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GOP hopefuls neglect Lexington County

This and that from the Lexington County Convention

By Louis W. Neiger, CLU

South Carolina has increased education spending by 137 % over the past two decades, which ranks 3^rd highest in the nation.  ACT & SAT Scores according to the College Board for 2006 in South Carolina continue to be among the lowest in the nation.

Newberry County schools are very close to all these statistics being near the bottom scholastically and near the top in spending increases with Lexington County coming in a little better.

The Newberry administrator states our school system receives around $7500 per student from federal, state and local taxes and more per student for the other programs.  I have many friends in Newberry and Lexington that have graduated from the public school system and have had successes in their endeavors.  We have good teachers and it appears we have hired highly educated administrators.

Speaking to folks over the last few years and more recently, administrators blame the parents for lack parental involvement, not having the highest quality of teachers and as always not enough money. The teachers blame the administrators and parents. The parents blame the schools.  The school board claims they are doing the best they can with the limited money.

I attended two school board meetings in February & March and was dismayed. In the first meeting a good amount of time was taken up with representatives from every school in Newberry honoring our school board members by adding a book to their individual libraries.  Each spoke about how dedicated the board is.  I considered this a great waste of time for our board members and other folks in attendance.

The March 5^th 2007 Special school board meeting was about the estimated growth and the need for more classroom space.  I was impressed by how involved and knowledgeable most of the board members were.  Just prior to the start of the March 5th meeting I approached the newly elected school board chairman with all the board members seated. I asked the chairman what was the purpose of the school board.  He answered “for the operation of the school and funding for improvements.” Continuing our discussion, I followed up by asking what the board is planning to do about nearly fifty percent of our students dropping out of Newberry County high schools between 9^th and 12 grades for the past several years.  He stated they cannot micro manage the schools, that is why they hired an administrator.  I then asked the administrator, who was seated to his left, and he also said they cannot micro manage the schools.

 At the end of the special school board meeting about adding more classroom space, I was thinking of how many students are NOT getting a quality education and of how much is being wasted in manpower, money and good resources. No sooner had that thought passed when I heard a school board member’s, final comment that we must find money and look to expanding the gym so we can have championship games here in Newberry.  I almost fell off my seat. Nearly fifty percent of our students that are entering 9^th grade will drop out before 12^th grade.   The ones left are a high percentage of students not proficient in reading, writing, and math. The board members appeared to be more concerned about having championship games in Newberry.  Our school board members, administrators and parents should be more concerned with having championship schools scholastically, not wasting money, manpower and good resources. Get the money to the classroom.

I just read an article from The Wall Street Journal, Rontrell’s Choice, by Brendan Miniter, March 3, 2007.  It speaks of 55-year-old Faye Brown a retired public school teacher who founded Capers Preparatory Academy, in 2003, on Johns Island South Carolina, a rural, poor community. “ She rents out office space for forty-two students, kindergarten through 12th grade, with a yearly budget of - $160,000.  Only five students are from two parent homes. Many kids show up without lunch.   Often parents fail to make their monthly tuition bills. The article states most students are African American.  Mrs. Brown sometimes is forced to dip into her retirement account to keep the school running. The school places heavy emphasis on reading, writing and math.  As a result the schools average combined SAT score is 1150 that is 164 points above the state average. St Johns High School has an average SAT score of 788.  In 2007 the school expects every one of its students to go on to college. Emphasizes is on education NOT MONEY at Capers.

I believe most of our current school board members are fine people and want the best education for our children.  The board should split up and start meeting weekly or bi- weekly with the administrator and representatives from every school to discuss what they have done to make changes, what are the results and what are other possible ways to help the teachers succeed at giving the best education to the children.

There are many private schools that are having great successes.  Many home school parents have teachers’ credentials and have chosen to home school.  They have developed teaching techniques that many have said if they ever go back teaching they would try and implement.  These people should be sought out and contacted by the school administrators to see what is working.

One suggestion would be that if a child is not proficient in the basic skills any one month a certified letter be sent to the parent.  If the child or young adult is not proficient in the basic skill (not just basic level) than the child has no sports or other activity. If at the end of one year the school has not made at least a ten percent improvement than all extra activities, sports and trips stop for one year, or until at least a ten percent improvement per year to at least a 90% level.

Is this tough, NO, not when considering the alternatives, lower grades, high drop out rates, which adversely impacts the state with high incarceration rates and limited earning power. The South Carolina Education Bench Marking Project concluded a 5% increase in South Carolina’s graduation rate would result in $150 million more for the state.   What a shot of money to put back into education.

In conclusion, we voted our school board members in. It is time to stop the busy work and get down to business. Seek to be number ONE. Think outside the box look at and talk to the folks from some of these private schools or look at the global schools and find out why and how they are successful and make changes NOW.  We cannot afford another decade of mediocrity. Require our school administrators and teachers to strive to be number one.  No one remembers number two.

Sir Winston Churchill stated, “It’s not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what’s required.”

Louis W. Neiger, CLU has worked in the Insurance Planning field since 1981.

 Lou has been published in several papers as a guest columnist around South Carolina.  He and his family live in Newberry.    lwneiger@juno.com

Furtune 500 vs. Federal Government

Fortune Magazine has once again published its list of the 500 American companies with the most income in the past year.

2006 was a record-breaking year for American business; the Fortune 500 spent $785 billion less than their income.

In personal finance, spending less than your income is called saving for the future.  But in corporate finance it’s called turning a profit, which is considered evil in some circles.

So get ready to hear howls of indignation assailing these companies for turning a profit – a la Senator Clinton’s recent eagerness to take more corporate profits and do something virtuous and noble with them.

As we consider whether it’s immoral for Wal-Mart to profit – i.e. save – 3 or 4 cents of each dollar of its income, please consider the following:

In 2006, the Federal Government took in more money ($2,043 billion) than the top 10 companies on Fortune’s list ($1,983 billion).

Breaking that number down – the Federal Government received $8,023 per American, while Wal-Mart, Exxon Mobil, General Motors, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, General Electric, Ford, Citigroup, Bank of America, and AIG (the insurance company) combined took in $6,610 per American.

Elected officials should spend more time figuring out how we can spend less money on government and less time devising ways to punish companies that save more than they spend.

P.S.: In case you’ve just got to beat up on the corporations: cut up your credit cards, pay cash for your purchases, quit eating fast food, buy used cars that get good gas mileage, and save 5% of your income.

Unique among nations, America’s identity is not founded on race or ethnicity, but upon a powerful spiritual idea that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.” These rights flow not from a King, a constitution, wealth, or party, but from God our Creator. The Declaration of Independence, our nation’s founding document, tells us that government’s role is to secure these God-given “unalienable Rights.” To this end, our founding fathers boldly proclaimed their “firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence.” Our Constitution reveals the profoundly Christian roots of our republic. For example, consider this phrase: “…if any bill shall not be returned by the President within ten days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him.” Sundays are “excepted” on the same reverential grounds that mail isn’t delivered on Sunday.

There is ample other evidence of our Christian roots. Christmas and Easter are national holidays, the Presidential Oath of Office asks God’s blessing, every session of Congress and the Supreme Court begins with prayer, and chaplains have served our military since Washington commanded the Continental Army.

We can ponder if it would even be possible to write our founding documents in today’s America. Some among us are determined to make this a very different nation from the nation established by our founding fathers. Groups like the ACLU have succeeded in their unrelenting campaign to rewrite America’s history and to ban our religious expressions from the public square and from our schools.

But our schools are supposed to instill in our children a sense of what it means to be an American, teach American history truthfully and accurately, and develop good and virtuous citizens. How can schools possibly do this when school systems across America are refusing to acknowledge the historical fact of America’s Christian roots? They’ve even gone to the extreme of renaming Christmas and Easter breaks as “Winter Break” and “Spring Break.”

America has been blessed in the past because it honored the covenant that was drawn up in Philadelphia and secured with the blood of patriots. Should we then be surprised by what is happening when we have let our schools be stripped of prayer, have let textbooks be purged of all references to the religious roots of our nation, and have failed to even acknowledge those major religious holidays revered by the vast number of our citizens?

Not surprising, many once fine schools now have become places of deadly violence. Our popular culture has become debased and our country has become a place that earlier generations would be unable to recognize.

If America, the “shining city on a hill,” is to enjoy God’s continued blessing, our nation must return to its historical roots. When one has taken a wrong turn, it can be a long way back. But turning back can be the only way forward. A couple of school districts in other states have taken a small step on the return journey by restoring the terms “Christmas Break” and “Easter Break” to their school calendars.

Here in South Carolina, we should “stand in the gap” and refuse to yield any further to those who scorn our nation’s Judeo-Christian roots. At a minimum, our local school districts should respect the observances of our families, and our national holidays, by restoring the terms “Christmas” and “Easter.” At the same time, let’s continue, as we’ve always done, to protect the right of others in our society wishing to observe any of the world’s other religions — or even no religion at all — to pursue their choice in any way that doesn’t interfere with our right to honor the faith of our fathers.

(The writer, Richard Eckstrom, is the State’s Comptroller General.)

We must overcome this insane notion that the public education system will fix itself and somehow offer a quality education to every child.  Our citizenry will continue to fight a losing battle with the vicious cycle perpetuated by high dropout rates, high crime rates, and high poverty levels. 

Look no further than this past week for an example.  State Superintendent of Education Jim Rex did little more than give a baseball type slap on the rear to sixteen schools across the state in Charleston, Florence, Hampton, Lee, Jasper, Richland and Spartanburg counties that continue to fail over 9500 children.  As Post and Courier writer Diette Courrege described it, “the only consequence for the schools’ failure to make state-mandated expected academic progress would be to continue receiving state help.”

Even worse, as The State reports, 92 percent of the students attending those schools are considered low‑income and 91 percent are African-American.  Where’s the reform Mr. Rex?   Certainly his firing of 3 principals at these schools cannot be construed as any kind of real reform.  If anything, it may only make the problem worse.  Mr. Rex can fire principals but parents can’t fire schools.  This is ridiculous! 

But I truly think that Mr. Rex believes the system can be changed for the better.  Where he’s wrong is his refusal to acknowledge that it’s going to take external forces to accomplish that. 

The unfortunate truth is that no matter how badly these schools perform, or how slow the progress, South Carolina’s education establishment has shown it will never give underprivileged students the opportunity to choose a better alternative.  Instead, more tax dollars and time will be thrown at the problems, and five years from now we can expect to see many of these same schools in the same situation.

Many of these schools are not working and have not been working for quite some time.  And while public education officials have tried everything under the government controlled sun to improve the plight of these students, it has not worked.  The schools are still failing; scores are still ridiculously low; and we spend boatloads of tax dollars trying to improve them.

While there is no easy answer, one thing is certain.  The lack of real choice in our education system keeps poor families shackled to failing schools.  Right now, in addition to the children in these schools, there are at least another 140,000 poor students and 110,000 black students stuck in failing schools across South Carolina.  What will it take for them to be given a way out?

While boards and administrators talk about what can be done to improve school ratings, lives are going to waste because children are not receiving the education they need. 

There are many alternatives available in the private sector for families stuck in these sixteen schools, but only if our lawmakers determine to place educational choice in the hands of poor parents. At least forty private schools catering to underprivileged and minority students have been identified across the state. These schools could provide wonderful options for families desperate to get out of failing schools.   

Parents, clergy, teachers, advocates and lawmakers must determine to fight against the educational policies that cripple our state, and create educational opportunities in our communities. Public schools exist to educate children, and if they aren’t working, those children should have the choice to go elsewhere. The sooner we give families the right to choose the best education for their child, the sooner we can see real educational progress.  

Thomas J. Simuel

President/CEO

South Carolina Center for Grassroots

By Kevin A. Hall

The self-proclaimed champions of choice are at it again. This time the folks at Planned Parenthood have joined forces with fans of big government to impose their “choice” on you and your daughter. After being thwarted in their attempts to pass a compulsory child vaccination law for what is a sexually transmitted disease, they have finally relented – but only a little. They have reluctantly accepted an “opt-out” amendment to House Bill 3136.

H. 3136 would deny your eleven year-old daughter a seat in South Carolina’s public and private schools unless she is first inoculated with a new vaccine for human papilloma virus (HPV), a disease transmitted only by sexual contact. Unfortunately, the abortion lobby is joined this time by some well-intentioned public policy advocates whose preference for mandatory vaccination of schoolgirls raises the obvious issue: Who should make medical decisions for South Carolina’s children – parents or politicians? In all but the most extreme situations – and this is not one of them – these decisions are best left to parents.

Make no mistake. The advent of a vaccine for HPV is a major medical breakthrough. According to the American Cancer Society, nearly 3,700 women die annually from cervical cancer, which is usually caused by HPV. Because the vaccine has the potential to save thousands of lives each year, it is cause for celebration indeed. We can only hope that the vaccine will be made widely available to women in our state. How, then, you might ask, could anyone oppose mandatory vaccines for schoolgirls?

To start with, they are just that – mandatory. Anytime government requires parents to administer a drug to their child, there should be a compelling public health risk at stake. There is an essential difference, however, between chickenpox or measles (for which school immunization is reasonably required) and HPV, especially when you consider the risk of transmission in the classroom. A child can contract chickenpox or measles by breathing the same air as her classmates, whereas sexual contact is required for the spread of HPV. School immunization requirements came about to protect children from outbreaks of contagious diseases that could be spread in the classroom, not to compel vaccination. Mandating vaccination for a sexually transmitted disease, as opposed to a disease spread by casual contact, would be a serious departure from past public health practice. Assuming that sex is not permitted in our state’s classrooms – a reasonable assumption, I hope – mandatory HPV vaccination does not make our schools safer.

Why does H. 3136 target eleven year-old girls for mandatory vaccination? Fortunately, current state law provides that girls can not consent to sexual intercourse unless they are at least 16 years of age. Simply put, it is illegal for girls under the age of consent to have sex, and if they do, the man involved risks prosecution for statutory rape, a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison. When you consider that many eleven year-old girls have not even reached puberty, it is not unreasonable for their parents to conclude that a discussion of HPV and its sexual transmission are better left for another day. Parents, not the government, should be the primary educators of their children when it comes to sex and the attendant health consequences. While the recent amendment to H. 3136 gives parents more of a say in health care decisions for their daughters, it still encroaches unnecessarily into a parent’s right and responsibility to do what is best for their child.

The State has an important role in educating parents about the potential benefits of the new HPV vaccine, but the State should not substitute its judgment for South Carolina’s parents. House Bill 3136 would turn the historic rationale for school immunization requirements on its head without making our schools any safer. Hopefully, our General Assembly and our Governor will reject the call for mandatory HPV vaccinations for South Carolina’s schoolgirls.

_________________________

Mr. Hall is an attorney in private practice in Columbia. He and his wife are the parents of four school-age children.

Could the Mitt Romney campaign be outsourcing their “volunteer calls” to India?

One of SC Hotline.com’s friend received a call on their voice mail on Wednesday of last week. It was from a volunteer named Nelson who has a strong Indian accent. That would be fine normally but the gentleman then goes on to talk about why Sen. Jim DeMint is supporting Mitt Romney. He states Mitt Romney is against illegal immigration and amnesty. He ends with telling them to have a nice Easter.

This is not made up. This is an actual call that was received by a voter in South Carolina. We could not even make up something this funny. Click here to listen to the recording.

A student dropped by my office this week and introduced me to the Pod Squad. Sarah’s been working with SCETV to “reach out to thousands of first-time voters between now and the election.” The notion—not a bad one—is that by reaching young people online, Sarah and the rest of the Pod Squad can inform and excite them about the 2008 elections. See for yourself at http://www.readytovote.org/

If you’re reading this, you are probably also online and, perhaps, thinking what’s the big deal?”

Politics online is a bigger deal than it’s ever been. It’s now new. I was writing for allpolitics.com at least three presidential cycles ago and have the logo t-shirt to prove it. Candidates caught on that the Internet represented a direct line to potential voters—and contributors, right Howard Dean?

But jump back to our SCHotline home page—just for a moment—and the breadth of the medium is unmistakable. We are your link to the candidates, the parties, government, the media, the archivists, the analysts, the insiders, the bloggers, the political cognoscenti and those who just think they are. SCHotline serves as an aggregator, navigator and originator of news and information on the political scene. Pretty much one-stop shopping where nothing ever goes out of stock.

You can browse or make a beeline to where you want to go. Spend time or waste time. You can mainline the candidates and their policy positions, get the party line, the anti- and oppo- lines that call candidates to task or push them on the defensive, even the old line mainstream media in new virtual surroundings.

What’s taken place in the realm of political information is more than old guys, myself included, learning new tricks. It’s a new learning environment. It’s also everyone’s turf. That brings us to blogs.

Caveat emptor! Let the buyer beware. It’s one of the few phrases that linger from high school Latin I, or was it college Econ. 101? Syllogistically (now we’re in Intro to Philosophy), some bloggers are journalists. Some journalists are bloggers. Not all bloggers are journalists.

That’s where you’re on your own in interpreting the merits of all that lies in the blogosphere. Amidst this wealth of information, there is an abundance of inadvertent misinformation and deliberate disinformation. Most web sites are transparent in their purpose and orientation. Some are not. Many declare their political slant. Some obscure theirs.

Even blogging journalists face the dilemma of taking more blatant positions on the Internet than they might in a more nuanced newspaper or television report. Sometimes they are encouraged by editors to be edgier on line.

There’s an ample list of South Carolina websites and blogs at the bottom of our home page. Globally, there are an estimated 14 million blogs, and that was last week’s estimate. Some are enlightening, some amusing, others simply vitriolic. Let the web surfer beware.

Yet here’s the absolute beauty of the convergence of the web and today’s politics. You can be exceptionally well informed about the candidates, their positions, their funding, their families, their quirks and foibles. You never have to actually meet a candidate. In reality, only a small percentage of voters ever did. There is merit, though, in taking in an actual campaign rally and seeing a candidate in action in a way that a YouTube clip cannot accurately convey. We’re getting plenty of opportunities to do so in the runup to South Carolina’s primaries and ought to take advantage of that. After the primaries, we’ll only see them on the tube or on the web.

Those of us who move about on the Internet, whether agilely or haltingly, tend to be enamored of its capacity. We may overlook the far larger numbers who are either unconnected or uninterested. The low and declining percentage of citizens participating in American elections is a concern that precedes the arrival of the Internet. If the newest cohort of voters, and there’s one in our family, is engaged because of the readiness of information available via new media, I’m all for it. Go Pod Squad!

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Charles Bierbauer covered presidential campaigns from 1984 to 2000 for CNN. He is currently dean of the College of Mass Communications and Information Studies at the University of South Carolina, though the views here are his own and not those of the university. Dean Bierbauer is also the senior contributing editor and consultant to www.schotline.com.

BACK TO SCHOTLINE HOME

Sometime in the very near future we may be seeing a large number of trucks from Mexico transporting goods to and from manufacturers in the United States. This is all part of the North American Free Trade Agreement. While I am not against free trade, I think it is very dangerous to have trucks entering the U.S. that are driven by questionable drivers.

The commercial drivers being licensed in America have to go through rigorous training, are subject to background checks and are periodically tested for drugs on a random basis. There is no proof that our counterparts in Mexico have the same restrictions. As it stands right now, the drivers from Mexico are only allowed to drive approximately twenty five miles to a drop point across the border. What is amazing is that their trucks can even make it to the border.

We need to ask ourselves a few hard questions. Do we want these trucks on our already crowded highways? If one of these drivers happen to have an accident and run over a bus load of school children will they be prosecuted or will they hide back in their home country? Will the Mexican drivers be held to the same laws that their American counterparts are? How will we know that they have had ample rest when they cross the border?

We may find out the questions to these and others the hard way. I personally do not want think about the consequences of an errant driver that follows all of the rules, let alone one that most likely does not.

There is some legislation in Congress to help alleviate this pilot program for Mexican trucks. The NAFTA Trucking Safety Act-HR1756 was introduced on March 29, 2007, and The Safe Roads Act-HR1773 was introduced on March 30, 2007. Both of these were introduced as stand alone bills, but they were included in the Defense Spending bill that President Bush should and likely will veto. We need congress to pass these two bills and put a halt to have untrained drivers come into our country to create more havoc than necessary.

On April 23, 24 and 25 there will be a rally in Washington, D.C. and also the state capitols around the country explaining the impact these foreign trucks will not only have on our safety, but it may also have a negative effect on our economy from the decreased wages these drivers earn. To further educate your self on the pilot program you can go to Federal Motor Carriers Safety Administration for the full details.

Larry Donaldson 301 Spring StDarlington, SC 29532
Dona2026@bellsouth.net
843-393-7499