SC Education Funding


SC’s Epic Academic Failure Gets Even Worse

epic fail sc public schools

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

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SC Public Schools: Shockingly Inadequate

classroom

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

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No Green Ribbon? Good …

green ribbon

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

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John Courson: Still Spinning Failure

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

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One Vote Could Sink SC Educrats’ Exploitation

educrats lobbying

We hear excuses every day from status quo backers in Columbia as to why South Carolina's public education system is so atrocious. It's poverty, they say. Or racism. Or insufficient funding. Or it's the fault of parents. Then there's our favorite excuse - that the ongoing debate over parental choice

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SC Educrats Blaming Parents For Failure

pointing fingers

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

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SC Business Ranking Plunges

south carolina business ranking

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"

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SC: Where One Size (Still) Fits All

parental choice vote

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

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SC Educrats: Gotta Get That Money

cash

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

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SC Graduation Rate Drops … Again

sc graduation rate down 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

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SC Public Schools Still Hoarding Cash

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

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Good Proviso, Bad Proviso

sc budget proviso

In the ongoing debate over state spending in South Carolina, there's a new bad guy ... the "proviso." What's a proviso, you ask? Technically, provisos are spending instructions that lawmakers compile into a separate section of the state budget each year. Hundreds of them are written annually,

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