SC Superintendent Zais No Lame Duck on Smarter Balanced

If the Democrats manage to get control of the SC Department of Education by electing Mick Zais's replacement, those opposing the imposition of Common Core and its attendant government-mandated testing will think of these as the good old days.

Retiring Superintendent Zais earlier this week used his position to withdraw South Carolina from the consortium pushing Smarter Balanced Testing for the Common Core standards. Other mealy-mouthed politicians in the state are hedging their bets with comments on how, since we started down the Common Core road (under a Democratic Superintendent) we must continue. South Carolina is not alone in its rejection of the federal take-over of education by dangling Race-to-the-Top funds in front of ignorant noses.

We're going to miss Mick.

CCSD's Lights in the Darkness: No Tax Increase and IB at Memminger

It's happened. The Charleston County School Board of Trustees has voted twice for changes not proposed by district administration. Perhaps we've turned the proverbial corner in thwarting Superintendent McGinley's    headlock of her bosses.

Kudos to member Todd Garrett, who managed to ask enough questions and wade through a sea of obfuscation to reach the goal of finding flab in the superintendent's proposed budget-with-tax-hike, thus providing a viable alternative to blind acceptance of higher taxes.

Kudos to the majority of Board members who approved the implementation of the IB program at Memminger despite being attacked from all sides by those who have no stake in improving the school, either hoping to keep the school as it is (!) or fearing it will become a mouthpiece for One Worlders. (Teachers don't need IB to do that if they so desire.)

Now if we could get the essay quarrel settled.

Thanks for the Memories, CCPL!

If you're as book-crazy as I am, when you enter the door of any library, your first thought is, "Why am I not here more often?"

Pre-television days, my cousin and I would walk the four hot blocks to the downtown library in the small North Carolina town where my grandmother lived and return with stacks and stacks of good reading for those unairconditioned summer afternoons when we were supposed to be "resting" in the upstairs bedroom. The cool interior of its old building would beckon to us again a few days later.

I am old enough to remember (but just barely) the old Charleston County Free Library on Rutledge that held much the same charm, though the Charleston Library Society was a shorter walk and fascinating place. Even the pink monstrosity on King Street never failed to call my name.

So I am delighted to see that congratulations are in order for the Charleston County Public Library for being named in the top 3 percent of libraries nationwide. That's definitely an assessment I can agree with.