no teacher unions (Columbia, Charleston, Summerville: house, neighborhood, buying)

[wordzgirl]

I'm not a teacher - I'm married to one, however - and I also was a Teamster for 15 years up north. I have to say that our union did NOTHING for us except take a percentage of our pay, without fail, once a month. Whenever we had an issue and tried to contact our union, we would never receive a call back. I'm from Pittsburgh where the unions drove the steel industry into the ground during the 1980s, much like what is happening in Detroit with the auto industry right now.

I agree that there is a lot that teachers have to deal with, and yes, they are seriously overworked and serously underpaid, especially here in SC. But just try getting a job right out of college with a teaching degree in a state like MI or PA. It won't happen, unless you're seriously connected. Maybe I'm just bitter, but I don't have a lot of faith in unions. In this day and age, with the record high unemployment rates all across the country, I think we all really need to rethink the whole union thing.

[moneill]

Unions were an important part of the work force years ago when there weren't watchdog groups, legislation, etc. to help the worker out but nowadays most unions just cost the employees and employers money these days.

[Geechie North]

Simple show and tell:

1950's- 40% union memebrship- a real Middle Class. GM largest employer in the nation.

Present- 10% (not counting Gov't unions, 15% with 'em) union memebership- no Middle Class. Wal-Mart largest employer in nation.

SC has been able to (as have all the backwards states) villify teachers.

Again, you get what you pay for.

And with the worst schools in the nation, SC is certainly paying for what it has got.

[moneill]

Isn't SC's 'worst' schools in the nation title unfortunately a product of socio-economic issues. All the states in the bottom five just don't have the tax base to support the same kind of school systems found in the states with bigger urban centers and more tax dollars.

No Child Left Behind set national standards -- regardless of ability to fund the schools. It did not take into consideration that some areas just don't have the local financial resources to support the schools.

Until this discrepancy is addressed -- there will always be a huge difference between what is offered in the more urban areas and what is offered in those smaller states with little tax revenue.

[Geechie North]

SC has the tax base, but it's like Brazil's:

lot's of $$ laocked-up by the rich- and largely untaxed.

No new news there.

[beth1104]

So... does anyone know where the $ is coming from for the new SOA/Magnet school building? It's over $70 mil, yet huge budget cuts for the remaining CCSD schools?

[mrpeatie]

Beth the deal with school construction in most local counties is that it has been funded by bonds/referendums. So it basically money taken from outside the regular operating budget and connot be comingled. I have worked with a couple of the construction management groups before & they basically wouldn't fudge a budget up or down regardless of conditions- so if it's over something gets cut no matter how vital and if it wass under there were upgrades.

As far as some of the areas that help SC earn its low rankings they are not local. As much as we bi*** about the downtown schools and some of the North Charleston schools its really the I-95 corridor and some of the rural areas along the Ga border and north of Columbia that are absolutely killing the averages. You can't cure a century of neglect or change the enitire environment/attitiude toward education in a couple of years.

And South Carolina's taxes are what they are. Columbia and the upstate have much stronger tax bases because they have more real estate taxed at commercial/business rates. But we are in a lot better shape than most of the inland counties even if land costs for the schools are driven up by the desirablility of the area in general.

And I have yet to meet one teacher who likes No Child Left behind and that includes friends in three states and a variety of school settings who think its ridiculous. The one who shares her hate most loudly was actually in Mt Pleasant. Go figure.

[OleTomCat]

Geechie you say we get what we pay for, then why is it that Washington DC has the absolute worse schools in the nation and they spend the most per child and have a union????

That kind of blows holes in that theory....

Privatizing schools, School choice, Merit pay for teacher and competition in school are the solution not throwing more money at the problem....

[Geechie North]

DC has the worst poverty in the nation, and is the most ignored area by our political system.

Why? No vote.

SC has tried all those, except school choice. I believe. Still 50 out of 50.

Here's state spending levels as of 2004.

Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitors sites is not allowed

[OleTomCat]

SC has not Privatized ALL schools, Merit Pay or any other form of competition.

And what does the poverty lvl mean, does that mean the poor kids are stupid kids?

They still spend more per student than just about any other place in the country...