The Other Brooks Brothers and Their Sister, Too. — “Suddenly-relevant”

In yesterday’s THE GREENVILLE NEWS, SC political nice guy, exercise guru, and SCOURGE president Randy Page once again ripped state Superintendent of Education Jim Rex’s pseudo school choice plan by comparing it to the progressive collapse of communism in the former Soviet Union.

While Randall may have overstated things for dramatic effect, the bottom line is that the guy can only come up with so many metaphors for an educational system that is clearly broken to try and get his point across to a legislature that won’t listen to reason.

Let’s face it. South Kakilaki spends more than $6.5 billion annually in the name of education (combining federal, state, and local funds). Approximately 51.4 cents of each dollar will never see the inside of a classroom, and nearly 50% of the state’s high school freshmen will not graduate in four years.

That’s why we’re running near the bottom of the list in education. Money obviously isn’t the answer.

I think Jim Rex means well. I think he truly believes that his plan will work, but unfortunately the superintendant believes in people’s inner goodness. The problem is that educational institutions aren’t about educating. They’re about money, and public schools are among the greediest.

They need test scores and good students because that’s what gets them money. They don’t want underprivileged and economically impoverished students from broken homes in their schools because statistically those students do not perform as well in an academic environment. That kind of performance will not get schools money.

See how this works?

Superintendent Rex’s proposed “plan” opens school district borders and allows anyone to enroll in the school of his or her choice as long as the “slots” don’t get filled. This sounds all well and good, but the first spots will go to those students districted to attend the school. The few remaining spots will then go up for grabs, but how quickly will they fill up? They’ll fill up as soon as the schools’ administrators think their new student intake will bring down test scores and their chance to suckle more tax dollars of which 51.4 cents will not find the classroom.

Get it yet?

We’ve tried everything else. We’ve thrown money at the educational problem, and it’s only caused more problems. Why don’t we try walking down a new path?

Superintendent Rex, I know your heart is in the right place. Like you, I believe that children are the future. We should teach them well and let them lead the way, but the greatest education of all is finding out when something doesn’t work. Our educational system falls into that category.

Let’s credit parents (no pun intended) with knowing what school or form of education works for their children. Create a system of competition where schools are forced to compete for the dollars they receive. Allow parents and students to act as consumers who decide what educational product they want.

That may not work either, but at least we wouldn’t continue slamming our heads into a concrete wall wondering why it hurt each time we did it.

– Wilson Charles