Jan 05 2009
Several Education Bills Filed in Columbia
The Greenville News had an article over the weekend that listed several education bills that have already been pre-filed in Columbia awaiting the new legislative session to begin. One high on my list is the equal treatment for charter schools.
A Greenville County legislator has pre-filed a bill that would require school districts to “not deny” a charter school “anything that is otherwise available to a public school.”
The charter schools in Greenville County asked the county’s legislative delegation to take action on the issue, said state Rep. Garry Smith, who filed the bill.
“I took the bull by the horns and kind of moving it forward on behalf of the committee and the delegation,” the Simpsonville Republican said. “I feel that since it is a public school that it should also be treated the same as any other school.”
The legislation follows tensions between some of Greenville County’s charter schools and the school district, which would not allow charter high schools to make presentations about their programs in middle schools this year.
Defenders of the putrid government schools have a seething hatred of charter schools because in most cases they greatly outperform the standard run-of-the-mill public schools. They claim that charter schools and also vouchers redirect money away from the government schools and hence are destroying public education. This, of course, is a farce as the public school system across America has been decaying for more than three decades now and it’s never been as funded as well as it is today. What the status quo supporters are really afraid of is accountability and losing their government money train.
Now taking a look at some of the other bills:
- “Require students to take an electrocardiogram test before being allowed to participate in school-sponsored athletic team” - This just seems a bit like overkill to me. In high school we had to have a physical done and that was only the first year and they were very basic. Nobody in my class ever suffered a cardiac arrest while throwing the football around.
- “Give a $200 per child tax credit to families who send their children to private schools or home-school them” - I guess that’s better than nothing, but come on. $200? Do they think $200 is going to be the deal maker or breaker as to whether or not someone can send their kid to a private school? Personally, I think if you elect to send your child to a private school you should be exempt from paying to the public school system, but since we forgave school property taxes for a sales tax we can’t really do that and I prefer the sales tax funding anyway.
- “Lower the student-teacher ratio in elementary schools to 25 to 1 by 2011 while keeping lower ratios in early grades” - All this will do is add to the burden of school funding by having to pay for more teachers that simply aren’t needed. There is no conclusive proof whatsoever that smaller class sizes have any effect over the quality of education. That’s a myth the NEA likes to trot around every now and then when they’re in the mood to screw the public.
- “Make the state Superintendent of Education a gubernatorial appointed position” - I don’t know about that one. In one respect I think that the more members of the government body that are elected the better. On the other hand, I also firmly believe that most voters are ignorant, have no clue who or what they are voting for, and probably shouldn’t be voting to begin with. Case and point, the 2008 election.
- “Establish a Farm to School program that would foster greater use of locally grown food in schools” - Is it going to cost less or at least not exceed current costs? This a free market aspect that the government really ought to just stay out of.
- “Allow school districts to adopt four-days-a-week schedules” - I kind of like that idea, but when you got most parents working five days a week what happens with the kids on day five?
- “Make it possible for teachers to sue students who commit criminal offenses against them at school” - That definitely needs to be an option. Of course, if we didn’t have such weak kneed school boards and administrators these kids wouldn’t be in the school in the first place.
- “Raise the tax on cigarettes to 1.85 cents per cigarette and use the money for nursing education programs” - Stellar. The big government nannies in Columbia, which is pretty much everyone except Mark Sanford and a handful of legislators, are not going to stop until they get that cigarette tax at any cost. They don’t even care what the money goes to anymore as long as they get it. They won’t be satisfied until they bleed this state dry.
There is no evidence that charter schools “greatly outperform” other schools. However, I do agree they shouldn’t be excluded just because they are charter.