Congratulations, music teacher/band director George Wenger

This weekend, the Spartanburg Herald-Journal reported that two area students, Andrew Fierova and Taylor Peterson, have been selected to attend Juilliard School, a private conservatory for the performing arts, in New York City.Peterson, 18, will enter the freshman class in September, and Fierova, who turns 22 Monday, was admitted to the graduate school.Applicants to this school have a six percent

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Purge at ETV is no surprise, thanks to Haley board

I'm still curious about The State's coverage of the recent purge of 17 employees from South Carolina Educational Television. Writer Gina Smith covered the subject a couple of weeks ago with a slight tone of surprise:ETV may have won its veto war with Gov. Nikki Haley, but it still is losing employees.

Educational Television said Tuesday it is eliminating 15 full-time and two part-time positions

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Congratulations to Darlington Superintendent Rainey Knight

It appears that Darlington's public schools have discovered and are using some effective strategies to reduce its high school dropout rate. The question for the rest of us is, What is Darlington -- and Superintendent Rainey Knight -- doing that can be replicated elsewhere?The Darlington County School District lowered its high school dropout rate by 0.2 percentage points in 2009 – 2010 from 1.4

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Congratulations to technology grant winners

Congratulations are in order for seven school districts:Seven South Carolina school districts are sharing $1.3 million in federal technology grants.

The state education department's Office of eLearning said Tuesday the seven winners are receiving between $120,000 and $240,000 each.

The districts are Bamberg 1, Colleton County, Dillon 3, Dillon 4, Horry County, Lexington 2, and Marion 7.

The

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Educators opposed Haley Public Employment Tax

After writing last night about the Haley Public Employment Tax -- the 4.5 percent tax levied by the Budget and Control Board last week against all public employees in the form of an unnecessary health insurance premium increase -- I learned this morning that representatives of one educator organization -- but only one -- was present and "opposed the increase in the strongest terms."

The South

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Teachers facing uphill battles as school year begins

National Public Radio did a service last week by highlighting the mood of teachers as they return to the classroom this month. And thank goodness for NPR; when was the last time your local newspaper surveyed the mood of teachers, asked them to comment on what's happening to them, published much more than a political cartoon at their expense?As students prepare to begin another school year, their

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'Haley Public Employment Tax' levied on public employees

From the beginning of her political career -- seems like only months ago -- Governor Nikki Haley has made it clear that she thinks taxes are too high and should be cut.

Which made it stunning news last week to hear that she had initiated, supported and led passage of a brand-new tax on public employees. Apparently, some taxes are good and fine, depending on who is subject to pay them.

This is a

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Wilkerson, Morrison discuss migration and civil rights

The Riley Institute and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Furman University hosted a fascinating discussion on equality and civil rights on Tuesday, the last of a four-part summer series there. Furman President Rod Smolla opened the evening with a great presentation on civil rights in contemporary America, seen through the lens of recent Supreme Court rulings and arguments on affirmative

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Wake County, NC, offers a lesson to South Carolinians

A friend sent a link to this short film about what's happened to the Wake County Public Schools system in Raleigh, North Carolina. The Wake system has built a reputation for school quality with a deep and abiding focus on inclusivity and socioeconomic integration as part of its district assignment policies. But that has changed in the last two years, as a political organization has inserted

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Schools to be used as cultural battlefields all over again

Silly season is definitely here now. Slate magazine has posted an item on the significance of Michele Bachmann's rise in political power, and it has a lot to do with public education. Naturally, this means that educators should pay attention, if they're not already. If you wade through the political stuff, you'll find in the Slate article a number of issues that raise important and scary

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Public schools are no budget priority in South Carolina

I appreciate reading Bill Davis's columns in Statehouse Report, as they're usually quite cogent and pertinent analyses of the state's unncessary misfortunes. His item in the August 5 edition was no different, titled "State avoids fully funding education."Comprehensive and sensible public education reform could benefit, or be the victim of, competing political agendas in the days ahead.

South

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Record scholarships defy state's NCLB ratings

I noticed an odd juxtaposition of facts earlier this month when news came that all but one of South Carolina's school districts failed to meet federal adequate yearly progress goals.

By one measure, South Carolina's public schools have failed, failed, failed their students. By another measure, South Carolina's schools have surpassed their students' wildest dreams, meeting and exceeding their

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Santorum: Early childhood education is "fascism"

I did not know much about Rick Santorum before I Googled his name, but now I know too much about Santorum -- more than I wanted to know.

I Googled his name because he used a visit to South Carolina in May to make disparaging remarks about early childhood education.Rick Santorum, a possible candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, even raised the specter of Benito Mussolini's Fascist

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Spartanburg 1 honors retiring educators

This is a good and decent thing to do.

Administrators across the state, especially those pushing their most veteran educators out of the classroom as cost-saving strategy, would do well for themselves and their school communities to give due honor and recognition to men and women who have devoted their careers -- the prime years of their lives, in abundance -- to the education of other people's

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Intelligence plus character, the goal of true education

As schools re-open for classes across the state, it's a good time to recall what some of our wiser thinkers have said and written about education and its purposes. This item was published by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr in 1947, in the Morehouse College student newspaper, the Maroon Tiger.As I engage in the so-called "bull sessions" around and about the school, I too often find that most college men

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S.C. Policy Council eschews schools, promotes online education

In the world imagined by the good folks at the South Carolina Policy Council, public education in South Carolina's future will be double-plus-good, without all the trouble of teachers and schools. In the coming world, education will be a matter of turning on your viewscreen and following instructions.

This pleasant, almost anesthetic, note was published by the Charleston Post and Courier a

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Public education is nowhere to be found in this chart

Notice that spending on public education has not added to the national debt.


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Public education is always at the top of this list

Notice what gets proposed for cuts first when the economy falters.


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Midlands schools open, many veteran educators gone

The State published an item on Sunday that carried an aroma of relief, though it noted that the relief isn't felt by everyone.As Midlands public schools open this week, the disaster scenarios that swirled during debates over the state budget have given way to a slightly rosier outlook. Still, most districts are opening schoolhouse doors with fewer teachers, a situation that commenced with the

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Did Spartanburg 5 students get their textbooks from Zais?

When was the last time you heard of the state's chief advocate for public education declaring that a school district had no need for textbooks in one subject, and that students in that district should study another subject instead? For example, students deprived of biology textbooks by their state Department of Education should take physical science instead, and be happy with it?

Technically

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Students in Chile demand access to high quality education

Is it conceivable that one day, in another generation or two, Columbia's Main Street could be filled with demonstrators demanding that South Carolina's students be given the same quality of education that Chilean students receive?Student protesters who have snarled Chile's universities and high schools with weeks of strikes and demonstrations called Monday for a national referendum on their

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Mizell: Educators want useful, high-quality professional development

From education researcher Hayes Mizell:

When educators enter a new professional learning experience, what are they thinking? Many teachers and administrators participate in professional development they did not seek or plan. They come to the experience with a variety of thoughts and feelings that influence the extent to which they will benefit. Most educators don't articulate what they are

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Haley shines in bright yellow at photo op; children still suffer

When too few people were aware that Governor Nikki Haley had signed a law eliminating sales taxes on second homes, Haley leaped into action: She dressed in bright yellow and traveled to Daniel Island for a ceremonial re-signing of the bill in front of cameras. Thanks to her quick thinking and bold leadership, more people now know that she signed this bill into law. The Charleston Post and Courier

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Four-year-old L.B. Moran of Beaufort awaits his answer

According to yesterday's edition of The State newspaper, anyone visiting the state Department of Education can pick up a copy of a letter that Su-Pretendent Mick Zais sent to the U.S. Department of Education regarding his refusal of its $144 million in federal funding to pay for educators' jobs in our state. That letter, according to the article, includes this line -- "underlined and in bold type

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Are South Carolina's wealthy more selfish than the rest?

This note is not about Nikki Haley or Mick Zais -- in the strictest sense of the words, anyway -- but it may be about their campaign contributors.

Reporter Brian Alexander, writing at MSNBC online, describes a recent series of studies that reveal significant findings about the wealthy members of our communities.Psychologist and social scientist Dacher Keltner says the rich really are different,

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Deadline passes; Zais, Haley agree on destruction of public schools

Albert Einstein was one sharp cookie cutter. Without ever visiting South Carolina or meeting General Mick Zais, Einstein once said, "The world has become a dangerous place to live in, not because of some evil men, but because of the many that do not do anything about it."

It is very sad that Zais, Her Excellency Nikki Haley and others are so intent on leaving their mark on South Carolina that

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South Carolina accepts $125M in federal funding -- for sand

If anyone still labors under the misimpression that South Carolina has a state Superintendent of Education, their delusion shall have no leg to support it past midnight tonight, the deadline for General Mick Zais to request our waiver for $144 million in federal funds -- South Carolinians' own tax money, set aside by Congress for South Carolinians to spend on saving teachers' jobs.

Zais,

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'Abysmal' conditions finally addressed in Charleston Head Start

Apparently, while our esteemed decision-makers in Columbia were trying to decide how much of our treasury should be offered to corporate interests in the form of tax breaks, and while our governor was doing her part by vetoing funding for public education, the littlest children of Charleston were attending "abysmal" Head Start facilities.

And the vote by Charleston's city leaders to spend the

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Do you know an educator like this one?

This item was published last month in the Washington Post about a young principal who is leaving his job -- even leaving his profession -- and talking about why. It's significant not because what he says is outlandish, but because he's saying it.

Most people who leave a toxic environment don't talk about their reasons for fear of reprisals, or to avoid the accusations of sour grapes, or out of a

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Budget cuts have classroom consequences

August is just around the corner, which means two things: classroom educators are down to counting the days and hours, and parents are down to counting their nickels and pennies. In other states, classrooms will be stocked with school supplies when teachers and student return; not here in South Carolina.

Here, among the smiling faces and beautiful places, teachers and children are on their own,

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Foster leaves Department of Education for Beaufort

The Island Packet reported the news yesterday that Jim Foster, the veteran public information officer for the state Department of Education, will become the new director of school and community services for Beaufort County's school system.

Two reactions crowd the mind.

First, this is great news for Beaufort County's schools, children and parents, and especially for Superintendent Valerie

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Problem: Education is rooted in industrial thinking

If you enjoyed Daniel Pink's presentation to RSA Animate, you'll love this one too. Author and social theorist Sir Ken Robinson delivered a lecture to the same group on education and changing the paradigms by which education in America is formulated and delivered.



What a terrific summary. You can thank me later; just forward this link to the smartest people in your email address book --

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Autonomy, mastery, purpose -- not performance pay

Interested in knowing what studies show about performance pay schemes when they're implemented among professionals?

The folks at RSA Animate invited social theorist Daniel Pink, author of "Drive," to speak to them some months ago. A fascinating 10-minute version of Pink's lecture is available online, in a format that educators will love.



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'Teach for A While' makes a mint from philanthropists

Speaking of Teach for America -- or, as I call it, Teach for A While -- Washington Post education reporter Valerie Strauss highlights a study from the University of Georgia in today's edition. The study looked at where the big billionaire foundations funding so-called education reform spent their money during the past fiscal year.

Guess who collected the most?One organization was the big winner

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Sumter group collects school supplies for needy children

If you live in or near Sumter and can help out, please do.A Sumter group is kicking off its annual effort to collect school supplies for children in need.

The Item of Sumter reports that United Ministries of Sumter is starting to collect items including book bags, glue sticks and binders on Monday.

The group says it hopes to pack 1,800 book bags full of supplies for kids in need this week and

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Foolish law harms some, helps others in Dorchester 2

This article from the Summerville Journal Scene tells the story, but the root of the problem is asinine. Bottom line: If you've never taught in Dorchester District 2 and you want to teach there, now's the time to apply.Dorchester District 2 is facing the challenge of finding and hiring up to 25 high school teachers by the time school starts in mid August.

The district learned it would receive an

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Barkan on "the grand coalition against teachers"

Researcher Joanne Barkan has published a powerful and important new study, found in a recent edition of Dissent magazine, on the influences brought to bear on public education during the past generation and, specifically, the massive, well-funded and coordinated attack on America's education professionals.

In her own words, her study investigatesthe fix-the-teachers campaign of today’s “

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Haley to college students, seasonal workers: Get a job

Irony: A woman who couldn't explain what, exactly, she did part-time for a consulting firm and a hospital, gets elected governor of a state whose chief industries are tourism and agriculture, and she quickly moves to block a policy that pays unemployment benefits to seasonal workers and college students when their tourist- and agricultural-season jobs come to an end. Seven months after taking

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Orangeburg 4 buys food service software, cuts food service workers

To laugh, or to cry?

Children in Orangeburg District 4 may get healthier meals this year, thanks to the board's decision to purchase "new food service management software program that will enable food service managers to meet requirements set by the Healthy, Hunger-Free Child Act of 2010."

But because of the bad economy, they'll have fewer food service workers to prepare and serve their food.

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Other states' retirees are welcome, but not our own, in Horry

We've all heard that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

That's what came to mind after reading an item in the Myrtle Beach Sun-News about a new policy to purge the Horry County School District's central office of its at-will employees. Maybe the intention is noble -- the superintendent says the move will open up advancement opportunities for others -- but something smells very bad

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Are Annie McDaniels's questions inappropriate?

When I read that a school board member can't get questions answered -- questions about public information, about how public dollars are being spent, about public policy, about implementation of plans -- I worry about the professionalism of that board, and the health and well-being of the school district it governs.

This is the case in Fairfield County, as reported by the Herald Independent last

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Haley's "less talk, more jobs" platform abandoned

A year ago, we all saw the signs. "Less talk, more jobs," read then-Rep. Nikki Haley's campaign signs.

Last week, our unemployment rate bounced back up to 10.5 percent. The Spartanburg Herald-Journal's headline called it the "highest increase in the nation."

So, at what point do we get to officially declare the Haley jobs agenda a bust?

For public employees, anyway, that moment is upon

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Debunking the "overpaid teachers" meme

This is just delightful, and whoever thought to write this should get an Emmy or something equivalent. Don't drink anything while reading this article; it's hard to mop up coffee or Coke from your keyboard and off your screen.Teachers’ hefty salaries are driving up taxes, and they only work 9 or 10 months a year! It’s time we put things in perspective and pay them for what they do – babysit!

We

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Haley contradicts herself on education superintendency

Remember this date: July 22, 2011.

On this date, The State newspaper published this statement by Governor Nikki Haley:"Anything that empowers the voters, I’m always going to support,” said Haley, speaking to reporters after announcing a $14 million business investment in Bamberg County. “At the end of the day, it’s the people we want to be satisfied with who they had.”To be clear, let's examine

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Does this sound like teachers in your community?

As part of an occasional series, CNN published today an item on a teacher from Florida who is choosing to leave the classroom, and her reasons for it.This is Linda DeRegnaucourt's last summer off. When school starts in August, it will be her last year to think about high school classes, advanced placement tests and calculus.

If all goes as planned, this will be her last year teaching at Palm Bay

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Beaufort parents don't want local schools closed

Four Beaufort parents told their school board last night that closing their local schools would hurt their children, and they opposed the proposed closure plan. It would seem that in the discussion of consolidation, parents should be consulted.Susanne Baisch, a school-improvement council member at Port Royal Elementary, said the proposal would send her daughter to Port Royal for third grade, to

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Brooks to state: Stop posturing, do what's best for children

A note published by the Florence Morning News on Sunday discussed the issue of school consolidation, but it contained a nugget of wisdom voiced almost in frustration by Florence 1 Superintendent Allie Brooks.

Brooks told the Morning News that "consolidating districts to save money should be studied before action is taken because variables change from community to community."“We have to be

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Noble: Stubborn South Carolina could learn from Ireland

Speaking of planning ahead to discuss necessary changes to South Carolina's reality, Charleston businessman Phil Noble has some suggestions. Writing in the Free Times, Noble laments the recent federal report on states' economic growth rates during the past decade, and its evidence that our economy has grown at more than one-third below the national average.

South Carolina, dragging in at well

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What is South Carolina's story?

Yesterday, I posted a note about an unfortunate letter written by a Charlestonian and published in Andy Brack's Statehouse Report. While the correspondent proposed sweeping the seamier facts and figures reflecting South Carolina's reality under the old rug, I suggested that we might be more authentic if we addressed those bad outcomes and changed our ways to make future reports better.

Brack

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Kristof: Cuts mean 'education isn't for other people's children'

Columnist Nicholas Kristof published a great column in Sunday's New York Times:YAMHILL, Ore.--THE United States supports schools in Afghanistan because we know that education is one of the cheapest and most effective ways to build a country.

Alas, we've forgotten that lesson at home. All across America, school budgets are being cut, teachers laid off and education programs dismantled.

My

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Governor, welcome to educators' worlds

Governor Nikki Haley is the victim, she says, of a hostile media. All together now: Awwww.

If there's a victim here, besides South Carolina's working class and unemployed, it's Commerce Secretary Bobby Hitt, who was sent by Haley to take the blame, issue symbolic mea culpas, and invite the bus to back over him.Gov. Nikki Haley’s Commerce Department chief took the blame Tuesday for providing

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Disproportionate poor not to blame for South Carolina's ills

Readers of Andy Brack's Statehouse Report will recognize below a letter to the editor published in the most recent edition of that newsletter. (Those who do not subscribe are encouraged to do so.)

Since the young man signed his letter, it's revealing no secret to repost that information here:To Statehouse Report:

I took note of your recent post ["The numbers tell a story of challenges," 6/25]

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Business marches to take over public education

"It's all about the money, boys."

Thanks to intrepid readers for suggesting this note, titled "Business moves to center of school policy debate," from Stateline.org, the news website published by the Pew Center on the States. The crux of the article is found in this ominous segment:Similar efforts are taking place in many states. At a time when cuts in K-12 funding are going straight to

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Brown reports on session, thanks teachers for calling

In an column published in the Herald Independent, Rep. Boyd Brown offers his perspectives on Governor Nikki Haley's recent vetoes of funding for public schools, South Carolina Educational Television and other state services, as well as his thoughts on the "privilege" of voting to override those vetoes.Also in the time since my last Update, the Governor vetoed 34 items in the state budget,

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Anderson trustees will discuss finances, construction tonight

Anderson District 5 has elected to use the additional school funds approved by the General Assembly last month -- funds vetoed by Governor Nikki Haley, but rescued by lawmakers who voted to override her vetoes -- to award step increases to most school district employees. The funding amounted to an extra $92 per student, bringing the total per-pupil appropriation up from an earlier $1,788 to

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Congratulations to scholarship winners, other achievers

More news of great things happening every day in South Carolina's public schools:Charleston County School District students earned a record-setting amount of scholarships this past year with $47.9 million. The district's scholarship total grew $1.7 million from last year, and this year's total is a more than $10 million increase from the district total in 2007, the district said Wednesday.

The

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Globetrotter brings encouragement to Florence students

It's nice when people who draw public attention use their fame in constructive ways. Archie Talley of the Harlem Globetrotters is one example, but so much more could be accomplished if celebrities of greater wattage made South Carolina a publicity magnet as they have for New Orleans.A former Harlem Globetrotter met with youth June 23 at Southside Middle School in Florence to speak with students

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Retired teachers & others hurt by high costs

In case anyone needed a reason for why we all must guard zealously the hard-won retirement benefits earned by educators and other public employees, this is a good one. The retired teacher mentioned in this editorial, titled "The New Dark Ages" in the Herald Independent, isn't named; I wish she were, so that we might direct more attention her way.

But her mention reminds us all to pay attention

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Student questions teacher on Haley jobs ploy

Student says to his teacher at the end of the first day of school: "Since the kid who sat in my desk last year made A's on his tests, and since I'm going to make A's on all my tests this year, would you go ahead now and give me an A for the course?"

Teacher replies: "I'm sorry, but this is the first day of school. The grade that was earned by the student who sat in your desk was his grade, not

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Do you know where your governor is?

In many professional offices across the state, one finds some variation of a bulletin board that tells the visitor which staff members are present at the moment. Some offices use a magnetic whiteboard, with little magnetic dots in the appropriate boxes: "In," "Out," "Be Right Back," "Gone for the Day."

Because Governor Nikki Haley has not issued an open invitation to the state's educators to

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Stress catches up to South Carolinians

The recent news about South Carolina's eighth-place ranking among the states for obesity wasn't surprising. Thanks to artificially suppressed wages throughout state history, our working class and chronic poor have never been encouraged to maintain healthy diets; remember, the three M's of the old farmhands' and millworkers' diets were meat, molasses and meal. It's no shock that generations of

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Judge J. Waties Waring re-directed South Carolina history

Martin Luther King Jr in 1967, channeling the sentiment of Theodore Parker's writing of 1853, told the 11th annual Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Atlanta, "...the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice."

If judges, whose main interest is justice, affect the course of that arc, few of South Carolina's judges had greater impact on it -- or on state history --

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Kelly: State leaders need education

From Bluffton Today comes this great column by Barbara Kelly:When Gov. Nikki Haley visited Hilton Head Island, she made a statement that she and Mick Zais would be spending the summer revamping South Carolina’s education system and the way in which it is funded. Or not funded, as she has shown recently.

Before they do that, I have a very important suggestion for them. In order to change

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Will Charleston lose $1,000,000 for teacher evaluation?

If Charleston loses this million dollars, where does it go? Where has it been sitting for the past year?Charleston County School Superintendent Nancy McGinley and former state Superintendent of Education Jim Rex struck a deal more than a year ago to work together and develop a new teacher evaluation system that would be based in part on how well their students perform.

But their agreement led to

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Haley flew to New York fundraiser after issuing school funding vetoes

Intrepid reporters at The State newspaper have uncovered part of Governor Nikki Haley's itinerary in New York City, no thanks to Haley's office help. "Haley left Columbia the evening of June 29, according to her spokesman, on a flight paid for by the Republican Governors Association," the newspaper announced this week.

To get to this scrap of information, reporters discovered donations totaling

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Orangeburg trustees learn from national conference

Thank goodness that parents and citizens in Orangeburg 5 support having their school trustees hear points-of-view from other school leaders from across the nation, and building relationships with these leaders across our state borders. Isolationist tendencies helped the ruling elite of South Carolina to keep our state and its educational system stunted for generations -- the better to keep us

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Darlington adopts fair-minded incentive rewards plan

This is one of the more fair-minded ways of administering "pay-for-test-scores" that has come around recently. It doesn't pit teacher against teacher as a lot of "merit pay" proposals do. And it recognizes that everyone in a school community contributes to children's education, so education support staff and others are eligible for the bonuses.The Darlington County Board of Education approved a

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Hypocrisy defined, denied by Haley on ETV services

In her January address to the General Assembly, Governor Nikki Haley described her desire to effectively privatize South Carolina Educational Television. When the opportunity arose, she sacked the whole SCETV Board of Directors and replaced it with a new board of her acolytes, without regard to experience or knowledge of ETV's mission, history and services. Later in the legislative session, she

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What vetoes? Haley threatens focus on education next year

Classroom teachers will recognize this behavior: Student ignores effective instruction for a semester, performs poorly on occasional tests and blows off the final exam entirely, earning a failing grade. When the class resumes for the second semester, the student pretends nothing was wrong, that despite the albatross of a failing grade weighing down her prospects, she will continue last semester's

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George Carlin pegged the problem in 2005

A clip from the late George Carlin's 2005 HBO performance of "Life Is Worth Losing" has been making the internet rounds in recent weeks, as more information comes to light about corporate interests' influence over America's (and South Carolina's) political systems, and everything else.

Carlin was Carlin, which means the video clip includes a share of salty language. But his underlying points are

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Post & Courier to Zais: It's our money, too

Can't improve on this, from the editors of the Post & Courier in Charleston.In refusing to pursue special federal funds to help the state's struggling public schools, State Superintendent of Education Mick Zais purports to be taking the high ground, and not kowtowing to Washington.

But passing up the chance to receive more than $144 million in school dollars to keep teachers from being

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Oconee's Lucas illustrates transparency with weblog

Governor Nikki Haley made "transparency" a buzzword in last year's gubernatorial campaign. She hasn't found it imperative to exercise a lot of it since ascending to the first floor of the Capitol -- yes, it is a literal descent from her former perch on the second floor, but I suggest she and her acolytes would call it an ascent to the governor's throne in her first-floor warren -- and that hasn't

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Breathe deep the summer breeze; 2011-2012 comes next month

Summer doesn't end until September 21, but summer break expires in less than a month's time, educators. Don't look now, but for those on traditional school calendars, the start of the 2011-2012 school year is now mere days away.

This note from the Times and Democrat in Orangeburg comes like ice-water to sunburnt cheeks:Edisto High School will hold a Freshman Camp again this year for rising

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Lawmakers disappointed in session, point to Haley

In a session-end wrap-up published by the Times and Democrat of Orangeburg, Sen. Brad Hutto noted that the General Assembly this year wasted a lot of time on "non-issues" rather than the issues that mattered to South Carolinians."We wasted a long time with non-issues, like voter ID and illegal immigration," Hutto said. "We needed to focus on the jobs situation and health care.Rep. Jerry Govan

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More local fallout, comment on Haley vetoes

Not all of the state's newspapers have correspondents in Columbia to cover the State House -- unfortunately -- so many papers opt to wait for lawmakers to come home and brief the 'lectorate before tackling some of the big issues of the past week or two. Such is the case with Governor Nikki Haley's vetoes and the legislature's quick disposals of them.

Sen. John Matthews told the Times and

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Zais focuses on presidential politics rather than schools

I have to believe that May was an extraordinarily slow month for Superintendent of Education Mick Zais.

After initiating a 50-person purge that would play out over the next several weeks; and after scrambling to keep certain federal funds for special education; and after deciding absolutely not to ask for other federal funds to which South Carolina's public schoolchildren are entitled; and after

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Aiken delegation sends mixed signals to school board

Aiken County residents rejoiced last Wednesday when members of its legislative delegation voted to override Governor Nikki Haley's vetoes of funding for public schools. The county stood to gain $2 million in increased per-pupil expenditures.

But the celebration ended Thursday when the school board received a letter from the delegation.Then on Thursday, the five Aiken delegation Republican House

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State's business ranking falls with neglect of education

What do Georgia and North Carolina have in common?

Both are known for supporting their public school systems -- North Carolina makes it a high priority in the budget process, and Georgia crafted its lottery laws specifically to support public education -- and both rank in the top five states attracting business investment.

Maybe this will get Governor Nikki Haley's attention. Do you think

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Purge at DOE concerns education leaders

News that Superintendent Mick Zais has initiated a purge of staff members at the Department of Education has left state education leaders concerned about the loss of programs and services, not to mention the loss of more jobs.Superintendent of Education Mick Zais, the first Republican to hold the post since 1998, is evaluating and overhauling the department and consolidating two of its five

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Augusta B. Baker honored with endowed chair at USC

This is an honor well-deserved.

Those who taught young children in the 1960s, or who were raising young children during that time, will likely recall a five-volume children's literature collection called the Young Years Library, first published by Parents Magazine in 1963 and re-published annually for the next several years. The set was a treasure of nursery rhymes, poetry, fairy tales and folk

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Purge of DOE employees recalls Ferguson doctrine

Very few people today may recall Homer L. Ferguson of Waynesville, North Carolina, but Ferguson was once a big wheel on the right end of America's political spectrum.

A few more people are familiar with Howard Phillips, who founded Young Americans for Freedom, a right-wing group that organized and trained college students in the 1960s.

Ferguson and Phillips, though they were not contemporaries,

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Paris, Munich, New York, and New Delhi is next

In the past month, Governor Nikki Haley has indulged her professed love of travel by visiting Munich, Paris and New York City. This fall, she's headed to India.

The trip to New York took some by surprise, as Her Excellency demanded -- by way of an executive order -- that the General Assembly ignore the sine die joint resolution it adopted in early June and return to Columbia until its work -- as

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Zais purges 50 from the Department of Education

Google the word "purge" and you may find a definition that looks like this: "In history and political science, to purge is to remove people considered by the group in power to be 'undesirable' from a government, political party, a profession, or from community or society as a whole, often by violent means. Restoration of people from a purge is known as rehabilitation."

Ask for examples of purges

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Loftis promotes financial literacy to Easley 4th graders

If there's one place in South Carolina where lawmakers often seem afraid to go, it's a public school classroom. And who can blame them? After all, our lawmakers alone have the power to make public education a high priority in our state budget, which they don't; and they alone have the power to raise the money necessary to adequately fund the needs of public schools, which they don't.

And it's

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Did you know North Carolina's parks are free to attend?

One more example of South Carolina's lawmakers being penny-wise and pound-foolish.

The Sun-News of Myrtle Beach took note of North Carolina's General Assembly cutting appropriations for its state parks system this year. It's not a shock; the economy is bad everywhere, and the Old North State's legislature began to to resemble our own after last November's election.North Carolina's state parks

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Congratulations to Marlboro County High's character

Good news at Marlboro County High School, recipient of its fifth "Promising Practice Character Education Award" for a program designed to help students in their communities.The program, Bringing Rigorous Instruction, Determination, Guidance to Everyone, or BRIDGE, is a catalyst program for Marlboro County to reach out to at-risk students and help them develop life skills.

The BRIDGE program

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South Florence High wins Home Depot Foundation grant

Good for South Florence High School and its Navy JROTC cadets, who have just won a $1,500 grant from the Hope Depot Foundation's annual Community Impact Grant program.

And good for Home Depot -- known for being a conscientious employer as well as a great community partner -- for supporting students at South Florence High. It comes as welcome news to that county and its communities this

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Darlington County recognizes custodial staffs at two schools

This is an especially rewarding note: How often do you hear of a school district celebrating its education support personnel? Say the word 'educator' and what automatically comes to mind are classroom teachers and their administrators. But without education support personnel, our schools might not operate at all.

Consider: Bus drivers rise early to drive children to and from schools.

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The New York Times serves Haley its Sunday-best

The New York Times published a fluffy profile on Governor Nikki Haley in Sunday's edition, not a real, true profile but a fluffy one -- one that incorporated as much air as a souffle, as much sugar as meringue, as much pomp as Sunday dinner-on-the-grounds. It had the substance and heft of the local Panda Garden's chicken chow mein, meaning that a half-hour after reading it, I was hungry again. So

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Sumter trustees adopt good news/bad news budget

The good news for teachers in Sumter is that the board of trustees has adopted its budget for 2011-2012.

The bad news is that Sumter teachers won't see a pay increase this year, won't get checks for classroom supplies, and will be deprived of four days' salary thanks to furlough days. Administrators in the district will take eight furlough days.

The whole story is available at the Sumter Item,

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McCracken's Creason named state's resource officer of the year

Congratulations to Cpl. Michael Creason of the Bluffton Police Department on being named South Carolina's School Resource Officer of the Year. Creason is SRO at H.E. McCracken Middle School in Bluffton, and had previously been named Region 4 Lower State SRO of the Year. The honor is given for "excellence in school-based policing and safety," according to a Bluffton Police Department press release

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Remembering a career educator in Orangeburg today

Men and women who give their active lives to careers in education should all be remembered as fondly as Ms. Maggie Whaley Rickenbacker of Orangeburg, whose life was remembered today in that city.

The Orangeburg Times and Democrat offers the poignant obituary of an educator from tiny Jamison, produced by the public schools of her community during a harsh part of the twentieth century in our state

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Editors praise literacy gains by Charleston's educators

On the upside, in a note published in yesterday's Post and Courier of Charleston, editors praised the work being done by Charleston's classroom educators to improve literacy in the area. On the downside, the editors didn't actually bring themselves to mention that Charleston's classroom educators were doing the work. An otherwise terrific editorial rings tinny for that deficiency.

The editors

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Where do children rank among state budget priorities?

This is not a trick question: Of these three states -- South Carolina, Alabama or Kentucky -- which values the lives of its children most?

I'll give you a hint: The answer isn't South Carolina.

In fact, South Carolina won't even take second place out of the three options, given the choices made by our lawmakers in recent years.

This week, the General Assembly voted to override Governor Nikki

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Haley's vetoes, legislative debate earn NPR coverage

South Carolina earned more coverage by the national media this week. As usual, it wasn't for the sweet succulence of our peaches.

Hosts of the syndicated "Marketplace" on National Public Radio reported on Thursday that the legislature of Texas "hacked off $4 billion from the education budget" earlier this week. "In South Carolina though, there's a different problem: what to do with all their

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Anderson editors: Haley is "short-sighted and politically motivated"

The editors of the Anderson Independent Mail called Thursday's showdown in the legislature "high noon in Columbia." Their editorial in yesterday's edition spells out their amazement at the governor's contempt toward, and disregard of, the educational services provided by the state's public schools and South Carolina Educational Television.

And in no small measure, the editors were clearly

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This Independence Day, teach a child in South Carolina

And thank your child's teachers.

“If the children are untaught, their ignorance and vices will in future life cost us much dearer in their consequences than it would have done in their correction by a good education.”
Thomas Jefferson

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Haley makes heroes of local lawmakers

Following in former Governor Mark Sanford's footsteps, Governor Nikki Haley has accomplished a tricky feat: She has made heroes of local lawmakers across South Carolina who voted to override her vetoes.

Today's edition of the Aiken Standard offers one example of the phenomenon:On Tuesday, S.C. Rep. Roland Smith, R-Warrenville, said he couldn't predict how the House members would react to 34

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Will Haley's book feature a chapter on veto overrides?

Really, a book?

Her Excellency, Governor Nikki Haley, has been in office slightly more than five months.

In that time, she has booted the state university's largest benefactor in history from the board of trustees and replaced her with a campaign contributor. See Moore, Darla.
She fired the state's popular and effective retirement system director and quickly named a replacement without

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Hicks: Citizens should be serious about preparing youth

If educators didn't know much about then-Rep. Nikki Haley in 2010, they know a lot more about her today. Jackie Hicks, president of The South Carolina Education Association, told the South Carolina Radio Network this week that Haley's vetoes of state education funds didn't "sit well with educators."Of the $213 million dollars in spending that Governor Nikki Haley vetoed in the state budget

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Greenville's Fisher to retire after career serving students

Here's the resume of a ready-made state superintendent of education:

Knowing early in life that she wanted to build a career in public education, she earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in education.

She built her professional career in the classroom, teaching children, between 1969 and 1986.

She became a principal, then an associate superintendent for a growing metropolitan school

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Educators: Zais 'cutting off our nose to spite our face'

Having failed to convince Superintendent Mick Zais and Governor Nikki Haley of the most appropriate course of action, leaders of the state's school boards association and school administrators association are taking their argument to South Carolina's opinion leaders and citizens.

Paul Krohne and Molly Spearman, executive directors of the School Boards Association (SCSBA) and Association of

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Fed school funds bungled by 'lack of coordination'

I'd say it's more than just a lack of coordination that led to the $111 million cut in federal funds that otherwise would flow to South Carolina's schools from Washington. It's a consequence of electing executive officers with no previous electoral experience, no experience in public K-12 education, and no previous knowledge of the funding mechanisms of the federal government. That, plus a

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WSJ: American teachers most productive, work most hours

The only thing surprising about this news is that it was published by the Wall Street Journal, no friend of America's education professionals.

In its "Number of the Week" blog feature, the Journal reported that American teachers spend an average -- an average, mind you -- of 1,097 hours per year on instruction, though the average school year is 36 weeks.American teachers are the most productive

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Senate overrides Haley's veto of school funding

South Carolina's chamber of greater deliberation, the Senate, voted to override Governor Nikki Haley's vetoes of $76 million in public school funding, which will leave the base student cost for 2011-2012 at $1,880 -- still well short of the roughly $2,700 prescribed by the Education Finance Act's annual funding formula, but more than either chamber passed in its original budget plans.

More

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Senate overriding Haley vetoes now

While there's no fuller media reporting of the Senate's specific actions, John O'Connor of The State has tweeted that the Senate voted to override Governor Nikki Haley's veto of $12.4 million in funding to purchase school buses, her vetoes of funding for SCETV, and vetoes of funding for technical schools.

Senators are taking the House's overrides in a different order than did the House, so it

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House sustains Haley's veto of treasurer's funding

Effectively taking sides in the brouhaha between Governor Nikki Haley and Treasurer Curtis Loftis, the House just voted to sustain Haley's veto of funding for the State Treasurer's office to conduct follow-ups to audits. The vote was 18 to 93.

Loftis told media last night, "She chose to take a swipe at me and harm taxpayers. There’s nobody in state government whose job it is to follow up on

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House overrides Haley's veto of Clemson PSA funds

By a vote of 106 to three, the House just voted to override Governor Nikki Haley's veto of funding for Clemson University's Public Services Authority, a program that provides research, educational programs and other services to farmers across South Carolina.

Several members rose to speak against the veto.

Rep. B.R. Skelton told the body, "This veto virtually eliminates the public services

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House overrides Haley's veto of arts commission funds

By a vote of 105 to eight, the House just voted to override Governor Nikki Haley's veto of funding for the South Carolina Arts Commission.

White said Haley vetoed the funding that had been negotiated by House members to move most state funding into a grant program. Up to 70 percent of the funding approved by House members pass through the state commission to local arts commissions.

Rep.

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Charleston LWV supports "high quality" education

South Carolina's educators got a vote of support from the Charleston League of Women Voters this week. On the eve of Governor Nikki Haley's veto rampage, and Superintendent Mick Zais's announcement that he still will not pursue federal funding for public schools, Jane Pulling of the Charleston Area League of Women Voters submitted the following letter to The State, which published it this week:

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House overrides Haley's veto of school bus funding

By vote of 103-6, the House just voted to override Governor Nikki Haley's veto of $12.4 million for the purchase of new school buses.

House Ways and Means Chairman Brian White explained that the state hasn't purchased school buses "in quite a while" and that Superintendent Mick Zais "actually wants to buy new buses." Funding for the buses comes from "out of unclaimed lottery proceeds," he said.

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House overrides Haley's veto of ETV budget

By votes of 111-1, 107-0 and 108-1, the House just voted to override Governor Nikki Haley's veto of funding for South Carolina Educational Television (SCETV). In each case, the only member voting to sustain the veto was Rep. Ralph Norman.

House Speaker Bobby Harrell called upon Rep. Kenny Bingham to speak to the issue. Bingham defended funding for ETV, saying it provides "services that are core

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House overrides Haley veto on presidential primary funds

In a pair of votes, first by a vote of 102 to six, the second by a vote of 100 to seven, the House just voted to override Governor Nikki Haley's vetoes of funding for the State Elections Commission, with House Ways and Means Chairman Brian White explaining that the funding was needed for matters separate from the 2012 Republican presidential primary.


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House overrides Haley's attack on public schools

With all deliberate speed, by a vote of 97 to eight, the South Carolina House just addressed and voted to override Governor Nikki Haley's veto of $56 million to be applied to the base student cost in 2011-2012. Those voting to sustain Haley's veto included Rep. Thad Viers, Rep. Tracy Edge, Rep. Ralph Norman and Rep. Eric Bedingfield.

By a similar vote, 89 to 18, the House voted to override the

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Invoking her own divine right, Haley dismisses public education

What people say and how we say it tells much about our psychology.

For example, South Carolinians reading the news that Governor Nikki Haley's vetoed $76 million in K-12 schools funding, and another $12.4 to buy new school buses for children attending public schools, might take her actions as examples of fiscal austerity.

It's the statement she made to the media that demonstrates her veto was

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South Carolina's children suffer Nikki Haley's wrath

The least among us -- South Carolina's children -- were ineligible to vote last election day. Governor Nikki Haley apparently interpreted that fact to mean that none of them supported her, so she owes them nothing in return. Today, she inflicted upon them the greatest pain she could muster, stripping from the 2011-2012 budget $76 million for their education in K-12 schools and $12.4 million to

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Heitsman: Does our political system work?

In 1964 after the presidential election NBC wrote a book describing that election, titled “Somehow It Works.” The question facing the nation in 2011 is simply: Does our political system still work?

While political scientists and pundits rush to defend our political system, an analysis is needed. For our democracy is to work it must have men and women who are willing to forgo their zeal and

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Island Packet: Education is a core function of government

Hilton Head is hardly a bastion of liberalism. So when the Hilton Head Island Packet questions Governor Nikki Haley's priorities and advocates for greater investment in public schools, something must be terribly wrong.Gov. Nikki Haley says she wants state spending to focus on "core functions." Providing a good education for South Carolina's children fits that description and should not get short

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Zais may forfeit $144 million in jobs funding

Has anyone from Governor Nikki Haley's office been in communication with Superintendent Mick Zais recently? I ask because Haley ran on a platform of "Less Talk, More Jobs," and Zais seems to be pushing "Fewer Jobs, More Talk."

The Greenville News explains:Leaders of two of the state's largest public education associations lashed out at state Superintendent of Education Mick Zais on Monday for

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Ravitch: Well-funded effort to replace public schools

Education researcher Diane Ravitch marks the end of the school year with a review unlike any in her history, she says: "For the past year, the nation's public schools and the educators who work in them have been subjected to an unending assault."Occasionally someone will suggest that this is just another swing of the pendulum and is nothing new. I don't agree. In the past, we have had pendulum

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Darling-Hammond: Keep your hand on the plow

This is worth reading. Linda Darling-Hammond is a renowned American education researcher and testified in the Abbeville v. South Carolina school funding equity case a few years ago in Manning.

While I'm at it, this is a great time to thanks to South Carolina's teachers, who are working harder and longer, serving more students with fewer resources, with little support from state and local

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If facts don't support privatization, make different facts?

Editors of the Sun-News in Myrtle Beach took up the issue of school bus privatization this weekend and found, strangely enough, a disconnect between facts and political ideology. Consider this humorous opening:When his own agency released a report showing that a pilot program to turn school bus operations over to a private company was an expensive, unmitigated disaster, privatization cheerleader

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Teachers must be doing something right, right?

If fewer high school students are dropping out of school, doesn't it mean that teachers are doing something right? Will Superintendent Mick Zais say that? Will he give any credit at all to the hardworking men and women who teach in South Carolina's public schools?More than 800 fewer students dropped out of state high schools in 2010 than in the previous year, according to a new report from the

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South Carolina races to the bottom in school funding

While we wait for Her Excellency the Governor to issue her vetoes, Jackie B. Hicks of The South Carolina Education Association offers some suggestions for the most appropriate uses of the revenue windfall that our Board of Economic Advisors delivered to the legislature early this month. In a column published in the Charleston Post & Courier and elsewhere, Hicks suggests that investment in public

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Is there a tax break for you?

I was a little surprised to see that the Greenville News published an opinion-editorial yesterday that advocates for a fairer tax system in South Carolina, even if that means adopting new taxes. Written by Erwin Maddrey, a respected Upstate businessman, the column draws attention to the South Carolina Tax Realignment Commission (TRAC) report that spells out in clear detail how our leaders have

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Is South Carolina the "place where presidents are chosen"?

A quote by a political consultant in The State newspaper jumped out and begged for attention.Only a primary – not a caucus – will draw national attention to South Carolina, said Dawson, who recently quit as an adviser to former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s GOP presidential campaign, and Richard Quinn, a Columbia-based GOP operative who is advising former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman’s Republican

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Will Haley cut arts but pay for her party's primary?

Two considerations seem to rank very low in voters' minds when casting their ballots. One is that the president of the United States alone nominates candidates for the U.S. Supreme Court. Another is that in South Carolina, the governor has the line-item veto -- a gift included in the 1895 Constitution by another of South Carolina's corrupt old governors and senators, Pitchfork Ben Tillman.

Only

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Brack catalogs evidence of state leaders' failures

It is always a pleasure to read work by Andy Brack, publisher of the "Statehouse Report" and occasional columns elsewhere, because his notes are run through with two interests: Educating South Carolinians about the state of their state, and motivating them to do better -- which often means, like it or not, exhorting them quietly to elect more conscientious, rather than simply committed, leaders.

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Zais's 'cynical' rejection of federal dollars questioned

Will Moredock, writing in the Columbia City Paper, makes the case that Superintendent of Education Mick Zais falls squarely in a tradition of South Carolina leadership that places demogoguery above sound policy.
To those students of our state's checkered history, Moredock's logic isn't far from the mark.The Palmetto State Pathology has many symptoms: poor public education, low personal income,

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Parents question mass exodus of beloved teachers

This is what happens when effective teachers leave the classroom in numbers: Parents attentive to the needs of their children step up and start asking questions.

It isn't clear why almost a dozen teachers at St. Johns High School on Johns Island have vacated their positions, all at once, and the district office is making every effort to say it isn't being "initiated by the district." But the

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School for special needs children faces budget crisis

When the state legislature and governor abdicate their responsibility to fund the needs of children in South Carolina's public schools, where do local administrators go to ensure the long-term health and well-being of their schools? That's what administrators across Spartanburg's seven districts are addressing now, as the McCarthy Teszler School taps the bottom of its reserve fund.

The

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Are Fairfield's parents paying attention to budget talks?

If a public hearing is held on the school budget and no parents attend to examine the proposal, what does it mean?

Such a thing happened in Fairfield County last Tuesday. Parents and other interested parties had an opportunity to discuss or ask questions about next year's budget, as required by law before the school board holds its regular meeting to adopt the plan. Their next board meeting is

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Senate sustains Haley veto, condemns rural districts to poverty

Two things happened on Tuesday afternoon in the state Senate, and both were significant.

ONE: Senators voted to sustain Governor Nikki Haley's veto of a local bill -- approved under state law by one district's local delegation, because it affected only that district -- that would have allowed the county to issue bonds to raise the necessary funds to pay its debts. In so doing, they effectively

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Pickens budget funds reading teachers, books, supplies

It reflects a dark day in America when the headline above elicits the kind of overwhelming relief and happiness that it certainly is in Pickens County this week. Shouldn't a county's school budget fund the essential needs of schools, including reading teachers and books and other supplies?

Somewhere down the road, perhaps a century hence, when public officials take so seriously their obligations

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Feds threaten to cut funds; Zais scrambles to keep them

Says The State newspaper:Trying to head off the 11th hour loss of more than $100 million in federal money because it has not spent enough on special education in the past few years, the state could send a whopping $75 million to school districts by June 30.

The state’s failure to spend enough on special education in the past, according to federal formulas, also means the U.S. Department of

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Orangeburg 5 budget includes raises; mayor honored for support

The Orangeburg 5 district school board adopted a budget that does something not many have done this year: It gives slight -- two percent -- raises for classified and support staff.

The O5 board accomplished this without tax increases and without furlough days for district employees, according to the Orangeburg Times and Democrat.

Why can't other districts do the same?Trustees have also approved

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Professionals look for jobs in public schools

National media published reams of coverage last month on the meager job prospects facing this year's wave of college graduates. The job market, to put it mildly, is tight.

Last week, state media published news that South Carolina's unemployment rate has now reached 10 percent again, thanks in part to the elimination of 2,400 educator jobs.

But today's Herald-Journal in Spartanburg features a

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Budgets stop school improvements in Beaufort

From the Island Packet comes news of more fallout from school budget cuts. Editors take the position that local decisions are pragmatic, but pragmatism doesn't help the children who expect to attend school this fall. How long should they expect to defer a good-quality education before it's too late?The board voted 6-5 on June 9 to immediately suspend about $1.3 million in capital improvements at

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Lies, logic, and changing the rules when it's convenient

South Carolina's lawmakers like to say that we spend upwards of $10,000, $11,000, maybe more than $12,000 per student to educate children attending our public schools. They like to say it because it sounds spectacular and makes us look like we're spending money like water on a bloated, wasteful school system. The average citizen doesn't know the difference, so our electeds get to play both sides

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If a South Carolina high school has no athletics program, does it exist?

In August, South Carolina's fifth artificial high school is scheduled to open in Cyberspace.

Cyberspace, as geography lessons reveal, cannot be found on a map of South Carolina. Yet it already is home to four artificial high schools enrolling South Carolina pupils, none of which have faculty parking lots, teacher workrooms, cafeterias or, most importantly, basketball courts and football fields.

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Anderson County parents: Act now to protect your schools

If you live in Anderson County, you still have time to speak up in defense of your children's public schools and the funding they need. According to the Anderson Independent Mail, your county council is hearing budget presentations Tuesday at 4 p.m. from District 4, District 3 (Iva), and District 1 (Williamston).

On Thursday, at the same time, the county council will hear from District 2 (Honea

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Will Haley veto a plan to grant public schoolchildren more funds?

The Aiken Standard published a note today optimistic that our schools may get $56 million out of a conference committee agreement that irons out differences in the House and Senate budget plans. But the Standard is well aware that Governor Nikki Haley issued a declaration last week that public schools should get none of the late spring's windfall tax revenues.

It happens that Aiken County stands

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Haley excludes retirees from meeting with bond agency

Back in March 2010, Rep. Nikki Haley delivered a speech to the Spring Valley Rotary Club in Columbia titled "Transparency in State Government." One presumes, as she was taking on several more-experienced opponents in her party's gubernatorial primary, that Haley was "for" transparency. But no record exists of the speech, so we're left to wonder.

It's a fact that Haley ran in that primary, and

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Company's recommended job cuts causing fallout in Richland 2

Today's edition of The State includes an indepth look at the controversy stirring in Richland 2 over the recommendations of Evergreen Solutions to eliminate scores of veteran educators, and the superintendent, Katie Brochu, who is implementing the cuts.The criticism comes on the heels of an efficiency and effectiveness study Brochu commissioned this year. Among other things, the study recommends

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2,400 school district jobs cut in May

Call it what you will -- attrition, retirement, right-sizing, down-sizing, anything else that helps you get to sleep at night -- but South Carolina's school districts cut a total of 2,400 positions from April to May, contributing to the return to double-digit unemployment in our state.

The legislature, meanwhile, passed a budget this week giving tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to big

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Moore resident weighs in on 'Spartanburg Six' votes

It's always nice to find Moore residents who appreciate and support their public schools. This one, David Turnipseed, was moved to write a letter in response to attacks on the six Spartanburg lawmakers who voted to support South Carolina's public schools and to keep public dollars out of private schools.I am delighted to hear that recent letter writer William “W.T.” Clark is very annoyed by Rita

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Budget cuts will close two Lee County schools

The Sumter Item requires a subscription to read the fine details, but the general idea is bad enough: Thanks to diminishing education funding, Lee County students and parents are going to lose two schools.The Lee County School District will have to close two schools, eliminate the district's visual arts program, cut more than 20 jobs and raise property taxes to balance its 2011-12 budget.

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Why are working retirees disappearing at Spring Valley High School?

Early this week, The State published an item about parents' disenchantment in the Spring Valley High School community.

It reported that Sally Tryon, a parent and president of the Spring Valley High School Student Improvement Council, "was one of the first parents to raise concerns about the departures of working retiree teachers at her children’s school."

When veteran teachers -- especially

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Florence 1 budget stalls, Spartanburg 3 passes

What's wrong with Florence District 1?

The school board met last night and discussed its proposed budget for next year but apparently couldn't get past discussing it, according to the Florence Morning News. It seems that in past years, the school board heard budget concerns and requests from a parade of principals before getting down to drafting the document, and this year that didn't happen. So

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Ravitch: Don't let schools become "profit centers"

Education researcher Diane Ravitch told members of the Georgia School Boards Association this morning, “Stand up for public education. Don’t let private entrepreneurs divide your community and turn your schools into profit centers. Don’t stand by and let politicians tear down a public institution that has been the foundation of our democracy for 150 years.”

Blogger Maureen Downey, writing for

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Oops: Private company shreds Florence 1 student records

Here's another illustration of what happens when we turn basic school functions over to private companies in the name of saving money.CINTAS, Florence School District 1’s document reduction service provider, inadvertently shredded the records of some 300 students at South Florence High School. The records belonged to rising ninth-graders, the students who will be transitioning from Southside

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Dorchester 2 privatizes bus fleet, 200 drivers fired

While spending time today in Charleston to study further the National Labor Relations Board's complaint against Boeing for moving union jobs to a right-to-work-for-less state, Governor Nikki Haley might do well to offer at least a few minutes' time to roughly 200 bus drivers, mechanics and others in the Dorchester 2 school district who have just lost their jobs. Surely workers who have long been

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School job cuts raise unemployment rate; Haley promotes Boeing

There's been no word from Governor Nikki Haley's office yet on South Carolina's new unemployment rate, which has now crept back into double digits. The Post & Courier of Charleston reports that the governor and other of the state's leading lights are in that area today to participate in a Congressional hearing on the Boeing controversy. Various Congressmen are convening a hearing on the National

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Cheraw Primary promotes summer reading among youngsters

What a great idea. Is it possible to replicate this program for all of South Carolina's first- and second-graders? The Cheraw Chronicle explains:Cheraw Primary participated in the Summer Reading Project sponsored by the South Carolina Department of Education May 23-24. As part of the program, all students in first and second grade were able to choose twelve books from a selection of over sixty

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Is education becoming a fall-back occupation? If so, why?

Ask 100 men and women with at least 25 years of classroom experience under their belt when they decided to become a teacher, and the answers you'll get from more than 90 of them will be a variation on this theme: I knew when I was six/seven/eight/nine years old, in the second/third/fourth/fifth grade, that I wanted to be a teacher just like Miss Hill/Mr. Jones/my favorite teacher. In the cases of

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Rainey: Haley "most corrupt person to occupy the Mansion"

The immediate past chairman of South Carolina's Board of Economic Advisors, John Rainey, issued a scathing indictment of Governor Nikki Haley to a national magazine this week, declaring that Haley is "the most corrupt person to occupy the governor’s mansion since Reconstruction."

Rainey is no lightweight; he is "a longtime Republican fundraiser and power broker who chaired the state’s Board of

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What Constitution did Nikki Haley swear to uphold?

Why does South Carolina's present governor not support the public education system established in the South Carolina Constitution, the very Constitution she swore to protect and defend in her oath of office? Since taking her office in January, she has missed no opportunity to undermine, dismiss and promote alternatives to the system that serves more than 90 percent of South Carolina's school-age

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Should Bojangles assume government functions?

I'm imagining walking into a South Carolina classroom in the near future and seeing corporate logos on the doorways, windows and walls, the same way they festoon NASCAR racers. For example, "Today's lesson is brought to you by Fruit Roll-Ups." Or "Just do your best on the test: Nike." How about: "Drop those heavy books and pick up a Kindle."

Sounds farfetched? We already have corporate

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Griswold: Protecting retirement benefits requires vigilance, participation

As president emeritus of State Retirees Association, Sam Griswold is one of the most trusted voices in South Carolina on issues related to the South Carolina Retirement System. Sam has drafted a year-end summary of legislative activities from the 2011 session and new developments affecting retirees (and those who hope one day to retire), and it bears reprinting and sharing with others.

Sam

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Lawmakers, listen to what matters to parents, educators

For those who may have missed this great column published last week by Philadelphia parent and writer Helen Gym at CNN.com, it's worth reading and forwarding to friends and colleagues. CNN describes Gym as "founder of Parents United for Public Education, which seeks classroom-centered investments in education budgets. She is a board member of the Philadelphia Public School Notebook, where she

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Herald-Journal: "Public education is not some leftist tenet"

Hosanna.

Why does it take a potential electoral crisis -- six Upstate lawmakers appear to be in hot water for their votes against the most recent iteration of ye olde Sanford-Haley voucher scheme -- for one of the state's daily newspapers to make such a plain and clear defense of public education in South Carolina?

Similarly, why does it take such a crisis for one of our daily papers to openly

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Local budgets bring "the stretchout" to classrooms

When the locations were South Carolina's textile mills, this strategy was called "the stretchout." After Congress enacted the first minimum wage law, mill owners cut their workforces, leaving fewer millhands to run more looms for longer hours. In the great 1995 documentary "The Uprising of '34," the sons of mill owners characterized it blithely as an "efficiency technique." But the millhands and

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Shall we invest in children, or pay business to hire workers?

That's the choice being described in today's The State, as lawmakers get back to work on the $5.8 billion budget plan -- the plan that is supposed to become effective July 1.

The State explains:The Senate budget would split money added by growth in the state's economy -- with $100 million paying for business tax relief and $105 million paying for K-12 education.

House members want $150 million

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Educators praise voucher defeat (2011 edition)

Everybody's heard Einstein's famous quote about insanity: it's defined as doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result. To my knowledge, Einstein never came to South Carolina, where our legislature could have schooled the fella.

Hasn't it been the case for the past decade?

We have, in Columbia, a Legislative Homeowners Association. What most of the neighbors have in

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Congratulations to seven schools for Exemplary Writing Program Awards

While we're recognizing schools for great achievement, we should mention the seven who have just won an Exemplary Writing Program Award.The winning schools were Nevitt Forest Community School of Innovation (Anderson District 5); Pate Elementary (Darlington County); Doby's Mill Elementary (Kershaw County); Heath Springs Elementary (Lancaster County); Irmo Elementary (Richland/Lexington District 5)

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Beaufort County makes slow progress in funding public schools

On its surface, an item published in Bluffton's newspaper offers cause to celebrate on behalf of the public schoolchildren in that district. According to that paper, thanks to infusions of funding from federal sources, the district spent $10,606 per student in the last fiscal year (2009-2010).

I say it offers cause to celebrate because it has taken 341 years for Beaufort County's children to be

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Congratulations to the public schoolchildren of Berkeley County

Berkeley County's public schools clearly are serving students well, as 36 of these have been recognized as Duke TIP Scholars and more than 150 others have been named South Carolina Junior Scholars -- a district record.Every year, Duke University’s “Talent Identification Program” (TIP) identifies academically qualified seventh-graders and invites them to complete college entrance examinations (SAT

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Congratulations to Indian Land Middle School

There's plenty of evidence that great things happen in South Carolina's public schools; it's our responsibility to bear witness and tell those stories. Today, Indian Land Middle School is an example. ILMS is one of 10 schools nationwide being recognized for its character-building program by the Red Robin Foundation.

And talk about a good community partner for public schools: the Red Robin

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To lower dropout rates, teach young children to love reading

Sometimes, the simplest solutions are the best ones.

A study from the Annie E. Casey Foundation suggests that we should start addressing the dropout problem well before children become teenagers. It turns out that reading to small children, and encouraging them to read, may be the most effective strategy to reduce the high school dropout rate.

It's a challenge, sure. South Carolina's lawmakers

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Lawmakers avoid charges of heroism, advance private-school subsidies

In most state legislatures, a subcommittee is the first place a bill must weather -- and survive -- scrutiny from conscientious lawmakers. Of course, such a system depends entirely on the active engagement of conscientious lawmakers. In the exceptional republic of South Carolina, we have the lawmakers we have, conscientious or not, and they suffer no obligation to scrutinize anything before

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Rainey: "Intoxication of power has overwhelmed Nikki Haley"

Anderson attorney John Rainey has a unique perspective on South Carolina: In 2001, he recruited former Congressman Mark Sanford of Sullivan's Island to run for governor. When Sanford was elected, Rainey accepted the governor's appointment to chair the state's Board of Economic Advisors, which seeks to guide lawmakers' decisions on the budget and economic decisions. Throughout Sanford's numerous

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Spearman: Out-of-state interests governing our government

Molly Spearman, executive director of the South Carolina Association of School Administrators, was featured this week in the Orangeburg Times and Democrat, advising South Carolinians of the insidious influence of out-of-state ideologues governing us by proxy.Public school supporters in communities across South Carolina need to know that the free-flowing funds from out-of-state interests are

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South Carolina ranks 42nd in nation in "peacefulness"

No one familiar with South Carolina's history finds this surprising: A new report issued by the Institute of Economics and Peace finds that our dear state ranks eighth from the bottom in "peacefulness," a composite of various statistical indicators. At first blush, this feels like a low blow.

But let's review:

(1) Charles Towne was settled by people who believed it was their right to enslave

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Elwood: Punitive approaches illustrate lack of understanding

Columbia's Free Times features in its current edition a letter from Harvey Elwood, Jr., on the recent proposal to withhold drivers' licenses from students who drop out of school. Elwood pegs the measure as "punitive" and offers his own view:Once again, the South Carolina House Education Subcommittee is considering a bill sponsored by Rep. Tom Young Jr., R-Aiken, designed to deny drivers licenses

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Sheaffer: "You are more than a number. And so am I."

The following letter -- simple and eloquent -- was posted at Education Week's Teacher Blog on Monday by Amanda Sheaffer, a third grade teacher in Nashville, Tennessee, and a credit to her profession.To my students,
I greet you at the door with a smile, but I feel uneasy. I see your bright faces and hear your cheerful words with an inadvertent cringe. I am caught in a struggle between what I have

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Lawmakers ponder tax credits, economic resegregation

Here it comes.

On Monday, the right wing of the U.S. Supreme Court issued a majority ruling upholding Arizona's scheme to grant dollar-for-dollar tax credits for private or religious school tuition. The ruling means two things: Ideologues who oppose public education in legislatures across the nation are now free to adopt similar measures even if they contradict state constitutions, and parents

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Krohne: Public funds for private schools an "irresponsible proposal"

Taking advantage of Governor Nikki Haley's new "waste and fraud tipline," I tried to leave a tip for Inspector General George Schroeder about the plan to divert potentially millions -- ultimately hundreds of millions -- of dollars from the general treasury to benefit private and religious schools without any oversight, regulation or accountability, but Dr. Paul Krohne of the South Carolina School

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Pickens board eliminates 87 positions, ignores corporate tax loopholes

Question: How does a career spent on Wall Street prepare one to lead an elected body which governs education policy, funding, and personnel matters? This is not a trick question, and there's likely not a rational answer to it. After all, this is South Carolina.

While state lawmakers are laying plans this week to dismantle public education from the top down, school boards across South Carolina

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Chester editors stake themselves against cuts to school athletics

Speaking of wars and principles, the editors in Chester County sally forth with their own dour pleading on the subject of school budget cuts. Their plea: Save the games.The Chester County School Board is faced with the daunting and unenviable task of finding ways to cut $2.5 million from the budget. That comes on top of other cuts the board has had to make in recent years. No matter what area is

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Legislative wrecking crew uses small hammers first, says SC Radio Network

Reporter Matt Long of the South Carolina Radio Network took note this week of several small changes to education policies that make incremental progress on the road to dismantling public education as we know it.

One of the changes listed by Long is a plan to exempt school districts from various state regulations, including -- you guessed it -- personnel cuts, or "several mandates the state

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Retired educator defends public employee pensions

In what society must we defend the rights of retired public educators and other employees to their pensions?

Ours.

Retiree Martha Serensits of Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina, had a great letter published in the Myrtle Beach Sun-News on Sunday, and it's well worth re-posting here, to give moral support to our own beleaguered retirees and close-to-retirees.

In response to an antagonist's text

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Garrick identifies hypocrisies in South Carolina's budget proposal

Lodging charges of hypocrisy in South Carolina's budget is almost too easy -- like shooting fish in a barrel -- but I have to promote the interesting perspective of freshman Rep. Mia Butler Garrick, whose reflection on the recent two-day House budget debate is insightful. You can read the whole essay here but she names four obstacles to South Carolina's progress: the "good ol' boy system," the

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School budget cuts threaten for-profit and non-profit programs

A little-known bit of No Child Left Behind, a law still inflicting harm well past its expiration date, was a provision forcing school districts labeled "low-performing" for three consecutive years to devote 15 percent of its federal funds to private-sector "supplemental education services" programs. It hadn't occurred to me before reading this morning's Greenville News that in a time when federal

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Katy, bar the door: Court offers 'roadmap' for private school vouchers

One more illustration that elections have consequences.

Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court issued the infamous Citizens United decision which overturned century-old precedent and now allows corporations to spend unlimited sums in their support for, or opposition of, candidates for public office. To the corporate elite for whom a million dollars here or there represent mere rounding errors,

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Educators' simplest hopes damaged by political ideology

A friend in Darlington referred me to a letter published in the local newspaper there last week by a 2005 Milliken educator from Anderson, Mary Nell Anthony. Anthony's letter made a number of interesting points, and after pondering her perspective, I decided to share. Rather than copy her letter, let me describe its main ideas.

Anthony takes on the subject of accountability and how

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Will state employees have retirement security or not?

Bill Davis, editor of the Statehouse Report, published an item on the state's retirement plan more than a week ago, and I'm curious about how his analysis squares with that of Sam Griswold, whose judgment on retirement system questions is impeccable. Griswold wrote, here, about the competing legislation to make changes to the retirement system, especially for new state employees' benefits, and

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Superintendents' salaries under scrutiny; is Santee Cooper next?

There's a bedrock principle that free marketeers hold to like Moses held to his tablets: Free of regulation, the market will resolve itself.

Embedded in that principle is the notion that money is intelligent -- or, more to the point, those who know what to do with money are imbued with a divine intelligence that the rest of us lack -- and that regulation, the attempts by the unintelligent to

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How do we measure the value of a teacher?

Here's another note to send to friends and loved ones.

In last Thursday's edition of the New York Times, author and Brown University professor Marie Myung-Ok Lee published a beautiful note titled "What I Learned at School." I highly recommend it to your attention.THE tumult over state budgets and collective bargaining rights for public employees has spilled over into resentment toward public

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Educators aren't perishable commodities

On Friday, I posted a column published in the Memphis newspaper by the president of the National Education Association, Dennis Van Roekel, about the work of Martin Luther King and organized workers. I missed that on Thursday, Valerie Strauss of the Washington Post also featured Van Roekel, this time discussing teachers and seniority.

You can read the whole column here but the point of Van

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Heitsman: Corporate state on the verge of replacing government

The art and science of demagoguery requires that the demagogues who lead social movements stir up peoples emotions in order to gain power. Therefore such movements do not need heroes to succeed but need a constant supply of devils.

As the Pharaohs used the Hebrews, the Romans used the Christians, and as Adolph Hitler used the Jews, public employees and public school teachers are now the targets

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Bill proposes to leave high school dropouts idle in the streets

Again, South Carolina lawmakers propose to criminalize poverty and the poor judgment that stems often from few options. Consider the plight of teenagers growing up in poverty -- this isn't difficult; there are hundreds of thousands of them -- who see one big difference between attending high school classes Monday through Friday and holding down a "right-to-work-for-less" job at a fast food

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Kershaw's superintendent: Merit pay isn't a simple answer

Superintendent Frank Morgan of Kershaw County has spent nearly four decades in education, and he says he's seen the flavors-of-the-month come and go. Speaking of pay-for-test-scores, he cautions against jumping headfirst into this month's flavor.On the surface, merit pay makes a great deal of sense. The idea of rewarding teachers for performance seems intuitively fairer and more productive than

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