Scared — If I’m not mistaken, Jim Rex pushed for the sort of choice you’re complaining that you don’t have.

I think Mark Sanford vetoed it.

I suppose it isn’t likely for folks to agree all the time on everything. I think reasonable people — even those in public education — would agree that the PACT results are a mixed bag….we’re happy to see improvement, but NO ONE is claiming we’re where we need to be.

I know you and SCRG won’t agree with that, but one thing I find interesting in this editorial is the HJ’s general stance on SCRG and its whole deal — pretty scathing.

Meanwhile there are good schools within 30 minutes my kids don’t have the right to go to. This is all because we can’t afford to live across an abitrary boarder line drawn to ensure that a majority of folks will be content and our rural minority can be ignored. You seriously think this helps the poor and minorities? The only people that want to keep status quo are the teachers union, the rich that want to be in exclusive private schools and the people that already have adequate schools. That leaves me in a sad minority that will never be given any choice.

The link would have sufficed, dude. You don’t have to clutter our comment page with copying and pasting.

We stand by what we said about Mike, but obviously nobody gets it 100% right 100% of the time – well except for Sic Willie.

Look, even a rare voice of common sense on fiscal issues can have his head up his ass on education policy, and based on Mike’s interpretation of the PACT results, that’s obviously the case here.

-FITSNews

Today, the Herald-Journal had this to say about PACT scores and Will’s good friends at SCRG:

http://www.goupstate.com/article/20080912/NEWS/809120310/1128/opinion&title=Belittling_progress

Belittling progress
Higher test scores are good, no matter how you view them

It’s become a regular pattern over the past few years: The state Department of Education releases a set of test scores – ACT, SAT, PACT – that shows improvement by South Carolina students, and South Carolinians for Responsible Government follows with a news release that attempts to turn the good news bad.

It happened again this week. State education officials reported that the state showed marked improvement in proficient and advanced scoring across the board in 2008, the final year of PACT administration in the state’s public schools.

South Carolina students scored higher on the tests. More of them met the proficient standard and more met the advanced standard. The numbers of students meeting those standards aren’t as high as we’d like, but the movement is in the right direction.

It’s still not good enough for those pushing to use taxpayers’ funds to send kids to private schools. SCRG, which refuses to let South Carolinians know who funds its efforts, sent out its news release explaining why the improvement was actually a failure.

The group’s thinking is that since the scores of eighth-graders aren’t as high as third-graders, “social promotion of unqualified students remains a major problem in public schools.” Of course, that conclusion is unwarranted. There could be a host of reasons why eighth-grade scores are lower than third-grade scores, but the group isn’t really interested in the reasons. It’s interested in running down the state’s public schools, no matter what the results show.

SCRG says it is targeting the state-run public school system, the bureaucracy. But it’s belittling and denigrating the success of students in public schools. It continually demeans the job done by the teachers in those schools.

The group is pushing for school choice. Fine. But does that have to mean continually finding nothing to praise in our public schools, even when test scores rise?

The group can use all its money – wherever it comes from – to push for voucher programs for private schools. But it doesn’t have to continually undermine the morale of and confidence in the state’s public schools.

There is a lot of work to be done in our schools. Graduation rates are too low and dropout rates too high. Too many scores don’t compare well with levels in other states.

But when scores are rising and progress is being made, it isn’t helpful to anyone to deny that progress or reject it as insignificant “incremental” progress.

Give students and their teachers some credit for the success they’ve achieved.

Simply put, that state education system takes money from both the poor and wealthy for funding its failed education system. From my perspective it hurts the poor more…because they have less money to give and the funding/taxation sources are regressive in nature. Unfortunately, your comments about Sic Willie having a silver spoon protruding from his rear promote a class warfare mentality about the whole thing….even if it’s true he has such a utensile problem.

There is a good case to be made the current system hurts the poor people far more than those who can already afford to put their kids into a private school. Hence the incredible hypocrisy of the good Mr. Smith in regard to his stance in The State/Socialista. Basically saying, “yes we need public schools….I just won’t be sending my kids to them”.

By virtue of your own comments, and those of an actual teacher in the system under the fitnews article “Mr. Smith vs The Media” comment section there is acknowledgment that the system is not working. I don’t beleive that is in much dispute by anyone here.

That being said, the real question is what to do to fix it. So you either give the failed system MORE money, which itself is a source of debate morally speaking-(when you take from others to give to other people for whatever reason…sometimes referred to as “theft”) and hasn’t worked in the past…or you do something different.

(notwithstanding the fact that when you rate what taxpayers pay for the system based on SC average income we come in at #15 in the US….versus #37 in actual score acheivement)

Let’s look at a SC private school specifically:
http://richardwinn.org/winnsite/?page_id=391

Notice that the annual tuition for a K5 to Senoir is $4668. (It’s less for lower grade or multiple students/same family attending)

Does that number not astound you? Let me be generous and say the state is spending $8000/year per student(we all know it’s more). That represents a difference of 42%….for a better education none the less.

The potential savings for SC taxpayers when you factor in family discounts is simply incredible. Additionally if the free markets were allowed to exist you can bet private schools would get even less expensive as the laws of supply and demand take over. Remember free markets? Something the US used to beleive in before 1913….

Even further…if we had a “voucher” sytem that gave a credit of say $4500/year per student…and you didn’t like what was happening in the school your child was attending…YOU WOULD HAVE A CHOICE and be able to switch schools with minimum of hassle.

I truly don’t even understand how this even is an argument to anyone….

Exactly the point. Parents in SC have no way in hell of really understanding how their kids match up to other students around the nation. We pretty much have to depend on what the Ministry of Failure and Non Competition ( as Will so appropriately calls it) tells us is the case. What we can all know is that public schools here have half their students drop out before graduating, and that by and large the students enrolled in them do not do as well on college entrance tests as their peers in other states.This new test is going to be hand-crafted by Rex and his pals to get the maximum number of students into some kind of low expectation “passing” category, and we will still not have a good idea of how they are really objectively doing.

You voucher vulchers keep putting fresh lipstick on the voucher pig, but voters and elected officials in SC know a voucher pig when they see it.

The only “fudge” is in sic(k) willie’s shorts as he recognizes the voucher scam is dead. No responsible member of the Legislature will touch it. Howie and his carpetbuggers at SCRG have been exposed for what they really are.

First, fix public education. Fix the shameful “minimally adequate” standard. Fix the funding problems. Fix the latent racism that so many turn a blind eye to. Fix the host of social issues that go along with the poverty that is so widespread in SC. Do you even know we have poverty in SC? Yea, you know!

Check this site out:
http://www.goodbyeminimallyadequate.com/

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