Biz Leaders angry at Public Schools

Head in the Sand: parents aren’t always looking critically at their local public schools (and “Dropout Jim” Rex is thankful).

Business leaders are more realistic about South Carolina’s failing government schools than the parents whose children attend them.

That’s according to yet-another high dollar “survey” by South Carolina’s Educational Barney Fife (the EOC).

From The State Newspaper‘s “S.C. public schools get mixed reviews” story (6/14):

Two-thirds of S.C. business leaders say the state’s K-12 public school system is not providing students with key knowledge.

That contrasts with how parents and educators rate public schools. Nearly half of parents and 56 percent of educators say schools are getting the job done.

Based on the wide spread proliferation of “dropout factories” in South Carolina, as well as the fact that South Carolina’s so-called “best public schools” are underperforming their regional and national peers, this frustration is well justified.

Sadly, many parents seem to ignore reports on worsening college preparation, sinking SAT scores in wealthy white suburban school districts, and rampant fiscal waste that draws precious public resources away from the classroom.

Other parents have begun to clue in.

These are the parents who have gone to Columbia to demand real reform.

These are the parents who have challenged the failed polices of Jim Rex directly.

These are the parents who have called out politicians blocking reform.

These are the parents who have taken on powerful special interest using public money and position to fight reform.

These are the parents who demanded anti-reform newspapers and editors be held to their own words, and used opinion pages to voice their righteous discontent with the shortcomings of a one-size-fits-all government school monopoly.

These are the parents who are tired of public schools blaming parents for their systemic failures.

These are the parents who want School Choice -in the form of educational tax credits- to provide every child in South Carolina equal access to the classroom, teacher, and curriculum best suited to the children’s specific learning needs.

Jim Rex admits some schools are “dropout factories”

South Carolina State Superintendent of Education Dr. Jim Rex admits to the existence of “dropout factories,” which he blames for the state’s shameful 55.6% on-time graduation rate.

Video footage was taken of Rex speaking at Education Department orchestrated “Town Hall meeting” at Greenville’s J.L. Mann High School on May 28, 2009.

Despite the shameful dropout rate, Rex is committed to blocking serious reform being push by parents and educators across the state.

Obama’s School Choice Plan

President-elect Obama’s school choice plan: “Do as I say, not as I do.”

Despite much talk from President-elect Obama about his faith in public schools, he has chosen to send his two children to an exclusive, $29,000-a-year private school in Washington. This exercise of school choice has been noted by many as not in keeping with his campaign rhetoric about the danger of parents employing private school choice.

In an article for Forbes.com, Clint Bolick of the Goldwater Institute Scharf-Norton Center for Constitutional Litigation, writes -

“During the campaign, Obama said he supports charter schools, which are public schools that are free of some bureaucratic constraints, but that he opposes private school choice, because it doesn’t work. Turns out it does work for the Obamas, who determined that no public or charter school in the nation’s capital would be the “best fit” for their daughters. Instead they chose Sidwell Friends, an exclusive private school…”

Educrats in the news

• Bureaucrats in under-performing Richland and Lexington school districts congratulate themselves on offering public school “choice” transfer options already mandated by federal law.

• With 82 percent of public schools failing to meet federal performance goals, Jim Rex again resorts to handing out faux awards to needy public school administrators.

• Despite a whopping $11,480 in funding per child, public school leaders use guilt-laden pleas for money directly from parents and community members.

• Upstate paper fawns over Jim Rex, decides 82% AYP failure is a sign of “success.” Ignores unflattering real-world comparison with competitive public schools in North Carolina.

• Anderson and Pickens school districts chiefs get defensive about low test scores and rise in number of failing schools.

• Rex and public school officials remain awkwardly quiet in wake of media focus on public school ties with (domestic terrorist) Bill Ayers.

• Awesome editorial in the Item about big-government’s failures (too bad they don’t recognize this breakdown of command and control statism in the public education monopoly)

Wealthy white kids furthest behind in Upstate

Great new news story in the Greenville Journal, courtesy of FITS News (link) about the “relativity” of student achievement in South Carolina.

As we have explained, the “best” schools in South Carolina make parents and politicians proud because they compare well with failing schools in the Corridor of Shame.

But in absolute terms, these “good” schools in Fort Mill, Rock Hill, Anderson, Spartanburg, and Greenville are way behind where they need to be.

That’s most obvious when you compare the kids in these schools to similar kids in other states, students whose family income, parental education, and standard of living make them an apples-to-apples comparison.

When we look at these numbers, we see kids in South Carolina are not competitive, even with our immediate neighbors in Georgia and North Carolina. In fact, SAT scores at the best South Carolina districts averaged more than 200 points behind the best districts in North Carolina.

Now Anna Mitchell of the Greenville Journal has looked even deeper, also considering the types of classes that students are taking. She wanted to know if the upper middle class students in the Upstate and other similar districts were as successful as many parents assume.

They are not. She explains:

“..In other words, white students, well-to-do students, students taking calculus and students whose parents have graduate degrees all scored among the lowest in their subcategories compared to their counterparts in other states.“

Mitchell’s story is well-researched and quite through; let’s hope the Journal posts it online in full!