Private Money For Public Schools?

Despite getting a billion additional taxpayer dollars over the previous four years, the prospect of losing a couple million dollars in a tight budget environment has S.C. Superintendent of Education Jim Rex once again thinking “outside the box” in his effort to continue producing the world’s worst system of public education.

Rex, who has failed in every aspect of his job (well, unless you count PR stunts and creating additional layers of unnecessary, unproductive bureaucracy), is now contemplating going hat in hand to South Carolina businesses and asking them to support “scholarships” for public schools.

Hmmm … “scholarships.”

In case that word sounds familiar, it’s exactly what Rex and his growing army of educrats have fought against tooth and nail in the past.

How come? Because reform-minded lawmakers like Rep. Tracy Edge dared to accompany those scholarships with (gasp) parental choice.

From our friends at The Voice:

This week Jim Rex will meet with members of the business community to discuss what role private groups can have in funding public education (in addition to the taxes they pay).

Some public school districts have struck upon the idea of using private foundations to help local schools.

Pam Bailey, Berkeley County School District spokeswoman, said of a foundation set up to help Berkeley County schools- “It is a 501-C3 organization, so it could be a conduit for grant money from businesses that it holds. It’s also a bank for private donors who want to set up scholarship funds.”

That sounds like a great idea, Pam! In fact, other states like Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Arizona and Florida make use of similar groups called Scholarship Granting Organizations (SGO) that allow concerned businesses to contribute money so students from low-income families can attend the school of their choice; public, charter or private.

In Pennsylvania alone, 33,000 students have made use of scholarships from SGOs to exercise school choice. Since the program’s inception in 2001, corporate contributions have more than doubled from $30 million to $75 million dollars for scholarships.

There are many families and businesses in South Carolina that would eagerly participate in a school choice scholarship program, but Rex has no interest in allowing foundations to work both ways. Either the money goes to Rex’s system, or it goes nowhere at all.

Jim Rex wants businesses to dig deep and give to a system that arguably turns out the least prepared workforce in the nation, but when it comes to these same companies helping low-income and minority students get out of failing schools he wants nothing to do with it.

Exactly … nor does he want middle class white kids whose schools are also falling further behind our regional and national peers to have choice, either.

If such a hypocritical monopoly was actually producing something approaching a positive result, we might be alright with preserving it.

Unfortunately, all Rex’s “Ministry of Failure and Non-Competition” is producing is more hot air … at a higher price.

Comments