UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA BENEFACTRESS UNLOADS ON PALMETTO STATE’S PUBLIC EDUCATION SYSTEM
Billionaire financier Darla Moore is known for a lot of things … like mixing it up with S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley, becoming one of the first two women admitted to Augusta National Golf Club and donating $25 million to the University of South Carolina’s school of business.
Which of course is now the “Moore School of Business …”
The Lake City, S.C. native is also known for her exceedingly liberal views on tax policy … and her unwavering support for expanding government’s role in economic development and education. In 2002, Moore formed a pro-government group called The Palmetto Institute which was devoted to raising South Carolina income levels through all sorts of government programs and initiatives. Ten years later … yeah, not so much.
But Moore wasn’t done. According to the 2008 manifesto of her uber-leftist “New Carolina Collaborative” – another pro-government effort – a flood of new taxpayer spending was supposed to make our state “a leader in public education.”
Well guess what … the flood gates opened. Unfortunately, despite billion of dollars in new government spending our government-run schools are worse than ever.
In fact Moore is (belatedly) acknowledging this …
According to Columbia Business Monthly, Moore recently told a group of students at Trident Technical College that her investment in USC’s business school was a waste of money given the piss poor performance of the Palmetto State’s primary and secondary schools.
“I felt like I’d pretty much pissed $25 million down a rathole,” Moore told the students.
Wow …
So does this mean Moore will come around to our way of thinking and support market-based academic reforms – like universal parental choice?
We’re not holding our breath, but at least she’s willing to acknowledge that when it comes to government-run schools in South Carolina, Mo Money = Mo Problems …
***
78 comments
Good for her for being honest about the situation.
I’d say $25 mil is an expensive education, but she’ll most likely never make that mistake again.
I can tell you this lady is spending a ton of money in SC, especially her home town where she has bought up lots of property and is steadily renovating and rebuilding historic buildings.
She bought an 1800s house on Ladson St. in Charleston and proceeded to strip it to its studs. Then, under the watchful eye of a full-time “architectural expert” employee, she replaced all the outer boards and poured in expensive “expansion insulation” from the attic down to the floorboards.
Final result: Home re-designed to act as a beer cooler.
Upshot: During the summer, severe humidity accumulated inside the house, dripping down the walls, from attic to first-floor floorboards.
Moore’s response: Sue the restoration company (Dolphin Construction — Wally Shineshimer), withhold payment, sue for damages. All under the direction of her own “expert.” Dolphin / Shineshimer screwed over / did not pay his subcontractors, and Moore walked all over all of them.
Moore is a lot like Martha Stewart — a control freak — and a very mean-spirited person, and most Charlestonians who know her speak badly of her.
Including the two-dozen local, small-time subcontractors she screwed over.
Sorry for Dolphin’s experience, but my indirect dealings with her on construction have been great.
Guess it depends on the contractor. My customer gets return business from her and so do I.
We live south Of Broad and our house has no insulation, 14 ft high ceilings, on all three floors, and expansive ventilation, to boot. And we are quite comfortable in any season without 21st century upgrades.
Even the Help can expel gas when cooking our meals and no one is even aware of their flatulence as it passes on through the structure without encumbrance. Just saying…
who the hell would trust a person named Wally Shineshimer? Sounds like the little jew boy married a carwash owner!!!
I’d like to know if she donated the funds without providing any guidance, ideas or suggestions. Also, I like the fact that she is blunt with her comments. If she were an elected official she would have given excuses. …. wondering what she will do next.
If she donated only $1 million to me, I most definitely would show some immediate improvement!
We are 4 days into the month and obviously Sic Willie hasn’t gotten his monthly Howie Rich check. The mortgage company is calling, so he had to think of a way to back into his tax payer paid private schools scam in order to be able to pay his mortgage payment.
Yep, you’re on to the truth once again, Naval Yard. I’ll have more to say later.
Too much wine to write what immediately comes to mind.
Keep your day job, which is masturbating all day to internet porn.
Darla said once that she was not interested in politics because that was borrowed power.A politician could be powerful one day and be a nothing the next……Think she saw what was coming for Sanford and what’s around the bend for Haley?
Why did neither sic nor the referenced monthly contact Ms Moore to verify her statement?
Neither are interested in context nor truth.
Yes, the alleged quote is nonsensical. USC business school has nothing to do with primary-secondary education.
Darla committed substantial funding several years ago that would have assisted the education of low-income children. However, her public school cronies got wind of it and she reneged on her pledge. I wonder how much of the $25 million+ that she pledged has USC actually received.
She looks just a bit on the haughty side. I’ll return her calls, though.
I agree, and she does look good in this photo. If I had that amount of money to donate, I would definitely have some control over how it was being spent and administered.
Darla Moore is not a billionaire. She married a billionaire–Richard Rainwater. She did earn a lot of money herself, but nowhere close to a billion. Quit drooling over her–she is the queen of self-promotion.
And, the $25 million in the rathole? Her husbands.
BigT: The White House called me yesterday. I’ve been asked to to present a 40 hour seminar to the high muckety-mucks – Dale Carnegie’s “How To Win Friends And Influence People”. I’ll think about it this weekend.
BigT, your obsession with my ass is more than a little disturbing.
What the hell happened to Darla? USC photos show a 40 year old woman, this picture looks like her grandmother.
Inez Tenenbaum and Jim Rex: I could have told what they’d do to education…
Liberals have OWNED education for 50 years (ever hear of Dick Riley?)…and it just gets worse and worse…and we just spend Moore and Moore….
Like Race relations: Education is one of the most PROFOUND examples of the TOTAL Failure of Liberalism…
But we have COMPLETE dolts, and media, who tell the Fools that Liberals have the answers…and people are so STUPID they have not figured it out…
Hey, but look at the White House…after 4 years of the WORST president in my lifetime…there are enough Dumb@$$#$ to put Obama back in…
So now: Look at yesterday’s paycheck….Idiots….
You’re seeing through the smoke, as are many others. But no one wants to get into the mix to try to improve what they perceive is substandard. You can pick any issue you desire and it’ll be the same. I don’t want to jump into any of the snake pits for obvious reasons.
PS: When are you going to copyright your substitute words, such as “Dumb@$$#$” – ?
Mick Zais in IN THE MIX and he is beginning to IMPROVE the Rotting Liberal Mess….
Barbara Neilsen did a decent job…and saw some success…but we stepped backward w/ Tenenbaum and Rex…
One thing Neilsen did: she published District Profiles, that very clearly revealed that the WORST Scores were in democrat-voting districts where teen-age pregnecny, single-parents and hand-out programs were abundant…
Lex 1 is GREAT because of GEART parents and a belief in the family…just like Jobs come to a places where people believe in WORK, not government…
It’s real simple and MORAL….but the media and the left are Perverts of the truth…and the Weak-minded (like FITS, he’s just such a GREAT example of easily fooled and non-self-thinking who was once in power) aid the corrupt by not availing themselves to Reality…
They’d rather feel hip, like Colbert and Kanye…but their insecuity and lack of responsibility costs our children…and they are not bright enough to see that…or they just don’t care…
So it’s no wonder we are where we are…
DAMN, BigT, did Sic piss in your Metamucil, or what?
Boz: you are so Typical. When someone nails it up your litte effeminate @$$…you come back w/ p1$$y stupidity that equals your level of comprehension and intelligence…
And most voters are like you…that’s why we have such a D@*n problem…that just seems to get worse…
You haven’t put your sweet lips on me since 2008.
Haha! I put this one in the wrong place:
BigT, your obsession with my ass is more than a little disturbing.
Another check from Howie? Well, it is the first of the month.
What is the big deal with posts like this? What is the connection? Why is it important?
What is the big deal with ANY the posts here?
What is reality? And what is the big deal about it, anyway?
She reminds me of Dolly Parton’s priceless comment: “It costs a lot of money to look this cheap.” Sorry, Darla, you can marry money, but you still can’t buy class.
You don’t think them is nice ear-bobbs?
So the “lady” married well and made some money herself. It is simply distasteful to give a large amount of money to an organization to buy a place on the Board of Trustees and have a building named after oneself. A true lady would have given anonomously. Tacky, tacky, tacky.
If you are going to use the money argument for Moore, then you had better include the preponderance of trustees at state universities in South Carolina.
/// A true lady would have given anonymously. Tacky, tacky, tacky. ///
Welcome to South Carolina. Money talks, bullshit hitch-hikes or takes what passes for public transit. And “The Holy City” itself is not known as “The Classy City.” Maybe for a reason?
Look, the woman is rich as hell and does good stuff with her money. That’s extremely rare in this beauty- and history-rich but culturally benighted and civicly challenged state. Who cares whether or not she calls attention to herself shamelessly for doing it? Shit, if she wasn’t at least a little bit on the tacky side, I’d consider her out of my league, and I wouldn’t be trying to remind her that I’m available – and that I’m as good once as I ever was, which was right damn good. ;)
Somehow I find it hard to envision Condy Rice using the word “pissed” in a speach to young college kids. (She happens to to be the other women admitted to the Augusta National Golf Club)
I dunno. I’m not an “educator” or in that system in any way, but, it just seems to me that with all the smart people that are in there, they could go find a successful model and replicate it. Damn, how hard can that be? Of course, if it watered down anyone’s sense of being almighty, or reduced the amount of money they received, it would never be allowed. Human nature, I guess.
Were I as enabled as Ms. Moore, I’d try an experiment, probably right there in Lake City. I would fund a handful of teachers in some cooperating school (public preferably, or nonsectarian nonelitist nonbigoted private) to teach toward education rather than toward state tests. More labs, more experiments, more fieldtrips (natural areas, factories, water treatment plants, etc., as well as meeting professionals and technical workers at other workplaces), lots more problem solving, and constant emphasis on critical thinking, reading and verbal comprehension, and effective writing, plus lots of reading of good writers. Facts and names and definitions would be incidental to the teaching, and thus still abundant, but would not be the central focus as now; they can always be looked up. And no burying the kids with homework: encourage afterschool activities instead, from sports to drama to a job. Ideally this would start in grade school, but for the experiment it could start in middle school or even high school. Then observe the students through college and at least several years after. At least try a different way.
BigT: Don’t forget to copyright your anagrams. You can also submit them to the Urban Dictionary (try the Ebonics list}.
@Soft – We in SC don’t are still educating roughly the same as when our grandparents were in school. Even the best of the private schools don’t do all that well. You are talking about educating the child for his particular learning style.
My only problem with the whole voucher and private school thing is that it just gives another way for government to pay for our students’ indoctrination into some corporate interest groups’ versions of revisionist history and other forms of ideologically (or religiously) based ignorance.
The government doesn’t pay for $#!*, you brain-dead Imbecile…The PEOPLE Do…and always have…
Us who pay, would just like to break the monopoly stranglehold of liberals that produces F%^&in Idiots like you…
oops – posted under wrong section. I’ll try again.
BigT – Don’t forget to copyright your anagrams. You can also submit them to the Urban Dictionary (try the Ebonics list).
Doesn’t it hurt your fingers constantly having to hit the shift key and punch the top row on your keyboard. My goodness, you can’t even keep your anagrams spelled properly.
The 8 year old girl who lives next door says “you should make some flash cards – that would help you keep them straight”.
JJ: You are just another Dumb@$$ in a LONG line of Intellectually-weak fools who become Obsessed w/ me…
You should try debating substance…but usually you leftwing F%&ks look even WORSE when you try that….
Obviously I KNOW that it is our money, BigT. Funneled through THE GOVERNMENT. My point is that I don’t see it as being a major step forward to give OUR money, in the form of a tax credit, to help in the support of schools created and run by people who want to push their religion on the kids, along with their version of history and science. It’s not that I believe the government schools have it all right. Not by any means. Our kids are pawns in major battles over ideology and religion that really have nothing to do with educating them. It’s all about creating another generation that will vote this way of that, consume this or that, and fight this war or that. It’s all bullshit. What’s also bullshit is your insistence on tying me in with Obama, when I have never once voted for the man for anything and never will.
100% with you on that, Boz.
I am vehemently opposed to those that can afford to send their kids to private school getting a tax credit or tax subsidy.
If “School Choice” passes, then only those with children should be taxed for education.
I’m opposed to Leftwing NAZI, Bigots, like you, taking money the Moral contribute, so that you can perpetuate your Failed Theology….
I’ll be glad when the people paying, rise up and Beat the F^&k out of you Lazy Pieces of Crap who have all the voice, but no responibility or accountability (see Obama)…
Talk about in-equality and injustice…you Steal us blind while sitting on your Lazy @$$…and calling the Shots…
That needs to STOP….you ignorant F^&k up….
A pill or two, please
sic(k) willie goes blah, blah blah.
What a voucher clown.
Keep p@ss@ng off Ms. Moore.
And, she may buy you a belated Christmas present.
Just admit it. She is ape-shit crazy and has no talent. She did not earn her money.
Bingo
Is Howie a member at Augusta?
Did some one order a large helping of rambling old fart?
Hah! Long time no read your gratuitously insulting comments, Jeffy01. I do know that I didn’t order half-baked snarky dipshit.
“market-based academic reforms”?? Go fuck John Boehner, Sic.
Wow! I just luv it when you hot yoga chicks talk dirty. :-)
She looks like a man. Very unattractive.
Half your age, half your weight…double your IQ
Jeffy01:
Age: Who gives a shit?
Weight: ditto
IQ: Can’t prove it by your comments here, son.
Note: You obviously have an unhealthy obsession with me. Seek help for that.
I think she is hot
Maybe in the future Darla can hire Smirks to watch over the “crew”…
Will Folks is a piece of shit. Anyone present at this meeting would tell you he took this comment out of context. Anyone present at the meeting would also say Sweet Willie is no longer relevant.
Why are liberals Cowards to your character???
You Flee from everything you are and do….
The article “Darla Moore prods S.C. on education” sheds more light on the quotable quote and the context.
http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20121117/PC05/121119320
All of this bitch’s donations come out of YOUR own pockets …. Oil investments (stocks).
The woman and her husband are both snobby psychopaths.
Find a successful man and marry him. Give his mnoney to leftwing college administration…
And the left’ll make you god of all…
You don’t need a curriculum for that…
I think she made her money in DIP funding in the CH 13 arena. No one would lend to debtors in posession, she found a way to do it and to make money doing it.
You must have been born yesterday…
It’s obvious this woman is not smart enough make that kinda dough…
Even Hillary only turned $1,000 into $100,000 (not $25 million)….And Hilliary was cheating….
This woman ain”t no Hillary….
You people are too funny, she is an opportunist is all and some RAT pissed in her hole and gave her uglies. She is just another loser for SC, no vision what so ever – GOODBYE
Rainwater Investment made a huge pile of money by investing the Bass brother immense wealth. He got tired of running it and let her run it and she made a lot of big wins and collected on them. She is giving away money rather than give it to the IRS. Since she lives in Texas no state income tax it is a win win. Photo shows a rather matronly middle age woman with bad makeup.
I find so many things wrong with the school choice and various voucher options that I can not support them. I would much rather see the whole school system dissolved, including school boards, and have private businesses bid for the various facilities and bid how much they want to educate each kid, including special needs. The state would still need to run buses but can use the schools as “terminals” to which they would bring kids from residences then transfer them to the schools they are attending.
The “conservative” agenda:
Dismantle the public school system
End Medicare
End Social Security
Lower taxes, and do away with taxes on capital gains, dividends, and estates
Do away with the “minimum wage”
Do away with workers’ collective bargaining rights
Fuck you if you haven’t figured out how to be one of the one percent
That about right?
Maybe I’m missing something here, but how is a $25M gift to USC a bad investment because the K-12 system in SC is so bad? USC has become fundamentally better and more selective every year and once the school starts promoting itself in a serious way (No Limits?), it should move up in the rankings. If anything, she has had outsized influence on the school with her former spot on the Board, her handpicked president (Pastides), deans (Teegan, Kirkpatrick), and favorite b-school design (Vinoly). USC has a few other big donors in McNair and the Kennedys that haven’t given it half as much grief as this woman has.