Rex Sends Mail On Public Dime
POLITICAL COMMUNICATION CRITICIZED IN LIGHT OF CURRENT BUDGET CLIMATE
FITSNews - July 21, 2008 - South Carolina’s public schools may not be able to afford gas money for school buses, but they can afford to send out slick new mail pieces in an effort to boost the stature of State Superintendent of Education Jim Rex, who is widely-viewed as the frontrunner for the 2010 Democratic gubernatorial nomination.
A copy of the controversial mailing - which was sent to an undisclosed number of recipients last month - was obtained this afternoon by FITSNews. The mailing includes pre-paid address envelopes as well as pre-paid business reply cards, ostensibly to help build Rex’s network in anticipation of a gubernatorial run two years from now.
S.C. Department of Education officials insist only 5,000 of the mail pieces were printed at a cost of under $2,000, although it is unclear at this point whether those figures include internal costs incurred by taxpayers associated with the conceptualization, writing and design of the mailing, or the response postage.
Most of the mailings “are going with Dr. Rex to speaking engagements,” Department of Education spokesman Jim Foster told FITSNews, an explanation that did not sit well with at least one prominent Republican lawmaker.
“We’ve given the Department of Education over a billion dollars in new money over the past five years with nothing to show for it but the same awful national rankings and a widening achievement gap,” House Majority Leader Jim Merrill told FITSNews. “Now we have slick political mailings like this one going out from the Superintendent at a time when we can barely afford to put gas in our school buses.”
“If that’s not emblematic of the bigger problem over there, I don’t know what is,” Merrill added.
Merrill reiterated his support for a comprehensive education funding reform bill that would put more money into the classroom, saying that the state’s current funding method “promotes a dysfunctional bureaucratic fiefdom.”
He also said that the Department of Education as well as the state’s local school districts should be required to disclose all of their expenses via an “online checkbook” accessible to taxpayers over the Internet.
“Less than half of every dollar we spend on education is making it to the front lines,” he said. “That’s why we’re losing the battle, because the funding is following the bureaucracy’s needs, not the needs of teachers and students. If we open those checkbooks up and make them available to every taxpayer, I think a lot of these unnecessary political expenses would stop.”
One longtime educrat who prefaced their remarks by saying they “would rather die than get quoted on FITS” also criticized Rex, saying he was guilty of the same politicization of his office as Gov. Mark Sanford.
“He’s doing just what Sanford does,” the educrat said. “Pushing his agenda using tax dollars, except in Rex’s case it’s coming straight out of our schools. That’s something (former education Superintendent Inez) Tenenbaum wouldn’t have tolerated.”
Incidentally, Rex and Tenenbaum have both been extremely active in Republican primary races lately, backing status quo candidates and building up grassroots networks as they position themselves for a potential Democratic gubernatorial showdown.
In that vein, Rex also raised eyebrows last month when he sent out a taxpayer-funded e-mail to “Friends of Education” urging them to “get involved by supporting candidates who are pro-public education.”
A routinely-broken state law forbids taxpayer resources from being used to campaign for or against political candidates.
Comments
By baker on July 21st, 2008 at 1:35 pm
Certainly an interesting issue. I’m not a huge fan of using taxpayer money on propaganda or in an effort to promote an individual politician.
But, I hope folks (Folks) will be fair:
Who paid for the pigs that went to the Statehouse? Was it the taxpayers?
Who pays Joel Sawyer’s salary? Sure, I think the governor needs a communications team, but what about when that team clearly spins information for political purposes? Do the taxpayers still pay the guy’s salary?
Did the taxpayers pay for the time (and travel?) spent by Mark Sanford to politic against members of his own party recently?
Have we really put a “billion new dollars” into our schools in the last 5 years? I’m not saying we haven’t; I just don’t know. But it sounds like one of those awfully huge numbers that deserves some explanation. If we put that much additional money into our schools in the last 5 years, then, yeah, that’s a bunch of cash.
The claim that we put less than 50% of school money into the classrooms is used WIDELY by folks on the right, but it has been a questionable claim since the day the Policy Council came out with it. It’s a claim that depends on not counting personnel such as guidance counselors (required by law) and librarians (also required by law), who serve a primary literacy and academic function in our schools. Not saying some schools and district aren’t top-heavy in administrative costs, but the less-than-50% stuff is sketchy at best.
By Rob W. on July 21st, 2008 at 2:32 pm
Is this really a political consultant griping about using public money for mail pieces? All of the sitting Senators and U.S. Reps get a pile of free money to use for campaign pieces thinly veiled as “constituent service reminders”, a practice known as Franking (Wikipedia it). Yes, politicians shouldn’t use public money to send out mailpieces, but spending 2 grand on a small education mailer isn’t as bad as spending over a hundred grand on a statewide incumbent-protection mailer.
By I can't say who I am on July 21st, 2008 at 2:57 pm
When I first met Jim Rex, I thought he would be different. A “think outside the box” kinda guy. I truly thought he would be less partisan the superintendent prior to him. NOT!
Jim Rex has been bitten by the political bug. He has been told that he can be governor of South Carolina. He is the highest ranking Democrat in South Carolina, and his ego and political ambitions have really hurt the education system in South Carolina.
People want to know why our Education System is so bad. It’s politics, plain and simple. Jim Rex, the legislature, and the department uses our kids as political footballs. It really is ashamed that we spend so much money and get such lousy results.
Jim Rex is a good man, but a lousy Superintendent of Education. I will further say, that I don’t think anyone could do much better. The money is controlled by politicians. Regulations/laws are passed by politicians. When you have 170 egos controlling education, you are not going to get the best results for our children.
By HR Pufnstuf on July 21st, 2008 at 11:31 pm
Who is paying for these awful “Hi, dis is Attorney Genral Hanry MacMassuh” radio ads? I bet McMaster for Governor, err, Attorney General is not. Let’s get this thing right. This wasteful spending is happening on both sides of the 2010 Gubernatorial Race. I’m all for Jim Rex being called out on this, as long as Hanry “No One Else in My Immediate or Extended Family Has A Southern Accent” MacMassuh is called out on it as well.
By Guero on July 22nd, 2008 at 3:16 am
The Segregation Academy wing of the Repugnant Party also includes school buildings when they come up with the less than 50 percent number. I guess that private school edukation shown us by Gov Marshall Sanford in the CNN interview is worth it!
By Not Only That on July 22nd, 2008 at 7:09 am
The 50 percent myth has been debunked over and over again. Everyone knows by now that you can only get to that kind of figure if you take out these things: school buildings and building maintenance, buses, bus drivers, and fuel, cafeterias and the people who work in them and the food they serve, gyms and athletic programs, principals, libraries and librarians, guidance counselors, and lots of other things that don’t go directly to the classroom but contribute to a decent, free public education.
But hey — if we held class on the lawn, didn’t give ‘em any lunch, and didn’t require school attendance among kids whose parents can’t bring them to school, we could get 100 percent of that money right to the “classroom.”
Fits is many things, but not a total idiot. He knows this is bs. It just sounds too good to pass up.
By baker on July 22nd, 2008 at 9:11 am
But I thought the Policy Council was supposed a reputable “think-tank” in the conservative mainstream. What’s the deal with their 50% claim?
By lily on July 22nd, 2008 at 9:55 am
Glad Representative Merrill is on board with online check registers. He didn’t support it when he was on the the budget conference committee that killed a proviso to mandate it for the counties. They took it out completely. Pretty sure there is a bill somewhere over there that would push check registers for schools and all other public agencies. Hope Representative Merrill will do his homework and push for it next session. He and all the other legislators who say they support this stuff need to actually stand up and do it.
By David O on July 22nd, 2008 at 1:04 pm
So, when a democrat breaks the law, we throw stones at the republicans. When repulbicans break the law, we ask for their resignation.
By Ron on July 22nd, 2008 at 6:30 pm
Lily,
Megga dittos as to the use of “online check registers” for municipal entities and school districts. I believe this to be a “freedom of information” issue. With the check registers, an eighth grader or lower should be able to go online and decipher the waste in local and state government as well as school districts. THAT’S WHY THESE LOCAL OFFICIALS AND EDUCRATS ARE FIGHTING THIS SO HARD. They want to keep their shennanigans hidden from view. It’s indeed an FOI ISSUE. VOTE THE RASCALS OUT IN NOVEMBER. And then begin recruiting candidates to vote the rest out in 2010!!
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