Stealth Primary Run-off Sneaks to an End Today in SC

Can you believe the nerve of the editors of the P&C?

A recent lead editorial complained, actually complained, about low voter turnout in the primary this year! This from a newspaper that has almost totally ignored covering the candidacy of any person running in any primary. 

Our local rag has printed one article buried in the B section on the Democrat race for Superintendent of Education and a second also buried in the B section on the Republican. It's not your imagination that the paper has chosen to ignore political campaigns. It's relying on the Associated Press to provide South Carolina news.

In truth, the local TV stations haven't been much better. Next news item will be that voting in the run-off was lower than in the original primary. That was today, right?

Go figure. Gee, will it report on the general election?

Parent Gibbs Got It in One on CCSD's Montessori Plans for Murray-Lasaine

"Gibbs, who is black, feels the district is using the allure of a full Montessori program to attract more white families to the predominantly black school while ignoring what black parents want." So states Sunday's article in the P&C regarding plans for revamping the curriculum at Murray-Lasaine.

Unfortunately, parent Yolanda Gibbs also believed the Charleston County School District when it promised to keep both Montessori and traditional tracks at the school. Superintendent McGinley had a secret clause at the end of that promise: until 2015 when traditional will begin phasing out. McGinley doesn't want a school with an all-black traditional track and an almost all-white Montessori track, no matter how "diverse" it appears on the outside.

CCSD's ploy is working: in two years enrollment has grown from 200 to 352, 80 percent black dropping to 68 percent black. Not only that, but CCSD is spending--are you ready for it--$10 million renovating the school for Montessori. Some of you might question why so expensive, but then you probably aren't accustomed to spending OPM.

CCSD's Montessori specialist (there's a specialist for everything in CCSD) laments that people want to hold on to their family traditions. LaDene Conroy says that "change can be difficult." Yes, especially when you've been promised something else.

Gee, who would want to hold onto tradition anyway? Right, LaDene?

Lapdog of McGinley, P & C Ignores Charter School for Math and Science

When was the last time you saw good news in the P&C about the Charter School for Math and Science?  Me too. It just doesn't happen. Instead, the reader learns that CSMS has had several principals, has struggled to find space because the Charleston County School Board refuses to allow it to use most of the Rivers building, and is largely confined to mobile classrooms, thanks to the undying animosity of Superintendent Nancy McGinley.

To McGinley's undeniable horror and despite her feeble efforts at integration in the district, CSMS remains the lone example of a fully integrated school in all of Charleston County. The NAACP must hate this.

Now, thanks to an Op-Ed by CSMS's college counselor, we learn that CSMS has been so successful that 200 applied for 60 spots in its sixth grade. Don't you wonder what would have happened in the future if CSMS had been able to find room for those 200 instead of holding a lottery?

At the same time we learn that in Mt. Pleasant (them that has gets) the Charter Montessori school will be able to practically double its enrollment by occupying the old Whitesides campus with the Superintendent's full cooperation. 

No double standard there.

Time Wasted Until CCSD and School Board Get Serious About Literacy

A letter to the editor of the P&C this week cogently outlines the problems facing the Charleston County School District. Let's hope Superintendent McGinley and the School Board are listening!

The School Board and the CCSD have institutionalized the problem of poor literacy in our schools by their failure to implement two essential policies:

1) Children must learn to read proficiently on grade level by the end of the third grade. Mandated reading on grade level by the end of the third grade must be a requirement to advance to the fourth grade. Effective remedial programs for at-risk children must be developed to ensure meeting the third grade reading goal.

2) Children must not be promoted to the next grade without meeting the literacy and academic requirements for the assigned grade.

By not successively addressing the early childhood literacy problem, our five worst-performing high schools have graduation rates from 42 percent to 64 percent with dropout rates from 4 percent to 8.3 percent.These five high schools have 20 to 36 percent of children entering the ninth grade reading at a fourth grade level or lower.

This condition occurs because the children have not achieved the grade level literacy and academic standards required to advance to the next grade.

These children are forced to advance to the fourth grade without reading proficiently on grade level by the end of the third grade - social promotion. As a result, in the fourth grade, they cannot read to learn.

By the time they reach the ninth grade, their reading and academic competency is five years behind their classmates who have met grade level requirements in all prior grades. They are prone to drop out of school with consequential negative social and economic outcomes.

The Annual Literacy Report by the CCSD to the School Board is not useful to show the community the severity of the existing literacy divide. To determine the effectiveness of the Literacy Initiative, and to assess the extent of the literacy divide, the superintendent should report by grade and by school:

The percent of students reading at grade level and the percent of students reading two grade levels or more lower than the assigned grade level for the literacy academies and for grades three through eight.Analysis of the CCSD Literacy Initiative and comparison to successful best practices has been made and forwarded to the School Board.

Gov. Nikki Haley has just signed the Read to Succeed bill that incorporates these recommendations. The implementation of this legislation will improve the educational outcomes of children in the CCSD.

Gerry Katz

Wofford Road

Charleston

Brian Hicks Nominated for Copy Editor

No doubt you are as disgusted as I at the continual flubs in spelling, diction, and grammar perpetrated daily by the Post and Courier.

But wait! A solution has been found. Today columnist Brian Hicks revealed himself as a master of the English language. In fact, Hicks is so precise that he can critique the spoken as well as the written word. His Wednesday column proves his mettle. According to Hicks, when speaking one must always use "who" to refer to a person instead of "that," a nicety of the spoken word usually applied to writing.

Unfortunately, Hicks also misapplied "carpetbagger" to Sally Atwater. Those of us actually from the South are more attuned to the connotations of that word. Hicks thinks it applies to anyone born here who lives somewhere else for a period of time, hence his use of the derogatory term for Atwater. He also suggests that we're all "Republicans" now in his defense of Spearman's party switch.

Funny, Brian. I'll bet you aren't a RINO but a liberal Democrat, and you do fit the definition of "carpetbagger." Yet, we are so desperate for decent use of the English language by our local rag that we are willing to put up with that, or in this case, you.

Cut the column writing and address yourself to the copy. That change will be a great relief to all of us.

Mick Zais: Atwater for SC State Superintendent of Education

To no one's particular surprise, Mick Zais, the outgoing superintendent of education in South Carolina, has thrown his support behind Republican candidate Sally Atwater, who virtually tied with RINO Molly Spearman in the Republican primary.

Spearman, a "former" Democrat who switched parties in 1995, has contributed to opponents of school choice within the last decade, although she now claims to be in favor of  "public school choice."

Can you imagine the cronyism that will ensue if Spearman, the director of the State Association of School Administrators, tops Atwater in the primary runoff? Why, even liberal Democrat CCSD Superintendent Nancy McGinley might cross over and vote Republican in the fall!

Expose: How Gates Bought Common Core with Obama Administration's Collusion

From The Washington Post, via Diane Ravitch

The Inside Story of How Bill Gates Bought the Common Core Standards
                by dianeravitch
In a remarkable job of reporting, Lyndsey Layton of the Washington Post describes the creation of the Common Core standards. Two men--Gene Wilhoit and David Coleman--went to see Bill Gates in 2008 to ask him to underwrite national standards. He agreed, and within two years, the standards were written and adopted by almost every state in the nation.

This is the closest thing to an educational coup in the history of the United States. Our education system is made up of about 14,000 local school districts; most education policy is set at the state level. But Bill Gates was able to underwrite a swift revolution. It happened so quickly that there was very little debate or discussion. Almost every consequential education group was funded by the Gates Foundation to study or promote the Common Core standards. Whereas most businesses would conduct pilot testing of a major new product, there was no pilot testing of the Common Core. These national standards were written with minimal public awareness or participation, and at least one state--Kentucky--adopted them before the final draft was finished.

What made the Gates' coup possible was the close relationship between the Gates Foundation and the Obama administration. When the administration launched its Race to the Top competition, it issued a list of things that states had to do to be eligible for a share of $4.35 billion. One was to agree to adopt "college and career ready standards." Administration officials, Layton writes, originally planned to specify that states had to adopt the Common Core, still not yet finished, but were warned to use the term "college and career ready," to avoid the appearance of imposing the Common Core (which was their intent). Leave aside for the moment the fact that it is illegal for any federal official to attempt to direct, control, or influence curriculum or instruction.

Never before has one man had the wealth, the political connections, and the grand ambition to buy American education. But Bill Gates did it.

CCSD Hoping to Soak the Poor Again with New Sales Tax

Doesn't the P&C's new education reporter realize that raising the sales tax isn't the only way to finance new school buildings?

It's deja vu all over again.

Arne Duncan Reveals Ignorance of SC Standards

Who does Arne Duncan think he is? Apparently he's so smug and arrogant that he believes that the Common Core standards are higher than what South Carolina had previously. That's what he stated (remotely, of course) at the Charleston County School District's indoctrination symposium last week.

Basically, he's lashing out now because he senses the battle for Common Core has been lost. South Carolina's standards haven't been its problem, but Duncan wouldn't know that.

The state's edublob spokesperson, CCSD's Superintendent McGinley, plans to end run the state legislature and implement Common Core without its name. She's just waiting for the next election to produce a state superintendent of education more amenable to CCSS, either a Democrat or RINO Molly Spearman.

RINO Molly Spearman Poor Choice for School Choice

If you want a Democrat for South Carolina State Superintendent of Education, vote for a real one. Don't saddle Republicans with RINO (Republican In Name Only) Molly Spearman. She was first elected to public office as a Democrat in 1992; then, seeing where South Carolina politics is headed, switched to the Republicans in 1995. As outgoing SC Superintendent Mick Zais has pointed out,

“'Once elected, there’s nothing to prevent her from leaving the Republican Party and declaring herself a Democrat again. Since 2004, 95 percent of Spearman’s political contributions have been to Democrats, many who ran against Republican candidates who were supporters of school choice.'” 

Too bad Zais didn't provide a list.

Needless to say, she now claims to favor school choice. Right.

CCSD School Board Cowed into Raiding "Rainy Day" Fund

What is a "rainy day"? Well, really, it's an emergency fund, so why not call it that?

Because the emergency in the case of the Charleston County School District came about through a consultant's study of administrative salaries that the CCSD Board of Trustees approved on Superintendent Nancy McGinley's recommendation.

The emergency? the bloated bureaucracy at the Taj Mahal needs to be paid more.

McGinley and Chief Financial Officer Michael Bobby have cloaked this raid on the emergency fund by allowing the ordinary step increase in teacher pay! Imagine that! What an innovation!

Still, 75 percent of the pay increases will accrue to administrative staff in the Taj.

You can't make this stuff up. In fact, the $7.4 million taken from the emergency fund (It's an emergency! These bureacrats might leave!) doesn't fully cover the $8.5 million for denizens of the Taj. And these are ongoing salary increases that only partially meet the recommendations of the consultant's study for salary increases.

Instead, dollars for low-income middle schools get the ax.

To complete the farce that purports to be a responsible school budget, the Board, again at McGinley's recommendation, voted to forgo taxes from two TIF districts, no doubt in order to please Mayor Riley. Certainly it is not in the best interest of CCSD to forgo tax dollars when it must raid emergency funds for ongoing salaries.

You can see where this is headed. Time for an outside audit.

Stop CCSD Administrators' Bloated Pay Packages

The Charleston County School District remains topheavy with too many chiefs and not enough Indians. Neverless, Superintendent McGinley is determined to increase pay for administrators at a higher rate than that for those teachers who are on the front line everyday.

Who doesn't believe that those from "off" would take a lower salary just to live in the Lowcountry? Talk to medical students at MUSC and see the truth of that statement. The same undoubtedly holds true for incoming educrats. However, McGinley (and her school board of lackeys) commissioned a study several years back to justify having CCSD's administrative salaries equal to those of less desirable cities. 

Now, the chickens come home to roost: over $11.6 million in rising costs in the district is tied to employee pay raises, but only a quarter of that rise is due to increasing teachers' pay; nearly 75 percent ($8.5 million) is "partial implementation of a new salary study that will boost pay for some employees [i.e., not teachers!] based on market pay for similar positions." The district will dip into the "rainy day fund" so that taxes need not be raised.

Nice work if you are a friend of McGinley's--live in the Lowcountry and get paid as though you live in Podunk.