Contributions Eyed In SC Higher Ed Races

S.C. lawmakers on both sides of the aisle tell FITS that they’re keeping a watchful eye on political contributions made by candidates for a number of highly-contested higher education slots – particularly as these would-be college and university board members seek to ingratiate themselves with legislators in advance of several competitive elections.

Here’s how the process works … like everything else in our backwards, legislatively-controlled state, the vast majority of appointments to South Carolina college and university boards are made by the S.C. General Assembly.

It’s not surprising, then, that the Palmetto State has a system of “higher education” that is way too large, too expensive and too focused on so-called “economic development” projects that have nothing to do with its core mission of educating students.

Projects like Innovista, for example, a botched research campus which has cost taxpayers $150 million … and counting.

In fact, according to the latest data available from the National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO), South Carolina currently spends 17.8 percent of its state budget on this bloated, wasteful, duplicative and inefficient system of higher education, whereas the average state spends only 10.1 percent of its budget on higher ed.

Obviously, there’s a lot of pressure on incumbent higher ed board members to justify all that unnecessary spending – particularly those who are up for reelection by lawmakers.

Here at FITS, we’ll be basing our endorsements for higher ed positions on how all candidates answer one simple question – are they for the perpetuation of the current system or are they against it?

Because if they’re for it – i.e. in favor of things like Innovista – then we have no choice but to oppose their candidacies.

If they want our system to go on a desperately needed diet and get back to educating students again, then we will commend them to your attention with a favorable report.

Of course, we do look forward to diving into all of that contribution stuff, too …