Ford and Converse are political voucher pimps pandering to Howie and his voucher clowns at SCRG, Voice for Voucher Scams, and this porn site.

An example of sic(k) willie’s latest porn:
http://www.fitsnews.com/2009/05/08/rihanna-nude-pics-leaked/#comments

But getting back to the subject. Will, is Howie paying you directly now, or are you still laundering his money through SCRG?

In this economy no member of the Legislature with any integrity will vote for it. Only those who have been bought by Howie.

BIN News Editorial Staff
Flair and Balanced

Now, I’ll do my best not to duck your question. The existence of private schools under the current arrangement (no public money going to K-12 private schools) clearly does save the state money. Moreover, there are private schools that add positive things to our communities in other ways. All that is important to apprciate.

By there are a couple other key points.

For one thing, greater participation in public schools — especially involving well-to-do parents who are well-educated — can have a dramatically positive impact on schools. They contribute time and leadership. They hold school officials accountable. If their children are good students, they help set a high standard in public schools. By the same logic, the absence of those folks can have a negative impact on public schools. And so in counties where, for the most part, the whites left right after integration, that leadership and involvement void has taken a toll.

And, if you can believe this, there are school districts where people have stayed involved and have actually wanted to pay more in taxes in order to have better facilities and programs for their children. In those cases, contrary to taxes-are-bad logic, somewhat higher tax rates have actually been widely embraced.

Additionally, just as it has been clearly shown that losing students to a private school doesn’t guarantee a particular dollar amount can be saved in public education, the same can be said for adding a student. In other words, if a public school gains a few students here and there, it’s not easy to calculate exact added costs. The state might have to kick in a per-pupil contribution, but it isn’t clear at all that local taxes would have to be affected.

A sudden influx of 800 new students into Jasper County public schools would, of course, result in increased spending. But had those students been there all along — in other words, had “white flight” not occurred — the school system might have adjusted in any number of ways. For example, the high school might simply be larger. It costs more to run a larger high school, of course, but the costs generally go down on a per-student basis in a larger setting.

What happens if those 750 kids in Jasper County went back to the schools in Jasper County at $11,000 per child? That would be $8.2 million that the taxpayers would have to come up with that they currently don’t have to worry about.

In any case, I want to know where the state treasurer think $1.8 million for Jasper County alone should be cut.

If this bill causes all kids to feed at the public funding trough again political divisions will end and everyone will begin working together.

(1) Comparing private school options in Philadelphia — a rather compact urban area, the sixth largest city in America — to the private school options in any South Carolina community, much less our poorest and most rural counties, is just really quite goofy. Just goofy.

(2) If our state’s TREASURER doesn’t understand government finances well enough to get that a public school losing a few students here and there to a private school doesn’t lead to significant cost-savings, then maybe SC is in worse financial shape than we might have figured.

Moreover, in Jasper County — just for one example — has about 750 children in private school. If I understand the “Education Opportunity Act” correctly, a tax credit will eventually apply to the tuition of EACH of those kids. At roughly $2,400 (a little more, actually) per student, that’s $1.8 million…..out of ONE county!! And that’s students already in private school, so there’s no claim that public schools will save anything while losing that $1.8 million.

Where does the $1.8 million come from? Out of Jasper County Schools? Out of the state’s overall public education funding? Out of some other area of state government? How about a tax hike in order to fund those private schools?

$1.8 million from Jasper County alone….how can Converse Chellis or Will Folks or anyone else claim this is going to save public schools or the state money?!?!

Good call on the flag pic.

Mike-

Good prediction.

Gnu-

Keep at it. You’re like BIN, but less original.

-FITS