In for a Penny? So Says CCSD School Board

Do you wonder if anyone at the CCSD School Board of Trustees meeting on Monday night had the nerve to suggest that, perhaps, the residents of Charleston County would not be happy about a one-cent rise in the sales tax to fund more mini-Taj Mahals? If so, these doubts were not reported. [See Next Phase of Plan Considered in Tuesday's P & C]

The headline itself is a misnomer, unless you assume that the "plan" is to spend as much money as possible closing school buildings and building new ones in their places on into the twenty-second century. If so, the last "phase" was to close five schools under a cloud of suspicion that they were too poor and black to make the Superintendent look good in her stats, a move now actively being investigated by the Office of Civil Rights.

At least one Board member (unnamed by the reporter) dared to suggest that the closing schools--tax increase juxtaposition might be difficult to explain to taxpayers. Then, with his usual tin ear to the poor (from the well-paid), Mike Bobby, the district's chief financial officer reassured them that "'A sales tax increase would provide a longer-term stream of revenue and it would affect everyone instead of just property owners.'" True. A sales-tax increase would hit the poorest among us. This will be right after their schools have been closed.

Given lack of transparency in the past and present, who among us will trust the "district staff in evaluating the condition of buildings, collecting demographic information and assessing the use of district space"?

Aren't we thankful that "community input" will be allowed in April? So unnamed "community leaders" "seem supportive" of a sales tax increase, do they?

Let's hear their names, please.