It's the beginning of summer in the south. Throughout the state of South Carolina, schools are letting out for the year, high school seniors are walking across auditorium floors and stadiums to receive their diploma's. Children are anxious to sleep in and swim, and parents are groaning. And on Wednesday, May 30th and Thursday, May 31st, the South Carolina State Senate came together to discuss the failing public education system in South Carolina, and despite their good-hearted attempts, once again left behind the children of South Carolina.
Once again, the citizens of South Carolina are witnessing our elected officials take on the struggle of a broken public school system in their state. Once again we're seeing. rather then fixing the issue, they're attempting to put a patch on it, a piece of bubble gum in a large crack, to keep the dam from breaking completely. Once again, we're watching our lawmakers leave the children in this state behind again.
It's no secret..., the state of SC has remained behind the rest of the country in terms of their students being competitive with national standards. So to address this issue, South Carolina lawmakers passed the South Carolina Education Accountability Act of 1998, which included the development of the Palmetto Achievement Challenges Test (PACT). This test was used in lieu of the national standardized tests available. The establishment of these tests did our children a disservice, because, instead of providing them a well rounded education, teachers and school districts were teaching our children to pass the tests. However, since these tests met the requirements of The No Child Left Behind Act 2001, they remained in place.
And where our lawmakers stand...doesn't help much either. The current governor of this state Mark Sanford (R), is trying to push a school voucher program. Prior to Wednesday's debate in the Senate, you couldn't drive for 5 minutes without hearing a commercial promoting the school voucher program.
Our U.S. Senators, Jim DeMint and Lindsey Graham aren't public school friendly either. Although they both cast their votes for the No Child Left Behind Act, they're voting records are horrendous when it comes to funding Title I and Title II schools. Not to say they're not friendly to the public school system, after all, the honorable Jim DeMint did think that gays and unwed pregnant mothers had no business teaching in our public schools. And they both did vote on funding a few school districts with money so they can develop character enhancements, like using the term Sir and Ma'am. (Read L. Graham's news releases here.)
The delegates from SC for the US House of Representatives, with the exception of Robert Inglis Sr. (Rep, 4th District), are a little more public school friendly when it comes to funding, though Jim Clyburn's voting record isn't the best in this area either.
So once again, SC watched as it's states lawmaker. On Wednesday, a debate was held regarding school vouchers and open enrollments.
Voucher threats derailed 4K and a handful of other bills that could have helped the state’s poorest districts attract more teachers and update aging facilities.
Sen. Linda Short, D-Chester, said education initiatives have lacked the high-powered momentum they needed.
So instead of discussing initiatives and fixes for our current problems, they were busy fighting a measure from relocating from one type of school (private) to be able to relocate to another (public). What they didn't do was address the issues for the existing problems in place.
NO HELP THIS YEAR
Three education bills that would have helped the state’s poorest school districts won’t pass this legislative session.
4K. One would have provided kindergarten to all at-risk 4-year-olds.
New schools. Another would have provided money to replace aging, inadequate facilities.
More teachers. A bill providing alternative routes to teacher certification would have made it easier for certain professionals to become teachers, which could help poor, rural districts find teaching candidates
Read more of: Vouchers fail to stick to open enrollment bill
Measure’s fate uncertain as Senate continues debate today
By LISA MICHALS - lmichals@thestate.com
The State Newspaper, May 31, 2007
Yes welcome to politics in South Carolina where each politician doesn't want to be outdone. Thursday the Open Enrollment Bill was ok'd by the state Senate.
Senate OKs open enrollment bill
Conference panel to iron out differences between House and Senate versions
By LISA MICHALS - lmichals@thestate.com, The State Newspaper, 6/1/07
Living in a certain neighborhood soon might no longer be the only way for parents to make sure their children get into the best schools.
State senators voted 29-8 Thursday to pass the hotly debated open enrollment bill, which would allow students to apply to attend any public school, regardless of where they live.
Read more: Senate OKs open enrollment bill
So now, a number of children will now be able to go to the public school of their choice.
Good idea...., probably not. The same argument that is used against private school vouchers can be applied to the public school enrollments. Those with limited transportation, will not be able to take advantage of this program. The schools that are in need of the most help, lay in rural areas and may not have access to a "better" district.
The public school systems do work. My daughter graduated last week, not from the "best" school districts in our county, but from a good one, where the teachers were dedicated. Did it fail her? She scored 1360 on her SAT's (not including the essay portion), placing her in the upper 90% range of all juniors/seniors who took the test. She was accepted into every college she applied for, received a full scholarship for the one she's planning to attend in the fall. She was even accepted into a pre-med program at Duquesne University, which is one of the hardest schools to get into in Pennsylvania. Her class collected an accumulative of 6 million dollars in scholarships. So why then is the right so adamant about having the state pay for school vouchers, and the rest of our politicians want to place patchwork pieces in place instead of actually fixing the problem.
This is our future, yet our lawmakers continue to leave these children behind.