'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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