SC Republicans push more choice in education

Cayce SC House Rep. Kenny Bingham
supports school choice. Legislators
have made donating to education
freedom easier.

In too many cases, public schools have let down the people funding them.

There are many good public schools and lots of great pubic school teachers. But meddling by opportunistic politicians and administrators has damaged public education.

Some education industry insiders have gotten fat and rich, using our children as pawns for their advancement. The salaries are astronomical for the elite class in education.

Because of too much failure from those more interested in self-aggrandizement, and personal enrichment, parents seek alternatives.

And the greed of bureaucrats is not the only issue. Curriculum authors, too often, seek to indoctrinate children, more than properly educate them.

Many parents feel powerless by the expensive and uncontrollable behemoth public education has become. As a result, the number of charter schools is expanding at an encouraging rate.

In April, a ceremony was held at the SC Statehouse. It featured hoards of students with signs promoting their public charter schools.

S.C. Superintendent of Education Mick Zais pushed the cause for more funding for education alternatives.

Zais noted that the average traditional public school in South Carolina receives approximately $11,000 per pupil, while students in the South Carolina Public Charter School District receive approximately $6,000 per pupil. He called the disparity unfair. The money should follow the student, Zais said.

Legislators are listening

Locally: Rep. Kenny Bingham (R-Cayce) and Sen. Nikki Setzler (D-West Columbia ) were given Golden Apple awards by PublicSchoolOptions.org. Both support charter schools.

Zais and Gov. Nikki Haley received Golden Apple awards too at the gathering. Many of our state’s legislators, mostly Republican, were recognized for a commitment to and funding support of charter schools.

Education alternatives are working. And enrollment numbers exemplify a growing demand for access to public school options.

About 24,000 students are in public charter schools and the number has doubled in five years. About 40 groups are waiting to start new charter schools.

The charter school movement represents parents and taxpayers gaining some control of their childrens' education. If the traditional public school is not adequate, there are now options.

Education alternatives provoke Big Government allies

Associate Editor Cindi Ross Scoppe of Columbia’s The State newspaper is spitting mad.

In a column, today, Scoppe vents her anger over legislation in South Carolina that allows a tax credit for donors to non-public school scholarships.

She calls the education-funding tax credit a scheme to throw tax dollars at private-schools.

Scoppe blames legislators for not spending more public money on the traditional public school system.

Scoppe also lambastesparents who “honestly don’t understand why they should have to pay for those private schools themselves.”

In the end, Scoppe decries money leaving the hands of government, and being put under the control of the people.

She said “what governments charge people for is the cost of living in a free society.”

Maybe it should be explained to Scoppe that the expansion of school choice is the manifestation of the people, who pay the government, taking back that free society.