If anyone had any doubt that Bobby Harrell wants to be your next Governor, this week left no doubt that he wants the job, at least in my mind. The Speaker of the House , seen here with the Belgian Olympic Chess Squad (actually it's the SC FFA leaders), decided to announce his submission for legislation to raise the LIFE Scholarships amounts for Math and Science majors.
Now I have a couple questions here. Firstly, I am not a fan of LIFE Scholarships. The main problem South Carolina schools have is in the early years, yet we keep throwing money at Higher Ed. Doesn't make sense to me. Most of these scholarship winners are for students at higher income districts. nothing I love more than giving a kid on Sullivan's Island a scholarship! The other question I have is the criteria: a B average, eh? With that kind of exacting, tough standard, I can see teachers being pressured to give kids a B so they can go to college and get some free cash. Once again, the curve is pushed up, and we enable another generation of kids with an unearned B, just so they can feel adequate.
Secondly, didn't Gov. Sanford just put out his budget a couple days ago. It seems to me that Harrell is trying to undercut the Governor a bit here. I live in a completely different TV market here in Flotown, and it made the news on TV and radio. Clearly, there was a big push behind this endeavor. I'll tell you one thing, I don't remember the last time TV 13 mentioned Bobby Harrell. A main complaint of Sanford is always that he doesn't work with the House and Senate.... Well, it doesn't look like Harrell is playing very nice here either, does it?
While Math and Science are crucial to improving education in South Carolina, is it really right to take taxpayer money and give it to someone who might not really be interested in that field? Extra incentives in business or in private scholarships is fine by me, but when you're dealing with public funds, you can't give special treatment to a student just because they are in a certain field. Does the B Math student really deserve extra money than the A+ student who "only" wants to be a teacher or go to tech school? Not in my book. My hope is that Speaker Harrell takes a step back, realizes how this all looks, and reasseses how to approach this new term . Play nice, fellas!
7 comments:
no, he's running for governor when you get a nice email from him.
just like i am one of a number of SC bloggers that are getting friendly calls from a number of people associated with GOP presidential aspirants.
no, he's running for governor when you get a nice email from him.
just like i am one of a number of SC bloggers that are getting friendly calls from a number of people associated with GOP presidential aspirants.
no, he's running for governor when you get a nice email from him.
just like i am one of a number of SC bloggers that are getting friendly calls from a number of people associated with GOP presidential aspirants.
no, he's running for governor when you get a nice email from him.
just like i am one of a number of SC bloggers that are getting friendly calls from a number of people associated with GOP presidential aspirants.
I agree we need to fund the lower grades the most in education. We need the solid foundation for kids to mature and go to the next step.
Ditto moye, though I'm almost inclined to gut the existing K-12 system and rebuild it without the protected fiefdoms that serve to render it in competition with Mississippi for bottom of the heap.
I do find it odd that after many years of electing educators to play superintendant, a female lawyer was somehow inadequte to replace a female lawyer (neither of which was qualified under state law to teach in hte K-12 system).
Good point WR.
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