Quotes from The State
As per my previous diary, an 18 year old Chapin High School student has filed a lawsuit against the state due to Gov. Sanford refusing the stimulus money from the Federal Government. For those not in the know, here's a little recap.
Sanford has refused to tap $700 million scheduled to be paid to the state over two years to help schools and law enforcement cope with budget cuts. The governor wants lawmakers to agree to spend an equal amount to pay down debt before he draws down the federal money.
According to S.C. Attorney General Henry McMaster, who is representing the state in this matter:
A Chapin High School student’s lawsuit to compel Gov. Mark Sanford to tap $700 million in disputed federal stimulus money is flawed and premature, said S.C. Attorney General Henry McMaster.
Now he has given a few decent reasons about why this is, such as possibly going against the 10th Amendment. He has even gone on to state that:
But McMaster, who is representing the state in the suit, also said in a response filed Monday that he did not object to the S.C. Supreme Court taking up the suit without it going through lower courts.
See? Not so bad a guy. He even wants to speed up the process by skipping the lower courts and going straight to the Supreme Court.
Now, you may be wondering "Well, why write a diary when it's just informational? Those are boring!". While parousing these articles for information, I came upon one of the reasons why he called the law suite flawed that really got to me.
• The student, 18-year-old Casey Edwards, lacks standing in the case. Edwards is about to graduate, and her education won’t be harmed by South Carolina not accepting its portion of the stimulus.
So basically our Attorney General is telling people that if it doesn't affect you directly, that you should not even worry about it. I guess all these Human Rights Activists, Animal Rights Activists, etc. are just wasting their time eh? Why is it that someone (who is still currently in school btw) can't care about their classmates that may not be graduating this year? Why can't she care about that thousands of other students that have to live through this educational nightmare this state is in currently?
For those who don't know, right now South Carolina has the worst Education in the country, and also has the highest number of drop-outs. It's a really sad thing, and it is even more bothersome because each year the state cuts the Education budget even more. Right now our schools are in tatters, we can't afford to pay the teachers, and children are getting less education than even required for an average grade.
As of right now, Gov. Sanford has done just what he set out to do. He's been postponing anything concerning the Stimulus until after the schools negotiate their contracts for the teachers. I mean really, once all those pesky teachers are unemployed, they won't complain about him not taking the money right?
Local school districts counting on stimulus money to balance their budgets have 24 days — until May 15 — to offer contracts to teachers for the next school year. The state’s fiscal year ends June 30; the budget lawmakers are debating will begin paying for state government July 1.
I find it so disheartening that this state seems to care so little about the education of their children. Here in a state where we have so many "Highest of" and "Lowest in" ratings (none of which are good), it doesn't make sense that the easiest possible thing we could do to give our children a future is being fought against so hard.
If you want to do your part to sway Gov. Sanford's mind (if that's even possible...or in existence), here's the contact info.
Mailing Address:
Governor Mark Sanford
Office of the Governor
P.O. Box 12267
Columbia, SC 29211
Fax: 803-734-5167