Eight of 9 Worst-performing Schools in North Charleston

"What a great school system we have in Charleston County," think parents in Mt. Pleasant. A great system that has worked to the advantage of the middle and upper classes, that is. If it's so great, why are nine of the Charleston County School District's schools on the naughty list?

Why should the state need to intervene in one of the state's richest districts? 

What has happened over the years since the consolidation of once multiple school districts into one countywide district is, in fact, a crime. It's a crime against the poor and black. Gregg Meyers and his ilk have some 'splaining to do, but the upshot remains that the middle class and the powerful in the county guaranteed for their children a decent public education.

The first, and one of the biggest mistakes, was to close the white High School of Charleston and guarantee the existence of historically black Burke High. What idiot thought at the time that the parents of white students would happily sign onto a school that prides itself in its black culture? We can see the result: Burke remains virtually all black and the remaining white students in its attendance district have managed by hook or by crook to opt out. Even the mirage of a thought that Burke's attendance district might be redrawn to reach across the Cooper into Mt. Pleasant and relieve the crowding in its high schools would be enough to start a second revolution. 

Burke isn't on the naughty list, however. That ignominy is reserved for the black population of North Charleston, most of whom decades ago lived on the now-gentrified peninsula when CCSD was formed. 

It's time to face reality. The Board of Trustees and Superintendent keep crunching numbers in the vain hope that educating the poor doesn't cost any more than educating the rich, or in edu-speak, the "resourced." Though equal outcomes are unlikely to occur, CCSD administration must break the mold by dedicating more money per pupil to the nine schools in trouble. 

This, of course, assumes the correct schools are on the list. Notably absent is Sanders-Clyde. We all know how poorly it has done over the years.

Revenues from North Charleston subsidize the rest of the district. Maybe North Charleston needs its own school system; then it could spend more on these failing schools.