“The district expends one of the highest per pupil expenditure rates in the state, when compared to like districts. However, the performance of its students continues to lag substantially behind that of other districts and/or is not improving, in terms of meeting its [...]
Fairfield County School District’s rude behavior toward an accreditation board’s investigative team drew a series of well-deserved rebukes from Fairfield representative Boyd Brown.
Brown called the Fairfield County School Board members “unprofessional,” and referenced their behavior toward the accreditation board as “embarrassing for the people of Fairfield County.”
If one [...]
Superintendent Thomas White’s employment contract has been extended to keep him at the helm of Spartanburg School District 7 until 2013.
This is an odd turn of events, considering the negative attention that Superintendent White has continually drawn to his own activities in the district.
This year many [...]
Fairfield School Board Gets Coal and Switches from Representative Boyd Brown
Fairfield County School District’s bizarre and irresponsible behavior have earned them a vocal new critic.
The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) released a report on the numerous academic and financial failures of Fairfield [...]
A very telling explanation of how the National Education Association’s (NEA) sees its involvement in public education.
Why does the NEA think it is effective as an “advocate?”
“…It is not because of the merit of our positions.
It is not because we care about children and it is not because [...]
Darlington County School Board recently took a retreat to review and assess academic goals for the district.
Based on comments made by the district superintendent and various school board members, these officials are in desperate need of a “Reality Retreat” to ground [...]
Charleston Superintendent Nancy McGinley knows all is not well in her district.
Even by the district administration’s own generous estimates, 20% of the students entering high school read at about a 4th grade level. The Charleston Post and Courier has been detailing the district’s [...]
Elementary schools and middle schools in the Charleston County School District are not getting the job done when it comes to reading.
According to The Post and Courier, Nancy McGinley was deeply troubled when she realized that nearly 20 percent of high school freshmen in the district [...]
Beaufort County School District Superintendent Valerie Truesdale has stated her intention to refuse any bonus she might receive for her work in the district.
During this time of fiscal uncertainty, Superintendent Truesdale is wise to refuse the additional funds, but hardly making a financial sacrifice. With an [...]
South Carolina is struggling with a persistent, widespread, and deeply troubling high school dropout crisis.
Despite the rhetoric from Superintendent Jim Rex, EOC head JoAnne Anderson, and other high-dollar nay-sayers, there is widespread consensus that the Palmetto State [...]
Pundits and politicos spent a great deal of ink and airtime analyzing and interpreting the initial results of off-cycle elections in early November.
As the dust has begun to settle, more nuanced understandings have begun to emerge.
One important observation: In both gubernatorial races, voters elected state [...]
The Education Oversight Committee (EOC) was established in 1998 as part of the Educational Accountability Act (EAA). Lawmakers envisioned a small agency, outside of the existing Education Department, providing legislators and parents with details of student and school performance.
Many in Columbia, and across the State, feel the EOC [...]
Driving from Columbia to Myrtle Beach takes roughly three hours.
The 150 miles, primarily along I-20 and US-76, requires six and half gallons of gasoline if you are driving a Ford Crown Victoria.
But why would drive, if you could fly?
That’s how Jim Rex, [...]
Video: The Voice’s Neil Mellen discusses how school choice helps students in rural schools.
Students attending rural public schools are among the most academically at-risk of all children – particularly in South Carolina.
That’s the conclusion of a new national study released by the Rural School and Community Trust, investigating [...]
State Lawmakers are making plans for their return to Columbia in January.
Here is a list of bills they have already submitted that deal with K-12 education policy and the revenues collected to fund it’s $8.4 billion appetite.
H. 4169 – Candidate of the [...]
Budget cuts should mean instruction- focused prioritization, but that has not been the case where “education” contractors and consultants have been concerned.
If Superintendent Rex is worried that more budget cuts will “devastate” local school districts, why is he allowing The SC Association of School Administrators [...]
“Just look at this wonderful produce!”
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce “Leaders and Laggards” education report is the latest in a series of hard blows to parental confidence in South Carolina’s public education system.
First, the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) released a study ranking [...]
Classroom teachers, not consultants and bureaucrats, ought to be the top priority in the South Carolina public school budgets.
That realization led State Representative Bakari Sellers (D-Bamberg) to call for the phase-out of South Carolina’s expensive and controversial Educational Oversight Committee (EOC), once hailed as [...]
“Nearly three in 10 students repeated ninth grade in South Carolina.”
That’s the latest bad news about South Carolina’s $12,ooo per student public schools, as reported by Education Week.
The K-12 policy newspaper detailed the findings of a Johns Hopkins researcher who [...]
The Charleston Public School District is no stranger to controversy.
Reporters have determined that one-in-five rising high school freshman read at-or-below a fourth grade level.
There has been outrage over big dollar bonuses for administrators and principals at failing schools.
Persistently failing schools in [...]
The Weekly Standard is reporting that key local Democrats are frustrated with President Obama for his failure to support the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program.
That school choice program, supported by 75 percent of District residents, provides low-income children with support to attend private schools.
Advocates for the [...]
In recent weeks, two major studies have come out portraying South Carolina as among the worst in the nation when it comes to graduating high school students. However, Jim Rex’s statements about South Carolina’s graduation performance paint a considerably more favorable picture. Watch the video above to see The Voice’s [...]
Students attending rural public schools are among the most academically at-risk of all children – particularly in South Carolina.
That’s the conclusion of a new national study released by the Rural School and Community Trust, investigating the role of poverty [...]
“I would question their ability to give the type of leadership a school district needs to improve.” Dr. Mark Elgart, Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, on Fairfield County School District
Fairfield County public schools rank among the lowest performing districts in the state of South [...]
Despite the “budget crunch,” taxpayers foot the bill for Karen Woodward’s raise.
According to Edwin Harmon, Lexington School District One Board Chairman, the district has been going through “some of the most challenging budget circumstances we have ever seen.”
During a May budgeting workshop, Superintendent [...]
Dropout Robot likes freshmen, and lives at 50% of South Carolina High schools.
Late in October, the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) released a disturbing report detailing South Carolina’s persistent dropout problem.
The Voice relayed data from SREB that painted [...]
Dropout Robot wants your kids, and your money.
If Jasper County School District can’t find enough money to operate schools, it is not because taxpayers have been stingy about pouring funding into the district.
For the 2009-2010 school year, the district is projected to spend [...]
Dropout Robot goes national.
Fresh on the heels of the damning SREB report detailing South Carolina’s massive high school dropout problem, the Education Trust has released another alarming study on graduation rates and student performance.
The report found that your [...]
“More bad news for the Kershaw County School District…”
That’s according to reporter Jody Barr at WIS, the NBC affiliate in Columbia, South Carolina.
The WIS news team has reported that public schools in Kershaw are facing “more budget cuts… which will save about $325,000.”
Penny-pinching (and [...]
Dropout Robot is still hungry for kids!
Now you can be the proud owner of a “Vouchers Scare Me” avatar on your Facebook page, thanks to the folks over at Team “Turnaround Governor“.
In one of Rex’s recent website updates, he urges supporters to “voice [...]
“This is an artist’s rendering of the new Horry County School District Office.”
“If we receive the stimulus money we’re really looking at a 3 million deficit, the nine million is what we’re looking at the worst case scenario if we don’t receive the stimulus.”
-Dr. Cynthia [...]
An editorial published in the Powdersville Post, Greenville Times Examiner, and the Columbia Star:
No one likes standardized tests.
Students dread them. Parents wonder about their effectiveness. Teachers find them time consuming. Principals worry about “teaching to the test.” Administrators fear [...]
Weeks ago, editorialists at the State Newspaper penned a column in defense of South Carolina’s shamefully low high school graduation rate.
Neil Mellen, Communications Director at South Carolinas for Responsible Government (SCRG) submitted a reply.
During the “review” process several new reports and [...]
“Fiscal Frank” and the team during better days.
District Superintendents in South Carolina have a tough time.
When the State was slammed with massive budget cuts, many of these school officials found themselves defending unpopular plans to cut teaching staff. Adding insult to [...]
The Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) has released a new report on high school graduation rates in the American Southeast.
Predictably, South Carolina is doing poorly, but claims its usual status of “perpetual but imperceptible improvement.”
Making real apples-to-apples comparisons difficult, the State of South Carolina actually failed [...]
Even with many millions of dollars cut from the state budget, school districts have managed to spend more per student than the legislature originally projected. Unfortunately, this does not necessarily translate into classroom spending. Of the $8.4 billion spent by local school districts in 2008, only [...]
A guest editorial in the Island Packet.
Public schools are in trouble. Palmetto Achievement Challenge Test scores from 2008 indicate that only 29 percent of public school seventh-graders, and 28 percent of eighth-graders were “proficient” in reading.
Amazingly, some called this an “improvement” because [...]
A new report has come out showing that nationwide nearly 23% of black, male high school dropouts ages 16-24 are incarcerated.
The troubling news was outlined in the recently released “Consequences of Dropping Out of High School: Joblessness and Jailing” report, a collaborative effort between some [...]
Some South Carolina School Districts Have Turned Waste and Failure Into an Art Form
School budget cuts have been decried, bemoaned, and widely publicized.
Parents have heard about teachers and school employees losing their jobs. School officials say that further cuts will harm classroom instruction, as they defend [...]
Many South Carolinians have been shocked to learn that certain school districts actually increased spending during a time of budget cuts and teacher layoffs. Especially concerning is the revelation that administrative spending across the state rose by 8.5%, or 1 and a half times as much [...]
Incumbent politicians and candidates for public office often run afoul of South Carolina’s State Ethics Commission.
The Commission was created by seated lawmakers to enforce state ethics laws, and to provide “transparency and disclosure” in the realms of political contributions, campaign spending, and [...]
Despite dramatic threats of teacher firings and forced furloughs, public schools in South Carolina spent over $12,000 per student in 2008.
Of the massive $8.4 billion taxpayer “investment” in public education, a paltry 44 cents per dollar was spent on [...]
Taxpayers looking for specifics on how local schools are spending money will appreciate the third-party spending data in the “Local Government Finance Report,” put out by the State Budget and Control Board’s Office of Research and Statistics.
The Voice evaluated the report, and found that per student [...]
Dorchester School District 4 is now offering free tutoring to students who are eligible for free and reduced lunch, and enrolled in a Title I school providing Supplemental Education Services for 2009-2010.
According to the Education Oversight Committee, about 87% of all the students in Dorchester District [...]
The Edgefield County School Board is following in the time-honored, bureaucratic tradition of praising their own administration, regardless of how well, or how poorly, schools in the district perform.
On many occasions, district superintendents notorious for greed, incompetence and academic failure manage to receive [...]
“Don’t worry son, we just need more time and money to turn these failing schools around.”
By default, school districts should promote literacy. Taxpayers in South Carolina spend good money to fund schools where their children can learn to read and write.
In light of what public schools are [...]
Imagine you are a reporter in South Carolina.
You hear about a new study looking at student performance. It deals with the achievement gap between different types of students.
The research is authored by a nationally- recognized, nonpartisan research organization. The summarized “key findings” alone span 37 pages. [...]
Jim Rex, current superintendent of education, and aspiring candidate for “Turnaround Governor,” is operating under some serious misapprehensions.
In a recent post on his campaign blog, Rex stated,
“South Carolinians are sick of being the punch line of national jokes, and they are looking for a [...]
According to a recent study by the Michigan Senate Fiscal Agency, more and more parents are exercising school choice any way they can get it.
The report notes that from 2002-2008, the percentage of Michigan students who did not enroll in the school for which they [...]
“…a definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
That’s according to State Senator Vincent Sheheen, a South Carolina Democrat who happens to be running for Governor.
Sheheen has very aggressively made the case [...]
SCASA is a controversial government employee union comprised of local and state public education bureaucrats.
In South Carolina, one-size-fits-all government schools run by SCASA members spend over $11,000 per student.
Despite the huge sums of money, students in the Palmetto State suffer. A mere 44 cents per [...]
In 2001, lawmakers in Pennsylvania passed legislation creating a highly popular corporate tax credit for education. It serves both public and private school students.
The law provides for a credit on a corporation’s state income tax when it makes contributions either to a Scholarship [...]
“System over Student”
Bureaucrats at the highest levels of South Carolina’s outdated government school system have fiercely clamored over state budget cuts reducing educational resources. Despite economic conditions that significantly all state agencies, and all taxpayers, education officials have balked at prioritizing spending [...]
Teachers are still in fear for their jobs, and South Carolina taxpayers are still reading about how their property and sales taxes could go up to make up for shortfalls in local school district budgets.
A one month $33,000+ increase in consultant and contractor spending does [...]
School District Officials are lobbying hard for later, weaker report cards
South Carolina’s own Educational Barney Fife (the Educational Oversight Committee, or “EOC“) is supposed to be an independent non-nonpartisan agency. As part of the the Education Accountability Act of 1998, the EOC was [...]
A few telling tales of school board “governance” around South Carolina.
NO CHOICES
In Dorchester School District 4 board members were supposed to seek an alternative public middle school to offer students, due to the fact that Dorchester 4’s own two middle schools (Clay [...]
thevoiceforschoolchoice, choicevoice
