SOUTH CAROLINA CANNOT AFFORD ANOTHER “ACT 388″
By Randy Page|| Bureaucrats in the Palmetto State are pushing a plan to raise taxes and increase spending on public schools. The districts spent $9.4 billion last year. Apparently $13,600 per student isn’t enough.
The plan will raise taxes across the state. Families and small business owners will be hardest [...]
“Just Say No” To Billion Dollar Tax Hike
SC’s Epic Academic Failure Gets Even Worse
Last spring, we published a list of the 100 worst public schools in America as evaluated by NeighborhoodScout.com. At the time of that report, South Carolina was home to thirty-seven of the nation’s 100 worst schools – a figure we thought was pretty much the epitome of an “epic fail.”
Well guess what … the Palmetto [...]
SC Public Schools: Shockingly Inadequate
A whopping 76 percent of South Carolina public schools (831 out of 1,037) failed to make adequate yearly progress during the 2010-11 academic year, according to data released this week by the Center on Education Policy.
The Palmetto State ranks 46th nationally among the 50 states – and is one of only five states in which [...]
No Green Ribbon? Good …
South Carolina’s worst-in-the-nation public school system will not apply for national “green ribbon” status.
Thirty-three states (and the District of Columbia) are participating in the U.S. Department of Education program, which aims to “improve (schools) energy efficiency, create healthy environments for students and staff, and enhance their work to effectively prepare graduates for 21st century careers.”
Specifically, [...]
John Courson: Still Spinning Failure
We ran into S.C. Senator John Courson at a press conference earlier this week – attempting to bestow his “I’m a Reagan conservative” imprimatur onto former Utah Gov. (and U.S. Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman).
We’ve always liked Courson. He’s a nice guy – and a former Marine. He’s also one of the few politicians in [...]
SC Educrats Blaming Parents For Failure
The perpetually-high dropout rate in Oconee County, S.C. was featured this week on National Public Radio – which is another way of saying that one colossal waste of tax dollars provided commentary on an even bigger colossal waste of tax dollars.
Anyway, the NPR story included extensive commentary from Oconee Superintendent Mike Lucas (who makes $161,000 [...]
SC Business Ranking Plunges
In a testament to the failure of top-down economic planning, a monopolistic “one size fits all” approach to education and record-setting state budgets, the Palmetto state’s competitive position has taken a sudden and precipitous nose dive.
According to CNBC’s annual “America’s Top States for Business” rankings, South Carolina plunged from No. 31 to No. 37. That [...]
SC: Where One Size (Still) Fits All
By one vote, South Carolina’s “Republican-controlled” House of Representatives killed a universal school choice bill that would have provided expanded academic options for all parents and a lifeline for more than 100,000 children trapped in failing public schools.
The debate took less than half an hour – which is interesting when you consider that lawmakers spent [...]
SC Educrats: Gotta Get That Money
Unlike the liberal “lamestream” media, we’ve written extensively here at FITS about the record amounts of funding being dumped into our state’s worst-in-the-nation public school system … and the chronic academic failure this system continues to produce.
It’s tragic, but South Carolina wouldn’t be South Carolina if its lawmakers weren’t dumping gobs of new money (your [...]
SC Graduation Rate Drops … Again
We didn’t think it was possible but apparently there’s still room for South Carolina’s worst-in-the-nation public school system to show diminished returns on the massive investment it is receiving from Palmetto taxpayers …
Despite record funding increases in each of the last two years, South Carolina’s on-time graduation rate – at least the figure reported by [...]
SC Public Schools Still Hoarding Cash
At a time when South Carolina educrats are whining about budget cuts and threatening to lay off teachers, Palmetto public school districts are continuing to carry hundreds of millions of dollars in reserve accounts.
In fact, South Carolina’s public schools currently have $763.7 million sitting in “undesignated” reserve accounts, according to data obtained by FITS. That [...]
