S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley is contemplating yet another radical reversal of her 2010 campaign platform. In fact the first-term “Republican” is reportedly on the verge of embracing a central plank of her former Democratic rival’s gubernatorial campaign.
According to Democratic and Republican sources familiar with Haley’s thinking, the governor is mulling a costly flip-flop of her 2010 position on government-subsidized four-year-old Kindergarten. Assuming Haley winds up supporting such a plan, she would be adopting one of the core campaign proposals of her “hopelessly liberal” 2010 opponent, S.C. Sen. Vincent Sheheen (D-Camden).
She would also be abandoning her long-held view that taxpayers should not subsidize such an expense.
In 2010, Haley said South Carolina taxpayers couldn’t afford to subsidize a four-year-old Kindergarten program. Instead she vowed to assemble a faith-based coalition to address the issue of early childhood education.
“What I will do is get a huge faith-based coalition together from all over the state and develop a community project, which is preschool programs, afterschool programs, job shadowing, mentoring,” she said at the time.
Haley added her plan would “not cost the first dollar.”
Not only has Haley failed to make good on her faith-based coalition promise, she’s now reportedly on the verge of committing the state to a massive expenditure of public resources.
How much would a statewide four-year-old Kindergarten program cost? Well, K-12 education in South Carolina currently costs more than $9 billion a year so you can do the math – we’re easily talking hundreds of millions of dollars in new spending.
Haley hasn’t addressed education in a substantive manner since August of 2010 – when she rolled out a weak campaign platform that lacked a firm commitment to long-overdue parental choice expansion (which she consistently supported during her six years as a state lawmaker). And while the governor has paid lip service to school choice – she hasn’t lifted a finger on its behalf.
After ignoring education related issues during her first two years in office, Haley announced her intention to “start a conversation” about the issue during her 2013 “State of the State” address. Among the names she invited to that “conversation?” Sheheen and fiscally liberal “Republican” Senate leader John Courson – both ardent choice opponents.
It is our hope Haley will think twice before she embraces a massive expansion of our state’s failed education bureaucracy. If there is one thing history has proven conclusively, it’s that government has no business whatsoever trying to run an education system – particularly here in South Carolina.
If her goal is truly the elevation of academic achievement in dumb-as-dirt South Carolina, then Haley needs to start shedding layers of our state’s education monopoly, not adding new layers.
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29 comments
Isn’t she just someone’s puppet?
Nikki Haley is such an idiot. Why would she not fix what education is already there rather than just tacking on another preschool grade???
That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard of. Where is she getting all this money. How much you want to bet it is a federal program and she will be getting federal dollars for it????
Because in states like New Jersey, they attribute a vast improvement in their educational end result to the implementation of their 4-K programs.
She’s doing things that she thinks will make her more appealling as as a national candidate.
Whoever is advising her is F@%^&ing up…moderates have lost and lost again…those Rs (or so-called Rs) going to the middle are done…
Nice picture of Nikki molesting a fouth grader. Looks like the black kid is next. Did she learn that at Dreher?
That’s funny.
Im sure the thousands of private day care owners and their employees will be delighted to learn that a self professed Tea Party candidate and a smaller government “conservative” is getting ready to thrust the State into competition with them for four year olds.
This idiot needs someone around her 24/7 to remind her of what she supposedly believes.
These “private” day cares are already getting a lot of state “subsidies” via First Steps.
I bet it doesn’t even occur to them that they are getting “gifts” from government.
And, we aren’t even covering ABC vouchers.
To hhuuhh: I am in the business, and if you run a decent school, you are know where near those “subsidies”.
Mr. “I’m in the bisiness” …it’s nowhere, not know where. Yes, we have a problem, SC.
You get what you vote for, SC. Thankfully she didn’t win by much…
Actually, I’m glad she did flip flop. Before this she wanted the churches (God forbid) to take care of these rugrats…but she’s been making it up as she goes along anyway.
That picture makes her look like she has a plastic beak!
4K is just taxpayer funded childcare which obviously appeals to some voters. She is pulling all the stops for 2014!
Remind me again, Governor Haley is a Republican, right?
Jesus, just think how much money she could blow out of her fucking ass, if she were a Democrat.
When Howard says jump, she says how high?
Why isn’t Fits reporting Graham’s latest bullshit? I’ll leave it to HoPo and Jon Stewart then.
Studies show 4K helps get students better prepared.
You want to do something to help education? Shut up.
Seriously. It is views like the one held here that are holding SC back. But yeah, let’s continue to NOT offer 4K and watch this state fall further behind. Good idea, genius.
I am for it. Wil is obviously against it, for no other reason than it would cost money.
But it helps. So if you want to improve SC education, shut up your opposition to things that work.
Does that make it more clear?
…. how often does she have to apply the skin lightener?
Will, in this picture she holds children close to her breasts.
She like to do that with you?
… she misses Mikie!
“Because in states like New Jersey, they attribute a vast improvement in their educational end result to the implementation of their 4-K programs.”
New Jersey residents are culturally able (well, Camden etc excepted for demographic reasons) to benefit from 4-K programs. SC isn’t cosmopolitan and it’s culture not suited to change.
Allow school choice to segregate students worth investing in from the hood rats and trailer trash who won’t amount to anything evey if money is showered upon them.
That picture is endearing. People will forget the image of a narcissistic, political sociopath when contrasted with that of a mother concerned about the wellbeing of all the children in South Carolina. Regardless of her intentions, it is good that she is contemplating doing something that would benefit the children of this state by putting them on an equal footing with children from other states. Lord knows the people reading this have probably taken advantage of some benefits offered by the state in their lifetime.
It could be that she was there to tell the kids about her gingerbread house down the dark path through the woods.
Speaking of Queen Namrata:
Has FITS posted the news about some private dick (pardon the pun)posing as one of the Queen’s personal guards and then being discovered that he was just part of the entourage.
Basically being charged for impersonating a law officer is what I heard.
BIG embarrassment so I’ve heard
Someone told me they heard of the incident on PBS radio
True or not???
How much did she pay that guy to pose? Any attention is better than no attention in her world?
This is a great idea. We can afford this program with SC Education Lottery money. Since the children are safe 6-8 hours a day, there is an opportunity for impoverished moms to get a part-time day job. Everyone is a winner!
Expand the Lottery and make it happen. Lottery money is the perfect tax, transferring money from fools to motivated people.
I’ve “won” thousands of Lottery dollars by GOING TO COLLEGE to better myself and be a more effective part of the workforce.