Hicks: Focus on Source of Funding Problems!

Quote from Brian Hicks: "So there's the first lesson of the 2010-11 school year: They're going to make you pay, one way or another." [See Remember When 'Public' Meant 'Free?' in Wednesday's P&C]

Well, I couldn't agree more, Brian, but the headline above your column is just plain wrong. Let's hope you didn't suggest it.

Public schools in South Carolina, and particularly here in Charleston County, have never been free. You're living in a poor state; this isn't New Jersey or Massachusetts where the population as a whole is much more affluent. And SC had a much poorer tax base in the past.

We rented our schoolbooks--yes, we did. And if we didn't have the lunch money, we brought what we could scavenge from home. Not to rain on your parade, but CCSD does not verify that students need the free breakfasts and lunches that we pay for, apparently with the excuse that, if the parents say they need them, they won't provide proper food or lunch money even if the parents have it.

Fees have been charged since the beginning of public schools in South Carolina. And they fall most heavily on the poor, but maybe in ways you haven't considered.

Take the case of the cheerleading fees that you complain about ($250). That doesn't include the cost of the previous gymnastics classes and training that parents have financed for years out of their own pockets. That phenomenon means that girls (and boys) whose parents couldn't afford those classes never made the squad. Not fair, but surely you're not suggesting CCSD foot that bill?

Schools in the better-heeled communities that have vibrant and energetic parent organizations have always raised money on their own to put into non-academic activities. Again, nothing new there.

So what has changed, Brian?

Simple: our stupid, stupid, stupid change to funding operating expenses based on sales tax revenue! Anyone with half a brain (including yours truly) predicted when the change was made, this day would come. Now, thanks to the tax structure, districts like CCSD can spend multi-millions on new buildings in which they can't put a proper supply of paper.

And CCSD is getting ready to do it again.

The ordinary taxpayer doesn't understand the funding split between capital and operating expenses. All he or she sees is that the district appears to be unable to manage its money. What else but incompetence would explain brand-new buildings equipped with the latest technology and no paper for their copiers?

Catch-22: the district can't raise taxes for operating costs, but it can for capital costs. And it will.

A forensic audit of CCSD will show that sleight-of-hand deals have shifted capital monies into operating costs for years, not merely during the present economic climate.

Brian, you would be more helpful to the public by explaining how the broken tax system doesn't work instead of complaining about fees and shortfalls from the state.