The State of Education

Lawbreakers in public housing targeted

2010-11-14T12:47:00.000-05:00

A welfare state is a police state.

Lawbreakers in public housing targeted

Letters to the Editor | The Post and Courier, Charleston SC - News, Sports, Entertainment

2010-11-14T12:38:00.000-05:00

"Most people get into trouble, not because of too much freedom, but because of restrictions imposed by others on their freedom."

Letters to the Editor | The Post and Courier, Charleston SC - News, Sports, Entertainment

Do-gooder harm

Having spent 25 years in the Army, much of it in command positions, I have seen the problems caused by moralistic do-gooders imposing their controls on human behavior.

Korea, July 1950: We had a beer ration of one can per man per day with a Coke for each five beers issued for non-drinkers. It was wonderful, after working a hard day in the heat and dust, to have a stream-cooled beer after supper and relax.

Then the Women's Christian Temperance Union prevailed upon Congress to deny this small pleasure to the troops. Many turned to the villages for their supplies. This often resulted in bottles containing wood alcohol and urine causing blindness and mental disorders. We evacuated good troops when we most needed them.

Fort Hood, 1968: We were experiencing road accidents as soldiers returned late at night to the barracks from a night's drinking in the surrounding towns. Post's solution: Impose a 1 a.m. curfew. Result: More severe accidents earlier as troops drank and drove faster to sign-in. My solution: Break Army regulations against drinking in the barracks and allow my troops to have beer in the company day-rooms as long as good behavior prevailed. Result: No highway accidents.

After retiring, I obtained a Ph.D in organizational behavior and management to learn more about the causes of human behavior difficulties.

While these are many, a primary cause is restricting the individual's range of discretionary behavior. Too often, when others decide what is good for another, they get it wrong.

Individuals have learned what was good for their survival over 50,000 years. Those who didn't learn are no longer with us. It is a matter of evolution.

Most people get into trouble, not because of too much freedom, but because of restrictions imposed by others on their freedom.

W.H. Kastner, Ph.D

Colonel, U.S. Army (Retired)

Furman Drive

Charleston

Midyear foreclosures up across state’s MSAs

2010-10-26T09:01:00.000-04:00

Midyear foreclosures up across state’s MSAs

Great time to increase property tax for school construction. Are you kidding me?

Board suggests tax hike | The Post and Courier, Charleston SC - News, Sports, Entertainment

2010-10-26T08:58:00.000-04:00

Board suggests tax hike | The Post and Courier, Charleston SC - News, Sports, Entertainment

Tax and spend- Just say no.

Teaching civics

2010-10-26T08:56:00.000-04:00

Teaching civics

Education Week: Taking School Safety Too Far?

2010-10-26T08:55:00.000-04:00

Education Week: Taking School Safety Too Far?

60% of SC High School Students Fail End-of-Course History Test

2010-10-26T08:51:00.000-04:00

George F. Will - Why should education be exempt from recession budgeting?

2010-10-26T08:49:00.000-04:00

George F. Will - Why should education be exempt from recession budgeting?

The Texas Model - Rich Lowry - National Review Online

2010-10-26T08:43:00.000-04:00

The Texas Model - Rich Lowry - National Review Online

SC should adopt this concept.

Teaching civics

2010-07-29T17:20:00.001-04:00

Teaching civics

Sandra Day O'Conner has a web site www.ourcourts.org. She encourages students to learn about the way government works so they can understand how it affects them and how they can effect change.

The Post and Courier - Hip-hop history 101 - Charleston SC - postandcourier.com

2010-07-29T17:02:00.000-04:00

If only all education was relevant to the real world. Just imagine the student interest.

The Post and Courier - Hip-hop history 101 - Charleston SC - postandcourier.com

The Post and Courier - Outdoor getaways from S.C. mountains to sea - Charleston SC - postandcourier.com

2010-07-26T10:07:00.000-04:00

The Post and Courier - Outdoor getaways from S.C. mountains to sea - Charleston SC - postandcourier.com

Charles Krauthammer - Beware the lame duck

2010-07-25T13:20:00.000-04:00

The danger of political games.

Charles Krauthammer - Beware the lame duck

Obama Omits Jobs Killed or Thwarted from Tally: Caroline Baum - Bloomberg

2010-07-25T12:45:00.000-04:00

Obama Omits Jobs Killed or Thwarted from Tally: Caroline Baum - Bloomberg

The Post and Courier - Child care subsidies keep 'poorest of the poor' at work - Charleston SC - postandcourier.com

2010-07-25T11:42:00.000-04:00

A welfare state is a police state. Beware government subsidies for child care are going full steam.
The Post and Courier - Child care subsidies keep 'poorest of the poor' at work - Charleston SC - postandcourier.com

LegislativeAgenda_2010.pdf (application/pdf Object)

2010-07-24T13:30:00.000-04:00

Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce

LegislativeAgenda_2010.pdf (application/pdf Object)

The Post and Courier - Affordable tuition needed - Charleston SC - postandcourier.com

2010-07-18T12:50:00.000-04:00

The South Carolina Uniform Grading Scale is a huge factor in out-of-state student acceptance. Grade point averages are an integral feature of acceptance or denial to college. S.C. uses a 7 point scale compared to out-of-state 10 point scales. Our state has set our students up for failure. An 80 in S.C. is a C on a 7 point scale or a B on a 10 point scale. How are our students to compete when we have unfairly set them up to be non-competitive. This is industry corruption at its finest. Colleges are business industries and will protect the bottom line and their national profiles by manipulating secondary policies. It's all about the money!
The Post and Courier - Affordable tuition needed - Charleston SC - postandcourier.com

The Post and Courier - Deficit reality check - Charleston SC - postandcourier.com

2010-07-18T12:24:00.000-04:00

Erskine Bowles is a old family friend and a Democrat who said "We can't tax our way out." Congratulations Erskine for taking a stance against tax and spend policies.

The Post and Courier - Deficit reality check - Charleston SC - postandcourier.com

The Post and Courier - S.C. adopts school standards - Charleston SC - postandcourier.com

2010-07-18T12:11:00.001-04:00

Another 160 million of your money bites the dust.

The Post and Courier - S.C. adopts school standards - Charleston SC - postandcourier.com

The Post and Courier - Schools may adopt new standards - Charleston SC - postandcourier.com

2010-07-18T12:04:00.000-04:00

Race to spend more federal stimulus money. Deficit is not a language understood by educrats. I recommend finance education for those in education.

Adopting the new standards could help the state's chances at securing money in the federal Race to the Top grant competition, and it gives the state an opportunity to do now what likely would be required in the future by the reauthorized federal No Child Left Behind legislation, Harrison said.
The Post and Courier - Schools may adopt new standards - Charleston SC - postandcourier.com

S.C. Code of Laws Title 59 Chapter 41 Grants To Students Attending Private Schools - www.scstatehouse.gov-LPITS

2010-06-11T15:32:00.000-04:00

S.C. Code of Laws Title 59 Chapter 41 Grants To Students Attending Private Schools - www.scstatehouse.gov-LPITS

Never say never.

2008-09-School-District-Budgets.pdf (application/pdf Object)

2010-06-11T13:48:00.001-04:00

2008-09-School-District-Budgets.pdf (application/pdf Object)

Money is not the problem. Check out per pupil expenditures.

Diplomas_Count_2010_Digital_Edition.pdf (application/pdf Object)

2010-06-11T13:44:00.002-04:00

Diplomas_Count_2010_Digital_Edition.pdf (application/pdf Object)

Only 55% of students graduate on time based on Education Weekly's latest report. It is time to offer multiple pathways to a high school diploma.

"A general State education is a mere contrivance for molding people to be exactly like one another; as the mold in which casts them is that which pleases the predominate power in the government...it establishes a despotism over the mind...." John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, 1859

"Just say No to status quo..."

2010-06-07T16:24:00.002-04:00

"Just say No to status quo," is my motto and I hope to convince you of the same. A prime example:

Zais is part of the problem and not the solution. He has served on the Commission of Higher Education (CHE) as a non-voting member. CHE is chartered to work with the Superintendent of Education for a seamless transition between secondary and post-secondary institutions. CHE policy requires only 19 academic credits for admission to state colleges. However, students must have 24 credits to graduate from SC high schools.

In fact CHE found that no other state requires more core credits for a high school diploma than SC. Our diploma is considered advanced by other state standards.

These five non-essential credits are costing the SC taxpayers over a 1/2 a BILLION DOLLARS ANNUALLY! This is an extremely expensive practice CHE and Zais have not corrected.

Zais is also well aware of the ill effects of the SC Uniform Grading Scale. It was developed when the lottery came into being. This unfair and non-competitive 7-point grading scale favors out-of-state student in admissions to our colleges. Zais is a member of the South Carolina Regional Education Association (SCREA) that oversees K-12 education. He has done nothing to address the issue.

The law specified that SC had to set a uniform grading scale that was in the best interest of students. A 7-point grading scale became the norm. However, it is not in the student's best interest because an 81% in SC is a C. Out-of-state students working with a 10-point grading scale earn a B with the same 81. SC colleges like this 7-point scale. It justifies giving admission to an out-of-state student with the higher GPA but the same numerical grade. That student will pay higher out-of-state tuition, a clear financial advantage to the SC institution. Clearly a 7-point scale puts SC students at a disadvantage.

Zais was a SC college president and benefited from this lopsided equation. He would not want to change that revenue stream. Additionally, more secondary students qualifying for lottery funding means less lottery money available to lure research professors with expensive endowment chairs.

As a mother, I would never trust Zais to take care of the educational development of my young children or any other child. He has no exposure to or experience with K-12 issues. He says kids that can't read should drop out. But SC obviously needs more kids reading, not more drop-outs! What corrective plan does he offer? None. He doesn't have the slightest idea of how or why this is a problem.

The Department of Education sets the Standards of Learning. It has established a department for each of the subjects. SC sets very high learning standards. For example, SC has decided that children in kindergarten should be able to read. This is not age, grade or developmentally appropriate except for the most advanced children. Kindergarten is the proper time to learn socialization and recognition of letters and numbers. Certainly though, all children should have developed the ability to read before leaving third grade. I propose a complete review of these standards to align them with appropriate age and development levels of performance. Once again, Zais has no policy offering.

The worst news for parents comes from Baron Holmes, Director of S.C. Kids Count. He says, "We [SC] have never had a formal state reading plan." This is not great news for those of us who thought schools taught reading. We not only don't teach reading in schools, we don't know how to. Also, these teachers were taught by post-secondary education to be teachers for secondary education – but they're not taught how to teach. It is absolutely mind bending! The Department of Education needs better, more effective and practical policies, not more of the Zais status quo.

The SC high school graduation rate is appallingly low. Recall that Zais serves CHE and SCREA, both of which are charged with improving K-12. The SCREA lists the graduation rate at 61% with a 39% dropout rate. That's horrific! What has Zais identified as the problem? What has he offered as solutions? Nothing!

Jobs, education and economic development are all related to each state's high school graduation rates. Why? The perceived quality of education is tied to those rates. Families with young children will be placing their children in local schools. If SC wants to lure new businesses here it must address the issue of the current very low high school graduation percentage. Zais' status quo approach will only mean more of the same sub-standard educational performance we have endured so long.

SC offers only a college prep high school diploma. That is not appropriate to all of our students. I propose that we institute vocational education statewide. Zais is silent on the subject.

Virginia has 5 high school diplomas including advanced, general, modified, technical and special needs. New Jersey only requires 16 credits for a high school diploma and accepts out of state transcripts for a their diploma. These states are graduating their students and we aren't.

I offer Real Choice and Real Change. I have developed common-sense, practical educational initiatives to improve SC secondary education and raise the high school graduation rate. I issue with SC secondary education is not money. It is the dysfunctional policies in place. I offer workable solutions.

Just say NO to Mick Zais on June 8.

SC Elects Women // Elizabeth Moffly

2010-06-04T12:35:00.000-04:00

Women and politics. Check out my link with the South Eastern Institute.

SC Elects Women // Elizabeth Moffly