
Columnist Issac Bailey of the Sun News editorializes on School Choice in South Carolina and Washington DC (5/16).
“Education decisions disappoint”
I haven’t decided whether I’m more disappointed in Gov. Mark Sanford or President Obama.
First Sanford.
In the latest school choice debate, the governor seemed all but silent. He felt it more important to hammer home his principles about limited government and tax cuts in the fight over a stimulus package he could not stop. The $700 million he has some control over may be wrestled away by the General Assembly, which passed a budget that included the stimulus money. That means a court fight is likely, one Sanford stands a good chance of losing.
Without that money, the state expects an additional 500 teachers to lose their jobs on top of 1,000 others that probably can’t be saved.
Sanford tried to use his leverage to force needed reform in state government, but he forgot one of the most important reforms, that of our educational system.
His “Put Parents First” bill of a few years ago wasn’t perfect, but it pushed the school choice debate onto the front page in a state slow to change. It would not have gotten that far without Sanford’s visible support. I like vouchers more than the tax credits he initially pushed. Still, because of his advocacy for choice, reform within the public school system happened more rapidly.
The charter school system is more robust, and the “public school choice” bill Superintendent of Education Jim Rex seems to be successfully ushering through the Statehouse probably would not have occurred at all had there not been a real school choice movement. Continue reading →