Vouchers
I have sent my own children to both public and private schools, so I understand the need to provide more choice. I think, however, that we should be doing that within the public education system.
Political observers have predicted this year's campaign for State Superintendent of Education will center on the issue of diverting taxpayer dollars to private education from our public schools.
It should. There is no issue that better illustrates the difference between my opponent and me. And no issue decided in this election will have a greater impact on the future of our public schools. In short, diverting tax dollars in this way through vouchers or tax credits would weaken our best private schools and would do irreparable harm to our State's public schools.
My opponent in this race strongly supports vouchers or tax credits for parents who send their children to private schools. Ideological extremists from outside South Carolina are pouring thousands of dollars into her campaign to make South Carolina the testing ground for a voucher experiment so extensive in scope that it has never been tried in any state.
My view is simple: not only is it the wrong approach, we can't afford the half a billion dollar price tag. We don't have to break our public schools before we fix them. I believe public funding should be used to make public schools more effective, not make private schools more affordable. And I know we can't afford - in money or in wasted time - to become a national education gamble that fails.
Make no mistake: no child in South Carolina should be trapped in a failing school. Moreover, South Carolina's schools need reform - comprehensive reform - to move from incremental to dramatic progress, in order to compete in America and around the globe. We can't afford to do nothing while countries like India and China improve their educational systems and become more competitive with us for jobs.
My five-point plan for comprehensive school reform focuses on promoting the kinds of changes that will accelerate progress. I support full and open public school choice, giving all parents the right to choose the school or educational program that best meets their needs. I support expansion of charter schools. I believe we can do more through the power of technology to provide world-class educational opportunities for all students.
But extending those choices to private schools with public dollars is a bad idea. Diverting taxpayer dollars to private schools would reduce the resources available to reform our schools, many of which are struggling to meet our students' basic needs now. It would mean giving up on our public schools when we should be doing everything we can to fix them. And it would also be unfair to the taxpayers, who would have to pay the price of supporting both public and private schools. Our property taxes are high enough without adding as much as $500 million to the bill. My opponent has not provided a plan to pay for her voucher plan, and I can understand why - what voter will support raising taxes to pay for it?
Some say that private schools would do a better job of educating our children than public schools. It turns out that this is simply not true. The Bush Administration released a report in July stating that private schools are not better than public schools at educating our children. And because my opponent's plan does not include strong accountability provisions for private schools, we would have no way of knowing whether they were spending our tax dollars effectively. In fact, the states that have experimented with vouchers have seen one fraud scandal after another due to lack of accountability.
I have been committed to public education for more than 35 years, as a parent, teacher, coach, administrator and college president. This experience has prepared me to lead our schools. Public education is one of the things that has made our country great, yet I know that too many of our children still are being failed by a flawed system. With a comprehensive plan for reform, we can have a school system that produces the real results we want, need, and deserve.
The ongoing voucher debate gives South Carolina voters a choice in November that could not be clearer. We can elect a public school leader who believes in fixing our public schools or one who will abandon them. We can choose a leader who brings fiscal responsibility to our schools or one who will leave us no choice but to raise taxes.
I believe giving up on our public schools is not the answer. I hope you will stand with me to reform our schools - and send the out-of-state special interests back home for good.
