No money shall be paid from public funds nor shall the credit of the State or any of its political subdivisions be used for the direct benefit of any religious or other private educational institution.
Yep. That’s it.
The surprise is not that the majority agreed with the plain language. Rather, it’s surprising that these word could be read in such a way as to allow state money to flow to anything other than public schools in South Carolina.
At the start of the 2024-2025 school year, nearly 100 students have returned to Rutherford County Schools (RCS) after trying out the county’s new charter school: Rutherford Collegiate Prep Academy.
“The opening of RCP [Rutherford Collegiate Prep] has been a disaster,” said Lea Maitlen, parent of a recent RCS graduate. “On the very first day, multiple children were lost by the school for hours as parents became increasingly frantic. One parent referred to the day as ‘apocalyptic.’”
RCP’s charter was rejected by the Rutherford County School Board, but that decision was overruled by Gov. Bill Lee’s handpicked charter school commission.
Trump is “all in” on school privatization, Harris stands with public schools
As Donald Trump and Kamala Harris prepare to debate tonight, the education agenda of each candidate deserves a look.
NPR digs in to some key issues, and the differences are stark.
School privatization, for example:
First, he’s [Trump] calling for universal school choice. This would, in theory, take public dollars normally spent on a child’s public education and give them directly to parents to spend at whatever school they want, whether it’s public, private or homeschooling at the kitchen table.
By contrast:
Harris has been an outspoken supporter of public education and has been courting educators’ support.
Democrats, on the other hand, made clear in their 2024 platform that they’re against any effort that could weaken the nation’s public schools. “We oppose the use of private-school vouchers, tuition tax credits, opportunity scholarships, and other schemes that divert taxpayer-funded resources away from public education. Public tax dollars should never be used to discriminate.”
Stress and demands of teaching make the job not “worth it”
Teacher pay and support are not keeping up with the demands of the job, according to a recent report.
But also, challenges addressing student mental health. Challenges addressing cell phone use. Challenges addressing the behavioral and mental health challenges created by cell phone use.
The share of teachers who say the stress and disappointment of the job are “worth it” has fallen to 42%, which is 21 points lower than other college-educated workers, according to a poll by Rand, a nonprofit think tank. As recently as 2018, over 70% of teachers said the stress was worth it.
That’s a pretty rapid decline – and one that has accelerated post-COVID.
Policymakers aren’t exactly rushing in with solutions, either.
“Virtual charter students have substantially worse high school graduation rates, college enrollment rates, bachelor’s degree attainment, employment rates, and earnings than students in traditional public schools.”
As Gov. Bill Lee and his legislative allies continue to push expansion of Tennessee’s school voucher program, warnings come pouring in from other states.
” . . . the cost is projected to grow 263 percent in just five years. This expansion is predicted to force public school districts to either make severe cuts or ask taxpayers for more money through public referendums.”
It’s the guns. It has always been the guns. It’s the worship of a distorted view of the Second Amendment that says your right to own the means of killing other humans matters more than my child’s right not to be killed. Your pursuit of happiness beats my life and liberty. Heck, just last week, a conservative federal district judge ruled that there’s a Second Amendment right to own a machine gun. We’re about to mark the anniversary of 9/11, an event so shocking that we still tightly regulate riding on an airplane.
Greene adds that the heat of our rhetoric is also problematic:
I have to believe that it’s past time to look hard at our own culture. It’s not just that the past fifteen or so years have seen the country more divided and polarized. It’s how some of us talk about that polarization.
We’re going to destroy the opposition, obliterate them, use power and force to dominate them and silence them, drive them out of the public arena. So many of our conflicts are discussed with the language of violence and war. This is not new, but the intensity and frequency is.
He notes:
We don’t talk about how to get along with people that we think are wrong. We talk about how to wipe them out.
And if you are young, it has been like this for most of your life.
It’s hard to argue with his conclusion.
It’s also hard to argue that policymakers make kids a priority.
Not only do we continue to see lack of action on gun violence, but we also see policymakers who fail to invest in schools – and in the teachers in those schools.
Former Nebraska U.S. Senator Ben Sasse recently resigned his position as President of the University of Florida amid a spending scandal. Among the allegations are increased travel spending and hiring associates who worked remotely – in Nebraska, DC, and Nashville, among other locations.
That Nashville hire? Former TN Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn.
UF also disclosed this week that – since Sasse’s resignation – it has terminated the jobs of four of six of the employees whose travel records it provided, and a fifth resigned.
It also fired at least one other senior Republican appointee by Sasse, Penny Schwinn, who had been allowed to work as vice president for K-12 education from her home in Tennessee for a salary of $367,500. It agreed to pay her three months’ salary, or about $92,000, when it fired her, effective July 31. Schwinn was the former Republican commissioner of education for Tennessee.
It’s not the first time Schwinn has experienced travel troubles:
Part of the supposed allure of charter schools is that they are held accountable. Some proponents even suggest they have more accountability than traditional public schools. After all, based on poor performance, a school board or charter authorizer can close a charter school.
Except that rarely happens.
Instead, as Peter Greene points out with an example from Pennsylvania, once opened, charter schools are rarely forced to close. And, even if an authorizer does take action to close the school, legal battles can keep a school open for years.
The charter system was sold with the idea that charters would be accountable to authorizers, that they would have to earn the right to operate and continue earning it to maintain that operation. The Franklin Towne situation shows a different framing, one that is too common in the charter world–once established, the charter doesn’t have to earn its continued existence. It doesn’t need authorization from anyone; instead, authorizers build a case to close down the charter. Authorization to operate, once given, can never be withdrawn without protracted legal battles.
Tennesseans have definitely seen this myth play out. In fact, the authorizing of charter schools at a local level has also been superseded by Gov. Bill Lee’s handpicked charter school commission.
The state commission can force districts to take charters that local elected officials don’t want. And that commission can then allow those charters to stay open – even if they aren’t meeting community needs. Even if they are actually harming the students they take in by way of poor performance.
