Former SC School Board Chair: Scrap The EOC

By Al Simpson || I am writing this letter as a businessman, parent, taxpayer, a fiscal conservative and former Chair of the State Board of Education.  We have an opportunity in South Carolina to reduce some of our state’s public education bureaucracy by “sunsetting” the Education Oversight Committee and I ask the S.C. General Assembly to support the bill introduced by Rep. Bakari Sellers (D-Bamberg) which will do exactly this.

In the current economic shortfall that we are experiencing, it doesn’t make common sense to fund two boards to oversee public education. The General Assembly has historically given the State Board of Education the authority to oversee the policies and regulation that govern education in the state.  The State Board is also responsible for overseeing the federal policies and monies that flow to the State from Congress. The 2002 re-authorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (more commonly referred to as No Child Left Behind) gave the responsibility to the state boards of education to oversee the accountability requirements of that Act. The State Board of Education takes its responsibilities seriously and has taken appropriate measures to ensure that the children of our state are receiving the best possible education.

Second, the work done by the staff of the Education Oversight Committee is a duplication of work done by the staff at the South Carolina Department of Education.  There appears to be a misunderstanding about the work done as required by the Education Accountability Act (EAA). The State Department of Education is the entity that collects the data from the schools, compiles it, conducts the calculations for the report cards, and has the report cards printed and distributed.  In large part due to the hardworking teachers in the state, we have made great strides in improving education in our state.  We are nowhere close to where we want to be regarding education in South Carolina, but we have made progress. It doesn’t make sense for us to duplicate the work that is done for accountability when we need to be providing support for classroom teachers.

Third, oversight of the accountability system is also being done by the U.S. Department of Education.  While I am strongly opposed to the federal government being involved in local education matters and believe the U.S. Department of Education should be done away with, it is what it is.  They require the SCDE to have committees of experts to review our tests, our standards, just as the EOC does, and our process for determining the Average Yearly Progress of students and schools.  As a reminder, the SCDE was the first state department in the country to have its assessment system approved by the U.S. Department of Education.

Through my four years of serving on the State Board of Education, I can assure you that that body can oversee the state’s efforts to ensure that education is accountable for the achievement of students and the SCDE is capable of conducting the functions of the EOC staff.

Now is the right time to sunset the Education Oversight Committee and to streamline the bureaucracy in Columbia and return those funds to the taxpayers. I also ask that during the upcoming budget process in the General Assembly, the members look for other opportunities like this to save our state some money.   I am confident that there are plenty of those opportunities out there.

Author’s Note: Al Simpson served on the State Board of Education from 2006 until 2010 and was the Chairman in 2008. He resides in Lancaster, S.C. Email him here.