As of October 19, 2009, not one piece of legislation to protect the American public from the abuses which produced the Recession has been passed. Not one.
The only logical explanation for this egregious irresponsibility has to be that our system has become so corrupt that lobbyists ”own” both parties and the American people are left with few-to-no champions.
We Have 37.5% of the Worst
There you have it …
We have 37.5% of the top 25 worst performing public schools in the United States.
What are we going to do about it? Please don’t send suggestions about how to avoid the public school system. Send suggestions about fixing it. Because until we fix it, we can’t – and won’t - compete economically in the 21st Century.
Time and Time Again, Opportunity Knocks And S.C. Is Out
Will We Choose to be an Economic Leader; or, a Customer for More Ambitious States?
Our state is poised to be a leader in an economic revolution of massive proportions in wind power. Or not.
Currently, we lack only the political will, focus and leadership necessary to begin turning around our 12.4 percent unemployment rate by creating tens of thousands of new jobs, reviving our housing and real estate markets and stabilizing our small businesses with the multipliers of wind-power generation and wind technology production.
The First District and Upstate have most to gain; but others are moving faster
We are at a critical juncture and have gotten out of the starting gate behind our coastal neighbors on creating a robust wind-economy. Wind energy is aggressively being pursued off the coast of Delaware, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Georgia and North Carolina with multiple projects already in the works. If we don’t start soon, we lose our advantages to North Carolina and Georgia which are already attracting the investors, manufacturers and industries that we should be securing in South Carolina.
A Plan for Success
First, we need increased energy capacity in the First District – now. We have available, proven, less expensive and healthy alternatives to coal – now. Three of those alternatives could provide the energy necessary to fill the gap between energy needed now, and the rollout of wind energy in or around 2016.
1. Energy Efficiency
Energy efficiency is the least expensive, healthiest, quickest way to keep individual and business utility rates low and eliminate the need for a new power plant. There are numerous examples of energy efficiency programs that have done just that.
South Carolina is the fourth least energy efficient state in the nation. That’s bad news; but, the good news is that even a one percent increase in energy efficiency would yield huge results. One percent is not only doable, but we would capture 30 percent more power than would be produced by a proposed Pee Dee coal plant.
In other words: we would have no need for the Pee Dee coal plant, save billions in rate reductions and health care costs, protect the sport fishing industry, and create thousands of jobs.
2. Biomass and Natural Gas
If because of growth, more energy were required than the efficiency savings produced, we could turn to natural gas and burning woody refuse to fill the gap between where we are and where we want to go. Both technologies are mature, cost competitive and available now.
Where we want to go
Ultimately, wind power should be South Carolina’s energy and economic solution. It represents 10,000-30,000 jobs and an $80 billion dollar growth economy for us over the next 20 years.
Experts estimate that winds along the South Carolina coast could produce more than enough power for the state and its projected growth. Wind power also cuts water consumption by 8-17 percent at a time when South Carolina’s water resources could stymie residential and industrial growth.
More importantly, wind-generated power could produce tens of thousands of jobs; not only jobs to construct and maintain our coastal wind system, but also manufacturing jobs for wind energy material production across the country and the world. GE’s wind turbine facility in Greenville, the Timken and Bosch wind bearings facilities, Fluor’s Windfarm construction, Maybank Industries oceanic barges, our port, related shipbuilding technologies, and our steel plant – all would grow exponentially if we get in early and exploit one of the fastest growing markets in America and the industrialized world.
We have nine unique advantages here in South Carolina for development of wind power:
1. We have an abundance of wind for wind energy. We’ve been called the “Saudi Arabia” of wind.
2. South Carolina has a population density along the coastline that makes transmission of energy to population centers cheaper than anywhere between Philadelphia and Florida.
3. We have a shallow shelf off our coast, which makes South Carolina wind less expensive for access and build-out.
4. We have Santee Cooper to lead the way. It is uniquely poised with service areas, transmission links and no time-consuming Public Utility Commission process to navigate.
5. South Carolina’s GE plant is the only plant in the United States making wind turbine machine housing (although currently none stay in state).
6. Fluor Corporation in Greenville is building two of the largest offshore wind turbine projects in the United Kingdom (nothing in the state).
7. The Timken and Bosch plants produce bearings for wind turbines (none currently stay in state).
8. Our port facilities are able to export large wind energy components.
9. We have steel mills, ocean barges and shipbuilding facilities with technologies ideally suited for wind energy manufacturing.
This can happen. We can save money, conserve our resources, improve our health, rid ourselves of the political and military implications of reliance on oil and boost employment exactly when it is needed most. Ask your state congressional leaders to move forward (find your representatives’ contact information at http://www.scstatehouse.gov/cgi-bin/zipcodesearch.exe%20).
A Tough Walk on Common Ground for Christians
Two Christians, 1 gay, 1 not, face similarities, differences
Excerpted from The Sun News; By Isaac J. Bailey – June 28, 2009
Angel Onley watched as Linda Ketner knocked on a door in the Bucksport Community.
It was a 98-degree day. Onley planned to walk with Ketner through the community.
The two professed Christians – one who is openly gay, the other who believes homosexual behavior is a sin – were meeting for the first time.
“I told her ‘I am praying for your soul,’” said Onley, who struggled over her support of Ketner, a candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives this past November, upon learning she is gay.
The meeting of the women on the roads of Bucksport was a microcosm of the broader debate about homosexuality, an issue that has split Christian churches across the nation and has been the focus of President Obama’s declaration of June as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month.
The debate is particularly acute in the South. Here, images of Christianity are everywhere, painted on billboards, nailed to pine trees, in block letters on church signs, on delivery trucks. Area FM radio stations that play hip hop set aside Sunday mornings for gospel and sermons, such as one on 98.5 in which a pastor said the Bible frowns upon women in church leadership.
“What church do you attend?” is a question frequently posed to friend and stranger alike.
It plays out elsewhere, too. A church in Connecticut recently caused a stir for what critics called an exorcism to remove a “homosexual demon” from a 16-year-old boy. A pastor with the church told The Associated Press she loved gay people, just hated their lifestyle.
The Grand Strand now has a few gay-friendly churches and plenty of transplants from a multitude of faiths, and it will hold its second Myrtle Beach Pride festival next weekend, when the Rock Church will perform commitment ceremonies.
But the traditional view about sex holds sway: any sex, gay or straight, not occurring in a marriage – a God-ordained union between a man and a woman – is sinful. Homosexuals are in the same state as adulterers, fornicators and those practicing bestiality. Nonmarried sex in South Carolina – fornication – is illegal, punishable by up to a $500 fine or a year in jail.
But that Saturday meeting between Onley and Ketner would not be about debates, exorcisms or church splits. It would be a walk of faith colored by different interpretations of how God sees gays and lesbians.
Common roots
The then-27-year-old Onley was the third vice chairwoman of the Horry County Democratic Party. Ketner was a political newcomer seeking to unseat an incumbent Republican in a heavily Republican district. Onley was there to help her canvass for votes.
Just the day before, Onley, a youth minister, had learned that Ketner was gay. She wanted to know what God wanted. That was more important than helping Ketner become the U.S. Representative of the 1st Congressional District.
Onley grew up in the Baptist tradition, the most active faith segment in South Carolina, at Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, in the Bible Belt state that passed a constitutional gay marriage ban by almost 80 percent of the vote.
She had prayed for six months after first feeling a call to the ministry. Then she spoke at youth revivals and at one saw “at least eight young people give their lives to Christ.”
“I felt as if something else had taken over,” she said. “I felt that this is what I was supposed to be doing. I felt at home.”
Her pastor and the church board approved her initial sermon at Friendship. In August of 2006, she took to the pulpit, “shaking in my heels” and preached about how “Thou Has Left Thy First Love.”
Ketner too grew up in faith. She spent her first six years in the 500-person town of Faith, N.C., before moving to Salisbury. In 18 years of attending a Presbyterian church, she never heard the pastor mention homosexuality.
“I’m a red-letter Christian,” Ketner said. “Jesus Christ is my No. 1 hero as a social justice advocate.”
Ketner, as an 8-year-old, sent a petition to President Dwight Eisenhower with hundreds of signatures to ask that Little League Baseball be desegregated.
She drank from “colored only” fountains and spent countless hours in civil rights protests against segregation and said she “studied the Bible in depth as I struggled to find my place in Christianity, the institution.”
She said she noticed greed was mentioned more than 200 times, homosexuality maybe half a dozen but “women in same-sex relationships not at all.”
“Moses didn’t mention it,” Ketner said. “Christ didn’t mention it. Seems to me if it were as important as some conservative religious groups make it, they would have mentioned it.”
Conflicting feelings
The night before the two were to meet, Onley kneeled. And prayed.
She searched the Web to find out more about Ketner, a successful businesswoman who would wage a campaign that would surprise long-time political observers. Being sympathetic to gay issues, and openly gay, was assumed to be a political liability in this red state.
“We have to stand up for those who God has his hands on,” Onley said.
But could God have his hands on an openly-gay woman in a long-term relationship?
“I knew her religious tradition must have caused her to have a conversation with God about me,” Ketner said. “She is exactly the kind of woman who would take it to God. And since I trust God completely, I felt he and she would work it out.”
Onley later felt called to the 35-member Palmetto Missionary Baptist Church founded by the Rev. Cheryl Adamson.
“We don’t promote people being gay and sexually active in leadership positions in church,” Adamson said. “But we don’t sit in judgment of them in public for their private lives.”
Adamson says she doesn’t tell members what to do when faced with situations like Onley’s.
“I teach them the gospel and they make their own judgments,” she said. “We are not dictators. We are free in Christ.”
Slow acceptance
Adamson’s words, and the words of her parents and other faith mentors, were with Onley when she decided to watch Ketner knock on the first door in Bucksport.
So were the lessons from a girlfriend who was blocked from the ministry because of a divorce, and memories of a childhood friend she had watched pray and read the Bible and attend church as passionately as Onley. She later learned that her friend, like Ketner, is gay.
And she remembered that she herself didn’t adhere to the teaching against premarital sex but sang in the choir, while she was unmarried and pregnant.
Still, Onley stood back as Ketner left the first house and went to the second. She began to notice Ketner’s ease with those she met.
Ketner’s business acumen would be an asset for South Carolina, Onley began to think.
She thought of all the outreach and volunteer work Ketner had done, the kind Christians are called to do.
By the third house, Onley was knocking on doors and introducing Ketner to Bucksport.
She knew she’d get questions from friends – and did – about why a young pastor would help a gay woman get elected.
“I deal often with people’s religious traditions coming into conflict with my relationship-orientation,” Ketner said. “I grew up in the South and it’s hard to find God when many of the anointed among you tell you that God is not for you unless you can change the unchangeable, or live without the most important relationship to growth and wholeness we have as humans.
“It’s hard to find God when the good who support you are being oh-so-careful and silent,” she said. “It’s hard to grow up feeling the love of God if you’re gay.”
But it also shapes you, she said, and your “pain starts transitioning into wisdom,” and you learn “courage from your fear” and “compassion from your victimization … and you feel that God-love that never leaves you isolated and alone.”
She also knows she came within 2 percentage points of beating incumbent U.S. Rep Henry Brown because of people like Onley.
“I believe Angel became a friend and supporter that day because she explicitly or intuitively … knew all that,” Ketner said. “And I’ll never forget her, nor anyone else willing to withhold judgment and listen to Christ’s admonition that our job – our only job – is to love one another.”
Onley helped Ketner that day, voted for her and might again. Ketner has her eyes on 2012.
In the end, still a sin
Still, Ketner would have a harder time finding a leadership role in Onley’s church if Onley creates one after graduating from Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary.
The truth is the truth. Living a homosexual lifestyle is a sin, Onley said. It’s not any more sinful than her own premarital sex, but it is a sin nonetheless.
“My discernment with the guidance of the Holy Spirit said that she was truly after helping the people and wanted to make a change for the betterment of the everyday people,” Onley said. “I also understood watching her that she could deal with those in high positions.”
“I voted for [Ketner], not on Christian values,” Onley said. “If I could take that one little thing from her, everything else would be Christian.”
BAD BREATH!
An article from Science News lays out the larger problem in energy in all its dangerous detail, but let’s look at the regional decisions that need to be made in the next few months and years.
Charleston currently has FIVE times the particulate matter recommended as safe by the American Cancer Society. And, Charleston, without a rail solution for transporting containers from the port, will add the exhaust of 7,000 new trucks to that poisonous mix DAILY.
Obviously, the Georgetown area has air quality problems as well – and yet, we’re still talking about building a coal plant above Georgetown that will produce 900 tons of particulate matter when we already have a grade of “F” for air quality from the American Lung Association.
We MUST start doing some SMART ENERGY PLANNING.
Rather than solve our energy problems (which spill over to health and economic problems), our state legislature sent a delegation to Washington to ask for a special exemption from new energy standards. They claimed we were SO far behind that we couldn’t afford to catch up.
Does that strike anyone other than me as stinkin’ thinkin’?
Could we try at least one inexpensive solution? Could our leaders launch a conservation and energy efficiency initiative? Personally, I’ve never heard an elected official from the state ask us to reduce energy consumption; and yet, we consume 40% more energy in South Carolina than the national average. Because we have cheap energy here, that works for too many people.
If we reduced energy consumption in South Carolina to the national average, we wouldn’t need the new coal plant. We could buy time to develop wind technology off of our coast and create an estimated 28,000 jobs and supply 4 million homes with energy that won’t kill us.
So … let’s write state and national representatives and let them know that we may be a poor state, but endangering our health and leaving us economically out of the green revolution isn’t a solution. We need to move forward aggressively pursuing renewable energy R&D companies, production facilities and education dollars. We want 21st century job creation in wind, solar, tidal, wave, geothermal and nuclear development. Clinging to the past may be good for ancestors but not for our economy and health.
Ask elected officials to:
- focus on energy efficiency, conservation and weatherization initiatives so that we won’t need a new coal plant
- pass 0% capital gain on renewable energy initiatives of 3 carbons or less
- pass tax deductions for solar and geo-thermal conversions, LEED certified buildings and energy reduction initiatives
- put more education in the school curricula at every level on energy conservation; and invest money in state supported colleges for energy technologies
- invest in leasing existing rail lines to provide light rail during peak traffic times (not only reducing traffic congestion, air pollution, but also traffic deaths and highway costs)
- move containers from the port by rail not truck
- develop wind energy and a new economy in South Carolina
Mark Sanford … Both/And?
When you’re the CEO of a state, you CANNOT go AWOL. PERIOD.
AND, I’m sorry folks, but my heart hurts for the humanity and pain he showed in that rambling press conference. Could we all take a deep breath and admit politicians are human? They fall in love and go crazy. They work on it, regret it, try to do the right thing if they are good people … and sometimes it just doesn’t work out like the book says.
I’m not talking about sleezy stuff. I’m talking about being totally committed to your ideals, your God, your family … AND, falling short of what you want to be. Sometimes all the self discipline and religion gets flumoxed by that humanity.
So Mark Sanford, Jenny, your young boys, Maria and your 2 children … I’m with you … and God help you all. Literally.
That AND … you simply don’t go AWOL when you are the Governor. It’s about us then and not you – when you took the oath of office, you agreed to let 4 million people rely on you. If you go a little crazy, it’s your job to make sure we’re covered. You don’t get the choice to go that crazy.
Could we hold BOTH/AND in our heads and hearts for goodness sake? Could we let him be human and hold him accountable? Could we respect the pain of all of it, and say “no” to part of it. I’d like to think we could.
Brown Says Dems Playing Politics With Troops
Does anyone know if this is accurate? If it is, I agree with Brown about the global bailout money, and want to know to what specific “pet projects” he refers. Anyone got depth on this?
Representative Henry Brown Press Release
WASHINGTON- Congressman Henry E. Brown Jr. (R- SC) expressed disappointment with the $105.8 billion FY 2009 Supplemental Appropriations Act Conference Report that was passed in the House today. Citing the large amounts of nonessential spending and the reduced financial support for our troops in Iraq in Afghanistan, Brown made the following statement on the conference report after the vote:
“The Democrats are playing politics with our troops in order to provide more than $28.7 billion for their unnecessary pet projects and to further increase our national debt as a legacy for our children and grandchildren.
The War Supplemental should be just that, funding for our troops. However, after many back room meetings, Democrats tacked $9.1 billion of wasteful spending onto the once clean bill, while removing $4.1 billion from the Department of Defense, ironically the only area where the funds from this legislation were truly owed.
The money stripped from our troops protecting our security in Iraq and Afghanistan was then reallocated to provide the International Monetary Fund (IMF) with $5 billion (to provide $108 billion of loan guarantees), money that will serve as a global bailout for some of the world’s most economically irresponsible and socially reprehensible nations like Argentina, Russia, Venezuela, Sudan and Iran.
Additionally, the final conference report does not include language to prevent the release of GITMO detainee photos and lightens the language regarding the detainees’ relocation, making it easier for the Administration to transfer them to other countries or even to locations in the U.S.
When did it become a priority in this country to provide for suspect and enemy nations and to protect the rights of terrorists over the security of American citizens?
My Republican colleagues and I strongly supported the initial version of the troop funding bill when it passed the House last month. That bill was free of the global bailout money and focused on giving our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan the resources they need for success. It is a shame that these original ideals were not upheld with the final report of this legislation.”
News on my 2010 plans
Dear Wonderful Friends and Supporters,
I want you to be among the first to know that I will not be running for the First District Congressional seat in 2010. I have also told Robert Burton and Leon Stavrinakis, both of whom were nice enough to delay their decision making process until I made up my mind. I appreciate their courtesy and regard and I know that if either decides to run, we will be well represented. We’re in good hands!
What will I be doing? Working (with you I hope) to:
1. eliminate lobbyist money to campaigns. Among other things, it has been – and continues to be – responsible for disastrous Congressional decisions regarding our economy.
(http://lindaketner.com/blog/?p=97)
2. develop 21st century energy technology and production here in South Carolina for a growing economy and plenty of well paying jobs.
(http://www.conservationvotersofsc.org/public/files/docs/Wind_Study-Rigas.pdf)
3. block every dangerous way that South Carolina tries to make easy money – such as becoming a nuclear and solid waste dump; building coal plants that spew mercury and poison our rivers; using 7,000 more trucks per day (rather than rail) to move cargo from our port when we now are five times higher than the recommended levels for particulate matter in the air.
(http://www.lindaketner.com/Energy.html)
4. improve public education, which is the individual’s opportunity for the American Dream; AND, the state’s foundation for a strong economy. Exceptional public education is also the most important step in eliminating the crippling poverty that exists within 5 miles of any one of us.
5. help women get elected to South Carolina government. We’re 50th in the nation for women in elected office (the only state with no women in the State Senate; we have the fewest number of women in the State House; none in Congess; none in statewide office).
Will I ever run again and if so for what?
I probably will run again and will look carefully at the environment in 2012 for an opportunity where I might be able to serve and make a difference. In the meantime, I’m going to be working– with you – to build a better South Carolina!
As always, I thank you for who you are and the difference that you make!
Very best,
Linda
Mea Culpa
I’ve always been resolute about never outing anyone, believing strongly that every person gets to decide when or if he or she comes out.
I let myself and others down in a recent off-the-record chat with a reporter. I obviously don’t have knowledge of the sexual orientation of any individuals mentioned. What I do have is respect and appreciation for their service to this state.
My sincerest apologies to any of you rightfully upset with me.
Linda
3 Letters-$1.32-20 Minutes To Keep Us From The Road To Perdition
1. First Letter:
Dear Senators DeMint, Graham and Representative Brown (or your Congressman),
As I hope that you know, those protections were put in place by the Roosevelt Administration to make sure that a Great Depression never happened again. The Act put walls between commercial banking, investment banking and the insurance industry because – does this sound familiar? – immediately prior to the Great Depression, banks had been using and losing depositors’ money in risky investments.
The walls protecting us – those separating banks, securities and insurance companies – came down in 1999 with overwhelming support from Congress on both sides of the aisle. The repeal of that Act has lead directly to commercial and investment bank and insurance company mergers; and, once again, depositors’ money has been risked and lost in highly questionable new vehicles such as credit swaps and derivatives.
NOT re-instituting Glass Stegall is akin to fixing up New Orleans without repairing the levees. There is an ultimate inevitability that the disaster will reoccur and destroy again.
I’d like to see each of you take a leadership role in this area so that we can recover from this economic quagmire.
Best regards,
2. Second Letter:
Dear Gentlemen,
ONE example, sirs – one with which I hope that you are familiar. It’s the deal Treasury and the Federal Reserve made with Citigroup. A deal where $301 Billion TAXPAYER dollars bought 90% of Citigroup’s LOSSES. And when Citigroup is profitable again? Well THEY get 100% of the profits. Heads they win, tails we lose!
Good lord men! How could you let this happen?
Our pensions and 401Ks are decimated, our children’s debt gargantuan, and you give the people responsible for the disaster deals like that?! How could this possibly make
sense to any of you?
Please, do your job and stop this nonsense.
Best regards,
_________
3. Third Letter:
Gentlemen,
out that the financial industry contributed over $472 million to Congress in this election cycle alone!
From Energy there was money from Chevron, Exxon, National Fuel Gas Assctn., Edison Electric, Propane Gas Assctn., Nuclear Fuel Services, Energy Future Holdings Corporation and many, MANY more!
And from health care? Lots of companies, lots of donations … but, I think you get the picture. I know that I sure did!
I used to think that incumbents had a 95-98% re-election rate because they had name recognition; or, had done an extraordinary job. But now I know. ‘Know that incumbents enter into an election with a war chest 4 to 8 times larger than challengers – and that their war chests are made up primarily of PAC and special interest monies.
NOW I know why credit card interest rates aren’t going down at all, despite the fanfare that Congress was going to save us from loan sharking in the credit card industry!! And now it makes sense why only 33 members of the Senate voted to cap the interest rate at 15%.
Now I know why bailouts and bonuses keep going on with next to no ROI for the taxpayer, no accountability or reporting!
Now I know why Glass Stegall hasn’t been reinstated and why the financial industry continues to be largely self regulating.
Now I know why big financial institutions are gobbling up small ones and are “too big to fail.”
I even figured out why we print money as if it won’t cause hyperinflation, and sell our debt and children’s future to the Chinese.
I can only conclude that America’s government is for sale. We let the foxes in the henhouse because the foxes fund the re-elections of way too many of our Senators and Representatives. Government has become systemically corrupt.
Gentlemen, I ask you to lead. Lead the move to eliminate PACs. As I see it, the dependence of many in Congress on PAC political donations is the source of our economic meltdown, war profiteering, lack of renewable energy solutions … and only the good Lord and Congress knows what else.
Eliminate PACs so that we can once again trust Congress to put the American people first.
Lead gentlemen. We’re watching. We’re hoping.
Best regards,
Pat Caddell On Winning in South Carolina
Patrick Caddell (right in photo) was born in Charleston, moved away as a child, and returned to the lowcountry several years ago. He has written an incredible piece on how South Carolinians can reclaim state government, and why we must.
If you don’t know Pat, whom I am lucky enough to call friend, the New York Times says he probably has more experience in presidential politics than anyone in the United States. He has worked on five presidential campaigns as pollster and strategist; was consultant, writer and producer to West Wing; and, frequently spars with Hannity, Coulter, etc. on Fox News.
Patrick sought me out during the Congressional Campaign because we shared similar thoughts about the Glass Stegall Act and its impact on America’s economic disaster. In finding our campaign, he reunited with long time friend Bill Romjue, my Campaign Manager, who is also a legend in Presidential politics.
Bottom-line, Patrick is brilliant and his article is brilliant. Please read and comment! Click here for Patrick’s article.
Best,
Linda
Will Henry Brown Defend Horry Fire Starter?
Congressman Brown sent a letter to the Georgetown Times thanking those who helped extinguish the devestating fires in Horry County. In it however, he didn’t mention his plans for defending the constituent who started the fire. Hmmmm.
Brown fought for years to defend himself against the exact same charge leveled against the originator of the fire in Horry County: burning on a no-burn, red-flag day. He even spent $100,000 of tax-payer money to beat the $4,000 fine. We would expect him to do no less for a constituent … unless of course, it was about his expectation of special treatment as alleged in the whistleblower complaint.
Mono-Mindedness
If you want (and lots of us DO want), you can hear/see/learn only that which reinforces your view of the world. There’s a television channel for people who think just like you. There’s a blog. There’s a website. There’s a radio channel. There are even specific churches full of people who think JUST LIKE YOU.
I hate that.
I long for the days when Walter Cronkite, David Brinkley, Chet Huntley REPORTED the news as opposed to opining on it! I long for the days when journalism was a profession with very strict professional ethics rather than the entertainment and sensational dregs much of it is today.
I long for the time when broadcast media didn’t spend huge chunks of time going over the emails and twitters of the very-opinionated-but-not-so-well-informed, Everyman.
Blogs that cater to the anonymous loony, angry clientele are the worst – and the crazy ones are the most popular. I believe they can actually harm the psyche, spirit, and be a catalyst for violence.
What I want? Someone to give me facts and information … and let ME make up my mind. Is that too much to ask?
Let me even SEEK OUT different viewpoints, study and learn other perspectives on issues. It seems to me that by seeing an issue from a number of different vantage points, I’ll have a fuller picture and understanding of it. Remember the elephant and the blind men story on perspectives? Same applies!
More On Tax Credits for Private Schools
This is an excellent article from the “State” about Tax Credits for Private Schools.
I’m sitll waiting for someone to tell me where the $1billion in scholarship money will come from for our state’s 191,000 children living in poverty. Their parents won’t get a tax credit because they don’t make enough to pay income tax.
And how many scholarships do you think will be available to the best local private schools whose tuition and fees are $10,000-$20,000?
There’s a reason that the Chamber of Commerce is against this sham. We will never be able to compete globally – much less nationally - with an undereducated population.
School choice gets push
Slow economy could impact bill revisited this week
By GINA SMITH
gnsmith@thestate.com
Small private schools that charge tuition of $2,000 to $3,000 a year could be setting the stage for one of the most aggressive “school choice” pushes yet in South Carolina.
After three failed school choice bills in the past four years, the schools — increasingly racially diverse, organized and outspoken — are backing the latest tax credit plan for parents who send their children to private schools.
Their fight will take center stage Thursday when a panel of senators considers the Education Opportunity Act. That proposal would give tax credits to parents who send their students to private schools, or a different public school or who home-school.
A decade of slipping enrollment and the economic recession are lighting a fire under the smaller private schools, those with enrollments of about 200 students and less and tuition of $2,000 to $3,000 a year.
The schools say they have space for more students and, they add, the proposed tax credits would cover tuition for most students.
“We have capacity, and we welcome new students,” said Huey Mills, president of the S.C. Association of Christian Schools, which represents between 12,000 and 13,000 students, down from 16,000 a decade ago.
The tax credit plan could drive up enrollment.
“We’re all holding our breath,” said Mills, who is advising his 85 member schools to prepare two budgets for next year — one with their current enrollment and one with a 10 percent cut due to hard economic times.
Public schools, reeling from state budget cuts, say the bill will siphon off money they desperately need. They anticipate eliminating about 1,600 jobs to offset state budget cuts, according to a recent survey.
“It’s unconscionable, in my view, to cut money from public schools when we’re already being cut to the bone,” said Frank Morgan, superintendent of the Kershaw County School district, which will eliminate more than 30 jobs and cut programs before next school year.
THE NEW FACE OF SCHOOL CHOICE?
Critics of the tax credit plan say it will benefit primarily parents who already have their children in private school, partially offsetting tuition, which can soar past $15,000 a year.
They also question whether private schools — some started as whites-only segregation academies — truly are accepting of diversity and would admit many public school students or operate in depressed areas. The state Department of Education also says it’s unlikely that many S.C. families who live in poverty will be able to use the tax credits.
“South Carolina’s struggling public schools are nearly all in high-poverty communities,” said Jim Foster, Education Department spokesman. “The kids get free transportation to and from school. They get free breakfasts and free lunches at school. Their fees are waived. Their field trip costs are waived.
“Tax credits won’t help these kids attend private school, even if they meet the admission requirements. And if they somehow get a scholarship that pays every dime of their tuition, how do they get to school? Who pays for their breakfast and lunch? How do they get home in the afternoon? Who pays the additional costs that public schools currently pick up?”
Shonda Simpkins, who runs a private Christian school for girls on 45 acres in rural Edgefield, says poor families will take advantage of the credits.
Most of the students at ShadeTree Academy for Girls are African-American, as Simpkins is.
They come from poor homes. Some have been abused or abandoned or are struggling with other problems in their lives, said Simpkins, who said she too grew up in a troubled home.
Corporate and private donations pay for her school. Students can’t afford the $5,500-a-year tuition.
Simpkins said she’s part of a growing group of people of color who back the bill. State Sen. Robert Ford, an African-American Democrat from Charleston, is one of the bill’s lead sponsors.
“We don’t know how long we can depend on private investors and corporations because of the state of the economy,” said Simpkins, who says her Christian-based approach helps her students in ways public schools cannot. “We’re giving hope and investing in South Carolina. I think our parents should be supported in that (with tax credits).”
THE MONEY QUESTION
Many of these smaller private schools contend the bill is a financial win-win for private and public schools.
“How can it hurt the public schools when they are left with money even after children leave?” said Chad Connelly, board chairman of Newberry Academy, a private school with 249 students but space for about 100 more. Tuition is about $3,000 per year. “Both sides will win if this passes.”
Under the bill, when a child leaves a public school and opts for a private one, half of state education dollars would continue to go to the public school district — even though the child no longer attends that district.
But public school advocates say the proposal would hurt.
“Say four kids leave a public school (to attend a private one),” said Debbie Elmore, spokeswoman for the S.C. School Boards Association. “You haven’t eliminated the need for a teacher and principal, the buses to transport students. You haven’t eliminated the lights and the heat that have to be cut on.
“All of the overhead costs are still there. You haven’t reduced your costs. What you have done is eliminated some of the revenue the school would have received for those four students.”
Reach Smith at (803) 771-8658.
If you never ever get anything more from this blog
Susan Boyle
If you never get anything more from this blog, you will have gotten the best today … click on picture of Ms. Susan Boyle above. You’ll never forget her. And next time it feels undoable, remember Susan who has never been kissed and lives only with her cat, Piddles.
Lyrics:
I dreamed a dream in times gone by
When hope was high
And life worth living
I dreamed that love would never die
I dreamed that God would be forgiving
Then I was young and unafraid
And dreams were made and used and wasted
There was no ransom to be paid
No song unsung
No wine untasted
But the tigers come at night
With their voices soft as thunder
As they tear your hope apart
And they turn your dream to shame
He slept a summer by my side
He filled my days with endless wonder
He took my childhood in his stride
But he was gone when autumn came
And still I dream he’ll come to me
That we’ll live the years together
But there are dreams that cannot be
And there are storms we cannot weather
I had a dream my life would be
So much different from this hell I’m living
So different now from what it seemed
Now life has killed
The dream I dreamed.
