It’s “for the children,” we’re told – and specifically the “poor, black” children.
In fact, whenever exorbitant funding increases (or reduction deferrals) are proposed for South Carolina’s archaic, inefficient and totally unproductive K-12 education monopoly, we always hear the same old litany from educrats and special interests.
Of course every year, our students fall even further behind their peers in other states, and our “poor, black” students fall even further behind their white counterparts.
It’s a taxpayer-funded, bureaucrat enrichment scam that’s been going on for decades, and recent attempts to give parents of these “poor, black” students (and white students, for that matter) a choice beyond failing government schools have been shot down on the basis of this institutional self-interest.
Well, as a result every year we keep getting statistics like those published today by The Voice …
The white/black disparity in performance on math PACT tests rose from 24.4% in 2000 to 29.9% in 2008.
-In science it rose from 24.3% to 32.4%.
-In social studies it rose from 21.6 to 25.6%
The white/black gap in SAT scores rose from 195 points in 2002 to 198 points in 2008
The white/black gap in ACT scores rose from 4.2 points in 2002 to 5.3 points in 2008
That’s unbelieveable, people.
And flat out inexcusable.
Not to mention indisputable, because this is official state data, not some agenda-driven report, so the haters can’t really employ their time-honored strategy of killing the messenger, can they?
What’s even more shocking is that South Carolina’s black politicians – like our state’s mainstream media – continue to swallow the lies they are being fed by the education establishment in this state.
As we noted on MLK Day, it’s past time somebody stood up for the rights of these children.
WEB EXTRA:
By Cooter Brown January 26, 2009 at 12:28 pm
If’n som’body comes a askin’ fer mo money fer edukashun, grab yer wallet an’ grab yer gun!
Day dont karew ’bout dem childlins– black er whitie.
Deys simplie lookin’ fer loot to line da pocklets of deir friens an’ shoot concracts t’ dem big ol’ ‘struction companies dat build all dem big a*s schools (as dey call em) wit de “smart boards” and ‘puters, an’ eberythin’ but what’ dese childlins needs– readin’, ritin’ an’ rithmatic.
By Anonymous January 26, 2009 at 12:45 pm
Mr. Cooter is right:
Readin’…ritin’…’rithmetic!
Also, prayer or a moment of silence and the pledge of allegiance!
…
In Illinois last week they outlawed a moment of silence in the public schools citing it coerced children to think about ‘religion.’
With bland One in charge, will outlawing the pledge of allegiance be next?
By Cooter Brown January 26, 2009 at 1:19 pm
I aint a worried ’bout prayer– ye can prey at home.
As fer th’ pledge, mite be a good thin’ to git rid of… dont want dem childlin mistakin patriotism wit lub of O-bama or dat govmint in Warshingtron. Fact o’ matta, we ain’t no rebublic no more, aint one nashun under God, ain’t no indivisable nashun (if’n we is, den our forefathas o’ 1776 wus traidors!), and got libertie er justice fer anie one, so why does we keep on a doin it?
An wha’ ’bout dis lil’ fact: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BssWWZ3XEe4
Lettuce jest get our childlin’ outta of dem gov’mint skools altegether!
By Old Bike Dude January 26, 2009 at 1:56 pm
Sorry guys but Little House on the Prairi was a friggin TV show. Little Laura Ingles now needs more than a sprawling oak tree, a one room school, or a handheld, portable, personal chalkboard.
I agree that it’s fun to say “readin’, writin’, and rithmetic”, but trying to assimilate some sort of honky rap line into this crisis is quite the over simplification.
Dump the bureaucrats but never stop helping these children.
By Cooter Brown January 26, 2009 at 2:44 pm
Is dat so? Honkey rap line! If’n ye can read, writ’, an’ do basic mathematicks, combined wit access to sum books (public library?), ye can learn anythin’ ye want!
Whe’ they learned Ol’ Cooter da slide ruler, whelp!, dont help me much now.
Howeber, readin’, writin’, and rithmetic has a served me for my hole wide life! My pappy neber went t’ skool, but he was smart an’ rich for those days…
Th’ real queskston is th’ relations betwixt educashun & gov-mint!
Ye caint drop th’ bureaucraps wit-out takin’ th’ reigns of control from th’ gov’mint. Are ye willin’ t’ do that?
Red pill or blue pill, Mista?
By mijeel January 26, 2009 at 5:12 pm
For the past fifty years, we’ve been helping these children to the point of their own destruction. In that time, we have poured billions of dollars into so much theoretical tripe promoted by the educational bureaucracy and yet what do we have to show for it? A bloody wake of destruction!
We’ve helped millions of children – black, white, whatever – to achieve lower standards with less literacy yet feel better about themselves in the process as we’ve subjected them to the soft bigotry of lower expectations and indoctrination to artificial self-esteem.
What have we gotten for all the supposedly values-free, politically correct, feel-good, social engineering that “enlighted” academics and bureaucrats in the edustocracy have shoved down our throats for the past fifty years? Reading, writing and arithmetic – coupled with recess (which used to involve some sort of physical exertion!) – seems to be the last thing that seemed to reliably work in education. Perhaps we should give it another try.
By Toyota Kawaski January 26, 2009 at 5:23 pm
Like pigs who have to write so many tickets by the end of the month, Fits has to get its monthly plug in for the voucher scum crowd or Richie Rich and the alleged “GOD Squad” at scrg will crack some skulls
By fitsnews January 26, 2009 at 6:11 pm
Toyota-
It’s a “weekly” plug, dude.
Aside from your predictable ad hominem, though, when the MSM refuses to report on something as elemental to the education debate as new achievement gap data, we will continue to do whatever we can to make sure people know about it.
Sometimes that means we will cover it ourselves, sometimes that means we will link to the people who do.
Either way, the EOC data is what it is. Talk about it, don’t talk about it, the choice is up to you.
-FITS
By baker January 26, 2009 at 7:19 pm
The achievement gap is a problem, for real.
But the notion that we’re going to solve it through a “choice” program that doesn’t even guarantee money to the state’s POOREST students seems awfully strange. That’s exactly what Will touted back in his days of working for Mark Sanford.
And mijeel….You’ve got the right-wing talking points about public education down pat. But, I tell you — I’ve got a child who is in kindergarten in a public school, and I just don’t think your assertion is on target. I’ve been extremely impressed by how much understanding my child’s teacher has of her reading levels, math knowledge, etc…..strengths, weaknesses, pretty technical and thorough information on whta’s going on with my child’s learning.
Not that it’s all perfect. And not that I think every aspect of public education is wonderul — for my kid or any other.
Partly, I think it’s that there are some real challenges: My child has classmates who arrived to kindergarten not even knowing how to identify more than one or two letters of the alphabet. That’s a real learning gap right there — on that the public system didn’t create. It’s not easy for the public schools to catch those kids up, though they’ve got to do better.
Of course, I don’t think any of our local private schools would be willing to take students — even if we have PPIC or some other so-called choice plan — who are so far behind right from the start.
By baked January 26, 2009 at 8:27 pm
there’s no amount of money that’s gonna fix this problem til parents step up to the plate and accept the majority of the blame.
By Republican Swamp Fox January 26, 2009 at 9:06 pm
This is one thing that this web site is fixated on. Public education is the coner stone to democracy and all that it brings. If we start to back slide to defacto segregation of rich vs poor and black vs. white we as a nation will suffer more than we could ever gain from “choice” in education. The choice is simple in Williamsburg where the local Senator eats at Browns BBQ and sends his kids to USC. Where the local private school even says in its motto they are the school of choice vs the local high school. In Oconne County they eat at Mt. View Cafe in Walahalla and send thier kids to OCA, a private school. In Charleston County they send thier kids to Biship England or the other rich school. This is great for them but thier employees children are not good enough to send to the same school. The same employees they complain about not having great soft skills or work habits or vocabulary.
So SC has a choice back publc ed or get the same blue bloods doing the same thing. You cant unfix 200 years of public educational disgrace in one or two generations. It takes time and I hope that you will give that some thought. Of course if you think those lower class kids are going to bring your kids down then i guess we can pull the plug on public education and the legacy of Hampton, Tillman, and the other “old South Boys” can live on while we become an even bigger joke to the nation b/c of de facto segregation.
By flipnut January 26, 2009 at 9:26 pm
Go to Cobb County, GA, (home of the Big Chicken). They are the case study for showing that differences in spending per student make NO difference in test scores. You’ll find schools that are majority white and majority black. The under performing schools receive more money and the best teachers to help bridge the gap. Yet the scores stay about the same for each school.
All the money and the best teachers in the world can not overcome crappy parents. Race, money and teachers are not the problem or the answer, just something to fight about instead of blaming ourselves.
By James the Foot Soldier January 26, 2009 at 9:41 pm
I hate to burst the “vouchers are the end all be all to solve education woes bubble”, but, parents already have a choice in their children’s schools – in real estate terms its called location, location, location.
baked: one needs no further evidence of poor parenting skills than those that choose to reside in the corridor of shame and place their child in any of those schools. The SC DSS can take children for homes that are deemed unsafe – too bad it can’t take children from schools that are deemed unsafe and hazardous to the child’s development.
Do tell – are the vouchers proposed to be offered for enrollment in private schools? If so, the plan is simply backdoor pandering to the Bob Jones zealots.
By Nope January 26, 2009 at 9:53 pm
“We’ve helped millions of children – black, white, whatever – to achieve lower standards with less literacy yet feel better about themselves in the process”
Mejeel — do you have proof of this? Can you show me that African-American children in South Carolina start school worse off, perform worse on state tests, and graduate at lower percentages than they did in 1950? If so, we have truly accomplished nothing. Bring on the data.
By Cooter Brown January 26, 2009 at 10:10 pm
Gov’mint aint th’ solushun folks!
Funding aint the problem folks!
Cut da cord, strike th’ chains– let folks choose what to do wit dere own young’uns! Weeze wuz free, ev’n durring th’ despresshun!
Ma and Paw, wit th’ help of us childrens made our own way cause we had to.
Dont think th’ same aint commin’ fer you an’ yers in da commin’ days!
We’ll be a talkin’ ’bout food then, not gov’mint edukashun! Get offa th’ tit ’cause they aint no help a commin’!
Cuss it all!
By BIN News Editorial Staff January 27, 2009 at 12:09 am
sic(k) willie,
you, howie “the money munster”, the voice for voucher scams and other $inbred carpet-bugger consultants are like a “broken record” (badly scratched).
Do you know what a “broken record” is?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_record
It means a defective recording device that repeats itself. Over and over…
As we said on this porn site Brazillions of times. It’s poverty, stupid. And latent racism. And the host of other social ills that come with them.
Everyone knows about the shameful “minimally adequate” standard.
http://www.goodbyeminimallyadequate.com/
Shame on you sic(k) willie.
BIN News Editorial Staff
Flair and Balanced
By Old Bike Dude January 27, 2009 at 7:48 am
When your parents named you were they thinking “turtle” or “vagina”?
By Cooter Brown January 27, 2009 at 8:54 am
A funnie feller, aint ye?
“Cooter” is a knick name, my Christ’in name’s John.
Rather go by Cooter than havin’ folks ‘sociating my name wit dat Yankee feller who chopped up folks with a hatchet in Kansas– “Captain” John Brown.
No thank ye!
By Cooter Brown January 27, 2009 at 8:56 am
An’ anotha thin’, dont ye talk ’bout my folks– Ye aint worthie to shine deir shoes!
By baker January 27, 2009 at 3:24 pm
mijeel’s assertions have been doubly challenged….anything to back them up?
By rowe January 27, 2009 at 5:57 pm
A big problem that SC needs to address is the quality of the TEACHER education at the undergraduate level. There are “certified” teachers in SC schools that do not know the difference between “there,” “their,” and “they’re,” or do not know that the fraction 2/4 is not equivalent to 1/4…I’ve personally seen this in my own children’s classrooms.
I have almost ten years experience teaching in other states, more PRAXIS exams scored in the national top 1% on my resume than most teachers in this nation have ever taken, and I can teach under a provisional license in Virginia in a high-demand subject. I cannot, however, teach in a SC public school. Why? Because my degrees are not in education.
By Old Bike Dude January 27, 2009 at 6:03 pm
Dear Mr. Cooter
You’re a moron. Please get yourself a few school vouchers and by all means use them.
I’m guessing turtle.
By El_Cid_99 January 27, 2009 at 7:10 pm
I recently met an 8th grade History teacher who did not know what the Mason-Dixon line was, nor did she have any clue where it was. She said, “yeah, I think I’ve heard of it. What is it?”
Civil War history aside, is that little bit of American history not being taught in our schools?
By Nope January 27, 2009 at 7:30 pm
rowe: If you’ve taken PRAXIS and taught in other states, I’m sure you could get fast-track certification to teach in South Carolina. Well, if you want the pay. Have you looked into it?
By baker January 27, 2009 at 7:34 pm
I agree, Rowe, that there is lots of room for improvement in the way we certify and recruit teachers. Especially at the secondary level, I think it should be more focused on a strong overall undergraduate education (or graduate), particularly in one’s subject area, rather than having education courses checked off a list.
In doing this, I think we need to figure out ways to get more prospective teachers through the door….making it “easier” to get certified. Not easier in the sense that we want poorly prepared teachers, but easier in terms of having fewer hoops to jump through. I think SC is working toward this on some fronts, but it seems to me that more should be done.
By Cooter Brown January 27, 2009 at 10:48 pm
Mista Old Bika,
I’ll whop your young hide if ye were my boy! Ye know nothin’! If’n my young’uns wuz still in skool, I’s gladly use ‘em. Hits my damn monie dat they took from me!
Yer problem, sur, is dat ye lov’ gov-mint moore than libertie.
Be a man an’ take ‘sponsibility fer yer own life an’ stop tryin’ to force yer yankee ways on da rest of us who still believe in da pricniples of ’76 (an’ ’61, fer that matta).
Ye ought t’ be ashamed to insult a man o’ my age!
Yer Linconian, new south, flag wavin’, arse kissin’, serf mentalitie is as small as, well, you knows where I’m a goin’, ye Scalawag! Lern som’ manners…
John C. “Cooter” Brown
By rowe January 27, 2009 at 10:55 pm
I did look into the PACE program…the hoops are numerous, I have to take several undergraduate courses that I have to pay for myself, attend seminars in different parts of the state – also at my expense – and teach in the same school district for three consecutive years before I earn a license. Military families relocate frequently, so I cannot guarantee being able to stay in one place for three years. Having to start all over again every two years? I cannot justify the time or expense, when I can get a position in a private school. The pay is usually half that of a first-year public school teacher…but I do not teach because of the salary. I teach because I truly love educating children.
By PeteSC March 21, 2011 at 3:11 pm
I am sick and tired of people pretending to know the first thing about schools and schooling today. Just because you went to school doesn’t make you an expert. I’ve flown in a plane, but I am no pilot. First of all, we are talking about OUR children. If you want religion in school, how about start by acting on the commandments of Christ. Love thy neighbor. That does not mean when it’s easy or convenient. Any fool can do that – the loves starts when it’s difficult. Like it or not, we have a race problem and until all sides figure out how we are all culpable, and we all have a role in making it better, these statistics will never change.
Ironic, isn’t it, that the more our politics move to the right, the worse our schools get. Schooling is not testing. It is about learning. We do not care about learning in this country. People who read non-partisan books or ask probing questions to get at the heart of the matter and not a personal agenda are shot down as heretics. It’s easy to dismiss sources because they don’t support your world-view. The anti-intellectualism in the country is coming home to roost. As long as we disrespect intelligence, we will have these issues.
Marketing experts will tell you that marketing to kids is some of the most lucrative marketing out there. We care about kids as long as we can make money off of them. But when it really comes to caring about raising kids to be curious, thoughtful, insightful, creative people, we, as a culture could care less.
Raising children is expensive. Schooling is expensive. It is far from a perfect system, but for all of the money that’s wasted on corporate welfare and tax breaks for the wealthy who are not creating jobs I think we should be barking up a different tree. Teachers and principals are trying to make kids poorer students, they are doing the best with the raw material they are given. Now it is up to communities to step it up and create a supportive, encouraging climate for kids to grow up in. It is not about “me and mine”, it is about all of God’s children. So step up or shut up.