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.

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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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