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

A couple of weeks ago I said two things.

1. I said that Randy Page’s op-ed comparing the state Department of Education to the communist Soviet Union may have been a bit of an overstatement – even if it was simply for dramatic effect.
2. I said that Principal Skinner Superintendent Jim Rex means well.

Judging from Mr. Rex’s response to Mr. Page’s op-ed, I was 1 for 2.

Aside from name calling with the maturity level of a 3rd grader, the entire premise of his op-ed is wrong and dictatorial.

Mr. Rex ends his tirade by stating, “It’s past time for SCRG and its wealthy patrons to realize that South Carolina is not a playground for ideologues. We are a people who believe in the value of strong public schools. And we are a state with the will and ability to meet our challenges and provide a quality education for every child, in every school.”

South Carolina is not a playground for ideologues? Why not? What is wrong with being an ideologue?

Being an ideologue means you stand for something besides greed and self-preservation. Being an ideologue means you care about an…ideology, a philosophy.

What do you care about Mr. Rex?

Frankly, I would be even more scared if you weren’t an ideologue because that tells me that you’re in this thing for less than altruistic reasons, and judging from the end of your statement, I’m right in that assumption.

You actually wrote (or had someone write) with what I assume was a straight face at the time, that “we are a state with the will and ability to meet our challenges and provide a quality education for every child, in every school.”

I guess you were partially right. We have the will to meet the challenges. That is why ideologues worked to fix a broken system instead of listening to status quo supporters like you who are content with an inferior educational product.

Unfortunately, the other part of your statement may be off the mark. We don’t seem to have the ability to meet those challenges.

We don’t have the ability because the educational establishment is completely entrenched in the idea that the answer is money.

It’s not.

We’re dumping money into the schools like addicts at a video poker machine, and the result is the same. There may be some successes on occasion, but most of the time we lose.

Mr. Rex, you’re wrong. South Carolina should be the place for ideologues, because without them, we will never be able to fix the problem you’re supporting.

By the way, caring about something because of an ideology ought to be something we teach in schools. It’s called civic responsibility.

– Wilson Charles