CCSD's Collins Misunderstands Rules of the Game

Captain Renault: "I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!" – From the classic Casablanca. 

See, everybody's participating in the gambling, but no one will admit it exists. 

Sort of like the Charleston County School District and how its friends and children of school board members magically enter its magnet schools.

Today's expose on school board member Chris Collins's misbehavior is a case in point. First of all, you must read well past the front page to learn that Collins was trying to get his son into the School of the Arts from the waiting list. Second, we'll give the reporter the benefit of the doubt. He probably is ignorant of the background to Collins's request, namely the years of scamming the Buist lottery that saw the children of the chosen winning 100 percent of the time. 

Of course, he also knows that Mayor Summey's grandson won the lottery into Buist not long ago.

And does anyone believe that strings aren't pulled at the Academic Magnet to lure professional hires from off with promises of a great free high school education? What turnip truck did they fall from?

No, Collins's problem isn't that he wanted preference on the waiting list; it's that he didn't have the right friends who could pull the strings sub rosa. And then his enemies attacked.