Watch: Today's press conference on educators' salaries

Thanks to the South Carolina Education Association for the links to this pair of videos!

This is brilliant, and I'm hopeful that all 19 of my readers will forward this blog link far, far, far and wide, wide, wide to friends, family, neighbors, co-workers, long-lost cousins, brand-new acquaintances and people you encounter at gas stations, convenience stores and the Piggly Wiggly.

Remember: When

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Hicks: Where would state scores be without NBC teachers?

This week's edition of the Free Times of Columbia takes up the topic of national board certification and the stipends paid to educators who earn that credential.

It's a topic of discussion again because, just as we've seen every year for the past six or eight years, lawmakers looking for more ways to undermine and dismantle public education are trying to eliminate those stipends.

I have to give

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Press conference brings attention to educator salaries

When was the last time you saw The State and the Charleston Post & Courier publish stories about restoring educator salaries, on the same day?

Both are trailing the Charleston City Paper by a day, but better late than never. Nothing beats a trend, and news of this one may reach the Upstate by this evening or tomorrow.

The spark for this feeding frenzy by the media is a press conference held

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Educators need full restoration of salaries before bonuses

This is embarrassing.

A salary is compensation for work. A bonus is a reward.

For four years, South Carolina's electeds have frozen -- withheld -- restricted -- effectively cut educators' salaries. Educators went on working, prices went on rising, cost of living went on growing, so the real value of educators' pay went on shrinking.

Now, despite South Carolina's uber-regressive tax policies

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Kelly: "Workers are better off with unions than without them"

So Patrick Hayes of Charleston, thanks to having been a member of an educators union in California, knew that organized citizens can be effective at guiding their own destinies.

And veteran firefighter MichaelAnthony Parrotta of Myrtle Beach, president of the state firefighters association, pointed out that South Carolina is home to tens of thousands of unionized workers already, working daily

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Unionized employees are our working neighbors, not demons

Patrick Hayes, who initiated the online petition to restore educators' salaries, told the Charleston City Paper that he previously taught in California:Hayes previously taught in California, which allows teachers to join unions. In South Carolina, teachers are barred from collective bargaining.Perhaps because of Hayes's experience as a union member, he knew that citizens have rights, and that

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When educators organize, educators and students win.

I'm a great believer in organizing.

I believe that when educators organize, educators and their students win.

Even better, when educators and parents organize together, nothing stops them from achieving their mutual goals, because even in a state like South Carolina -- where the legislature has total control of everything -- what motivates lawmakers is motivated, organized voters.

So I'm so

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An officer but no gentleman: Zais attacks Inez Tenenbaum

To the best of my memory, former Superintendent of Education Inez Tenenbaum started her career as a classroom teacher, then became a lawyer specializing in children's advocacy, then was elected superintendent of education in 1998 and was re-elected in 2002.

In fact, I believe Tenenbaum was so popular a state superintendent that she collected more votes than anyone else running statewide in 2002,

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South Carolina ranks 45th in overall child well-being

Good thing that India's ambassador to the United States, Nirupama Rao, won't be visiting South Carolina long enough to attend next month's annual conference sponsored by the USC-Upstate Child Advocacy Center. Learning that Governor Nikki Haley presides over a state that ranks 45th in the nation -- out of 50, mind you -- in overall child well-being might tarnish Haley's international celebrity.

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Haley snubs President of the United States, ditches banquet

What a sweet scoop from The Times of India, a property of the Times Group family (which includes, among other hot properties, the Pune Mirror, the Bangalore Mirror, the Ahmedabad Mirror, the Mumbai Mirror, and Indiatimes).South Carolina's Indian-American Republican Governor Nikki Haley criticised President Barack Obama's "failure to handle America", but said "personal plans" kept her and husband

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Lawmakers propose robbing, then punishing, public employees

It's the same old song.

State Constitution empowers lawmakers to raise revenues necessary to fully fund the state's essential obligations and institutions. It doesn't give that power to the rest of us, only to the 170 men and women sitting in judgment in Columbia.

And when their decisions to rejigger how we invest retirement system funds, at precisely the moment of an economic downturn, results

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Obama tells Haley: Invest in schools, hire more teachers

I suppose this isn't what Governor Nikki Haley wanted to hear from President Barack Obama during the national governors' luncheon at the White House last week.Obama said at Monday's session that he sympathized with governors whose state budgets have been badly squeezed during the economic downturn. But he said that was no reason to trim resources from schools.

"The fact is that too many states

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Our lawmakers giveth, and our lawmakers taketh away

Tears of joy may have erupted across South Carolina last week as a House committee approved a plan to raise state employees' and educators' salaries by two percent (and law enforcement officers' salaries by five percent), effective July 1. These folks have had their incomes frozen by the legislature for years, with some not seeing an increase since 2007.

But they've dried up pretty quickly as

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Retired teachers ask lawmakers to do the right thing

Issues like these don't get the coverage they deserve. In support of the retired educators in your area, I hope you'll forward this note to your own friends and family, and encourage them to support retirees' efforts to get the benefits they've been promised.

Last week, a group of retirees came to Columbia to speak with lawmakers.Retired Barnwell County school teacher Jerry Bell says he flirted

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Media: Romney kicks "toxic" Haley to the curb

Do you reckon this means Governor Nikki Haley's chances of joining the Romney ticket as a vice presidential nominee are down the drain? This is depressing; I was looking forward to the discussion of Lieutenant Governor Ken Ard's succession.For the two weeks leading up to January's S.C. Republican primary, presumptive nominee Mitt Romney and S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley were seemingly inseparable.

They

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Zais: Our job is to train employees for manufacturers

Less than two weeks ago, Governor Nikki Haley traveled to Greenville to make some solemn pronouncements about how important it is that South Carolina train its children to be ready for hire by manufacturing companies when they locate in our state. South Carolina is at the heart of manufacturing in the U.S., Haley said. Companies are looking to invest in South Carolina because the state has great

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North Carolina transplant reflects on South Carolina home

Mary Garrison, now a resident of Flat Rock, North Carolina, and a columnist for the Blue Ridge Times-News, published this weekend a reverie of her old home in South Carolina.

"How often have we heard the familiar phrase 'Times have changed'?" Garrison writes. "These past two weeks, I have thought a lot about the timeline of history and change. I just returned from a visit to South Carolina,

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How much do Americans love South Carolina? It depends.

Polls are fun, and some are funny. One was released this week that is a little sad, a little scary.

It comes from Public Policy Polling, a company based in Raleigh, North Carolina, that has had phenomenal results in its short history. In fact, the Wall Street Journal ranked PPP as one of the top swing state pollsters in the country during the last Presidential election.

So PPP conducted a

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Horry students win prizes for historical essays

Congratulations to the students of Horry County who participated in the essay contest co-sponsored by the Historic Myrtle Beach Colored School Museum and Education Center in Myrtle Beach and Horry County Schools Adult Education. An awards program was held last week at the Center.Students were to write a poem or short essay on the theme “One Person Can Make a Difference,” which was to honor unsung

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U.S. marshal speaks to middle-schoolers in Conway

Does everyone know who is the U.S. marshal for the district of South Carolina?

I didn't know we had one. It appears we have only one, U.S. Marshal Kelvin Washington, and he spoke this week to students at Black Water Middle School in Conway.A native of Hemingway, Washington has held various law enforcement positions, including sheriff of Williamsburg County. He was appointed to his current post

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This matters. Go here. Sign this petition.

Educators: Are you tired of working harder, with more students and fewer colleagues, for the same salary you earned three years ago, and seeing its value decrease as your cost of living goes up?

Go here. Sign this petition.

Parents: Educators never came into their professions to become wealthy, but they never expected to have their salaries frozen and to take, in many cases, a second and third

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Clyburn: South Carolina still exhibits "strain of resistance"

U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn is living history, having been present through some significant tribulations of the 1960s in South Carolina. In addition, he's a great guy, an encyclopedic resource and, as House Majority and Minority Whip, he's one of the most powerful men ever to serve in the U.S. House from South Carolina.

So when he speak in his district, or across the state, it's a good idea to pay

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Retired public employees blamed for budget instability

The way the dialogue is being framed tells the tale; we can see from a mile away who the bad guys are going to be:South Carolina taxpayers should expect the amount of money they pump into the state pension system to increase in the coming years as the program struggles to close a widening $13 billion shortfall.

At the same time, the state might be forced to shift resources from areas such as

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Crayton students have once-in-a-lifetime learning experience

I have no doubt that a science teacher is responsible for this event, and if I knew who that was, I'd celebrate their name.

If it's Ann Carbone, thank you! Thanks for helping to illustrate the strength and potential of our public schools.The Crayton Middle School greeting echoed through the school auditorium and across the galaxy as students and faculty welcomed some special guest speakers to

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Corporations once helped, not hurt, public education

This is a great story that illustrates how corporate America once stood in partnership with public education and educators. If only to remind us of what that was like, this story should be shared far and wide.Building construction student Frank Kay has worked on framing a building before. But the one he’s helping build on the Tri-County Technical College campus in Anderson is different.

Kay, 41,

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Zais brings back more student tests; teachers wonder why

Because we don't test our students enough, and because the law requires it.

Parents of third-, fourth-, sixth- and seventh-graders, listen up: Your children haven't been suffering enough stress lately with fewer teachers and larger class sizes, so our state Superintendent of Education Mick Zais has the solution: More testing.

Trust me, this is going to work like a charm: Get ready for night

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Haley: Our job is to train employees for manufacturers

I can't make this stuff up.

Spend a little time reading about the history of education, public and otherwise, in the South and, after a long hard slog through a lot of ugly history, you'll happen upon what occurred in 1959 in North Carolina.

In truth, North Carolina's public education history was much like ours up to that year, subject to demagoguery and political whims through the nineteenth

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Could charter school employees lose state retirement benefits?

No, this isn't a new proposal from Governor Nikki Haley, though she may adopt it soon. This comes out of the blue, from a charter-school advocacy group's website.A little-noticed proposed change in Internal Revenue Service regulations could have devastating effects for charter school teachers by making them ineligible for state retirement plans, and they could stand to lose much of the money that

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Will this encourage lawmakers to fully fund public schools?

I'm going to refrain from wondering aloud how students from Buddhist families, or Hindu or Taoist, or Muslim or any of the other world's religions, who attend our public schools feel about this.The Bible is back. Just this year, five states – Texas, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Oklahoma – have passed laws promoting academic study of the Bible in public schools.

The Pennsylvania House

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Congratulations to Robert Jackson, Irmo Middle School

Always good to see a local career educator succeed.Robert S. Jackson, current assistant principal for instruction at Dutch Fork High School, has been named principal of Irmo Middle School, effective July 1, 2012, according to a Lexington-Richland 5 release.

Jackson replaces Marie Waldrop, who accepted a job as the law enforcement instructor at the district’s new Center for Advanced Technical

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Haley: I don't want to pay for your kid's education

If it weren't for simple mathematics, Governor Nikki Haley might've succeeded at portraying herself as a compassionate conservative. Unfortunately for her, thanks to hundreds of thousands of fine math teachers across the land, Americans -- even we South Carolinians -- can comprehend simple arithmetic.South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said her proposed budget for 2012-13 increases money for public

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Engineer brings respect for educators to Atlanta

From today's New York Times:ATLANTA — For years, Beverly L. Hall, the former school superintendent here, ruled by fear. Principals were told that if state test scores did not go up enough, they would be fired — and 90 percent of them were removed in the decade of Dr. Hall’s reign.Some would call this professional terrorism. I would call it that.Underlings were humiliated during rallies at the

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Loftis op-ed on vouchers, tuition tax credits doesn't mention cost

Curtis Loftis has been a pretty good treasurer so far, questioning the expense of giving so much of the state retirement system to strange investments by contract investors, pushing Governor Nikki Haley to honor her campaign commitments on transparency, and generally blocking Haley's attempts to steamroll her policy preferences through the Budget and Control Board.

Last year, I recall that

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Kershaw public school parent demands, "Show me the money"

Public school educators have been raising the issue since 1977, when the Education Finance Act was first adopted. It was a compromise, which means it didn't meet the complete need even then. Still, it established the base student cost, a formula-driven dollar amount that South Carolina lawmakers would appropriate each year to fund public schools statewide.

That commitment didn't last a hot

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"I believe the children are our future."

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The SCEA releases Sumter public forum summary

For the past two weeks, I've been waiting diligently for the Sumter Item to publish its coverage of the Sumter parents' and educators' public forum. Feedback from ones who attended the event said that the Item covered the event, but that its reporter left halfway through, after conversation turned toward a critique of the Item's coverage.

Specifically, it seems that the Item covers abundantly

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Haley's budget ranks among five most harmful to education

Columnist Sarah Jaffe at Alternet.org casts Governor Nikki Haley's budget proposal for 2012-13 dead-center among the five most harmful to public education, in a column posted here this weekend.

Budget plans offered by Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett and Ohio Governor John Kasich ranked first and second in her list, and Alabama Governor Robert Bentley and Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear

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Senators approve unqualified candidate for Haley's Cabinet

Let me ask some questions.

If someone with no experience in health care or public relations wanted a job in public relations for a regional hospital, could they get one? In South Carolina, sure; Nikki Haley did it.

If someone who had no background in education whatsoever wanted a job teaching children in public schools, could they get one? In South Carolina, sure. Happens all the time. It's

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Study: Affluence predicts educational opportunity, success

Here's new evidence that the far-right political agenda -- benefiting our wealthiest citizens and corporate interests at the expense of our poorest citizens, working families and their children -- is working perfectly.

The headline in today's New York Times tells the tale: "Education Gap Grows Between Rich and Poor, Studies Say."

And a graphic accompanying the text illustrates the point: "The

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Spartanburg's Cleveland Elementary considering new format

One of Spartanburg District 7's historically challenged schools may get a radical makeover in format, if the local board and the state department agree to allow it -- and if an additional $400,000 per year can be found to fund the change.

The plan calls for a start date of July 13, extending the school year by five weeks and extending teacher contracts from 190 days to 215 days, which accounts

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South Carolina relies on national charity for homeless children

They're not our state lawmakers' children, so I suppose it's reasonable that our lawmakers have no interest in providing for them.

That's the logic that applies to providing adequate funding for children enrolled in public schools, and it appears to be the logic applied to South Carolina's homeless children, too.The national charity Feed The Children is distributing 1,900 backpacks and supplies

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Florence 1 opposes privatization, vouchers, 1989 funding

The Florence District 1 Board of Trustees voted unanimously last night to oppose three proposed bills that, if adopted by the legislature, would devastate the small district and those like it.

The bills in question happen to be ones favored by Governor Nikki Haley, Superintendent Mick Zais, and the Florence legislative delegation. One privatizes the state's school bus transportation function,

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State's science teachers make South Carolina look good

It's a tough job -- making South Carolina look good in the eyes of the nation, given our elected leaders, our high national rankings in bad things and low rankings in good things, and especially our desire to keep citizens separated into first-, second- and third-class categories -- but our science teachers get it done.

According to a Fordham Institute report, "The State of State Science

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Heroic Mick Zais benefits from "politically weak" educators

When Superintendent Mick Zais appeared before a legislative committee to press his agenda to starve public education, he seemed out-of-place and fumbled for words to answer lawmakers' questions. But in a puff piece published by a right-wing organization online, Zais is absolutely eloquent, even accusatory of "weak-willed Republicans" who support public education and educators.What distinguishes

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State to retirees: Eat less, drive less, turn down your heat

Let's think about this.

If you were a state government dominated by corporate interests, and your ultimate goal was to privatize all state services, how might you dissuade citizens from viewing their government as a viable resource for public services?

For one thing, you might make public employment so unattractive that few people would want to work for the state. Then you could say to citizens

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What will lawmakers do to fill the time?

This year's session is scheduled to run through June 7, which means some tough decisions will have to be made now that a very important issue has been taken off the table. What will they do?The S.C. Legislature will not require USC and Clemson to face off annually in football.

A House subcommittee Wednesday shot down the idea of requiring the teams to play each other every year, saying it is

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Gaffney's Quincie Moore is named Cherokee superintendent

It's taken nearly two years, but Cherokee Board of Trustees have named a new superintendent. Quincie Moore, a Gaffney native who has built a career in education in Cherokee and Spartanburg counties and at Limestone College, was the unanimous choice after a four-hour executive session on Wednesday.Moore, the assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction in Spartanburg District 2, was one

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PASS tests may be replaced with SBAC tests

Tests themselves aren't evil; they're tools that can be useful in diagnosing learning gaps and guiding the work of instructors. But that's not how our punitive command-and-control lawmakers have chosen to use them.The reading and math tests South Carolina third- through 12th-graders take this spring likely won't exist in three years.

The state Board of Education signed off 10-3 Wednesday on a

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Imagine South Carolina public schools, governed by educators

What a concept. This column appears in the current edition of Education Week magazine, co-authored by a set of "2011-12 U.S. Department of Education Teaching Ambassador Fellows; participants in the program must be practicing teachers with a minimum of five years' experience and demonstrated leadership."

They describe a world so incredible that it's difficult to visualize, at least here in South

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Who's in charge at the Department of Education?

I suspect it's Jay Ragley. He certainly has the extensive background in public education and the commitment to advocacy for public schools and public educators, as detailed here.

Which is good, because our elected superintendent apparently doesn't enjoy his job.South Carolina Superintendent of Education Mick Zais took twice as much personal time during 2011 as the average state employee is

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How SC's Gressette Commission invented vouchers, tuition tax credits

This year, for the fifth or sixth time in a decade, South Carolina lawmakers are trying again to pass a bill that diverts public revenue to private and parochial schools through vouchers or, more subtly, through "tuition tax credits."

It's a ruse that has failed each time it's been tried, thanks to lawmakers straining mightily to drag South Carolina, kicking and screaming, into the twentieth

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Why is Williamsburg County losing its student population?

An official three-month study of Williamsburg County's loss of student population is yet to come, but trustees who met last night began the conversation using these troubling figures:Student enrollment by year:
1999-2000--------6,409
2000-2001--------6,253
2001-2002--------6,144
2002-2003--------5,893
2003-2004--------5,759
2004-2005--------5,633
2005-2006--------5,502
2006-2007--------5,314
2007

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Child poverty characterizes South Carolina's image again

One day, when enough South Carolinians are sick and tired of hearing stories like this one, our lawmakers will take steps to correct the problem. Until then, South Carolina will continue to be known as the state that doesn't take care of its impoverished children, and the state where public school educators care as much for their students' well-being as for their standardized test scores.

This

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Congratulations to young scholars in Beaufort

Here's a little good news, thanks to the fine public school educators in Beaufort County.Two Beaufort County School District students have been named finalists in the National Achievement Scholarship Program, an academic competition established in 1964 by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation to recognize outstanding black scholars.

Bluffton High School’s Tibra Wheeler and Hilton Head

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Charleston superintendent advocates for teacher pay raises

Let's read this silently once:"If we do not put this out as our highest priority, we can have the greatest programs in the world, and we're going to lose our talent," McGinley said. "We're already losing talent because they can't afford to live in the county."Now let's read it again aloud together:"If we do not put this out as our highest priority, we can have the greatest programs in the world,

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Lawmakers concede: No more important issues to discuss

Education. Unemployment. Transportation. Crime. Poverty. Domestic violence.

All these weighty matters must have been resolved while we weren't watching, because lawmakers have turned their attention to a matter that, before now, probably ranked lower than 3,000th on the list of "most important things that lawmakers should spend time, breath and taxpayer dollars to consider":USC and Clemson will

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Roosevelt Institute exposes privatization's motives

The more I know about Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, the more I love who they were, what they did for America, and the legacy they left behind.

One more example is the Roosevelt Institute, a nonprofit organization "devoted to carrying forward the legacy and values of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt by developing progressive ideas and bold leadership in the service of restoring America’s health

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Lawmakers: League of Women Voters dangerous to democracy

Let's remember that although the Constitution was amended in 1920 to grant women the right to vote, South Carolina did not ratify that amendment until 1969.

Context is important, and we live in South Carolina, where an evolving elite aristocracy has ruled state matters -- and attempted mightily to prevent, avoid and delay federal intervention in those matters -- for more than 340 years.

Now it

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Part 2: FreedomWorks peddles vouchers in Spartanburg

The second half of Dennis S's first-hand account of last Thursday's FreedomWorks dog-and-pony show in Hub City.After loading up with enough school choice propaganda to do Pravda proud, I surveyed the room for a table with a close-up view of both the speakers and an escape route.

I spotted a partially filled table about 10 feet from the speaker’s podium and 5 feet from the door. I surmised the

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Dog-and-pony show pushes vouchers in Spartanburg

Pleased to share a first-person account of last week's voucher rally in Spartanburg, sponsored by the Koch-funded Freedomworks organization, an astro-turf outfit that pretends to be a grassroots concern.

After several consecutive years of watching their voucher legislation defeated voucher legislation in Columbia, our corporate overlords who wish to privatize schools and every other public

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Bryant: Unemployment benefits "wasted" on teachers, others

America's best-known personal-finance guru, Suze Orman, made some bold statements to Piers Morgan on CNN last week, and they bear repeating. She said:I think no private school should be out there. I think everything should be public. I think everything should be that way. But, we don't honor our teachers. We don't pay them enough. They are the first people that we cut. And so, what do people do?

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Congratulations to 100 inexpensive laborers in Laurens

Good news for up to 100 unemployed men and women in Laurens: It's the Year of the Dragon!*

Thanks to a poor economy, a very low (and, if you're lucky, non-existent) corporate tax rate, an abundance of cheap labor and the vocal support of a governor and legislature dedicated to selling out South Carolina's human resources, you're going to get some low-wage jobs in a year or two.

Don't count on

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FL lawmaker IDs her puppeteers; who pulls our strings?

This would be comical if it wasn't so important.

Remember: The difference between citizens and elected lawmakers is that lawmakers have the Constitutional authority to make laws that govern the rest of us, and to raise and spend funds (or not) to honor the state's commitments to its people.

Across the country, there are state lawmakers who choose not to do the people's bidding, but choose

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Alabama's McGill doubles down, questions critics' faith

Last week, I brought to your attention the lunatic remarks of one Shadrack McGill, a first-term legislator in Alabama who defended pay increases for legislators like himself but opposed pay increases for public school teachers.

He said paying lawmakers more protected them from lobbyists' temptations. He said paying teachers more would violate Biblical principles, but he didn't cite any specific

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Richland 2 social studies teacher wins national award

It's good to see a South Carolina public school teacher honored for doing great work.

It could be a daily occurrence, given that South Carolina public school teachers work miracles every school day. But South Carolina doesn't honor its miracle-working public school teachers; it browbeats them, adds greater burdens to their backs and begrudges them every dime appropriated for their substandard

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Alabama Sen. Shadrack McGill: Bible justifies poor teacher pay

Thank God for Alabama Senator Shadrack McGill, who diverts attention from the foolishness of South Carolina's own legislators, if only for a moment.

McGill -- hopefully no relation to the McGill families of our own state -- illustrates the wisdom that elections have consequences. When we elect people who have no business holding Constitutional authority in their hands, this is what we get.State

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Romney not concerned with "very poor," but educators are.

Today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution is reporting that former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, fresh from a decisive win in the Florida presidential primary, has announced that he's "not concerned about the very poor."...Romney emphasized, "You can focus on the very poor, that's not my focus."Thank goodness that public school educators and school district employees are focused on the very poor

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