By FITSNews || S.C. Superintendent of Education Jim Rex is spending nearly twice as much on non-classroom “consultants” this year as he did in 2009 - the latest example of how the global recession isn’t hurting South Carolina’s massive education bureaucracy.
Through the first five months of 2010, Rex has spent $2.6 million on “non-state education and training services.” That’s a 53 percent increase from last year, according to budget figures published this week by The Voice. On top of that, Rex spent another $1.2 million on consulting expenses during the month of June – bringing his current consultant tab for the year to $3.7 million.
For years, Rex has been complaining about the impact of “budget cuts” on South Carolina classrooms, saying that teachers would have to be fired and class sizes would soar as a result of public schools receiving less money.
The truth? Funding for public education is at its highest level ever – with more than $13,000 being spent per child each year (for a total annual expenditure of $9.5 billion). On top of that, South Carolina’s school districts currently have more than $700 million stashed away in reserve accounts.
No wonder Palmetto state educrats feel comfortable sticking taxpayers with the bill for lavish vacations and new putting greens at their favorite country clubs while they bitch and moan about not having any money.
Despite the huge increases in funding, our students are not making progress.
In fact, South Carolina’s overall graduation rate remains among the worst in the nation – which is consistent with our state’s declining SAT and ACT scores. Also, South Carolina’s rural graduation rate ranks dead last in the country. Things aren’t getting better, either. South Carolina’s overall graduation rate has improved by a meager 1.5 percent over the last decade – one of the worst percentage improvements in the entire country and a figure that stands in stark contrast to the “perpetual progress” cited by Rex and other educrats.
Also, South Carolina’s black students are falling further behind their white peers, who in turn are falling further behind their peers in other states – a vicious cycle that keeps repeating no matter how much money is dumped into the “one size fits all” machine.
In an effort to hide these miserable outcomes from parents, educrats have been working hard to dumb down the state’s costly and inefficient academic assessments – which constitute the bureaucratic definition of “accountability.” Also, South Carolina remains the only state in America that does not release graduation rates for minority students – yet another effort to conceal the generational failure of our current system.
While we laid out a series of proposed reforms in our recent endorsement of Republican Mick Zais for State Superintendent of Education, at the end of the day it’s up to the S.C. legislature to pass the long-overdue choice, funding and accountability reforms that this state desperately needs if it ever wants to start fulfilling its obligation to future generations of students.
As we’ve said on frankly too many occasions in the past, let’s hope they do so before yet another generation is lost …
WEB EXTRA
Completely Recession Proof (The Voice)
By Tunes'n''News July 27, 2010 at 10:02 am
If you were running a school district in this state which has just shifted substantial funding from predictable property tax to wildly varying sales tax, you’d keep reserve funds too. I think that’s a non-issue. Not that there aren’t lots of education/funding issues to discuss.
By Greenville Girl July 27, 2010 at 11:31 am
Thank goodness he didn’t win his primary! Considering SC’s “wonderful” reputation of throwing money for education at everything and everyone EXCEPT the teachers and the students, at what point will the legislature realize that our government needs to be O-V-E-R-H-A-U-L-E-D?
I think the majority of the members of our legislature can only spell a few words:
T-A-X
S-P-E-N-D
W-A-S-T-E
L-I-E
C-H-E-A-T
S-T-E-A-L
S-E-X
D-R-U-G-S
A-L-C-O-H-O-L
And not necessarily in this order. A-C-C-O-U-N-T-A-B-I-L-I-T-Y is definitely not in the list of words they need to learn. Hell, half of them probably couldn’t even spell it correctly if it weren’t for spell check.
By Slim July 27, 2010 at 12:10 pm
We should start a state lottery and use the proceeds to help fund education. No, wait. Nevermind.
By Hmmmmm July 27, 2010 at 2:17 pm
So that equates to almost 100 teacher’s jobs lost based on what he spent! So the next time J-Rex calls and wants a bigger budget or he will have to fire teachers that need to tell him to take it out of the consultant budget first!
By baker July 27, 2010 at 4:29 pm
What this “report” lacks — of course — is any context at all, any explanation for what these expenditures are going toward. If Will Folks or “The Voice” (SCRG) can uncover that this money is going to wasteful, goofy stuff, then great. But we don’t know much by simply looking at these numbers.
For example, what is “SERVE Center at UNCG”? I looked it up, and it’s apparently a program aimed at working with schools and educators on improving the educational process. Now, it may be a bogus program, for all I know, with lousy ideas and results. Or, it may be a really great, cutting-edge deal that will make a difference for SC in time to come. Moreover, the money paid by the SC DOE may be tied to something like teacher recertification or professional development required by state or federal law.
In other words, it isn’t at all clear that Jim Rex is simply out there throwing money around.
By snodgrass July 27, 2010 at 6:35 pm
I think you guys are being overly critical of our educational system.
Just think of all the jobs it’s going to create over at the Department of Corrections.
By fitsnews July 27, 2010 at 6:56 pm
Well Baker whatever it is he’s spending a shit ton more than last year on it – with the same shitty results.
-FITS
By Alvin Green Cousin July 27, 2010 at 7:55 pm
All that money simply created more Redneck Republican Tea Party idiots for the future……
By BSer July 28, 2010 at 10:38 am
it seems that mr rex is paying our money to someone that can tell him what he should already know. he was supposed to be the education expert, at least that’s what he said while running for the job