Democrats aren’t saving their ammo for the fall when it comes to the superintendent of education race. Here’s a broadside they fired via e-mail today at Karen Floyd (a pretty interesting one, actually):
From: Patrick Norton
Sent: Tuesday, July 11, 2006 1:50 PM
Subject: Floyd Significantly Funded by Out of State Special Interests
July 11, 2006
News Release – For Immediate Release
Contact: Patrick Norton (803) 799-7798Floyd Significantly Funded
by Out of State Special Interests
Nearly One Quarter of Funds from Same NY Address
Columbia, SC — According to her latest campaign finance report, Superintendent of Education candidate Karen Floyd raised an alarming 47 percent of her money from out of state. Of her $114,074.04 in contributions, $53,500 came from outside South Carolina.
Even more disturbing is the fact that nearly a quarter of Floyd’s contributions came from the same address. Floyd received $21,000 from various companies that share the address 73 Spring St., Rm. 507, New York, NY, 10012. All of the companies are associated with Howard Rich, a wealthy New York developer who funnels money into private school voucher schemes across the country.
Additionally, Floyd received $17,500 from five sources, including Alex Cranberg, with the same address in Denver, Colorado: 511 16th Street, Suite 300. Cranberg is also a proponent of private school voucher schemes across the country.
Floyd’s alarming campaign contributions from out of state special interests contrast starkly with Jim Rex’s support from South Carolina teachers and former educators. Of the $107,020.54 in contributions to Rex in the second quarter, only $3,670 came from outside South Carolina.
“Education is an important issue, not just for the Superintendent of Education race, but for the Governor’s race and other elections too,” said Patrick Norton, spokesman for the South Carolina Democratic Party, “and it’s disturbing that radical special interest groups from out of state are funneling so much money into South Carolina elections.”
“Our candidates and our elected officials should be accountable to South Carolinians, not millionaires from New York who are bankrolling politicians like Karen Floyd and Mark Sanford.”
“Jim Rex is a lifelong educator working for real reform in our schools and his support is coming from ordinary South Carolinians who care about our public schools across South Carolina. Karen Floyd can’t hold a candle to Jim’s experience and accomplishments and that’s why she has to rely on these out of state voucher vultures to pay for her campaign,” Norton said.
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They’re mentioning that Rex guy again. I guess I need to make a point of meeting him sometime…
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Congressman John Spratt is funded mostly by out-of-state banking and defense contractors. Why doesn’t that bother the editors of The State?
Um, gee. I thought that was the Democrats putting that out.
But if you ask me what I think (which I did not indicate in any way in this post), I think you’d have to be nuts not to be bothered that out-of-state ideologues are buying elections all over South Carolina so that they can force upon us something that most South Carolinians don’t want.
I would expect members of Congress to get money from all over the country. They are, after all, elected to govern the United States, not to run schools in South Carolina.
You actually think the two situations are compatible? I suppose you’d love it if George Soros decided to buy the S.C. Legislature, which is what these jokers are trying to do. He could probably do it, too. All he’d have to do is camouflage his aims the way these people do, and take out the best and most courageous legislators — the ones most likely to stand up to them.
Those people don’t give a damn about South Carolina or anybody in it. They’re pumping their money in because it’s a small state with relatively cheap media buys, and the guy with the bulliest pulpit in the state keeps their absurd idea on the front burner for free. We’re a target of opportunity, nothing more.
All of the companies are associated with Howard Rich, a wealthy New York developer who funnels money into private school voucher schemes across the country.
Who is this Howard Rich, and why does he want the state to take my money away and give it to rich people so they can send their children to tony private schools?
What exactly is the benefit to these “out of state” interests in “buying” politicians? Please be specific as to how the people funding these groups will benefit and in what way.
It’s interesting to see how much handwringing goes on over these types of situation regardless of who is doing the funding and for what purpose. The underlying fear of the handwringers is that some other group might be able to convince the ignorant electorate to vote a certain way. Admit it, Brad, you and the Democrats
think most voters are basically too stupid to make decisions based on reason and that they are basically sheep/lemmings easily led astray by ads, push polls, etc. Otherwise, why would you be so concerned? An intelligent electorate would be able to discern fact from fiction, right? So the best way to fight this is to attack the messenger instead of the message — because attacking the message regarding school choice would require voters to actually put some thought into their decision making process. Demonization is a whole lot easier task with ignorant people than educating them.
I’m not saying you’re wrong to be concerned about the general level of intelligence of the typical voter. Having run for local office, I got a close up view. I lost count of the number of people who came out of a voting booth and told me they had voted for me simply because I happened to be standing outside the polling place at the time. They had no idea who I was or what I stood for. A handshake and a face were good enough for them to potentially put me on a school board for the next four years. I could have been for school choice, corporal punishment, teaching evolution, whatever.
These are the same people who would probably still vote for Strom if he were on the ballot.
You and the Democrats have a long haul ahead of you. I expect plenty of scare tactics from both sides.
Brad, there are undeniably quite a few people very much interested in school choice, the only real school reform, a fact proven by Floyd’s primary win. Why would you expect these people to turn down out-of-state contributions? This just means that some people with an altruistic goal to improve schools all across America see a promising situation in South Carolina, and I certainly hope that their support will pay off for the children of this state who have been failed by the educracy for far too long. If it takes out-of-state contributions to accomplish real reform, then I say Bring ‘Em On!!
What bothers me much more is the fact that a special interest group with a strong vested interest in the failed status quo is allowed to contribute mucho dinero to Rex in an effort to block any meaningful reform. Why are the employees allowed to throw lots of support to one of their prospective new bosses and to blatantly favor one side?
LexWolf, at least you’re honest enough to admit that big-bucks out-of-state funding is OK for candidates you like. If only minds were open enough to be receptive to ideas (not just money) from out of state. Don’t you ever wonder why SC is lagging behind its neighbor states in most respects?
Brad, SC is chock full of “out-of-state” homeowners. They own beachhouses, condos, farms, businesses, you name it. For all you know, these people may own a condo on Hilton Head but reside in Denver, Co. But anyway, what’s the big deal. BMW invested here and they are out of country. Why would you single out outside money for this one single issue? When the Pew Foundation, Ford Foundation, or Carnegie Foundation spends money in SC, I bet The State is cheerleading that to high heaven. Your subjective bias on this issue is extreme.
Doug hit the nail on the head – loss of media control of the issue.
Newspaper people used to have a monopoly on molding public opinion by publishing, witholding and fabricating stories.
Then came radio and the power of the spoken word returned.
Next came television, then live teleivision to match radio reporting on the scene.
Now there is the Internet, and personal communications, which enables individuals all over the nation, and the world, to unite and reform the rotten government, one county and state at a time.
The NRA did it with reform of concealed weapons laws in Florida. It worked and, just as the Founding Fathers intended, the success has been spread to most of the other states, over the objections and outright lies of un-American politicians and their media toadies.
VOA,
I also would have no problem with out-of-state contributions for causes I don’t like. I just don’t see the big to-do about these contributions. Does anyone really believe that people would vote for Floyd simply because of $40K in additional ad money? Those ads might get her a small marginal increase in votes but face it, ads will never put her over the top if there isn’t already a close to 50% majority on her side.
Besides, considering the abysmal state of public education in this state, a little out-of-state influence sure couldn’t hurt!
Millionaire Public School Teachers
The following are the numbers of participants in pension funds of the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association-College Retirement Equities Fund who have hit certain wealth levels in their accounts, as of January 31, 2000:
* $1-million, or more: 34,870 participants
* $750,000, or more: 63,620 participants
* $500,000, or more: 122,200 participants
Source: TIAA-CREF
Brad, post repeat here. SC is full of out of state owners who hold condos, farms, businesses, tree farms, beach houses, etc. Don’t think that these people don’t have an interest in education in the state. That affects their property values and they may plan to live here permanently.
Lee, I bet quite a few of those well heeled teachers had initiative to start side businesses and/or invest wisely while teaching. ONe teacher friend of mine ran a go-kart, batting cage, ice cream stand deli business and raked in a lot of money outside of teaching. It would be interesting to know how many think and act like conservatives.
Lee, for an intelligent person, you can make statements as full of s*** as a Christmas goose. My late mother-in-law died with a net worth of over $ 1.25 million. She worked as a librarian and managed her money wisely for over 60 years. What does the retirement balances of (however many teachers) have to do with educational funding?
I simply providing evidence that public school teachers, with a retirement funding of approximately $25,000 per year of service, are not “underpaid” in relation to the taxpayers in the private sector. Their salaries, in fact, are near the top of the pay scale for workers in every state.
Dave, those funds are the TIAA-CREF teacher retirement accounts. Yes, many teachers have other jobs in the summer, and start businesses in addition to these monies.
Lee,
I can’t get concerned over teachers who put in 30 or more years of service building up large retirement accounts. They earn every dollar they get. Especially when most district superintendents in SC are pulling down salaries in excess of $100K (much higher in some districts) along with VERY favorable perk packages.
I’d love to see The State put a table showing for each school district in the Midlands, the pay and benefits package for each superintendent. Put it on the front page of the metro section every August right before school starts. And repeat it every November right before election day.
Here’s what Richland 2 school board approved last November (from their minutes):
— The board then immediately voted
— unanimously to issue Dr. Hefner a new
— eight-year contract at an annual salary
— of $145,500 and a 12.5 percent annual
— annuity, beginning November 30, 2005,
— and ending June 30, 2013
There is also a car allowance of about $700 per month.
Some of the superintendents have taken away cash packages in the $1,000,000 range, on top of their retirement.
I am not knocking the teachers, just noting that they make good money. Many now get an extra $10,000 a year just for passing National Certification. It’s a bunch of work, but they are the same teachers they were before, just now more expensive.
Labor costs are the largest cost in public education, and teachers don’t even make up half of that. The overhead labor is the fat.
Most taxpayers have almost no retirement, because their money is being taken to support state and federal retirees, and the current Social Security recipients in that Ponzi scheme. Most lower paid workers could have the same retirement nest eggs as teachers if their money was going into that intsead of supporting others.
I’m still waiting for someone to explain exactly how these out of state interests benefit by Karen Floyd winning the Sec’y of Education.
What is Howard Rich’s motivation? It doesn’t appear to be anything but attempting to drastically alter the “business” of public education.
Perfect example of out of control school spending in today’s State paper. Lexington 2 is considering taking by eminent domain, two properties next to Brookland-Cayce high school to provide more parking for the football stadium. The district is already committing to spend over $200K for the properties. Here’s the money quote from the superintendent/spender of other people’s money:
>What we intend to do is dress up that
>entrance a bit with, you know, some brick
>columns and cul-de-sac parking so that it
>will be a little more attractive,” said
>Barry Bolen, Lexington 2 superintendent
Let’s see – Lexington 2 saw a drop in H.S. students who passed the exit exam from 80% to 75%.. more than a third of the black students in the district scored Below Basic in English and Math… I wonder if that $200K might have a better purpose than a really nice parking lot???
Window dressing.
Of course, our public schools have always been more interested in nice-to-have, but mostly useless and unnecessary, peripherals than in their actual mission of educating our kids. Every new school just has to look great: huge sports fields, skyhigh ceilings, monster auditoriums, half-filled parking lots, every possible frill you can imagine while only one half their kids graduate.
In contrast those private schools for the “rich kids” make do with what they can afford. For example, at Heathwood Hall, one of the best private schools in the state, the administration is housed in 3 trailers pushed close together. A dozen or so of the classrooms are housed in, yep you guessed it, more trailers. A new sports auditorium was built for $1.5 million, barely enough for the feasibility study in public schools. The entire HH complex that serves nursery school through 12th grade probably cost a bare fraction of what your average ES, MS or HS costs your average school district.
Obviously it’s not the fancy surroundings or parking lots or even teacher pay that determines the quality of education but our educracy will never get that point.
Ride out to Blythewood and look at the Taj Mahal sports facility with an attached high school, so that the next time you hear District 2 admin whining about how, “We can’t even afford copy paper and crayons”, you’ll know exactly where the money went.
did all see that Inez Tenenbaum INVITED Jim Rex to speak to a gathering where ALL current high school principals were required to be there? The State pointed this out. Karen Floyd was not invited, but remember Inez is not really political, right?
In all fairness, can you call the millionaires teachers? I’d guess these are educational leaders that should be compared to leaders in other professions.
TIAA-CREF doesn’t publish the names of the teachers with over $1,000,000 in their pension plan. It does publish the statistics, which show that at least 25% of them are that wealthy, and as many as 50% will retire that wealthy. The older ones were exempt from Social Security taxes for a long time, so they had a lot more money to save.