I’m sorry, but the link you included took me to fantasy politics page with some made up numbers. You guys give propaganda a bad name.

Jim

“Just over half of the state’s rural students graduate from high school, a lower rate than all other states. NAEP and NCLB scores are equally alarming, near the bottom on all four indicators.”

What FITS didn’t think worthy of mention were the two sentences that appeared immediately before:

“Only 5 states have a higher percentage of rural minority students and a higher rate of rural student poverty, and only 10 states have a higher rate of rural students qualifying for special education services. Schools and districts are among the largest in the nation, and spending on instruction in rural districts is very low.“

Adds important context, right? But as we know from experience, SCRG and FITS don’t do context. They do talking points. They’re about staying on message, and the message has been bought and paid for.

“…you ignorant slut.”

Our Funding Editor loves that classic line from Saturday Night Live.

You’re nothing but a cheap pimp for Howie and his voucher clowns. Like your “bud” at “voice for voucher scams.”

The voucher scam would only rob from the poor and give to the (Howie) rich. Great pun. Like it?

You know the real problems facing public education in SC. They start with poverty and the social ills that some with it. And, you know the shameful standard set by S.C. is “minimally adequate.”

You never post about the real problems.

That makes you a voucher pimp or a voucher slut.

You decide what you are. Pimp or slut. Pick one.

BIN News Editorial Staff
Flair and Balanced

P.S. But, our Funding Editor still thinks you are hot in a chubby way.

There is little accountability.
There is even less transparency.
There is NO competency at the Oversight COmmittee level and at the Legislative level. Not a single one of these “elected officials” has ever taught in a rural public school. They have never met a curriculum. They have never been force fed directed instruction from their District Office.
And finally, Education in South Carolina has NEVER EVER been fully funded by the legislature as is layed out and mandated in the law!
READ THE LAW!! It’s all there!!!

Why would you spend time determining I’m this or that politically oriented instead of offering some genuine thoughts or ideas on what is the crux of this issue & what can be done to correct it?

Whatever the reason, I refuse to commit myself to any political party. Everyone is right, everyone is wrong when it comes to politics & religion.

Another example from someone in this area being more interested in what someone is politically or religiously & where they fit in than addressing school issues, or any issue for that matter.

That mentality, with respect to politics & religion in this area, is as much the problem with schools & every other issue as money, faculty, parents, or anything else.

Not to mention the overwhelming number of greedy crooks this area seems to have in every respective agency around here.

Most homes in which extreme poverty is present have one parent or a non-parent relative caring for the child/children. Quite often these are very low one-income or welfare subsidy homes. When the caretaker is a worker, they are often performing labor intensive jobs for long hours, and frequently do not get home until very late.

So your position is that the government should fine them–further reduce the family’s resources??

But I do agree that the solution is with the family. Rather than dumping more money into failing school systems, invest in community infrastructure, education, job traning, business development and expansion of local tax bases.

We can’t reasonably expect the schools to correct or overcome in 35 hours a week what their lives shape the other 133 hours of the week.

The state needs to take bold steps, including in the area of teacher recruitment. I imagine it’s VERY difficult to convince young ambitious teachers to settle in many of these rural, poor, sparse communities.

I suspect Will Folks and SCRG and some other ideologues on the right will use this report as a way to push for tax credits, vouchers, or whatever to pay for private school choice. Yet, rural communities would logically seem like the very most difficult places to make private school choice work: little infrastructure to create new private schools; few existing private schools; great distances for families to travel in order to put kids in schools of their “choice”; on and on and on.

We need to look at more practical and realistic ways to get the job done, I’d say.