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What a dream! You retire from teaching, then keep teaching and receive both your teaching and your retirement checks. What could go wrong?
"From a financial standpoint, it is one piece of a state retirement system that has been in crisis mode for years. Partly due to what critics call poor management of investments, the state pension system reported a $24 billion funding shortfall this year."
In other words, the state has been paying out money it doesn't have. And ending this nightmare of unfunded pensions now will cause "thousands of longtime SC teachers [to] quit next year."
What brainless wonder thought this system would work?
It's yet another example of how underpaying teachers is coming around to bite us.
It's going to get worse before it gets better. Look for teacher shortages at all levels next year.
For those of you who don't venture into North Charleston unless to shop, here's some community information.
"The Felix Pinckney Community Center in the Liberty Hill neighborhood of North Charleston offers an after-school reading program for third- and fourth-graders. The center created the program seven years ago when it became clear that the neighborhood's youth were entering high school reading at a third-grade level, Director Robert Fludd said. Participation in the program has grown from 20 to 120 students, from Liberty Hill and beyond."
Now Dorothea Bernique is offering third and fourth-graders the chance to learn some financial literacy as well. "She founded the Increasing H.O.P.E. Financial Training Center more than a decade ago to assist adults with financial planning. With the support of local banks, the nonprofit has given more than $8 million back to the local community in the past 12 years through free tax preparation and foreclosure prevention."
Now it's all about inflatable pink pigs, three, to be exact!
"Dorothea Bernique taught about saving, spending and giving in a financial literacy class for third- and fourth-graders at North Charleston's Felix Pinckney Community Center. The executive director of Increasing H.O.P.E. used the 'three little pigs' story for the class after their regular school day."
"'I think it's very, very important to children in that area because it provides a concept and a behavior that they may not see on a daily basis,' Bernique said. 'It's not about the amount, but establishing a new behavior that can literally change your life and help break that cycle of poverty.'"
More power to her!
When it comes to busing, the Charleston County School District sits between a rock and a hard place. That situation's developed over time as the district has chosen to create monster-sized schools and magnets that require practically all students to be bused.
So it's hardly a surprise that when Durham School Services demands more money, the district caves. After all, what would happen if it went on strike? or simply slowed its routes in protest?
Chaos.
Let's face it: South Carolina has an abysmal record in providing school buses, and it doesn't seem to be improving. Durham asks for another $ 1 million? Durham gets it.
"Amid a staffing shortage last school year, Durham used its own funds to raise the starting pay for drivers in Charleston County from $12 to $13.55 an hour. On Nov. 27, the Charleston County School Board raised its lowest pay rate for substitute teachers from $8 to $12.50 an hour."
'Nuff said.
Why? Why? Why?
Why would a married teacher with a baby at home desire to have sex with a 17-year-old boy?
Why do we keep seeing similar stories in the news?
What has happened in our recruitment of young people to become teachers that leads to such behavior?
"She is married," [her attorney said]. "Her husband is a student at the Medical University of South Carolina (in) the residency program. She has a 10-month-old baby, a girl."
I have no answers, only questions.
https://www.postandcourier.com/news/burke-high-school-teacher-accused-of-sexual-relationship-with-student/
Evidently in Charleston County and elsewhere in the state, administrators and teachers feel unable to provide single-gender classrooms without the guiding hand of and handouts from the SC Department of Education. That's the conclusion drawn from the decision to drop those classrooms at Morningside Middle School in the Charleston County School District.
"Principal Stephanie Flock said leaders at the public school made the decision to drop its single-gender programs this school year after prolonged dwindling support from the S.C. Department of Education, which used to provide free training and curricula for such initiatives."
Training? Curricula? Give me a break! That has got to be the silliest excuse I've ever heard.
Flock thinks her staff needed more professional development to teach single-gender classes. Wouldn't you love to know what that instruction consists of? Yes, classroom dynamics do change when the preteen opposite sex is absent: students are less worried about what the opposite sex thinks.
"Morningside created its ARMS Academy for boys and EXCEL Academy for girls in 2009 amid a golden age of state support for the practice." According to former State Superintendent Jim Rex, "results" in single-gender classrooms have been "mixed."
How ridiculous! The positive results to girls' and boys' confidence can't be measured. How about behavioral patterns? Apparently to our local and state educrats, academic results are the only thing that matters.
The South Carolina Policy Council (SCPC) has weighed in on how our state distributes power over education.
Surprise, surprise. It doesn't like the present set up. Actually, the SCPC may dislike all power structures in the state except its own.
After publishing a lengthy analysis of the situation regarding appointments to the Department of Education, the State Board of Education, and the Education Oversight Committee, the Policy Council concluded that "many of those in charge are largely unaccountable to citizens." Essentially, SCPC concludes that the SC legislature wields too much power.
How these bodies would be "more accountable to citizens" is missing from the analysis. Isn't the legislature accountable through elections? How would power be taken away and handed to "citizens"?
You must wonder, as I do, if the SCPC simply dislikes the reality that the legislature is majority Republican.
The Policy Council also seems to assume that power over education in South Carolina should be solely the purview of the state. Given the control over schools by individual school districts, most of which follow county boundaries, the SCPC seems to ignore or premise the demise of the power of these individual entities. However, state power over individual school districts is a relatively recent development in this state.
Its analysis makes you wonder if the policy makers at the SCPC are natives of states where all power over education is centralized in state government.
To that idea? Thanks, but no thanks!
Our local rag chose to downplay the recent Charleston County School District's vote along racial lines in reelecting Kate Darby of Mt. Pleasant as its Chair. If it had been any other elected body in the county, state, or nation, you can bet it would have been trumpeted as a big deal.
Was it? Clearly the four black members of the Board are unhappy with Darby. Could it be that they find her tenure favors the white citizens of Mt. Pleasant? Nah.
Darby doesn't think so, so she and the other four board members who voted for her must be right.
"'Everyone just voted their conscience, and they wanted to see a change,' [vice chair] Eric Mack said.
What would that change have looked like, Rev?
"Boeing is one of the Charleston region's largest employers, with about 6,900 workers and contractors. In addition to its Dreamliner facility, the company has a research campus and sites that design and build engine parts for the 737 MAX and interior parts for 787 cabins."
Where is the Charleston County School District's plan to train workers for these well-paying jobs?
Scattershot.
Where is the plan to incorporate training for jobs not only at Boeing but also at MUSC and other large employers within CCSD. It's time to take advantage of the resources around us and to stop thinking that some program being hawked by the Broad Institute or its ilk answers our needs.
The editorial under discussion, titled "Real School Reform Needed" rehashes the arguments regarding judicial oversight of the 24-year-old school equity lawsuit. That oversight is now gone, while inadequate schools remain.
According to the Editors, "Many students still attend failing schools in crumbling buildings after overlong bus commutes in dangerously aging vehicles." While these observations are true, where are the statistics that show that those buildings and buses depress student achievement?
Hint: they don't exist.
More problematic is the next complaint: "Too many rural districts still struggle to recruit qualified teachers, raise graduation rates and prepare students for college or a career." Now, the legislature can address recruiting problems with dedicated funding; however, improved graduation rates and career preparation simply will not respond to dollars alone. Rural parents and students need to recognize the importance of achievement. Until they do, no amount of state support will help.
Finally, the most recalcitrant of all problems: "Even in comparatively wealthy districts, such as Charleston, some rural and urban schools lag far behind their suburban counterparts."
And why do they "lag far behind," dear Editors?
Long bus rides? No
Dilapidated buildings? No
Because their parents lag behind.
Have a fix for that, do you?
Does our local paper call the Charleston County School Board or any other "liberal"?
In your dreams.
So why does it persist in calling the school board of the Berkeley County School District "conservative"?
Puzzling, isn't it, since what the board has accomplished over the last year or so should be called "competent." Maybe competent school boards are conservative? Food for thought.
"Conservative Berkeley school board faced, overcame many challenges in 2017" reads the headline.
Now that the indictments against its former chief financial officer "for fraud, embezzlement and money laundering" are public, its "conservative" ways have been vindicated?
“'This board was faced with issue after issue and in each case did the right thing for the school district and the students,' said Terry Hardesty, a former board member who has been critical of past boards. 'Their swift action of terminating an employee under criminal investigation was proper and a stark reminder of the waste the previous board heaped upon the taxpayers. I am sleeping much better at night.'”
“'We took swift and decisive action as a board in a time of crisis and saw each one of those situations corrected,' [board member] Michael Ramsey said. 'That has made this feel like it’s really been worthwhile. I think it’s getting to a point where we can finally start focusing on moving the district forward as a leader, setting the pace and example for the state.'”
If this is what a "conservative" board does, let's have more of them!
"South Carolina's virtual schools have cost taxpayers more than $350 million since 2007 and have produced poor academic results, including some of the highest dropout rates in the state."
Shall we contemplate why a student would enroll in a virtual school? Some are aspiring professionals in athletics or the arts whose schedules require flexibility. Others are ill or avoiding bullying. Still others have done poorly in classrooms and hope to gain diplomas on line. Why wouldn't there be a high drop out rate? How can such a diverse group be held to the same standards as those enrolled in classroom instruction?
The S.C. Public Charter School District Board of Trustees in its wisdom thinks they should be. That was the rationale put forth for refusing oversight of three virtual schools to transfer to Erskine College. The question remains whether the state board itself provides the support these schools need.
"Representatives from several of the schools said they would like to use Erskine's school of education for professional development. 'The opportunity for student teachers, professional development and continuing the promise to parents are the main reasons we’re highlighting,' a representative from Oceanside said."
"Most of the Public Charter School District's decisions Thursday were unanimous or near-unanimous. One board member, Beth Purcell, voted to let all nine schools leave for Erskine. 'All of our virtual schools serve a virtual tough demographic. I appreciate and applaud your passion for serving these students who would otherwise not be served,' Purcell said during a hearing for Odyssey Online."
"Purcell is the newest member of the board, appointed in the fall by S.C. Senate Pro Tem Hugh Leatherman. She previously worked as president of publicschooloptions.org, a Washington D.C.-based organization that advocates for the expansion of charter schools, including virtual schools."
Pointing out her background alone is somewhat disingenuous. What bias do other board members bring?
What are their backgrounds, and why were they appointed to the Board? The governor makes most of these appointments.
Interesting questions.
Here's the puzzling question regarding teacher recruitment in South Carolina: why doesn't South Carolina produce enough first-year teachers to fill all vacancies at the state's schools? Evidently, we don't, since CCSD Superintendent Postlewait thinks it essential to recruit graduates from other states. Or is it that graduates from South Carolina's Schools of Education aren't desirable as hires?
Inquiring minds want to know.
What we do know is that the Charleston County School District has for many years discriminated against hiring experienced teachers from other states. And the state does not observe reciprocity with teacher certification gained in other states. Makes you wonder.
Far be it from me to suggest that teachers are paid enough, but what is "enough" as long as teachers are not treated as the professionals they are, discipline falters, and parents (and sometimes administrators) blame teachers for all students' problems.
The descriptions of the suggested first-year $4,000 pay bump's effect on the entire pay scale are murky as presented by our favorite fish wrapper. The pay scale for those who enjoy the first-year bump will necessarily reflect that amount's addition continuing to the end of their careers. What about those faithful teachers who've hung in there so far without the bump? The year after the first-year raise has gone into effect, will teachers who are second-year teachers be making $4,000 more per year than third-year teachers who didn't get the pay bump the first year they taught? One lower scale for experienced teachers and one higher scale for those lucky few?
And what about the first-year teacher who fails at teaching that first year? Paid an extra $4000 for what?
It's a puzzle.
Everyone has talking points. That's why no one listens any more. That's the state of affairs on both the national and state level. Wouldn't it be stupendous if all sides could imagine something new?
According to supporters of SC Supreme Court oversight of the funding issue, the SC General Assembly has done nothing right during the decades of court oversight and will continue to do nothing right now that the oversight is gone.
Those who are glad oversight has been lifted claim that everything possible has been done and that continued oversight "would be a gross overreach of judicial power and separation of powers." Hundreds of millions of dollars have been thrown at the problem of rural schools' facilities and programs.
The SC Supreme Court really wants the state to abandon its "over-complicated, piecemeal system" of funding education, "what justices [have] called the state's antiquated, fractured funding 'scheme.'"
Right. No doubt local school districts all over the state will be happy to give power over funding to the general assembly. In fact, they are all begging to be relieved of this chore. Why don't our elected state representatives respond to their pressure?
By the way, I have a bridge in Brooklyn for sale.
In the "Might as Well Laugh" department, the following Letter to the Editor:
"I read The Post and Courier in the morning over breakfast. I always read the comic section first because there is usually more common sense and even wisdom there than anywhere else in the paper.
"Here’s what I found in the Nov. 16 “Grand Avenue” comic. A “teacher” who is grading his students’ papers comments that he will need “more coffee” to get them all done.
"A student, hearing this, suggests that he could just give everyone an “A” and be done with it. The teacher replies he could also just give everyone an “F” and be done with it. The student grasps the point of the lesson and brings the teacher a cup of coffee.
"After reading the comics, I went to the front page of The Post and Courier and was a little surprised to find another joke about schools. This joke goes like this.
"Last year the S.C. Department of Education (SCDE) lowered the minimum passing grade for high school graduation from 70 to 60. The punch line — the SCDE is now congratulating itself on the highest ever high-school graduation rate.
"Yeah, I don’t think it’s funny either. I only wish it was a joke, and I hope every parent in South Carolina who cares about the future of their kids is letting legislators and local school board members know just how desperately unfunny it is.
Terry W. Ryan
Captiva Row
Charleston
What is this liberal groaning over the nomination of former SC education chief Mick Zais to the number two job at the US Department of Education under Betsy DeVos? What, she should work with liberals?
At least our local rag recognizes that Nikki Haley's being passed over for Secretary of State is a blessing. For us, dopes, not her!
"The former Newberry College president regularly feuded with teacher groups and members of the state Board of Education. He spent extensive time grappling with federal bureaucracy. Supporters and critics alike say Zais was never able to fulfill some of his biggest ambitions for the job."
"Now, the 70-year-old ex-Army general is coming out of retirement for a chance to ascend to the second-ranking role at the U.S. Department of Education. This time he'll get to link arms with like-minded proponents of smaller government in an effort to pursue the changes he always wanted. In keeping with a trend across the Trump administration, Zais would serve as another high-ranking official inside a Cabinet agency who has battled with that same agency in the past, lambasting what he views as federal overreach."
More power to him!
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