Recently this website profiled The Barclay School – an independent (a.k.a. private sector) learning environment that specializes in teaching children with various developmental disabilities.
Our story – which you can read HERE – got quite a response, as it should have.
“The Barclay School is one of dozens of private schools with specialized programs for disabled children ready to meet the needs of thousands of children who are being failed by the government-run status quo,” we wrote.
In fact state lawmakers – in a rare moment of coherent, well-intentioned thought – created a mechanism for parents of special needs children to seek out such environments (a small first step toward the broader goal of universal parental choice).
Anyway … earlier this month The Barclay School received a visit from S.C. Rep. Beth Bernstein (D-Columbia), who was recently elected to a moderate district in the Midlands region of the state.
“She was really moved,” a source close to the lawmaker tells FITS.
In fact Bernstein has reportedly undertaken an effort to help the school gather supplies and books for its children.
“Beth was great with the kids,” one of the school’s founders said of Bernstein’s visit. “She listened to them intently and really engaged each one.”
Good for Bernstein …
Far too many politicians in South Carolina (Democrats and Republicans) refuse to even explore what the education marketplace has to offer – choosing instead to reflexively dump more money into failed government-run schools.
Obviously we don’t expect one lawmaker’s visit to an aspiring free market alternative to change that underlying mindset, but Bernstein is to be commended for at least giving this school a chance.
Let’s hope more lawmakers follow her lead … and more importantly let’s hope more children are permitted to find academic environments like this one that are actually meeting their needs.
Banner Pic: Travis Bell Photography
39 comments
Nice to have you say something good about a Democrat. How rare !
FITS thinks she’s hawt.
She is! Much preferable to the whiney, big-gov, Tammy Faye Bakker, bag she replaced, in every way.
These people are saints. The deserve better than a visit from a politician.
It was more than a visit. It was an endorsement. From a Democrat. That means a great deal. Unless you are so partisan you can’t see the forest for the trees.
Notice I used the word “politician”.
Nothing about her footwear?
Heh!
So those kids’ parents all gave their consent for the children to be in this photo (and the ones FITS posted previously) as political pawns, right?
So why are they being used as political pawns? Just because she is a Dem? Why is helping people a Party thing?
Another government-run dollar.
Sic Willie still refuses to admit that SC already has school choice. Parents can enroll their children in private schools any time they wish.
If you had grown up under better circumstances so bitter you would not be.
and under what “circumstances” did I grow up? Bitter? About what?
How many parents with special needs have the resources to enroll their children in private schools that specialize in that type of education?
You mean these private schools don’t provide this assistance out of the goodness of their hearts? What then is their motivation?
No, dipshit, they don’t for the vast majority of kids there. They barely scrape by even with high tuitions, which are required to keep the student-teacher ratio low so they can deal with kids with learning differences. Barclay is $15k, Glenforest is $23k. Most of the parents of the kids that go there struggle mightily to make those payments, and even more can’t go at all. And there are no government dollars to support them. You really ought to have a clue what you’re talking about before you open your dumb fucking mouth.
Your profanity exemplifies the weakness of your arguments. There are NO government dollars in the lives of these children?
You think if a kid gets an autism or dyslexia diagnosis, government money materializes? Yeah, that’s how it happens. Your total and complete lack of facts combined with your pithy, shallow comments reveals your ignorance of this subject. As for profanity, just because I call you an unenlightened cunt doesn’t make you any smarter.
Your profanity is so mature! Ever heard of programs like Medicaid? No child with autism receives that?
I don’t know, but I doubt many of these schools were established with the idea of getting rich. I would think it was someone who had or knew someone with special needs that were’t being met in the public sector.
And we know the ship yard was a well run, efficient private enterprise……
Do you speak Russian? If that is not your primary language, then perhaps those that participated in the cold war had something to do with that. “Efficiency” was not the primary objective of the cold war.
Never once did a public shipyard go on strike. Can private enterprise make that claim? Did strategic assets get overhauled, have their reactors refueled and have nuclear missiles loaded on board? Were repairs completed and modifications accomplished to ensure that those assets were stealthy and had the ability to deep dive?
I don’t dispute what was accomplished there nor do I dispute that there were a lot of good people doing it, but I do know there was a mountain of waste to go along with it. That’s not justifiable for any cause.
What is the source of your direct knowledge? Where you there? If so, in what capacity? Your statement that waste is not justifiable for any cause is ludicrous. Was the Manhattan Project wasteful? Yes, but the project was essential.
“What is the source of your direct knowledge?”
“Efficiency” was not the primary objective of the cold war.
The point was to have “grasan” define the “mountain of waste” of which he claimed to have direct knowledge. His lack of response merely confirms that he has none.
She’s one of those women who seriously believes she’s prettier than she actually is. Just the way she carries her self, the top picture is a good example.
Please explain your comment a little better. In the picture above she isn’t posing for the camera. She likely has know idea her pic is being taken.
So she just stands around with that smug look all the time? What’s with that rats nest she calls hair?
How do you misspell “no”?
It really is annoying and extremely petty when people get so anal and feel compelled to point out grammatical errors of others. It makes them look even more petty and anal when they make mistakes themselves. So when Squishy is asked a friendly question that began with “Please” why is there a need to become the grammar police? So, after saying all of that I’m not going to be petty and point out the 3 mistakes made in the first comment of this thread by Squishy. Well ok I’ll just point out one which is “her self” being written as two words when it should be “herself”. The other two mistakes are yours to figure out. See how petty this appears?
Wholy (spelled wrong in your honor) butt-hurt!!! I bet your whole day is shot to hell now.
I like anal
Thank you Capt. Obvious
She looks like she just saw something at a distance that pleased her. God forbid, it might even have been wholesome, say a genuine smile in the statehouse.
.
She looks attractive in both pictures.
Yeah, she’s “work hot” at best. You know what I mean, working 3rd shift, there ain’t a whole lot of good looks available. I’m sure there’s a lot more hotness in the state house than in a manufacturing plant, but, as far as politicians are concerned, she’s hotter than most. Just don’t compare her to the outside world.
Don’t know anything about her politics.
Bullshit. She’s not “carrying herself” in any particular way. She’s standing there. Smiling. And LOOKING GOOD. I’m sure she does not give a shit what you think of her looks.
Sorry to have insulted your imaginary girlfriend.
And I don’t give a shit that she doesn’t give a shit.
Bernstein is a putz
What a huge classroom.Are they teaching how to throw the other kids into the river?