples to apples he should talk about last in the nation SAT and ACT scores (exact same test in different states) or last in the nation on-time grad rate (standardized method of dividing 8th grads with 12th grades four years later)
all this “toughest standards in the nation” clap trap is getting old
By PalmPwnd on March 26th, 2008 at 9:35 am
S. Garcia,
you are comparing PROJECTED revenues determined at the state level:
http://ed.sc.gov/agency/offices/finance/HistoricalData.html
with ACTUAL expenditure data collected at the district level by the Budget and Control Board:
http://www.ors.state.sc.us/economics/economics.asp
so it looks like 44 cents per dollar is what really gets spent on the kids, despite the spin of Rex and others at the State Department of Education.
By Not Only That on March 26th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
“So what the hell are they spending the other $6,349 per student on?”
Let me help.
Buses, bus maintainance, bus drivers, and enough fuel to travel hundreds of thousands of miles every year.
Libraries, books, and librarians.
Cafeterias, cafeteria workers, and lunches for hundreds of thousands of students.
Guidance counselors.
Computers, software to load on them, and people to keep them running.
Athletics programs, coaches, and equipment.
Teacher training.
Programs for learning-disabled and physically handicapped children, whom private schools are happy to send elsewhere.
The only thing Willie’s sources count as a “classroom expense” is the actual teacher. All those other things are spent on kids, #6, but it’s all over the school, not just in the classroom.
Willie very seldom tells the whole truth about anything, especially education, because it’s a lot easier to screech about things if you won’t see anything except what you agree with.
He has nothing to contribute to the education debate in this state, and that’s so few people pay him any mind.
By A teacher on March 26th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Please also consider that teachers have no control over how the money is spent. We do quite a lot with what little we are given, and unlike private schools, have no control over the clientele we work with. Additionally, while the SATs are one comparison tool, another is the NAEP, by which SC ranks averate or better than average at 4th and 8th grades. One other thing to consider – our graduation rate went to last once we enacted “zero tolerance” policies and started kicking kids out right and left, rather than sending them to alternative schools or providing homebound. It is important to clarify that while the issues you raise are very important, the blame for them lies with the “educrats”, as well as the socioeconomic status of SC’s families…not the teachers.
By fitsnews on March 26th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
#7,
You forgot dues for the SC Association of School Administrators so they could continue attacking school choice. Yeah, the taxpayers pay for your side’s propoganda.
-FITSNews
By Sollicitus Civis on March 26th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
When looking at measures, you have to consider who is doing the measuring and for what purpose. Sick Willie and his neoliberal pals use these numbers in order to advance elitist policies to maintain their power and capital. Get rid of the “socialist” schools and social programs so that they (the wealthy) can experience reverse welfare- tax cuts. Yea, yea, yea, call me a communist. Tell me that tax cuts for the wealthy trickle down to people making minimum wage (products of this state’s power-elite making sure that the vast majority of students in this state are undereducated to take low wage jobs). Yes, there is an Easter Bunny, just ask George Bush.
By Not Only That on March 26th, 2008 at 6:10 pm
Yeah, Willie. We don’t know where your side’s money comes from either, except they’re sure not from ’round here.
By old bike dude on March 26th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
Rod Shealy says the guy on the left is an illegal immigrant. That’s me on the right.
Dave’s not here!
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