Purge of DOE employees recalls Ferguson doctrine

Very few people today may recall Homer L. Ferguson of Waynesville, North Carolina, but Ferguson was once a big wheel on the right end of America's political spectrum.

A few more people are familiar with Howard Phillips, who founded Young Americans for Freedom, a right-wing group that organized and trained college students in the 1960s.

Ferguson and Phillips, though they were not contemporaries, are linked in a way that sheds a bit of light on news of the purge under way at the state Department of Education.

Ferguson, though born in Waynesville, North Carolina, made his name and his fortune in shipbuilding in major American port cities. While in the U.S. Navy, he served as Assistant Naval Constructor during a year at the Columbian Iron Works in Baltimore; three years at the Navy Yard at Portland, Oregon; and a year at the Navy Yard of Bremerton, Washington. He rose to Superintending Naval Constructor during two years at the Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine, and continued in that capacity for two years at the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company at Newport News, Virginia, and finally made his way to a year-long assignment in Washington, D.C., with the Bureau of Construction and Repair.

All of this training and experience was accomplished by 1905, when Ferguson resigned from the Navy and became Assistant Superintendent of Construction for Newport News Shipbuilding, one of the largest -- if not the largest -- contractors in Newport News, adjacent to the major port at Norfolk, building warships for the federal government. He remained in the Tidewater region of Virginia for the rest of his life.

It was here, in a region and industry flooded with federal defense dollars, that Ferguson matched his training and experience with his developing political philosophy. And it served him well: He became president of Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company in 1915, and remained so until his retirement in 1946.

So Ferguson was a major industrialist by the time he became president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in 1919, serving a one-year term. He maintained his ties with that organization long past his presidency. In November 1928, the month that Herbert Hoover was elected president, Ferguson published an article in the form of an interview in the Chamber's magazine, "Nation's Business." In it, he lamented "if government was ever staffed with talented people, it might be able to build its own warships, and [Ferguson] would be out of business."

Ferguson wrote,

The best public servant is the worst one. A thoroughly first-rate man in public service in corrosive. He eats holes in our liberties. The better he is and the longer he stays, the greater the danger. If he is an enthusiast -- a bright-eyed madman who is frantic to make this the finest government in the world -- the black plague is a housepet by comparison.

Author Thomas Frank, who uncovered Ferguson's old article, interpreted his words this way:

In short, business needs a lousy government so that no one will consider giving it more and greater responsibility; business itself can manage responsibility, and make a profit from those who have need of it.

Frank also found a reader's response to Ferguson's text, published in a later edition:

If public officials are and remain inefficient, the public will sicken of incompetence and rely exclusively on corporate enterprise. That means less competition and more profits.

The Hoover administration certainly approved of Ferguson's philosophy. But by the time Hoover was replaced by Franklin Roosevelt in January 1933, America was well into its Great Depression, and Roosevelt sought to staff his administration with precisely the sort of "thoroughly first-rate" people Ferguson feared, including one James F. Byrnes of South Carolina.

Ferguson never served in government, but he maintained a presence in business and industry. In 1929, TIME magazine found him railing against organized workers at a symposium at the University of Virginia. The TIME article is edifying

Repugnant — unfair — rotten — archaic — unjust — unacceptable — deplorable —

With such adjectives educated Southerners, gathered last week at the University of Virginia's Institute of Public Affairs, denounced the South's labor conditions. Southern industrialists were excoriated for working women and children long hours, were criticized for opposing unionization, were advised to take warning from upheavals in the textile mills in the Carolinas and Tennessee (TIME, April 15 et seq.). Chief critics were West Virginia's W. Jett Lauck, chairman of the Bureau of Applied Economics, and Virginia's Bruce Crawford, Norton publisher. Declared Publisher Crawford:

"Southern industrial leaders are still clinging to the discarded and discredited wage theories and working conditions of the pre-War period. It is still believed and practiced that low rates of pay are synonymous with low labor costs. . . . The labor union has not been accepted as a permanent and inevitable institution in modern industrial life."

Up in defense of Southern industrialists rose Homer Lenoir Ferguson, president of Newport News (Va.) Shipbuilding Co., onetime (1919-20) president of U. S. Chamber of Commerce, employer of 7,000 non-union men, stockholder in four textile mills. Mr. Ferguson's company is one of the South's great industrial concerns. It reconditioned the Leviathan after the War, built the turbo-electric Panama-Pacific liners Virginia, California, and Pennsylvania, as well as many a vessel for the Navy. Strongwilled, strong-spoken, Mr. Ferguson declared:

"Industrialism in the South . . . is undergoing a series of growing pains.

. . . The condition of the Southern cotton mill worker is very much better than it was a generation ago when he had no work at all. . . . When they talk about $12 a week, they do not tell you about the free homes, the good country food, water and light for nothing and the palaces they live in compared with the mountain homes from which they came. . . . You are dealing with a backward people who had to learn industry from the ground up. . . . Perhaps children do work, but in juvenile vagrancy North Carolina is so far ahead of Ohio there is no comparison. . . . The hours may be long and the pay small but [the textile industry] is a most highly competitive industry. There must be a profit in any industry or it will cease to exist. . . . Unionization is not the universal and complete panacea the American Federation of Labor would have you believe. Anyway, the unions aren't as strong as they used to be. . . . If the Southern textile owners and operators tie up with the labor unions, then they will see the textile industry move elsewhere, as it already moved once. . . ."

Ferguson died in 1952, but his philosophy lived after him and influenced a young man named Howard Phillips. Phillips founded an organization called Young Americans for Freedom to organize and train conservative college students in support of Sen. Barry Goldwater's presidential campaign of 1964. Goldwater lost, but Phillips remained an influential organizer and earned sufficient regard among his party leaders that President Richard Nixon appointed him Acting Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) in February 1973.

Again, author Thomas Frank has described the purpose of the OEO. It had been established by President Lyndon Johnson to administer his "War on Poverty" programs. Johnson had intended it to be a muscular, useful agency, focused on serving the needs of America's poor. To demonstrate its importance, he had appointed Sargent Shriver -- brother-in-law of President John Kennedy, and founder of the Peace Corps -- to head the office. Frank writes that the OEO included legal aid for the poor, which led to lawsuits against landlords, banks and employers.

But Nixon appointed Phillips "acting director" of the agency. Once in the position, Phillips put Ferguson's philosophy to work in a hurry. In one month, Frank writes, Phillips "purged the office" and replaced its employees with "friends from the Young Americans for Freedom, paying them a hundred dollars a day."

He withheld budgeted funding from the office's programming, specifically those that benefited minorities and the poor. He issued termination notices to OEO employees around the country and closed legal aid offices in small cities and towns. He drafted a memo -- which was leaked -- in which he explained that if he and his aides acted quickly enough, they could dismantle the agency altogether before its supporters could stop him.

Community Action Associations and the union representing OEO employees had to sue to block Phillips's dismantling of the office. In April -- Phillips's third month on the job -- a federal judge granted an injunction against Phillips's actions, and one month later ruled that Phillips could no longer serve as acting director because he'd never been confirmed by the Senate.

Of course, Phillips was a hero to his followers: He had demonstrated what could be done using Homer Ferguson's philosophy to dismantle and eliminate a government agency from within. Two months after being ousted from his position, Phillips spoke to the Young Americans for Freedom at its national convention in Washington, saying, "I consider myself a very fortunate man. Relatively few Americans have the chance to participate significantly in the shaping of their nation's history."

The assault on OEO was an important landmark in the continuing struggle for individual rights against unaccountable bureaucratic power.

Its creation represented a culmination of forces which began, to a large degree, with the New Deal. Its intended demise was at the heart of Richard Nixon's plan to fulfill the mandate of the 1972 election and carry forward the historic turnabout which could mark him as the century's greatest force on the institutional trends of the American polity.

In November 1996, Phillips said in an interview with National Review, "At OEO, I was confronted with evil, pure and simple. I was not there very long when I discovered that OEO was the war room for those that were trying to overturn what had once been America."

Does this week's news of the purge of 50 staff members at the state Department of Education represent another example of the Ferguson doctrine being applied here in South Carolina? It's hard to tell. Superintendent Mick Zais, through his spokesperson, said the "reduction in force" was accomplished through "voluntary resignations and retirements."

But purging 50 staff members at one swipe -- 13 percent of the department's workforce, excluding the department's transportation workers across the state -- is a red flag to South Carolinians who want a strong, effective system of public schools administered by advocates for public education. Zais is clearly not such an advocate; nothing in his history suggested he would be. And Zais has installed by his side a deputy superintendent with no experience in education whatsoever, one whose resume includes being executive director of his political party.

We certainly know what's next on the agenda: "Zais and Gov. Nikki Haley are considering privatizing school bus operations. That could affect the Education Department's 456 transportation workers."

Is it possible that Haley and Zais will preside over the active, public dismantling of our state Department of Education? Haley already wants the constitutional authority to appoint the education superintendent, and the legislature seems poised to give her that opportunity.

With this governor in control of the state's public schools system, appointing a superintendent to follow in Zais's footsteps, with no functioning Department of Education, and no advocates working within government to rebuild it, do our children have a chance to succeed?

Paris, Munich, New York, and New Delhi is next

In the past month, Governor Nikki Haley has indulged her professed love of travel by visiting Munich, Paris and New York City. This fall, she's headed to India.

The trip to New York took some by surprise, as Her Excellency demanded -- by way of an executive order -- that the General Assembly ignore the sine die joint resolution it adopted in early June and return to Columbia until its work -- as she prescribed it -- was done. The Supreme Court kicked the order to the curb, lawmakers returned to Columbia as they intended and worked through the end of last week to dispatch three dozen vetoes that Haley sent them.

But while lawmakers were doing the governor's laundry, the governor was in New York City. Last I knew, the business of the South Carolina is not conducted in the Big Apple. But Haley was there, spending one day on the business of the Republican Governors Association and the next three days presumably taking Manhattan by storm.

It's not clear what our governor was accomplishing on behalf of South Carolinians for three days in New York City during the July 4 weekend. Most people who didn't have jobs while she was here didn't suddenly have work because of her efforts in New York. Godfrey, her spokesperson, told The State newspaper it was "personal time," and "time with her husband and children."

This is puzzling. For educators and school district employees, "personal time" is time away from work, time spent at home, time grieving the loss of loved ones or addressing other issues of a personal nature. If Haley is, indeed, a state employee now, does "personal time" mean something different for her?

When the governor travels outside the state, a security detail is dispatched to travel with her. Did one travel with her to New York? If so, did her security return when her "business" was finished on Thursday night, or did security go sightseeing in New York with her? Are there photographs? I've never seen the Statue of Liberty in person; I wonder if my tax dollars helped to pay for the Haleys to see it? Did they take in a show on Broadway? Did they go to the top of the Empire State Building?

Will the governor post her photographs so that the rest of South Carolina's children can enjoy vicariously what her own children enjoyed in person?

Oh, to be the child of a jet-setting governor: The fine hotels, the haute cuisine, riding down Fifth Avenue in style, the cameras and attention, the fawning tourists clamoring for autographs, safety provided by South Carolina's finest, all so far from the red clay and dust, the common collards and grits, the humidity and inescapable summer sun, the huddled masses yearning for jobs.

We know from Godfrey, her spokesperson, what Haley didn't do: She didn't meet with her publishers at Sentinel, the "dedicated conservative imprint" of Penguin Books, although Sentinel happened, by coincidence, to announce the publication of Haley's memoir on the first day she spent in New York.

Rep. Leon Stavrinakis is one lawmaker who is as puzzled by the governor's behavior as I am.

Stavrinakis said Haley’s a hypocrite for taking a trip out of state before the budget was completely finalized after she tried to force legislators back into session to restructure government. Haley’s attempts to bring lawmakers back to Columbia, saying they hadn’t finished their work for the year, failed under a ruling by the state Supreme Court in early June.

“If she is going to chastise legislators and try to cost the state tens of thousands to try to bring us back to Columbia, then she needs to be there, too,” he said.
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Her public schedule, released Tuesday, made no mention of her trip to New York but lists on Thursday three RGA meetings, three calls for the group and a newspaper interview that spanned from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. The schedule does not list any events for Friday.

The Legislature adjourned Wednesday after the House and Senate voted on the budget vetoes.

The governor did not respond to questions about her decision to leave the state during part of the budget veto discussion.

She may not be answering questions from South Carolina's reporters, but Her Excellency granted an "exclusive" interview to reporters for India Abroad, "the oldest and most widely-circulated Indian-American weekly newspaper." This is the same newspaper who named Haley the 2010 India Abroad Person of the Year at a dazzling ceremony in the Cotillion Ballroom ("the setting for Al Pacino's memorable tango scene from Scent Of A Woman") and the Grand Ballroom of New York's The Pierre.

It isn't surprising that Haley would grant an interview to India Abroad -- after all, it published an item titled 'South Carolina laps up Nikki Haley' after her primary victory in 2010 -- but it is surprising to read how Haley characterizes South Carolina to the foreign media.

Let's consider, for example, the word "progressive." There was once a "Progressive" movement in America, "with settlement workers and reformers who were interested in helping those facing harsh conditions at home and at work. The reformers spoke out about the need for laws regulating tenement housing and child labor. They also called for better working conditions for women."

Wikipedia notes further that

Today, most progressive politicians in the United States associate with the Democratic Party or the Green Party of the United States. In the US Congress there exists the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which is often in opposition to the more conservative Democrats, who form the Blue Dogs caucus. Some of the more notable progressive members of Congress have included Ted Kennedy, Russ Feingold, Dennis Kucinich, Barney Frank, Alan Grayson, Bernie Sanders, Al Franken, John Conyers, John Lewis, Nancy Pelosi, Bernie Sanders, and Paul Wellstone.

Clearly, "progressive" is a term that has specific meanings in American culture.

Yet, when India Abroad asked Haley to comment on what her election proved about negativity and racism in the South, Haley answered, "South Carolina is not the label that people have given. It is a very progressive state; it's a very smart state." One assumes that South Carolina is progressive and smart because it elected Haley its governor; had it not, we might all still be negative and racist.

Ready for more? Says India Abroad: "And now with a clear-eyed agenda for America, she's thinking of revisiting her roots. In October, she plans to visit India and her focus is clear."

Clear-eyed agenda for America? Seven months in the Governor's Mansion and she's already measuring for drapes in the White House?

Pop quiz: What nation has the most-educated populace? Let's ask a national leader with a "clear-eyed agenda for America."

What I want people to know about the Indian American community is that they are the most educated, they make the most money per capita, they are the ones least dependent on government assistance. And the fact that I am most proud of -- they give more to charity than any other minority in the country. And I want the entire world to know that.

So the answer is not America? Since when was the answer not plainly, simply, America?

Following an earlier interview with India Abroad, the writer characterized former Governor Mark Sanford as Haley's mentor. But in this exchange, it appears clear that Haley (a) has done a good job communicating to India her opposition to President Barack Obama and to health care for all Americans, and (b) isn't afraid of pushing Sanford under the bus:

Q: You were among the newly elected governors who met US President Barack Obama just weeks after being sworn into office. You had no compunctions in expressing your strong reservations and concerns about his health care reform bill. Will you continue to try to overturn it in South Carolina even though there was all this criticism that yes, you've spoken out against it, but you had no compunctions in accepting federal money?

A: Well, first of all, the previous administration accepted federal money. I did not. But what I would tell you is we have to look at our states and ask 'How do we get the most health care for the least amount of money?'

Haley, the national leader with the "clear-eyed agenda for America," also opined on immigration, an issue that must weigh heavily on the mind of South Carolina's chief executive. In a nutshell, Haley opposes letting any new immigrants into the country unless "they put in the time, they put in the money," and they are professionals. To let in immigrants who don't "put in the time, ...put in the money" is "offensive" to Haley's parents, she reports, and presumably to Haley.

She explains,

What we do need is professionals. We do need workers that we can't find in this country. That's the reason you expand the worker visa programme. That's the key to making sure that we get who we need.

Yes, we need more professionals, we need more researchers, we need more engineers and we need more help. But we need to make sure that the worker visa programme is a good one, so that we can bring them over easily and we know exactly who's documented and who's not.

To make it crystal clear: Investing in South Carolina's children so that those who want to attend college and become professionals is a bad thing; it shouldn't be a high priority in South Carolina's budget, and to invest more dollars in the education of South Carolina's children risks a veto from the governor.

But the same governor wants to expand a worker visa program so that we can bring more -- but specific -- foreign nationals into the United States to assume highly-skilled, high-paying jobs here.

If there's another way to read Haley's public pronouncements -- both here in South Carolina's media and in the foreign press -- I'm delighted to hear it.

In her expansive, exclusive interview with India Abroad, Haley comments on several other matters. No, she won't run for vice president. No, she's not going to endorse Sarah Palin for president yet. Yes, she's going to India in October, "taking a very high-powered trade delegation" with her.

No, seriously. The governor of South Carolina had this exchange with India Abroad:

Q: So, you will be taking a very high-powered trade delegation with you?

A: Absolutely, with the whole emphasis of trying to see how much trade we can bring to the United States.

That's well and fine. South Carolinians need jobs. Foreign investment may help our economy. I suspect our Treasurer, Curtis Loftis, will be pleased if Haley's "clear-eyed agenda for America" includes an improvement in our economy.

But Haley offered one more note that may intrigue the good folks at the National Labor Relations Board, as well as the working-class folks who don't get to spend a long weekend in Manhattan on the taxpayers' dimes when they feel like it.

Said Her Excellency to India Abroad:

We are a great state; great pro-business state. The cost of doing business in South Carolina is low, our trained work force is great. We keep the unions out so a lot of companies want to come to the state and invest in aerospace, automotive, research and development. So, I am heavily recruiting. Since I've taken office, we've brought 7,000 jobs. The unemployment number is down for the fourth time in a row. Exports are up, tourism is up and it would only make sense that we go to India and say, 'We want you here, we welcome you here, please come to South Carolina.'

Keeping unions out, but importing more foreign professionals on worker visas.

Demanding our lawmakers stay in town to finish the job, but taking the family for a long weekend in New York City.

Seven months in our chief executive's office, but traveling the world "with a clear-eyed vision for America."

Vetoing funds for children and working South Carolinians, but declaring to the world that we're a "progressive" state.

Unemployment has resurged under her administration, but says unemployment has dropped under her administration.

Hasn't finished a full term in office, yet publishing a memoir on the state's time.

Who, exactly, did we elect governor?

And what, by the way, was the total cost of the Haley family vacation to New York during the July 4 weekend, including the costs of security, paid by taxpayers?

Zais purges 50 from the Department of Education

Google the word "purge" and you may find a definition that looks like this: "In history and political science, to purge is to remove people considered by the group in power to be 'undesirable' from a government, political party, a profession, or from community or society as a whole, often by violent means. Restoration of people from a purge is known as rehabilitation."

Ask for examples of purges throughout history and you may dig up a summary like this one:

Rome
In the era of Republican Rome, Gaius Marius proscribed Sullan supporters after he and Cinna ousted Gnaeus Octavius; Sulla followed with even more brutal proscriptions against Marian supporters when he came into the dictatorship. The Second Triumvirate instituted more proscriptions some forty years afterward after taking control of Rome from Caesar's murderers.

England
The earliest use of the term itself was the English Civil War's Pride's Purge. In 1648, the moderate members of the English Long Parliament were purged by the army. Parliament would suffer subsequent purges under the Commonwealth including the purge of the entire House of Lords. Counter-revolutionaries such as royalists were purged as well as more radical revolutionaries such as the Levellers. After the Restoration, obstinate republicans were purged while some fled to New England.

France
The French Revolution saw revolutionary factions purging each other. The most famous purge was Robespierre's Terror which ended with him being purged as well. After the fall of Napoleon, all those associated with revolutionary activity were purged.

Soviet Union
Purges are often associated with the Stalinist and Maoist regimes. Those who were purged (among them artists, scientists, teachers, people in the military, but also many long-time communists who dared to disagree with the party leadership) were sent to labor camps or executed. The most notorious of CPSU purges was the Great Purge initiated by Joseph Stalin during the 1930s. Deng Xiaoping was known for the distinction of returning to power multiple times after surviving multiple purges.

Germany
The Nazis also engaged in purges, most notably in the Night of the Long Knives (1934) and the mass reprisals against Adolf Hitler's opponents following the July Plot (1944).

France
After France's liberation by the Allies in 1944, purges were processed by the Free French and mostly the French Resistance against former collaborationnists, the so called vichystes, its legal phase was known as épuration légale.

Japan
Under the instructions by the American Occupation Force as part of its directions to democratize Japan, the Japanese government purged over 200,000 individuals, including former military leaders, members of the parliament, high-ranking bureaucrats, regional politicical leaders, labor union leaders, business leaders, educators, journalists, and spiritual leaders, who had been associated with the nation’s efforts to establish the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. The purge was carried out in one year period as of February 1, 1946, and most of those who were designated as war-sympathizers were banned from holding public offices until the end of occupation on April 28, 1952.

United States
In the United States, the events that took place during the period of McCarthyism in the (1950s) were anti-communist purges. A valid argument can be made that the United States engaged in the systematic purging of Native American people. Evidence for government participation in Indian removal can be found in many official state and historical documents.

That's only a sampling of large purges. Another, more recent example, is found in the final months of the Bush administration in 2008, when agency heads purged dozens of employees in the federal government, people known as whistleblowers, people suspected of disloyalty.

Patricia Caperton Parent, writing in "Texas Politics Today," explains how a purge works:

In the plural executive and at the board and commission level, aggressive agency directors can employ 'reduction in force' campaigns. This tool, developed to streamline and get rid of waste in state agencies, requires employees to re-apply for their positions and can be used by adroit supervisors to purge entire departments of political undesirables. Once the old workers are gone, new sympathetic workers can be installed at various levels. New workers can easily be recruited from party and personal networks.

This week brings news of a new purge, right here in South Carolina.

State Education Superintendent Mick Zais is restructuring the department's administrative offices in an effort to improve efficiency and it has involved the elimination of about 50 positions since May.

Twenty-three of the job reductions came from voluntary resignations or retirements, but 27 others were reductions in force. Local school leaders may have different contacts at the state level, but the services and programs in schools shouldn't be affected, said Jay W. Ragley, the department's deputy superintendent for legislative and public affairs.

What I know of "voluntary resignations or retirements" is that they are rarely "voluntary." Give someone the choice of resigning -- with the possibility of getting a cordial letter of recommendation for future reference -- or being fired and having a gaping hole shot through your employment history, and most victims will opt to resign. Similarly, target an employee who's eligible to retire and threaten to demote or re-assign them to your department's Outer Egypt branch, and they'll likely take retirement. "Voluntary resignations and retirements" don't fool anyone.

And it's not over, according to Zais's minister of propaganda. "The reorganization happening now will help the state fulfill its budget mandate, and Ragley said more changes are to come."

Apparently, the dear leader has been studying closely those in his charge, and making two lists: "Zais has been studying the department's operations since he came into office in November, so these decisions weren't hasty, Ragley said. He didn't know how many more positions would be cut or how much Zais hoped to save, but Ragley said Zais planned to exceed the required amount of cuts."

And the purge isn't a piecemeal affair. It isn't as if each department or program was asked to make cuts themselves. Zais's master plan involves wholesale closing and consolidation of "main" Department of Education functions.

Two of the department's five main divisions -- Standards and Learning was one and Innovation and Support was the other -- will be consolidated, and those employees' duties will be shifted to other areas. The names of the new divisions haven't been decided, but services in those divisions included: Developing requirements for what students must learn, charter schools, school buses, youth services, and facilities.
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Ragley said the changes should help the department focus more on effective teaching, accountability for schools and the department, and technology.

Having departments called "Standards and Learning" and "Innovation and Support" might have helped the department focus more on effective teaching, accountability for schools and the department, and technology. Purging the Department of Education of 50 out of 393 department staff probably doesn't. Cutting jobs and whole departments merely helps those remaining staff members focus harder on saying the right words to keep their jobs until they're eligible to retire and leave.

Does anyone know the names of the victims?

Loftis promotes financial literacy to Easley 4th graders

If there's one place in South Carolina where lawmakers often seem afraid to go, it's a public school classroom. And who can blame them? After all, our lawmakers alone have the power to make public education a high priority in our state budget, which they don't; and they alone have the power to raise the money necessary to adequately fund the needs of public schools, which they don't.

And it's the nature of public officials to want to go where they can win votes, and public schools aren't the place to do that, being full of children under the voting age -- very often, children who ask questions and expect answers -- and educators who pay close attention to lawmakers' voting records. For many legislators, classrooms are little more than backdrops for campaign literature photographs: The 'lectorate loves a public official that loves the children.

But South Carolina Treasurer Curtis Loftis did something out of the ordinary recently. Though it isn't a campaign year, and though the town of Easley is far, far from the State House in Columbia, and though fourth-graders are still a decade or more away from registering to vote, Loftis attended and made a presentation on financial literacy at the "Money Cents Financial Literacy Camp" to fourth-graders in Easley.

While there, Loftis distributed games available at the State Treasurer's website to help teach financial literacy, and he encouraged his young listeners to study hard in school.

An edited portion of Loftis's presentation has been posted at YouTube.

In the video clip, Loftis makes no reference to Governor Nikki Haley's animus toward him, but it wasn't necessary; just showing up and spending time with Easley's fourth-graders made him a "relevant player" to them and their parents and teachers. After all, when was the last time a statewide-elected official visited your child's classroom?

Thanks, Treasurer Loftis.

One more thing about our Treasurer's Office: If you're a fan of transparency in government, check out Loftis's official website. You can find everything from his daily schedule to the most current valuation of our state retirement account funds, to the names of the various banks that hold our state resources. This is what transparency looks like.

Did you know North Carolina's parks are free to attend?

One more example of South Carolina's lawmakers being penny-wise and pound-foolish.

The Sun-News of Myrtle Beach took note of North Carolina's General Assembly cutting appropriations for its state parks system this year. It's not a shock; the economy is bad everywhere, and the Old North State's legislature began to to resemble our own after last November's election.

North Carolina's state parks limp this week into a new budget year with a 25 percent cut from the legislature, growing hordes of visitors and a sense that things could be worse. As states struggle with deficits, the nation's parks are under siege. California will close 70 of its 278 parks. Washington State withdrew all state support. Ohio plans to allow oil and gas drilling in its parks. No N.C. parks are expected to close.

But visitors will pay more to camp, swim or picnic, because of fee hikes last year. They'll find fewer rangers and more peeling paint. The park system also will lose millions from the trust fund that has helped it grow by about 5,000 acres a year since 1996. The fund is still paying off two landmark additions, the Chimney Rock and Grandfather Mountain tourist attractions.

Little will be left this year. Legislators diverted $8.4 million from the trust, which gets income from real estate excise taxes, to help balance the state budget. They took an additional $6 million for park operations, effectively lowering the appropriations cut to 5.6 percent. The trust fund avoided an even bigger blow: a bill that would have cut revenue by half.

"We considered that a bigger threat than the budget because that would have shut down state parks," said David Pearson, a Swansboro real estate broker who leads Friends of State Parks. The group advocates and provides volunteers for parks.

But I took note of a different fact in the same article: Every single one of North Carolina's state parks, even after budget cuts, remains free and open to the public.

Despite the grim financial climate, park officials still show little appetite for a dollar stream that's long been taboo - entrance fees. North Carolina is one of only nine states that don't charge them. A recent study from N.C. State University found that the cost of installing and staffing fee stations would offset the revenue. The study predicted that visits would fall, hurting the parks' $400 million annual contribution to local economies.

The state savors its history of free parks. Many were created with grassroots support when development, logging and mining threatened beloved natural places. Most of their visitors live no more than an hour or two away.

"There's strong sentiment in North Carolina that people want their parks open," said parks director Lewis Ledford.

Look at that. In North Carolina, citizens want free and easy access to their natural resources, and their lawmakers provide it. Why don't ours?

Many states feel that parks should be as free as libraries, said Rich Dolesh, policy chief at the National Recreation and Park Association.
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Just across the state line, South Carolina's parks run on a different business model. Many have rental cabins and two have golf courses. Most of them charge entrance fees. Parks are part of the state tourism department - North Carolina's are in the environmental agency - and rely heavily on marketing.

The South Carolina system also has increased its dependence on fees, which now generate nearly 80 percent of its operating budget, compared to about 20 percent in North Carolina.

The shift "has allowed us to focus on what customers want," said S.C. Parks Director Phil Gaines. "The people who use the parks are literally paying for their parks."

So we're tourists in our own state.

Here's a thought: A lot of South Carolinians can't afford to pay entrance fees for large families. But if those parks were free and accessible, those families might use them. What's better: Having children sitting at home during summer break in front of the television, or out exploring South Carolina's natural resources?

Having free and accessible state parks seems to have worked well for North Carolina, where its citizens aren't considered paying customers...

Congratulations to Marlboro County High's character

Good news at Marlboro County High School, recipient of its fifth "Promising Practice Character Education Award" for a program designed to help students in their communities.

The program, Bringing Rigorous Instruction, Determination, Guidance to Everyone, or BRIDGE, is a catalyst program for Marlboro County to reach out to at-risk students and help them develop life skills.

The BRIDGE program consists of many programs, including having students work with trainable mentally disabled students and working at the district’s alternative schools, including AMIKIDS School of Infinity and Camp Bennettsville.

MCHS Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps instructor Lt. Col. Justin Blum oversees the BRIDGE program, and said it’s important for his cadets to be leaders.

“It’s important for our cadets to get involved with individuals and groups that need a little bit of extra help. It helps them understand in life when there are people who need help, we need to perform selfless service,” Blum said.

The high school’s Cadet Major Alexis Freeman said she wanted to get involved when she heard what the BRIDGE program was all about— she now is the captain of a step team at Camp Bennettsville.

“At first, it wasn’t always easy to get in with (the students) because we weren’t used to each other. … The main thing I like about it is I’m able to communicate with other kids the same age as me and show them it’s OK do to what you like,” Alexis said.

Her sister, Captain Alexandria Freeman, is also involved, especially when it comes to working with the trainable mentally disabled students at the high school, even during her summer break.

“I like helping people, and that’s what I want to do in the future. That’s what I love to do. Of course, I could be doing something else, but to give my time and know I’m doing a good thing is just fine,” Alexandria said.

The BRIDGE program operates in conjunction with the Bennettsville Police Department’s Crossroads Program.

One more example of the great work being done by JROTC leaders in South Carolina's schools. Take a moment this week -- what an appropriate time to do it -- to send an email of thanks to the one(s) serving the high school in your area.

South Florence High wins Home Depot Foundation grant

Good for South Florence High School and its Navy JROTC cadets, who have just won a $1,500 grant from the Hope Depot Foundation's annual Community Impact Grant program.

And good for Home Depot -- known for being a conscientious employer as well as a great community partner -- for supporting students at South Florence High. It comes as welcome news to that county and its communities this summer.

The group of cadets plans to use the money in July to spruce up four homes for senior citizens who might not be able to afford yard work.

Joe Harmon, the group’s lieutenant commander alongside Senior Chief Mike Brown, said they requested a grant and were thrilled to hear their project was accepted.

“We said, what the heck, we’ll ask for that much, and a week or two later we got the email. We got our shopping list ready to go,” Harmon said.

The idea is to instill values in NJROTC cadets, including community service and humility.

“The folks that need our services, they really need our services,” Harmon said.

What a great example of the good work being done by education professionals in Florence County's schools. Congratulations to Lt. Commander Harmon and to his cadets.

Darlington County recognizes custodial staffs at two schools

This is an especially rewarding note: How often do you hear of a school district celebrating its education support personnel? Say the word 'educator' and what automatically comes to mind are classroom teachers and their administrators. But without education support personnel, our schools might not operate at all.

Consider: Bus drivers rise early to drive children to and from schools. Transportation workers keep those buses safe and in good working order. A school's clerical workers are a school's truest administrators, minding and managing every detail behind the scenes. Food service workers arrive at dawn to cook hot meals for breakfast and lunch, sometimes the only hot meals a child will receive each day. Teacher assistants help to stretch a school's certified faculty ever-thinner, often assisting their teachers while working on certificates of their own in night classes or summer school. A district's groundskeepers and maintenance staff are taken for granted until an old school's boiler goes out, or a window-unit air conditioner quits, or a SACS committee comes to inspect the facilities. And a school's custodial workers are the backbone of the school, troubleshooting small problems before they become big ones, and doing their best to make their schools look their best.

It's that last group -- or their work -- that the Darlington County School District recognizes with an annual Clean School of the Year award.

Pate Elementary School and Carolina Elementary School were selected for the honor, which recognizes school and custodial staffs that do an outstanding job of maintaining school facilities. Each school is evaluated monthly and is given points for cleanliness.

Thanks, Darlington County, for spotlighting men and women who often go unrecognized and unthanked for their work to provide safe and clean teaching and learning environments for our children.

The New York Times serves Haley its Sunday-best

The New York Times published a fluffy profile on Governor Nikki Haley in Sunday's edition, not a real, true profile but a fluffy one -- one that incorporated as much air as a souffle, as much sugar as meringue, as much pomp as Sunday dinner-on-the-grounds. It had the substance and heft of the local Panda Garden's chicken chow mein, meaning that a half-hour after reading it, I was hungry again. So I clicked a few links and discovered why this Valentine to Haley from the Times was so unsatisfying: It was written by the Times's former food writer, who "covered" food for the San Francisco Chronicle and even the Anchorage Daily News before becoming the Times's Atlanta bureau chief. So Haley was to be Sunday's dish.

The writer is Kim Severson. She lures us to the table with this aperitif: "Nikki Haley, at 39 the nation’s youngest governor, loves her iPod."

Mm. Kicky, fresh, potentially exciting.

Then a trio of amuses-bouches, or hors d'oeuvres, served rapid-fire:

When she signed a long-fought bill to bring more transparency to legislative voting, the Black Eyed Peas blasted through the Capitol rotunda here.

Joan Jett, a personal hero because of her fight to prove that women can rock, provided inspiration when it seemed impossible that a relatively inexperienced, deeply conservative woman with Indian immigrant roots could win a bid to govern the state where the Civil War began.

But Ms. Haley’s most enduring theme song, as it was when she campaigned on Tea Party politics and a nod from Sarah Palin, might be Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down.”

Heady, with heavy hints of strong and eclectic flavors to come.

Certainly I was intrigued. This promised to be a profile in generational change as exemplified by the expectation-busting young governor of South Carolina. She's a game-changer, rooted in Joan Jett's rebellion and grrl-power, hip to the Black Eyed Peas, but choosing an appropriately Southern emblem -- perennial music-industry irritant Tom Petty -- to represent her defiant stripe in the old Confederacy's incubator.

Then, the entree before the plat principal:

She has built a governorship on aggressive budget cutting, a relentless pursuit of job growth and a cheerleader’s enthusiasm for a state that often finishes toward the back of the pack in education, economics and health.

“We are now what every state is going to want to look like,” Ms. Haley said in an interview in her office almost six months into her administration.

This promised to be no Cheez Whiz on a Ritz, but the main course was definitely a melange of questionable choices. Severson seemed breathless at Haley's admonition to "Get excited," which means nothing to the millions of South Carolinians who wonder when we'll have a leader again. On its heels, Severson offers this startling declation -- “Her understanding of the role of state government appears rather limited" -- from author Jack Bass, who knows a thing or two about South Carolina's history and leaders. Almost as an apology for the offense, she follows with another Bass quote: “I just find her interesting.”

But she tries so hard to make this course work; Haley has such a high-profile for such low experience. Severson plugs Haley's upcoming "memoir" and fawns, "Telegenic and direct, she is popular with producers of national news shows. Her digital-savvy young staff issues YouTube-ready videos that show everything from her cabinet meetings to the crowning of collard greens as the official state vegetable." Presidential wannabes "parade" through Haley's office; Haley, playing dilettante, has no interest in serving as sous chef to any of them.

One senses the waiter has rushed out the plateau de fromages a bit too early. A sampler of the cheese:

But the governor’s focus on the policies of President Obama has offered the most substantive contribution to her national profile. She regularly criticizes his policies on health care and spending, and has called him a bully for his administration’s stance on a $750 million jet assembly plant that Boeing opened in North Charleston in June.
...
Ms. Haley, who has support from more than a dozen governors on the issue, testified recently before a Congressional oversight committee on the role of the board. Her point? The federal government must stop getting in the way of economic growth in the states.

Later, in a conference call with reporters, she said that she wanted the president to intervene in the lawsuit and that her job was “to be loud and annoying and in his face.”
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Back home, legislators say her administration is a refreshing change from the tumultuous days of her predecessor...
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Some of the tension between the governor and members of the Legislature comes from a style of governing that can bypass the decorum that underscores much of political life in this stalwart of the Old South.

Fiddle-de-dee. Haley is the modern Scarlett, navigating a system full of old Colonels to bring Tara back to prominence.

And what of Darla Moore, the Carolina belle unseated by Haley from the university board? Severson poses the various rumors: Moore was tardy in responding to Haley, Haley had plotted her ouster from the start, or "was the whole thing merely a power struggle between two powerful people?"

Here, the main course is definitely finished. Haley takes Severson, former food writer for the New York Times, into her confidence and divulges the honest-to-goodness truth.

“You don’t put benefactors on a governing board, because all of the sudden the 19-member board becomes a board of one because everybody is afraid to upset the woman who gave $70 million,” the governor said. “It may not have been good politics, but it was good policy.”

Severson apparently doesn't ask if Moore had served competently and well while doling out the millions. Dessert is due.

She writes that Haley's holding her own in popularity, which is a topic of particular note to Severson. In a promotional video for her own new cooking book, Severson advises of a life lesson she learned from a mentor, "Stop letting yourself be tortured by the popular girls." It is reminiscent of a story Haley tells of being shunted from a local beauty pageant because she was neither black nor white, and pageant organizers couldn't decide what to do about it. Did Severson see a kindred soul in Haley? Like her or not, Severson reports, Haley's "doing exactly what she set out to do: shake up the way government does business."

Of course, after dessert comes a little coffee:

“Nikki’s in a hurry — I think that’s what it boils down to,” said Henry McMaster, a former state attorney general who ran against Ms. Haley in the primary and became one of her biggest supporters. “She makes it clear what she wants done, and it causes a little friction.”

Bitter, this coffee, even with the sugar and creme fraiche.

And finally, the digestif:

One thing is certain. In the middle of it all, Ms. Haley seems to be having fun.

Her family ... watches “American Idol” and plays games during regular family fun nights.

The children, who attend public school, enjoy playing tricks on the mansion staff.
...
“We just have such a good time,” Ms. Haley said.

Still, governing the way she wants to seems to give her the biggest thrill.

“You can feel the energy. You can feel the buzz,” she said. “It’s because people are incredibly excited about their government and elected officials are incredibly scared and it’s a beautiful thing.”

Indeed, it's a beautiful thing: A Valentine in seven courses, wrapped in the gossamer pages of the New York Times, perhaps delivered with Swiss chocolates.

Satisfying? Not really. Surely Severson would have been familiar with the recent Nation summary of our governor, in which a bonafide pillar of the state's power structure -- John Rainey -- declared Haley "the most corrupt person to occupy the Governor's Mansion since Reconstruction." But no questions about corruption, in deed or in philosophy? And although Severson mentioned, in passing, Haley's dust-up over Amazon, she didn't take note of the state's newly-risen unemployment rate -- now 10 percent again -- nor ask questions about the lost jobs, including 2,400 educator positions -- that bumped us back into embarrassing double digits. Answers to these questions might have rated a Times review, I think.

As Severson highlighted Haley, Severson deserves highlights too. She sat in April for a soul-baring interview -- recommended reading -- with her former employer, the Anchorage Daily News. She has something of a website where you can read more about her and buy her new book.

Sumter trustees adopt good news/bad news budget

The good news for teachers in Sumter is that the board of trustees has adopted its budget for 2011-2012.

The bad news is that Sumter teachers won't see a pay increase this year, won't get checks for classroom supplies, and will be deprived of four days' salary thanks to furlough days. Administrators in the district will take eight furlough days.

The whole story is available at the Sumter Item, but you have to be a subscriber to see it.

If anyone knows, tell me: Does the budget include any job cuts?

McCracken's Creason named state's resource officer of the year

Congratulations to Cpl. Michael Creason of the Bluffton Police Department on being named South Carolina's School Resource Officer of the Year. Creason is SRO at H.E. McCracken Middle School in Bluffton, and had previously been named Region 4 Lower State SRO of the Year. The honor is given for "excellence in school-based policing and safety," according to a Bluffton Police Department press release.

A note in yesterday's Island Packet said of Creason:

He has been the officer at H.E. McCracken for three years, working with students, parents, school administrators and neighboring law enforcement agencies to create a safer environment at the school and surrounding community, the release said. He also serves as a mentor to fellow Bluffton police officers and has created a bicycle-registration program that helps track stolen and missing bikes.

Creason was presented the Bamberg award Thursday by the South Carolina Association of School Resource Officers.

"Cpl. Creason is not only a police figure to the students of H.E. McCracken, he is also a mentor," Police Chief David McAllister said. "It takes a special person to be able to do the things Cpl. Creason does on a daily basis."

Thanks to Officer Creason and the other school resources officers serving South Carolina's public schools. Educators, children and their parents are appreciative of your service.

Remembering a career educator in Orangeburg today

Men and women who give their active lives to careers in education should all be remembered as fondly as Ms. Maggie Whaley Rickenbacker of Orangeburg, whose life was remembered today in that city.

The Orangeburg Times and Democrat offers the poignant obituary of an educator from tiny Jamison, produced by the public schools of her community during a harsh part of the twentieth century in our state, who then gave back to her community by spending 35 years teaching in Orangeburg's and Dorchester's public schools. Even in passing, at age 90, Ms. Rickenbacker continues to promote her profession, asking that donations be sent to the teacher education programs at Claflin University and South Carolina State University, and elsewhere.

As the daughter of a farm owner, she was taught by her parents the value of loving the Lord and of hard work; these qualities remained with her all her life. She was no stranger to hard work, and to earn funds to continue in college, she worked in New York, and she was present at the ticker tape parade celebrating the end of World War II. Mrs. Maggie Whaley Rickenbacker was the wife of the late Rev. John Jefferson Rickenbacker of Orangeburg.

Mrs. Rickenbacker received her elementary and secondary education from the public schools of Orangeburg County. She received her bachelor of education degree from Claflin College in 1948. She later received her master's degree in education from South Carolina State College.
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As a professional educator, she served for 35 years as a teacher in Orangeburg and Dorchester counties. She was a member of the South Carolina Education Association and the National Education Association.

Throughout her careers in education and real estate, Ms. Rickenbacker exemplified South Carolina's and America's best values as a charitable community activist, an active churchwoman, "an avid fisherwoman, gardener and flower enthusiast."

Many thanks to Ms. Rickenbacker for sharing her life with so many others, and to her family for sharing her with the generations of her community and state.

Likewise, and always, many thanks to the others of our retired educators in every community of South Carolina.

Editors praise literacy gains by Charleston's educators

On the upside, in a note published in yesterday's Post and Courier of Charleston, editors praised the work being done by Charleston's classroom educators to improve literacy in the area. On the downside, the editors didn't actually bring themselves to mention that Charleston's classroom educators were doing the work. An otherwise terrific editorial rings tinny for that deficiency.

The editors begin with a little context; it seems no balm can be appreciated without first administering the sting.

For years, area employers have lamented the sorry reading and writing skills that all too many job candidates have exhibited. Things appear to be looking up.

A better introduction might have read, "The nation's earliest advocates of an informed citizenry and voting electorate recommended a system of free public schools to promote universal education. Despite bumps in Charleston's record of promoting literacy among its youth, we now appear to moving toward the enlightenment that early American heroes suggested." After all, an overweening reliance on the sensitivities of corporate interests has yielded the culture we have; it is the status quo against which many educators struggle.

Nonetheless, the editors see progress, and progress is always good.

They celebrate:

A new report shows that Charleston County public school students who have received special reading instruction have made significant improvements in literacy.

Yet the praise is faint and streaked with self-congratulation.

It also suggests that the problem isn't just students who have difficulty learning, but that for years the schools have been approaching the problem in the wrong way. It was after The Post and Courier in 2009 reported on devastating literacy problems in local schools that the Charleston County School Board wisely made it the district's number one priority to address literacy.

Ultimately, Superintendent Nancy McGinley is the subject of the editors' appreciation. Again, it might have made a more graceful editorial, had the editors highlighted the education professionals who work with children daily to overcome the stresses and impediments that life in Charleston provides to children needing the additional aid, but those rank-and-file educators in South Carolina have long been used to toiling without recognition.

A healthy local and state economy demands an educated workforce. And it is encouraging that the district is searching for, and finding, ways to fill that need and to give students tools to make their lives more meaningful.

Dr. McGinley's literacy program is working because it is mandatory and has consequences for those enrolled. Students reading below grade level must participate or they will not be allowed to go to the next grade.

It isn't punishment. It's the opposite. Punishment is what the district had been doing: allowing students who couldn't read on a first grade level, to pass to the second grade where they were even more at sea.

The bump in literacy shows what a coordinated effort involving teachers, parents, school administrators and board members can produce. The district's literacy policy tells students that they can, and must, learn to read.

No exceptions.

Well-put by editors in America's first, and most consistent, city of exception.

Where do children rank among state budget priorities?

This is not a trick question: Of these three states -- South Carolina, Alabama or Kentucky -- which values the lives of its children most?

I'll give you a hint: The answer isn't South Carolina.

In fact, South Carolina won't even take second place out of the three options, given the choices made by our lawmakers in recent years.

This week, the General Assembly voted to override Governor Nikki Haley's veto of a plan to use $12.4 million in unclaimed lottery money to buy school buses. That's great. Nearly 400,000 public schoolchildren in South Carolina ride school buses. But will we be buying new buses, or used ones?

An item in yesterday's Bluffton Today raises the issue.

"A couple years ago I put my child on a school bus for a field trip, and I walked up and talked to the bus driver and said, 'How many miles do you have on this bus?'" said Sen. Joel Lourie, D-Richland. "He said, 'Sir, I couldn't tell you. The odometer is broke.'"

It's not a funny story, and I'm sure Lourie didn't tell it to get a laugh. It's tragic, and it's a perfect illustration of the immorality of our state budget.

It appears that when faced with the need to provide transportation for all of South Carolina's public schoolchildren to and from their schools, our state's leaders have done what they always do: They compare prices and look for the cheapest way out. It seems that not even the lives and safety of our children are worthy of being a first, or high, priority in state budgeting -- especially not when their lives and safety are competing against such proposals as tax breaks for corporate interests.

Consider:
In 2005, we bought 72 used buses from Kentucky. Kentucky appreciated our business and apparently kept our number for later reference.

In 2007, the Charleston Post & Courier published a series titled "School Bus Breakdown," concluding that our school buses are "the nation's oldest, most polluting and least safe."

--The average South Carolina bus is 14 years old, while the national average is nine years old. A substantial number of buses built in the mid-1980s are still transporting children to and from school.

--The state recorded nearly 12,000 bus breakdowns during the 2005-06 school year, many of which required children to get off the bus and wait on the side of a dangerous road until another bus arrived.

--Other state agencies have more modern buses than the Education Department. The Corrections Department's buses average 10 years in age, meaning prisoners enjoy newer buses than schoolchildren.

Read that again, with feeling: "Prisoners enjoy newer buses than schoolchildren."

When the Post & Courier published its series, a proposal was under consideration to adopt a plan to annually replace school buses.

Under the replacement cycle, the state would buy about 375 new buses every year at a cost of nearly $30 million. Many states and individual school districts around the country already have laws that force aging school buses into retirement.
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The average age of a South Carolina school bus is 14 years, five years older than the national bus average age of nine years. Many of the state's buses are much older and lack modern safety features, such as additional emergency exits and anti-lock brakes. The average Palmetto State bus has traveled more than 200,000 miles, and many have clocked more than 400,000 miles.

Three guesses about how that plan turned out.

In 2007, lawmakers approved the plan to annually replace school buses.

In 2009, lawmakers appropriated no money to buy buses.

In 2010, lawmakers appropriated no money to buy buses. But we were lucky: Kentucky called us again. That state "discarded" scores of 18-year-old school buses -- meaning that Kentucky's leaders judged them unfit to transport Kentucky's little children to and from school, even one more day -- and Kentucky put these buses up for auction. We bid on 87 of them and won the right to buy 85 -- which means that Kentucky profited from our highest bids -- at an average price of $3,800. With these, we were able to "retire" some our 26- and 27-year-old buses.

In January 2011, we bought 24 used school buses, with an average age of 11 years, from an Alabama school district "that replaced them with new vehicles," according to The State. We used these to "retire" some more of our 23- and 24-year-old buses. Since the legislature didn't appropriate any funding for them, how did the Department of Education pay for them? The State tells us:

To buy the Alabama buses, the Education Department used money it raised from selling to scrap metal companies the skeletal remains of S.C. buses cannibalized for replacement parts.

And how did Alabama sell its buses? It auctioned them, which means that Alabama, too, profited from our highest bids. We bid on 44 and won the right to buy 24 of them, at an average cost of $8,000. Their mileages, The State said, ranged 44,000 to 110,500.

So it was against this backdrop that our governor this week vetoed a proposal to spend $12.4 million of unclaimed lottery money -- not new appropriations from the General Fund, which would represent a state funding priority, but from a pot of money that inattentive lottery winners never stepped up to claim; or, not to put too fine a point on it, but FREE MONEY, accidentally available to the state -- on buying slightly-safer school buses for our children. Her Excellency's reason for depriving schoolchildren of slightly-safer school buses paid for with found money?

Haley's veto message said she objected to the unclaimed lottery money being spent on school buses because the state should be focused on privatizing the bus system.

Privatization: A system by which someone profits from South Carolina's appropriations for public schools -- just as Kentucky and Alabama profited several times in the past seven years from our purchase of their aged, decommissioned vehicles at auction.

The answer to the question at the top of this note is both Alabama and Kentucky. If we cared as much for our children as they do, we wouldn't buy another state's cast-off school buses. We would appropriate the funding necessary and buy new ones.

Haley's vetoes, legislative debate earn NPR coverage

South Carolina earned more coverage by the national media this week. As usual, it wasn't for the sweet succulence of our peaches.

Hosts of the syndicated "Marketplace" on National Public Radio reported on Thursday that the legislature of Texas "hacked off $4 billion from the education budget" earlier this week. "In South Carolina though, there's a different problem: what to do with all their extra revenue," they reported.

NPR's correspondent Lisa Miller of WFAE in Charlotte reported on the windfall of $210 million in revenues, and quoted Sen. Wes Hayes of Rock Hill saying, "We certainly haven't had surplus money the last few years. We've had the other problem."

Miller mentioned Hayes's proposal to spend "half of the extra money as tax relief for some businesses, and the other half to start making up for past cuts in K-12 education. The state senate voted to increase per pupil spending from about $1,600 to nearly $2,000."

"Still substantially less than where it was a few years ago, but it would be better," Hayes told NPR.

Enter Her Excellency, the Governor.

But two weeks ago, Republican Governor Nikki Haley said that wasn't going to fly.

(Nikki Haley): "The fact that we had additional money going to the senate doesn't mean you go and say 'Oh, where can we spend it and how fast can we spend it?' It means you say, if you're not giving it in tax relief, if you're not giving it to pay down debt, you send it back to the taxpayer."

South Carolina's House agreed to only send $56 million of the extra money to public schools. But even that was too much for Haley. Yesterday, she vetoed the funds. The House votes today on whether to override that veto.

This was another one of those moments that makes South Carolinians cringe to hear our state's name mentioned in national news coverage.

Miller spoke to a Lancaster County principal, Linda Blackwell of North Elementary School, about the impacts of recent annual budget cuts to public schools, include increases in class size and fewer positions for teachers.

Over the past few years, [Blackwell has] had to cut summer school, lay off five teachers and trim work days for remaining teachers. She says, lately, teaching has become much more challenging.

Miller: How many desks are in here?

Linda Blackwell: This is 28 and there's two more here, so that's 30.

Some classes have swelled by almost a third.

Blackwell: You've got to be everywhere and you got to have eyes on everyone and it's hard to do that if you're on one side of the room and someone thinks, 'I'm not going to get called on and it's going to be a little while before she gets over here.'

Whether the extra education money comes through or not, Blackwell is getting ready to prepare her teachers for more of the same next year.

She, and more than a thousand other principals across the state.

Anderson editors: Haley is "short-sighted and politically motivated"

The editors of the Anderson Independent Mail called Thursday's showdown in the legislature "high noon in Columbia." Their editorial in yesterday's edition spells out their amazement at the governor's contempt toward, and disregard of, the educational services provided by the state's public schools and South Carolina Educational Television.

And in no small measure, the editors were clearly pleased with the legislature's handiwork in overriding the governor's vetoes.

They write, in brief,

It’s almost stunning how Haley fails to see the connection between economic development, tourism (our state’s biggest moneymaker), quality of life and job training. Remember how she boasted of her efforts with Boeing? The job training she cut from the budget included $13 million for training at our technical colleges for Boeing workers. Even the CEO of Boeing understands how the arts and business complement each other: “At Boeing, innovation is our lifeblood. The arts inspire innovation by leading us to open our minds and think in new ways about our lives — including the work we do, the way we work and the customers we serve,” James McNerney told Psychology Today. He understands what we have long maintained: Businesses create jobs and facilities in communities that value the arts and education and provide a good quality of life for employees.

Earlier, according to an email from Speaker of the House Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, “As noted by Gov. Haley in her press conference on Tuesday, there is ‘no pork included in this year’s budget.’”

Yet when it came down to it, Haley apparently reversed that opinion. In the case of SCETV, Haley’s veto was puzzling — and apparently puzzled lawmakers as well. Both the House and Senate overwhelmingly overrode the veto.
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What a disappointment that the governor fails to see what SCETV has done for South Carolina. In addition to entertaining and educating even the most casual viewer and listener on television and radio, many of its contributions benefit public schools through student programming and continuing education for teachers. (Maybe that explains it.)

Haley said she “appreciates SCETV,” according to the Associated Press. Funny way to show it.

While Haley’s desire to reduce state debt with the additional tax revenues is admirable, her alternative plan to “send the money back to taxpayers” wouldn’t be much of a windfall for the individual citizen. The money is better spent to keep teachers in the classrooms and improve public education.

Haley noted regarding her vetoes that it was time to concentrate on the classroom and students. We couldn’t agree more. Putting $56 million of the $210 million in additional tax revenues back into the mix makes that all the more likely.

Haley is showing she is serious about cutting spending, but at what cost? Retained in the state budget without veto are reductions in spending for the people who can least afford it — the poor, the elderly and the disabled — and a raise for lawmakers that sends a dangerous message to voters: We don’t feel your pain. Despite that, with its support in overriding Haley’s vetoes, the General Assembly is clearly saying that even in hard financial times public education still matters in this state.
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Haley’s emailed statement at the end of the day was short and to the point: “It’s a shame that the General Assembly chose to spend more tax dollars than we can reasonably afford.” This, despite her earlier contention that the budget “contained no pork.” The statement continued: “Ultimately, the citizens of our state will decide whether they want a legislature that spends less than was done this year.”

Ultimately, the citizens of our state will also decide if they want a shortsighted and politically motivated governor or one who considers people’s lives as carefully as she professes to consider their wallets.

This Independence Day, teach a child in South Carolina

And thank your child's teachers.

“If the children are untaught, their ignorance and vices will in future life cost us much dearer in their consequences than it would have done in their correction by a good education.”
Thomas Jefferson