BUREAUCRATIC FUNDING INCREASES TELL A DIFFERENT STORY
Our friends over at The Voice have a great post up this week highlighting a fundamental disconnect in the debate over education funding in South Carolina.
It’s obviously no secret that the tax burden associated with the Palmetto State’s worst-in-the-nation government-run schools keeps escalating (as our students’ academic performance keeps deteriorating). One reason for this? A total lack of accountability in how our tax dollars are being spent.
While overpaid educrats have plenty of money for summer vacations, teachers in the classroom are forced to pay out-of-pocket for basic instructional supplies. B.S., right? Of course it is … yet these bureaucrats continue to get a hall pass from our state’s mainstream media while those of us pushing for market-based reforms (i.e. school choice) are demonized.
Even though these bureaucrats are profiting, the mainstream press insists that they are working “for the children.” And even though the passage of school choice wouldn’t add a dime to its defenders’ bottom line, we are nonetheless branded as “self-serving special interests.”
Par for the liberal media course, sadly …
Anyway, according to The Voice several of the state’s largest school districts have been “boosting bureaucratic spending on the taxpayer tab” at a much higher rate than they have been increasing classroom spending. These are the same districts, mind you, that are also sitting on hundreds of millions of dollars in cash reserves … despite the fact that they have not one but three steadily increasing, dedicated taxpayer-funded revenue streams (federal and state tax dollars, as well as local property tax revenue).
The worst offender? Greenville County, S.C. – where administrative costs rose by nearly $50 million from 2005-11 (roughly twice the increase in instructional funding). Incidentally, Greenville’s cash reserves have also been skyrocketing in recent years.
To learn more about this disconnect, check out the article by clicking on the link below … it’s worth a read!
THE ADMINISTRATIVE GRAVY TRAIN ROLLS ON (The Voice)
20 comments
Actually if you are a concerned citizen you should investigate for yourself and talk to school administrators and you local school board members, because you cannot believe anything the Voice, says. They are a lobbying organization with absolutely no concern for SC Public Schools or making them better for the children who attend them. Their sole goal is to raid the state treasury of hundreds of millions of dollars and force South Carolina taxpayers to pay for South Carolina’s worst in the nation private schools for the personal financial benefit of their members.
If you are the parent of a child in public school in this state you need to run from this group. They are out to take money from your child’s school for their benefit. If you are a taxpayer with no children in school, you need to run from this group they are out to pick your pocket.
Their sole goal is to raid the state treasury of hundreds of millions of dollars and force South Carolina taxpayers to pay for South Carolina’s worst in the nation private schools for the personal financial benefit of their members.
Psst! FITS is an advocate for that.
JOE WILSON SUCKS.
Smirks-do you have kids? Well I DO. The public schools are not appropriate for MY kids. I prefer them not to be w/ the kids w/ long purple hair and no ethics. No the private schools are not perfect, but the benefit is that the gov’t doesn’t CONTROL your kids’ education. When I am PAYING for it, I have a say in how they educate my kids.
@Bellyache – you sound like the woman who said, “Obama gave me this Obama phone — Romney, he SUCKS! This is SO intellegent.
Jan – You make me laugh! Let’s take Lexington/Richland 5 (Can’t believe they didn’t make it in the Voice’s article.) Their budget went from $142 million in 2012 to $150 million in 2013 – up $8 million – yet their enrollment decreased by 95 students! Absolutely absurd!!!!
And talk about a lobbying group… District 5’s chairman is vice-president of the SC School Board’s Association. Not only is SCBA a lobbying group to keep what’s bad about public education but they use our tax dollars to do it!
So, Jan, do you dispute the figures cited in The Voice story? Are they wrong or do you agree more dollars are needed for administrators then “for the children”?
Jan, how do you define “South Carolina’s worst in the nation private schools?”
yesah Mr.Rich please i have ran my weakly edumacation story now send the check or no more saladtossing for u. My fav little baldheaded yankee$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
A child in the remotest part of the Australian outback, hundreds of miles from the nearest classroom, receives a better education than any child in SC’s public schools. Where else, but South Carolina, could a school like South Carolina State University keep its doors open? The legislature sends that embarrassment our money and we don’t even get kissed.
S.C. State is a joke! Really is this a topic of discussion?
If you want to know all you need to about the waste of SC tax dollars for educations at work, look into the states old “single vendor Carpet Contract and the audit that was done by the Budget and Control Board in 2005 to see (and the issue of the state newspaper on July 17 2005’s story. Millions on Millions on Millions of SC dollars went to pay for carpet and other flooring that was never even ordered. Repeat never ordered but charged and paid for. And the audit only researched 3 years while the contract was in place for 20+. Imagine how much more wasn’t even found from 4-8 years back, or 15. The audit proved this beyond any doubt, the state ran the story, then a back room deal got it all swept under the rug (no pun intended) and the excuse of incorrect input led to overbilling. Guess what? The millions were not even paid back for all the overbilling nor was it asked for. They got rid of the “state contract” but now the same vendor is still running the contract at the school level. They should be in jail, but they are still getting “free money” from the tax payers. This is public information. The findings of the audit can be gotten (it was done in 2005) and the issue of the paper that reported on it was 7/15/2005. Front page too. All the while teachers are fired, the money for books and computers isnt there, other supplies have run out.
the schools used the state contract
Just more voucher scam rhetoric from sic(k) willie to justify his carpetbugger payments from Howie the Voucher Clown.
Everyone knows vouchers only leave those who need help the most even further behind.
Everyone knows vouchers are a scam financed by carpetbugger money from Howie the Voucher Clown.
Everyone knows vouchers ignore the real issues facing education in S.C.
Everyone knows those issues include poverty, latent racism (sometimes it’s not so latent) and the brazillions of social issues that go along.
Voucher clowns don’t want to discuss those issues.
This about says it all.
School choice is needed, but the movement in South Carolina needs a new voice. The current movement is a sham.
You do realize Greenville County School District has a AAA rating. How many more School districts can say that. Part of the reason is bc of the reserves. Just saying.
BS! The biggest impact to its credit rating is its assessed value and a simple policy to reserve something. Just saying…
On this one, the good folks over at the Voice set a particularly high standard in terms of distorting data, even for them. After reading their post, one would think that funds classified as “administration” in the state report they are referencing were solely used to pay district office staff. The reality is that these funds are used for a variety of functions that reasonable folks wouldn’t really question. Transportation, nurses, custodial services, maintenance, cafeterias, utilities, insurance, extracurricular activities, technology, phones, all pretty standard types of expenditures. What did Disraeli and Mark Twain say about lies and statistics?
“Worst in the nation private schools”, bet line I’ve read in a while. I’m gonna use it a lot.
Oh and sic must have received the HR check.