South Carolina - Vouchers for SC?

[Staff]

SC & GA are facing the same issues we are about education here in Charlotte. Here is some research on South Carolina. They are rated 50th out of the 50 states on education.

[Staff]

IV. Prospects For Change

Finding 8: South Carolina residents know their schools face tough obstacles and they do not expect an instant cure.

We found a good deal of realism and practicality in the expectations South Carolina residents hold for their schools. They know the schools have an enormously difficult task and do not expect miracles or a quick fix. Although overall ratings for schools are low, as has been described, they change somewhat when citizens take into account the practical difficulties schools face. South Carolina residents also make it clear that they endorse the public school concept and, despite their high opinion of private schools, they are not yet willing to abandon the public schools.

South Carolina residents say they recognize how difficult conditions are for their schools. As we have seen, a majority (56%) say local schools are doing badly compared to what they should be doing. At the same time, 63% say "South Carolina’s schools are doing as well as could be expected given the problems and limited resources they face" (Appendix 1). Residents are especially sympathetic to the plight of teachers. One man put it this way: My wife agreed to be a substitute teacher for a day in our school district. When she came home, she said, "That was hard work, they’d have to pay me a lot of money to do that every day."

Table 15 Some people have proposed a system of school vouchers where parents can use government money to send their children to the school of their choice—public, private, or religious. Do you favor or oppose this idea?
Favor 54%
Oppose41

If the public schools in your community had been failing to give kids a quality education of 10 to 15 years, which of the following would you want done first?

Overhaul the public schools 41%
Increase the money public schools get 16
Have the state government take over and run the local public schools 9
Give parents vouchers to make private schools a more affordable option 30

Despite this sense of realism, it is clear that South Carolinians also want to see some improvement and will not wait forever for it.
Read more...
http://www.myscschools.com/reports/scrpart4.htm

[Staff]

Groups push Put Parents in Charge Act
School-choice supporters hope issue will be emphasized in Sanford’s State of the State
By AARON GOULD SHEININ
Staff Writer
Supporters of Gov. Mark Sanford’s signature education issue have a message for the governor: Please put Put Parents in Charge in the State of the State.

As Sanford prepares for his third State of the State address Wednesday, those supporters are eager for the Republican to lobby hard in favor of the bill.

“I’d like to think it would be a major part of the State of the State speech,” said Tom Swatzel of Murrells Inlet, president of the conservative organization South Carolinians for Responsible Government, which has made Put Parents in Charge one of its key issues.

“There is a huge grass-roots effort to assist the governor in passing the Put Parents in Charge Act. I would like to see it be part of the speech.”


Read More
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/10726069.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

[Staff]

Documentary focuses on school funding debate 06:48 PM EST on Sunday, March 27, 2005

Associated Press

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Some of the state's biggest philanthropists - Republicans and Democrats - have donated more than $75,000 to produce a short documentary film on school conditions in poor, rural counties.

The producers hope the images of crumbling walls, leaky roofs, faulty fire alarms and unheated classrooms will shock politicians into action.

"When you have children in gloves and jackets in classes where the temperature is 50 degrees, that's not acceptable," said Columbia lawyer John Rainey, the film's initiator.

DVDs and videos of the film, called Corridor of Shame, will be given within a few weeks to the state's 170 legislators, Gov. Mark Sanford and community leaders across the state.

The annual debate over money for public schools will continue, but in the meantime, someone needs to spend money immediately to do things like fix fire alarms, Rainey said.

"We have a tsunami right now in these counties. We can't give a few million to them? What is wrong?" Rainey said.


Read more...
http://www.wcnc.com/news/southcarolina/stories/032705ccjrwcncscschoolfunding.17ddb8a26.html

[Staff]

Sanford panel aims to improve education 10:38 AM EST on Tuesday, March 29, 2005

By Associated Press

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- A new panel appointed by Gov. Mark Sanford will look at ways to improve education nearly a decade after lawmakers approved sweeping changes to make schools more accountable.

It's too early to tell what Sanford's Education Reform Council will focus on, said Steve Matthews, a Columbia lawyer who heads the 20-member panel of businesspeople, educators and students appointed earlier this month.

The governor has charged the panel with examining the state's K-12 education system with the aim of finding ideas to improve student performance on national standardized tests and cutting the high school dropout rate, Sanford's spokesman Will Folks said.

Sanford backs a bill that would give tax credits to parents whose children transfer from public schools. But the panel is not charged with studying the effect of school choice on public schools, Folks said.

"We don't need a council to tell us that choice improves public education because that's been proven in every market where it's been implemented," he said. "We're already sold on that solution.


http://www.wcnc.com/news/southcarolina/stories/WCNC-032905-ADSanford_Education.1866696c3.html