By FITSNews || In news that comes as no surprise to people who can count, there’s fresh evidence that education funding in South Carolina has been increasing steadily since the beginning of the recession.
In fact, according to a report released Friday by the S.C. Policy Council – a conservative think tank – funding for Palmetto public schools is up by nearly 20 percent when revenue from local bond referendums is included.
“Once we include such revenue, total K-12 spending since the recession shows an increase of 18.94 percent for FY2011,” the report found. “Such revenue is anticipated to reach $1.226 billion for FY10-2011. Adding local bond sales to average per pupil spending results in an average per pupil expenditure of $11,218 for FY07-2008 and $13,138 for FY10-2011, compared to the respective appropriated amounts of $10,566 for FY2008 and $11,372 for FY2011.”
The Policy Council data is based in part on information released previously by the S.C. Budget and Control Board (click here) and the S.C. General Assembly (click here). It’s the latest proof that educrats like State Superintendent Jim Rex are lying when they claim that public schools are suffering from massive budget cuts.
Yet in spite of these funding increases – which have outpaced the growth in population, inflation and K-12 enrollment – South Carolina students continue to fall further behind their national and regional peers.
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
Behind The Myths: Education Spending (S.C. Policy Council)
By baker July 30, 2010 at 3:37 pm
I read the report, and I think it leaves lots of questions. I don’t consider the Policy Council to be a trustworthy source, given that they were the ones behind the less-than-half-the-money sham about education spending.
In any case, again, loads of questions:
Do these numbers reflect ACTUAL spending, or budgets prior to major mid-year cuts?
In one section, they talk about federal spending. So is that all stimulus money that will go away?
One graph indicates increased spending since 2008, but if I’m not mistaken, it shows that spending is LESS now than in 2007!
By snodgrass July 30, 2010 at 4:26 pm
Buildings need work…programs are being cut…teachers have been laid off…buses are worn out…stats still declining…
What is all that money being spent on?
By What in the world July 30, 2010 at 4:56 pm
I don’t trust it either. The Department of Education has laid off 80 workers and stopped filling positions, school districts are letting teachers go, my own school has had to drop a couple of offerings for students and move Algebra I to a half-year course. So where’s all the money?
By JBV July 30, 2010 at 7:08 pm
I’ve got some swamp land for sale. Any takers?
By FunkyChicken July 31, 2010 at 10:09 pm
Another lie from Will Folks. It must be payday time again.
By Alvin Green Cousin August 1, 2010 at 4:54 pm
The first thing Cousin Alvin will do once in office is get rid of all those tea baggering republicans childrens who are dragging down those SAT Scores with their low Redneck Republican IQ’s………Go Alvin
By You Talkin to Me? August 1, 2010 at 8:05 pm
More teabagger drivel from Will. Since the SC Policy Council is actually concerned about POLICY, their report makes some recommendations about how to structure funding in the state. Of course, since Will doesn’t have the time to digest or engage with these ideas, he just uses the report to rant about “lying” educrats. Yawn.
By Common Sense August 2, 2010 at 9:50 am
Why not put a Republican in there that doesn’t have HUGE ties to the education mafia???
By brakeman August 8, 2010 at 5:25 pm
Operating expenses for my local district are down close to 30% in three years. Ninety percent of operating goes to personnel. The math is simple, fewer employees, larger class sizes, courses being eliminated, services reduced, maintenance being cut. That is the fact. Bond money is not operating money. The public approved it for a specific purpose in a previous election. It is illegal to spend bond money dedicated to long term expenditures on operating expenses. Of course, Mr. Folks and his voucher crowd know that. They just choose to hide the truth.
By brakeman August 8, 2010 at 5:27 pm
Maybe Nikki can help Will with his accounting. A total of $83 in state income tax over a two year period while buying a $350,000 home. Now that is thinking outside the box (or maybe the rules).
By Old Bike Dude August 9, 2010 at 7:37 am
“State funding at South Carolina colleges was about $4,800 a student in 2008-09. That compared with more than $11,500 per student in North Carolina and about $7,800 per student in Georgia.”
No wonder we suck.
By Chris Falter August 9, 2010 at 12:11 pm
Hey Will,
Did it ever occur to you that you can’t spend bond revenue money on teacher salaries…on textbooks…on buses…on school staff…on school maintenance?