Had I not received an e-mail from a teacher saying she’d see me tonight, I would have forgotten that I’m appearing at this event tonight. OK, if you don’t want to follow the link:
School choice forum tonight
A
public forum on school choice will be held from 7 to 9 tonight at the
Richland 2 auditorium at Richland Northeast High School, 7500
Brookfield Road.Panelists will include:
- Cynthia Jackson, a teacher at Hood Street Elementary at Fort Jackson
- Richland 2 superintendent Steve Hefner, chairman of state
Superintendent of Education Jim Rex’s transition team committee on
school choice- Larry Watts of the S.C. Independent Schools Association
- Terrye Seckinger of South Carolinians for Responsible Government, an activist group
- Brad Warthen, The State newspaper’s editorial page editor
The forum will be moderated by Bruce Field from the University of South Carolina.
USC is sponsoring the forum along with the S.C. School Improvement Council and the Richland 2 Teacher Forum.Audience members can submit written questions at the forum or e-mail them ahead of time to barber2@gwm.sc.edu.
School choice has been a hot topic in the General Assembly for
several years. This year, there are competing proposals to offer
private school tuition tax credits or expand public school options for
parents.
I hope I still have something left to say on the subject. I had a three-hour-and-20-minute lunch yesterday (no martinis) with SCRG President Randy Page and SCRG attorneys Kevin Hall and Butch Bowers. It was affable, but it would have been a lot shorter had my good friend Kevin and Butch not come along (no offense, guys). I had just wanted to get to know Randy, since we had talked past each other so many, many times at a distance. Part of my politics-is-people schtick.
Do I routinely have such lunches? No, at least, not that long. In fact, this was a record. I’m still recuperating. Not until it was over did I realize it was longer than the previous record, the three-hour repast I had with the late Gov. John West several years ago when he was trying to do shuttle diplomacy between me and then Gov. Jim Hodges. Needless to say, we pretty much exhausted that subject as well, to little avail.
God bless Gov. West. He said that would go down in his list of personal failures with the fact that he couldn’t further Mideast peace as ambassador to Saudi Arabia. I thought that was a bit of an overstatement, but I saw what he meant.
He’d be gratified to know that whenever Gov. Hodges and I run into each other today, we are quite cordial. In fact, I met Mrs. Hodges for the first time at the Galivants Ferry Stump last year, and she was quite charming. Sometimes peace takes time.
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Maybe you can find out how they plan to use Richland 2 for Rex’s school choice pilot when they are already planning to put portables at the new high school in Blythewood after it has only been open two years. Hard to choose schools that are already full beyond capacity.
This is typical of the way The State handles all news concerning public meetings – they report it after the fact, or print the notice the day of the event, so working taxpayers can read about it when they get home from work.
Rest assured the audience will be packed with people who have an intense personal financial interest in moving someone else’s tax money their way.
Hopefully this forum will be taped and broadcast on the R2TV cable channel…
if that’s not the plan, maybe Brad can suggest it while he’s there. I know RNE has a full MultiMedia curriculum, so equipment should not be an issue.
We’ve gone from tax credits to vouchers to choice to public school choice.
We spend time and effort lobbying the state legislature to shift two weeks of school from August to June to “save our summers”. Meanwhile other factions point to the longer school years and educational success in Asia while others propose year round school.
We change the name of our low level math classes from general math to algebra 1 part 1 to math tech back to algebra 1 part 1 all after kids take 3 years of “pre-algebra” in middle school.
We propose character education, a return to the 3 Rs, intelligent design, and tech curriculum to prepare students for a high tech society.
Our standardized tests are changed from BSAP to HSAP to PACT to the test de jour.
Our bell schedules change from traditional to 4×4 block or AB block to hybrid schedules to traditional.
I’m not sure how many times we shifted from a middle school to junior high model and back.
Personally, I have had students succeed because I have set and held them to high standards by holding THEM accountable for learning. Not by some test 8 months later (which is meaningless to them) but each and every day by checking homework, making them use their notes and making them TRY. Just like in the life they will face, they are the ones responsible.
I feel your pain, Randy, I really do! Now if only we had real school choice, none of that BS would ever trouble you again because your educrats would have to come up with real solutions instead of a bunch of fancy acronyms. If they didn’t parents would simply go to the competition! Yeah, I know, competition is a dirty word for you but our entire economy is built around competition — and works exceedingly well! Why wouldn’t an education system built on competition work just as well?
Notice that I included the chamelion called choice in my axis of the absurd.
The private school choice issue was put to rest by the voters.
Wow, Brad Warthen and Randy Page in the same room for hours and no one got strangled, mutilated, beaten to a bloody pulp and left for dead in a pile on the floor? Those must have been some world class bodyguards!
Randy Ewart says:
The private school choice issue was put to rest by the voters.
How? In an election for State Superintendent that ended in a statistical tie? Or was it in that invisible referendum-on-school-choice that appeared—where was it?—absolutely nowhere in SC.
What a silly thing to say.
Silly? I’d say the defeat of Republican candidate and school choice advocate Karen Floyd (though you could hardly get her to admit it) qualifies as a referendum on school choice. The fact that it was close means nothing. You sound like Al Gore whining about hanging chads. She lost- get over it. Republican coattails couldn’t even get her over the hump. That speaks volumes about the public’s position on school choice.
Leave it to the French to defend a misguided analysis.
WHL nailed it. If Frenchie or “American” disagree, offer up specific counter points in lieu of generalizations.
Fact: The state offices are regularly won by Republicans, often easily.
Fact: Even a Lt. Gov (SC2) who commits repeated bonehead acts was reelected.
Fact: Floyd ran for the office for more than a year than Rex and had huge endorsements, including one from the governor who was reelected in a LANDSLIDE.
Fact: The whole superintendent campaign was a vote on choice.
Fact: Despite all this, the DEMOCRATIC candidate won because of ONE issue, choice. 400 votes is a small margin in of itself, but taken in context this was a big deal. Voters slammed the door on vouchers.
Note that the Democrat candidate also won the last 2 times, at a time of almost wall-to-wall GOP success, with a far higher margin of victory (Inez got 59% to 37.4% in 2002). The fact that Rex squeaked in with the thinnest possible margin indicates that the business-as-usual anti-reform crowd lost significant support. You are right that the voters have spoken — this time! Even though we should add that they spoke very much out of both sides of their mouths. They may not have wanted school choice yet but they also did’t want to endorse the current failing system by more than a couple hundred votes.
The voters will speak again in 4 years and I submit that with the rapidly growing acceptance of school choice (who was in favor of school choice just a few years ago?) the voters will speak quite differently next time. Especially after they see yet another ill-fated “reform” attempt fall flat on its face. Sooner or later it will become painfully obvious that the only reform that hasn’t been tried yet is to introduce choice and competition into the system. I hope Randy will then be willing to again repeat over and over that the voters have spoken.
Lex, you made bold predictions for this last election with great self-assuredness. After the election, you were no where to be read on this blog.
The last two elections hardly had a popular republican governor incumbent endorsing the republican candidate (along with US senators).
Nice try Lex.
“After the election, you were no where to be read on this blog.”
Some of us work in the private sector, Randy, where not everything is neatly scheduled by the educracy. Nov and Dec are our busiest months of the year and that’s why you didn’t see much of me those 2 months. We were doing 12 to 14 hour days but now I have more time to lolligag on this blog again.
You are of course free to interpret the election results however you wish but I think you’re whistling past the graveyard if you think that school choice hasn’t made huge strides in the past few years and is continuing on its march. SCRG and other pro-choice groups haven’t gone away but see the last election as only a regrettable, but temporary setback.
This election was hardly a ringing endorsement of the status quo. For the first time in this state, almost exactly as many voters wanted choice instead of the failed educracy. Maybe school choice will fade away over the next 4 years. Maybe not. Maybe the next election will result in an educational revolution. Maybe not, but are you really so confident that voters will continue to accept educational failure despite record amounts being spent on education? Sooner or later voters will get tired of all the excuses and empty promises pushed by the educracy!
I’m both surprised and not surprised by your analysis of the election. You are too intelligent to believe what you wrote. On the other hand, ideologues are who they are.
Let’s review these elections.
2006 – Very popular incumbent republican governor wins reelection in a landslide. He broke with tradition and endorsed a superintendent candidate. This candidate followed the playbook for republican campaigning for 1 1/2 years. All the other state wide offices went republican. She still lost running on her choice platform to a candidate who ran a poor campaign and was in the race for 6 months. Brad didn’t bother with him until late in the summer.
2002 – Tennenbaum, the incumbent and popular superintendent, won reelection to no one’s surprise. Her opponent was a college professor who barely ran a campaign. There was also a democratic incumbent governor running for reelection.
1998 – Tennenbaum defeated the wildly popular David Eckstrom who couldn’t even win Spartanburg or Anderson County. The republican incumbent governor was just as wildly popular…among flag opponents who “dumped Beasely” that year.
So you are suggesting that the close election this year was due to an increased demand for choice as opposed to the political environment? What flavor is that koolaid?
We can argue about this until the cows come home, Randy. Fact is that Rex won this election by a few hundred votes only. Given the upward trajectory of the school choice proponents and the downward trajectory of reform opponents it will be very interesting to see how this will play out in 4 years.
Further, don’t forget that Rex doesn’t have any sort of veto power. We may well see some sort of school choice even before his term expires, despite his opposition. Isn’t there a bill in the legislature right now? A legislature sporting 3 fewer choice opponents, I believe, who were knocked off in the election.
It’s amusing to see you bring up bold predictions then shy away when I point out your predictions last fall. Then you bring up the previous elections and when I bring out the facts about those elections you shy away.
The fact is that in one of the conservative strongholds in which republicans are regularly voted into state wide offices, your choice candidate LOST. If a republican isn’t going to win in the conditions she had, when will it happen?
BTW, when has the republican legislature passed a choice bill? Seeing that Tennebaum didn’t yield “veto power” over the past 8 years, where’s choice? The most recent, PPIC is a mere shadow of what you propose.
Lex has a point, Randy.
When Goldwater was annihilated in 1964 rightwing monied interests led by William Simon decided to put their millions into a long term effort to move the country rightwards.
Forty years and $40 million later they started seeing results.
Now, we’ll see if the fat cat libertarian ideologues bankrolling PPIC and SCRG are willing to keep the gravy train going.
Given the their success at accelerating the national transfer of wealth to the monied class, I suspect that they’ll gladly keep pouring resources into PPIC.
Unless pro-public school folks organize at the grassroots, I’m pessimistic about the continued resistance to tax dollars funding unaccountable, private and parochial schools for the upper class.
SC voters are far to susceptible to the faux populist, anti-gubmint and anti-intellectual themes that SCRG promotes.
Gee, imagine that – American citizens “susceptible” to the idea of self-government, Constitutionally limited government, and value and accountability for their tax dollars spent.
How did the government schools fail to indoctrinate so many people in being subjects instead of citizens?
It’s not “self-government” for tax dollars to fund schools over which the people as a whole have no control.
You’re free to send YOUR dollars almost anyplace. You’re NOT free to use TAX dollars (from all taxpayers) to promote parochial education or new age education or whatever…
Bottom-line, Lee– and, I know that this idea drives you further around the bend– when you give your taxes to the gubmint then only your representatives in gubmint can say where it goes. And, as much as you don’t like it, judges have decided that the U.S. Constitution prohibits tax dollars supporting religions.
RTH, the proof is in the pudding. We’ve had a legislature that has been heavily republican. We’ve had a republican governor for 4 years who pushes the issue heavily. We have a weak teacher’s “union” (nothing more than an organization). What do the choice advocates have to show for this?
PPIC, a shell of a choice plan which Floyd could hardly bring herself to support, is hardly what Lex is proposing. Even Milwaukee which has had choice for 15+ years doesn’t have a program close to what Lex suggests.
Bring on the fatest cats, it ain’t happening.
Looks as if Randy finally got his wish of a statewide school choice law. He will also finally see the lawsuits flying as he never wanted to believe when I said so. The amounts are of course still far from adequate but it’s a giant step in the right direction. And it could happen here in SC, too!!
Amazingly enough, I don’t recall seing anything about this in the state or the rest of the drive-by media. A Google search only brings up stories in a local paper and in the libertarian NY Sun plus various school choice groups. You’d almost think that the drive-by media don’t want people to know about this – nah, they’d never do that, would they?
Break-Through in School Choice
By ADAM SCHAEFFER
February 14, 2007
Utah has just approved the nation’s first universal school choice program, and in New York, Eliot Spitzer has become the first Democratic governor to propose a private school choice program in his state budget. These two firsts are a major shot in the arm for education reform, and they offer a glimpse of the possibilities to come.
With the Utah House voting 38-37 and the Utah Senate voting 19-10, the Republican-dominated Legislature passed the nation’s first general — rather than targeted — school choice program, and Governor Huntsman, a Republican, signed it into law on Monday. There’s still a long way to go until this program has a chance to mature into something that will revolutionize education. Private schools will be concerned that the political tides might turn against the program, and even with certainty that the program will stay, it will take time for them to respond to families’ demands.
Caveats aside, Utah has breached a major barrier to real education reform. Past programs, like those in Wisconsin and Ohio, have targeted small, special populations such as children with disabilities or low-income children. Utah’s is the first program to treat school choice as a general education reform that can and should help all citizens. Every family deserves a real choice of schools, all children deserve an education that works for them, and all taxpayers deserve control over how their education dollars are spent.
Unfortunately, the Utah victory shows that Democrats are still strongly opposed to vouchers, and Republicans remain ambivalent. Not one Democratic legislator voted for the voucher bill, and only an overwhelming Republican majority allowed it to pass. But a hefty 31% of Republican representatives voted “nay” with the Democrats.
Fortunately, another recent turning point provides hope that the political problems of school choice can be substantially mitigated. Governor Spitzer proposed a tax deduction for private school tuition in his 2008 budget. At $1,000, the deduction is very small, but it’s a huge political break-through.
So the poor kids in Salt Lake City can go to Juan Diego Catholic HS if they can scrounge up the $5000 difference between the voucher (scholarship is what it’s called now) and the tuition (not to mention the $600+ fee and supplies…).
Of course, Juan Diego will have to accept all of the new governmental oversight attached by this legislation. Funny Lex, wasn’t the point of private school choice to avoid the government and let Adam Smith’s hand be the guide?
This legislation is obviously the result of “ambivalent” republicans who obviously didn’t care much about meaningful choice.
Imagine the joy the poor are feeling in NY with the $1000 offer to pay the tuition up there! I guess Brooklyn Friends or Poly Prep in Brooklyn are out at only $25,000 per. I didn’t even touch Manhattan.
The “political break through” analysis is a nice little addition from an editor at a highly conservative newspaper struggling to pay its bills. Maybe they can use that $1000 scholarship.
Real consumer choice and supplier accountability means the customer being able to take their business elsewhere, and rotten employees being told to clean out their desks on 5 minutes notice.
Lee, I’m amazed that one as accomplished as you can’t come up with an answer to the question that’s been posed before on this blog: What market mechanism will push private schools into poor rural counties (where they’re most needed), given the high fixed costs to start up such schools? There’s a big more to it than throwing together a few trailers and hiring teachers.
I have already answered this several times:
The market mechanism which will push private education anywhere is the same thing that pushes any business anywhere – profit motives.
There are no “high fixed costs to set up schools” in the business world, only in the world of government waste.
If students had the choice to spend the $12,000 now consumed by government educrats, they could hire someone like me instead. I would rent a much nicer facility than the average public school with the $240,000 tuition from my 20 students. I wouldn’t run out of chalk or any other such silly publicity stunts. I would turn out students who were more educated, and got into better colleges, and graduated from college.
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