If only we had an example….maybe like publicly funded schools that have to compete with private institutions who can charge through the roof and still are able to offer a better education…… OH WAIT!

The only think above the bottom of the barrel in SC public education are our Universities, and look where private competition has gotten them (one right up to the top 25 public universities in the country)……ah you’re right, BIN News, it’d never work…..

Howies voucher clowns are certainly desperate.

What a joke. Ford told Howie’s Voucher Clowns he would need “political cover,” and this is the best the voucher clowns can produce.

These kinds of schools generally need funding, and I’m all for the state pitching in. And when they are good alternatives for children who are really struggling in the public school system, then I’d be fine with that local school district putting up some money. Further, if there are innovative ways to spur charitable donations to such schools, sounds great. I don’t know if tax breaks for scholarships or some other method, but surely there are ways to help these schools thrive.

All this, of course, has absolutely nothing to do with taking money out of the public school system (or from anywhere in the state budget, for that matter) to give to rich people who already have their children in private school.

If the “Education Opportunity Act” was focused on schools like Shade Tree and the students they serve, then it might enjoy more widespread acceptance. But the fact that the bill’s supporters want to give state money private school families regardless of income level undercuts the whole plan. For instance, it’s simply preposterous to claim that a plan that will give $2,500 to families with their children already in private school — roughly 750 students in Jasper County, about twice that number in Spartanburg, where I live — is going to save the state or public schools money. And, certainly, this is the kind of thing that could make people cynical toward the notion that this really is about helping the families and children who need the most help.

Redneck Bar makes some good points…he is opposed to the wealth transfer to Republicans. Rhetorical question: is it really a wealth transfer if it is their own tax dollars?

There are glimmers of success that don’t involve wealth-transfers: The Harlem school choice program for one. The key component in that program is teacher accountability.

What say you to teacher accountability Mr. Redneck Bar?

Multiply 46 counties by 13 (let’s be generous). That’s how many students?

And we need to give Republicans a tax credit to educate how many kids because that will save our educational system?