ABSENT SPECIFIC REFORMS, GOVERNOR WANTS TO “START A CONVERSATION”
Two years into her administration S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley has finally decided to address the state of South Carolina’s chronic academic underachievement – which continues to serve as a drag on job growth and income levels in the notoriously poor Palmetto State.
Unfortunately the governor didn’t offer up [...]
Two Years In, Nikki Haley Finally “Addresses” SC Academic Woes
Greenville SC Public School Reserve Account Swells
Each year, FITS publishes a complete, district-by-district accounting of the hundreds of millions of dollars that our so-called “cash-strapped” public schools are hoarding away in reserve accounts.
In fact, up to this point we’ve been the only media outlet in the state providing taxpayers with this information …
According to 2010 data, South Carolina’s 85 public school [...]
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 [...]
Spartanburg Six: Destined For Defeat?
Scrolling through Sunday’s editions of The Spartanburg Herald-Journal did our hearts good.
Why? Because several weeks after a group of Spartanburg county “Republicans” chose to put the financial interests of our state’s failed status quo above the academic interests of South Carolina school children, the pressure they are facing over this deplorable vote isn’t relenting.
If anything, [...]
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 [...]
Parental Choice: SC House Committee’s Turn
Weeks after a quartet of “Republicans in Name Only” in the S.C. Senate shot down a desperately-needed universal parental choice bill, members of a S.C. House of Representatives committee will get their chance to weigh in on the legislation.
South Carolina Tea Party leaders are already rallying in support of the bill … which would provide [...]
Parental Choice Advancing In Oklahoma, Indiana
While South Carolina lawmakers continue to throw more taxpayer money at the nation’s worst public school system, other states are moving forward with solutions that will actually increase academic achievement.
On Tuesday, the Oklahoma House of Representatives passed the “Equal Opportunity Education Scholarship Act,” legislation which provides partial tax credits to individuals and businesses that donate [...]
Supporters Press SC Senate On Choice
S.C. Tea Party members and supporters of expanded parental choice packed a legislative conference room in downtown Columbia, S.C. on Wednesday.
Their objective? To support universal school choice legislation that would raise academic achievement and provide real market-based accountability within our state’s worst-in-the-nation public education system.
Unfortunately, their show of support wasn’t enough as a “Republican-controlled” education [...]
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 Public School Reserve Accounts: Still Swollen
By FITSNews || As the longest, deepest economic recession in eight decades continues to drive unemployment up and income levels down in South Carolina, the state’s worst-in-the-nation public school system is still holding onto hundreds of millions of dollars in reserve funds.
This despite record funding increases.
According to data obtained by FITS, South Carolina’s eighty-five school [...]
How Much Is SC Spending On Education?
By FITSNews || South Carolina’s public schools are spending a record $8.4 billion – or more than $12,000 per pupil – this year.
Or are they?
That figure comes our way from the S.C. Budget and Control Board’s Office of Research and Statistics, and it’s the amount we’ve been using in our coverage here on FITS, including [...]
