Minority Educator Fires Back At La Socialista

The “big lie” being advanced by South Carolina’s education establishment this year is that parental choice won’t do anything to help poor, black children.

Sure, this particular piece of fiction has always been a part of the status quo’s repertoire of resistance, but the fact that parental choice has been embraced this year by Sen. Robert Ford – a black Democrat – has forced these failure-mongers and their apologists to make it a more central thrust of their efforts.

After all, for decades these educrats have been able to count on the unwavering support of black lawmakers – the very “leaders” whose children are being disproportionately failed year after year.

Seriously, of the 73,000 children currently trapped in failing schools in South Carolina, 77% of them are minorities.

Not surprisingly, the status quo’s mouthpiece over at La Socialista (a.k.a. The State newspaper) has picked up that ball and run with it, led by poverty pimp Warren Bolton, who seems intent on attacking anything and everything that would actually lift African-American children out of their institutionally-imposed cycle of government dependence.

Well, Bolton’s attacks on parental choice were answered today by a private school educator – a woman whose words Bolton tried to take out of context in spouting his establishment nonsense.

Her name is Shonda Simpkins, and she runs the ShadeTree Academy for girls in Edgefield, S.C. Needless to say, she has a much different perspective on the utility of parental choice for poor, African-American students.

“Warren Bolton’s speculation about how educational tax credits might impact low-income students in South Carolina ignores the basic reality that such programs have empowered tens of thousands of low-income parents in other states,” Simpkins writes in a response oped in The State. “For the first time, parents have made real educational choices for their children. This type of parental engagement, and the profoundly raised expectations it invites, has benefited all children in those communities.”

Oh, and for those of you who don’t think public education would benefit if it were run more “like a business,” consider this:

“Our small school constantly struggles to provide parents with real value for the modest tuition we charge, and we work to show our private investors and donors that we are efficiently serving the local community,” Simpkins writes. “That makes us accountable and forces us to be effective. Contrast that with those public schools that persistently rank as unsatisfactory or at-risk. Administrators there need not worry about demonstrating value on investment or instructional efficiency. Local, state and federal funding actually rises when scores of the students trapped there fall further.”

Simpkins is absolutely right.

One of the reasons our public schools keep failing is that we reward administrators who fail.

There is no real accountability in the system, there’s just an endless flow of money that increases each year irrespective of the economy, student growth or student achievement.

No wonder the list of failing public schools in South Carolina keeps growing!

It’s the quickest, easiest way for their administrators to get their hand on more cash.

Wait … are we saying that administrators in some of our state’s poorest districts are intentionally failing children?

Well, South Carolina’s achievement gap is growing, isn’t it? More minority children than ever are stuck in failing schools, aren’t they?

Of course, La Socialista doesn’t want to address those numbers. And on the rare occasion when they do, the “solution” they promote is always more money, more programs, more educrats … and more dependence. Oh, and demonizing ideas that have proven effective in other states at providing minority children with real hope.

Competition and choice helps all children, people. But especially those the current system is failing.

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