Greenville News supports public school choice

The headline tells the tale: "Open enrollment is a good idea."

That's the verdict of the editors of the Greenville News, and it accompanies an editorial that lays out in flat facts the case for supporting public school choice, the substance of a bill sponsored by Senator Wes Hayes and now before the Senate for consideration.

This is not the private school voucher bill adopted by the House in March; that one drains tax revenues from the General Fund, in turn draining available resources from public schools. The Hayes bills addresses choice among public schools, earning the praise of Greenville's editors.

A bill that would provide for open public school enrollment across district lines and ensure students have other choices such as single-gender schools, Montessori schools and language-immersion programs seems to be a reasonable way to provide students in South Carolina greater access to high-quality public schools.

The bill has been passed by a Senate Education subcommittee, but has a long way to go before it becomes law. A similar bill was passed by the Legislature in 2007 but vetoed by Gov. Mark Sanford because it didn't include a private school choice option.

Public school choice, or open enrollment, is an obvious place to begin creating competition for public schools. Public education is a constitutionally mandated function of the state government and it makes perfect sense for lawmakers seeking to increase competition to do it in a way that clearly is within their constitutional authority. A proposal such as this avoids any of the potential gray areas that surround the idea of using state funds to pay for or subsidize private education.

A bill that would provide a tax deduction for parents who send their children to private schools is being considered in the Legislature, but it does not offer the incentives that would truly increase competition for public schools.

Open enrollment for public schools would let parents opt to have their children attend better performing schools that are outside of their attendance zone as long as there is room in that school.

School districts would be able to turn down students seeking a transfer if a school is at capacity, and the bill would cap the number of students crossing attendance boundaries at 3 percent of total enrollment. These are sensible limits.

The bill also would require that students at all grade levels be offered one additional choice beyond the school they are assigned, according to a report by The Associated Press. Those choices could include single-gender, Montessori, language immersion, magnet, charter, arts-intensive, extended-day and year-round programs, according to AP. That sounds like a good idea, but lawmakers should carefully study the financial impacts of such a requirement.

This law would need to be a zero-sum proposal -- districts should not lose funding by accepting students from outside the district or meeting other requirements in the bill. Decisions on which students are accepted also would need to be made in a completely objective manner. For instance, this is not intended to open the door for schools to recruit talented athletes to bolster an athletic program.

Those cautions aside, this bill could increase competition among public schools. Under-performing schools could see their enrollment decline unless they take steps to improve, and that should be an incentive for schools to constantly assess their own performance.

In addition to giving students a choice to attend a better school, this bill could offer parents a more convenient option. Some parents, for instance, might seek a school that's closer to work than their child's assigned school.

It would be unfortunate to see this bill falter again because it's not linked to a private-school choice option. It makes perfect sense to separate this type of school choice from other bills that would open the doors to using tax money to fund or subsidize private school attendance.

With public school choice there are no questions of equity involving lower-income students who want to transfer, there's no question about appropriate levels of accountability to the state, and there's less concern about financial impact on local public schools. All of those are serious questions that need to be asked and carefully answered before South Carolina adopts any sort of private school choice. (That said, there is room in this state for limited private school choice that is carefully crafted and is aimed at increasing the options for children trapped in low-performing schools.)

Lawmakers would do well to give this bill a serious look and give state students the option to attend schools across attendance and district boundaries. The limitations in this bill appear to be reasonable enough to ensure that open enrollment in South Carolina would be both manageable and beneficial to students and our public schools.

South Carolina needs to take steps to continue improving the quality of education in this state. This would appear to be one such step that could be taken with little controversy and no negative financial impact on the public schools that are so vitally important to the success of everyone in our state.

Greenville News defends public employment penalties

Editors of the Greenville News praised today the legislature's move to raise public employees' required contributions to their retirement fund, calling it "not perfect" but "necessary."

Indeed, it's imperfect. It's also unnecessary, as lawmakers could have adopted -- could still amend themselves and adopt -- a host of alternative strategies, from raising sufficient revenue to address the state's obligations while holding public workers harmless, to restoring all of the positions that have been eliminated in recent years, which would infuse the retirement system with a wave of new contributions from new, potentially younger, employees.

Or, the legislature could have exempted all current employees from higher costs, but established higher contribution levels for all prospective employees.

Of course, lawmakers could have done something even more honorable and committed themselves to giving public employees decent wages and salaries.

This being South Carolina, I reckon it's too much to ask. We have corporate tax breaks to protect and private school vouchers to fund. It's a matter of priorities.

For the editors of the News, the priority is protection of the state's bond rating, not protection of public workers.

The fix is needed because the S.C. Retirement System fund faces an unfunded liability of at least $13 billion. That liability would double to $26 billion by 2041, according to a recent report in The State newspaper.

Such rapidly increasing liabilities would jeopardize pensions for workers who are depending on the state pension fund to maintain their standard of living in retirement.

The unfunded liability could have an impact on state taxpayers, too. If the state is unable to meet obligations to retirees -- or if it appears those obligations will go unmet -- South Carolina could lose its much-coveted AAA credit rating. That would lead to higher interest rates if and when the state borrows money, and those higher interest rates would lead to higher taxes for everyone in the state.

So when public employees -- many of whom qualify for and receive public assistance due to their low incomes -- pay this additional penalty for the privilege of being a public worker and hoping for a small pension in their retirement, they should feel good about it. After all, they're paying more so that the rest of us won't be bothered.

It's a great burden they carry, I'm sure, but that's why we have an institutionalized and permanent underclass in South Carolina -- to do the work of the wealthy, and to protect them from feeling any pain.

Say, is it still true that the tax on purchases of yachts is capped in South Carolina at $300? It's highway robbery; I don't see why the yacht-sales tax couldn't be cut in half, or eliminated altogether. But that's a note for another day.

These are not easy decisions. But poor decisions and the economic collapse of 2008 have put the state pension fund -- and pension funds in many states -- in a significant hole. That unfunded liability would have significant consequences if it was not fixed. For starters, state employees might not receive the benefits they have been promised. That needed to be addressed.

Great points, but let's pause for a moment on the reference to "poor decisions;" they deserve some attention, and not to be glossed over.

South Carolina has enjoyed some boom years recently, when times were so spectacularly good that we could afford to cut taxes here, cut taxes there, give corporate incentives to locate in our state, give a passel of new corporate tax breaks, and still achieve our highest priorities -- among them, to weaken public schools, cut public employment rolls, reduce public services, and make the poor suffer even worse.

Hey, what's good governance if we can't achieve our priorities?

I have to believe that if, among all that tax-cutting and tax-breaking and incentivizing during the good times, our lawmakers had also invested a teensy bit more in the state retirement system, we might not have wound up in a precarious position as we have. I learned about compound interest in the fifth grade, so it mustn't take much brain power to understand that a tiny increase in investment, when invested appropriately, yields great rewards over the long term.

Poor decisions, indeed, if our legislators didn't attend to their responsibilities year after year after year after year when they could have honored their obligations to the state's workers.

If this bill passes the Senate and is signed by the governor, lawmakers will have been successful in implementing reasonable changes that will preserve benefits for public employees and protect taxpayers from the potential default of the retirement fund. Of course, the state needs to continue watching the fund's performance, and it needs to ensure that further adjustments are not needed.

God forbid that additional adjustments will be needed. We'll have to re-institute poorhouses in which to lodge our public employees when they're evicted from their rental houses, and when their public assistance benefits finally expire.

Other states are facing the same situation as South Carolina and some of them have begun exploring a move toward the 401(k)-style retirement funds that many private-sector workers rely on.

Oh, that's a fine idea. Let's leave our public workers' retirement benefits at the mercy of the stock market and its corporate master, who have just proven since 2008 that they answer to no authority but themselves, and they respect nothing but their own profits.

If that's our best option, we might as well send letters to our public employees advising them to work until they die, as it's the only way to ensure a little income through that eventuality -- with an emphasis on little.

Editors of the News seem more than a little enamored of this notion:

Legislators should at least study such an idea to determine if it's a long-term option for the state's retirement fund. The recent changes, however, could buy some time to see if more dramatic changes would be needed.

After all, public employment is public service, and public service is about sacrifice. Who better to demonstrate sacrifice than our public employees?

It is not unreasonable to ask state employees to make some sacrifices to ensure their retirement remains stable rather than asking taxpayers, many of whom are seeing less stable benefits, to foot the entire bill.

Especially -- it goes without saying -- our wealthiest citizens, who struggle already with the exorbitant sales taxes on their mansions, acreages and yachts. Damn it all, the line must be drawn somewhere!

That's especially true in an era when private-sector workers are being asked to get by with less help from their employer for retirement because of wage cuts or freezes, frozen benefits, and change-overs to defined contribution retirement plans.

Let's not stop with that short list; by all means, let's add because of statutes that prevent private-sector workers from bargaining collectively with their employers.

If we're going to kick the proletariat in the teeth, make sure to get all the way to the ones in the back, the wisdom teeth. Anything worth doing is worth doing well.

These changes are fair, sensible and deserve to be passed. Then lawmakers need to watch carefully to ensure the pension fund can stay on the path to solvency while continuing to provide promised benefits to the many retirees who will rely on this fund during their golden years.

Golden years.

One laughs to keep from crying.

Greenville finalists White, Royster, Moody profiled

Biographical sketches were published this week by the Greenville News of the three finalists to succeed Dr. Phinnize "Penny" Fisher, retiring superintendent of Greenville County Schools.

I caught the sketches of two -- Lynn Moody of York County and Burke Royster of Greenville -- but didn't see the sketch of Dr. Eugene G. White of Indianapolis, Indiana. I found his biography online, however, at the Indianapolis Public Schools website, so it's included, too.

Dr. Eugene G. White was born in Phenix City, AL, to a single 17-year-old mother in December 1947. He was the first person in his family’s history to graduate from high school. He grew up in a time of segregation and Jim Crow practices in Southeast Alabama. In high school, he excelled in football, basketball, and baseball. His mother, grandmother and athletic coaches heavily influenced him. He was a starting member of the 1966 Alabama State Championship Basketball Team and accepted a basketball scholarship to Alabama A&M University. He graduated with academic honors and set career scoring marks at Alabama A&M University.

He was a teacher, coach and school administrator in the Fort Wayne Community Schools for 19 years. He was the first African American high school principal in the Fort Wayne Community Schools, where he served as principal of Wayne High School from 1985 to 1990. In 1990 he became the first African American high school principal of North Central High School in Indianapolis, serving until 1992. He was Deputy Superintendent of the Indianapolis Public Schools from July 1992 to January 1994. He served as Superintendent of the Metropolitan School District of Washington Township for 11 years. In 2005, Dr. White was named Superintendent of the state's largest school district, IPS.

Dr. White has served in a large number of leadership capacities over the years, most recently as President of the American Association for School Administrators in 2006-07.

Dr. White has received a wide variety of honors over his career, including:

2002 and 2009 Indiana Superintendent of the Year
2007 National Association of Black School Educators (NABSE) Superintendent of the Year
2006 Modern Red Schoolhouse Distinguished Service Award
2001 Alabama A&M University Athletic Hall of Fame Inductee
1997 Indiana Music Educators Association Outstanding Superintendent of the Year
1995 Center for Leadership Development Education Award
1992 named by Redbook magazine as a “visionary leader” as principal of one of America’s Best Schools

Dr. White is the author of the book, “Leadership Beyond Excuses: The Courage to Hold the Rope.” He co-wrote a second book, “Leading Schools of Diversity.”

He received an Ed.D. in Education Administration and Supervision from Ball State University in 1982, an Ed.S. in Superintendency from Ball State University in 1977, an M.S. in School Health from the University of Tennessee in 1971, and a B.S. in Social Studies, Health and Physical Education from Alabama A & M University in 1970. He is a Life Member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity.

Dr. White is married to Jetties White and has two children: Reginald E. White, Dean of Students and Head Girls Basketball Coach, Arsenal Tech High School in IPS, and Kimberly R. White, a teacher and coach at John Marshall Community High School in IPS.

Clearly, public education is in White's DNA, and it's nice to see that those genes were passed to his children.

Royster is already known to the Greenville schools family, having been a teacher, principal and deputy superintendent across the Upstate:

Burke Royster may not be a household name in Greenville County, but if your children attend Greenville County Schools, chances are they know who he is.

Royster, one of three finalists for the superintendent job, is the man behind the scenes who keeps the wheels turning in the state’s largest school district.

For most of six years here, he was deputy superintendent for operations — a job that entails overseeing the day-to-day management of everything from the school bus system to the heating and air-conditioning.

Last year, oversight of the academic programs was added to his list of responsibilities.

As a former teacher and principal, he’s well acquainted with both sides of the business of education.

Before coming to Greenville, Royster was assistant superintendent for administration and operations at the Oconee County School district, from 2002-05. He was assistant superintendent for administration and instruction in Oconee from 1999-2002.

A graduate of Clemson University who is currently enrolled in a doctoral program in educational leadership at the University of South Carolina, Royster started his career as a teacher, department head and coach at Star-Iva Middle School in Anderson County, from 1980-83 before coming to Greenville as assistant principal at Monaview Middle School, from 1983-85.

He was assistant principal for operations and administration at Northwestern High School in York County for five years, principal at Waccamaw High in Georgetown County and principal of Seneca High before moving into the district office in Oconee.

He holds state certifications as superintendent, secondary principal, secondary supervisor, and government, economics and middle school social studies teacher.

Among his accomplishments in his current role, Royster lists the development of a school-level student achievement comparison of Greenville County schools with schools across the state with similar demographics that have higher test scores.

He also initiated and led a task force designed to improve coordination between special education and regular classrooms.

And he is leading the development of the district’s Early College program, which aims to help under-achieving students from low-income families make it to college.

And Moody, a native North Carolinian, brought a solid reputation as a leader in that state to South Carolina nearly a decade ago:

Growing up in North Carolina’s tobacco country, Lynn Moody might have ended up doing like most of the people she knew – working in a cigarette factory or in some phase of the production of the state’s biggest cash crop.

But being the daughter of educators, she saw another way of life beyond the tobacco fields.

“I think there’s no greater calling than education,” Moody, superintendent of York County District 3 and one of three finalists for the superintendent job in Greenville County told GreenvilleOnline.com.

She and her husband, a civil engineer, have a sort of running debate about that. He says infrastructure is what makes the world go round. She says it’s education.

So when the couple was in Charleston a few years ago for the opening of the Ravenel Bridge, which her husband’s company designed, he tried to convince her of what a supreme accomplishment that feat of engineering represented.

It didn’t light up her eyes, though, until she thought about how it represented the culmination of years of teaching and learning that turned young people into high school graduates and finally, bridge builders.

She’s been trying spark that light of learning in the eyes of students ever since becoming a teacher more than 30 years ago.

Moody, 52, went from the tobacco fields to Tobacco Road, where she earned her bachelor’s degree at North Carolina State University.

She traveled around a lot during her nine years as a teacher because of her husband’s job before coming back to her native state and working for more than a decade in administrative positions related to technical and career education.

At Wake County, N.C., a district twice as big as Greenville, she led the first major rezoning effort in years.

She became associate superintendent of planning in York District 3 in Rock Hill, in 2003.

Moody considers building community as one of her strong suits.

One example is the way she solicited community input for how to address the budget crisis of a few years ago.

She discovered a computer program another school district was using that gave the public an opportunity to plug in where they would make cuts to balance the budget. It also showed what the impact of those cuts would be.

It was an educational experience for the public and made for a much more informed debate over the budget, she said.

As far as academics, Moody said she believes literacy is always the biggest challenge. She’s been studying Greenville County’s numbers and sees some areas where she’d like to give additional attention.

She calls herself “a continuous learner” with a passion for what she does.

“I love to read. I love to study,” she said. “I’m always pushing that envelope.”

“I think I’m a very transparent, open person,” she added.

“I do my work with a lot of heart. I’m very real in my intent. I think people pick up on that very quickly.”

It will be tough to fill Penny Fisher's shoes, so I don't envy any of these three.

But it's nice to see people of this caliber aiming for leadership of our schools. And did you notice that none of the three boast any influence or pseudo-credential from any of the billionaire "education deform" foundations or their academies? That's a good sign.

In an ideal world, one will become Greenville's new superintendent, one will run for state superintendent in 2014, and that one will hire the third to serve as deputy state superintendent.

It's never too early to prepare and organize.