Now The Roosters Are Crowing For Bureacrat Bailout $$$
The University of South Carolina has now joined Clemson and practically every other government entity in South Carolina in rallying its troops against Gov. Mark Sanford’s decision to reject $700 million of the $8 billion in federal “stimulus” money.
And if that wasn’t enough, USC is helping organize tonight’s “Spend-A-Palooza” government employee rally on the steps of the S.C. State House.
Here’s the e-mail that was blasted out less than an hour ago on USC’s taxpayer-provided ListServ:
Join fellow University of South Carolina students and alumni and friends for a rally supporting stimulus funding for higher education Wednesday, April 1, 5:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. at the Statehouse steps (Gervais Street).
If you agree with the need to accept federal stimulus money, please call or e-mail the governor immediately with the following urgent message. Below is the governor’s phone number and e-mail address:
Phone number: 803-734-2100
E-mail address: mark@gov.sc.gov
Our leaders have worked hard to protect the quality of our education. However, we fear that refusing the stimulus funds will have a drastic impact on our University and all of higher education.
The University of South Carolina desperately needs the one-time funding that federal stimulus dollars will provide.
“Desperately,” huh?
Remember, this is a school that has seen its total budget grow from $614 million to $860 million over the last four years alone – and that’s including the latest round of state budget “cuts” (more like “reductions in excess,” if you ask us).
Like its fellow higher ed porkers at Clemson and MUSC, South Carolina’s “flagship institution” does not “desperately” need this money – which makes it like every single one of the government entities that we’ve caught using your tax dollars to pimp this liberal fiction over the past few weeks.
What the University of South Carolina “desperately” needs to do is to learn how to live within its means, and to start focusing on a core academic mission, not begging for more money to continue mission creeping all over the damn place.
WEB EXTRA:
Comments
By anonymous on April 1st, 2009 at 2:17 pm
Mark Sanford avoiding the topic of illegal immigration
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHJohB8htGk
By Snead on April 1st, 2009 at 3:21 pm
So Sanford can spend taxpayer money to fight the stimulus but others can’t spend taxpayer money to support it?
What South Carolina “desperately” needs is to clean house, starting with the governor, right on down the statehouse roll.
By Kyle on April 1st, 2009 at 4:27 pm
You obviously know nothing about higher eduction and funding practices. South Carolina is at the bottom of all 50 U.S. States in the amount it funds it’s higher education system. This is why comparable universities and states have risen in education rankings and stature while our flagship institution has lost ground. What a sad commentary on such an issue vital to all South Carolinians.
By Law Student on April 1st, 2009 at 6:54 pm
It strikes me that all three of you are missing the issue here. We do not need our state employees (i.e. USC employees) using state dollars to send out politically charged mass emails to our student body telling them to get involved in an ongoing political matter. As an entity of the state, the University should be a-political.
If the University feels the necessity to get involved, it should only contact students with a well-written article describing the nature of the dispute without bias, allowing students to form their own opinions and get involved in the debate on the side they feel reflects their views as individuals.
It should not send a sketchy two paragraph email essentially telling students what political position to take without full disclosure of the implications of that position and prompting them to attend an anti-Governor rally at the State House.
By anonymous on April 2nd, 2009 at 6:41 am
New York Times Reports This morning:
Mark Sanford, who advocates issuing taxpayer-financed vouchers that parents can use to send their children to private schools, has told the Obama administration that he would not accept some $577 million in educational stimulus money for South Carolina unless he could use it to pay down state debt.
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan:
“Mr. Duncan unleashed a barrage of dismal statistics about the South Carolina schools, noting that only 15 percent of the state’s black students are proficient in math and that the state has one of the nation’s worst high school graduation rates”.
“Those are heartbreaking results; those are children who will never have a chance to compete,” Mr. Duncan said. “For South Carolina to stand on the sidelines and say that the status quo is O.K., that defies logic.”
“ONLY (15) FIFTEEN PERCENT OF BLACK STUDENTS ARE PROFICIENT IN MATH”
“Mr. Sanford would not quibble with Mr. Duncan’s portrayal of South Carolina schools, Mr. Sawyer(a spokesman for Mr. Sanford) said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/02/education/02educ.html?hpw