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You should also try the Columbia City site, there is a link for the events in the Vista area of Columbia. Also try the Congaree Park they are doing a lot of upgrades in it for family hiking and out door events. I grew up outdoors and SC has been a great state for quaint ourdoor experiences. The state is full of State Parks just try the SC State park website and see if there is anything on Sugarloaf Mountain. There is also a super state park at the beach. If you are looking for nature perhaps you should move near a park you like. Columbia is pretty much the center of SC so no matter where you move you won't be more than about 2 hours away and any town you find interesting is sure to have a historical start. SC is full of history.
aggienanoo-Thank you for the info. I love the fact that Columbia seems to be close to many things-mountains on one side, beach on another and water close by! Really I guess we are just going to see if our house sells-then do we want to rent a few months or buy? Looks like most rental housing there is for college students-from online anyway. We have an 80lb Golden-so apartments are out!
Which state park at the beach are you talking about? Last May we went to Edisto, rode bikes thru that State park-it was great. Actually, we rode our bikes everywhere while there. I do not know if that area is considered popular with locals, but most of the people we met on the beach were from somewhere w/in the state.
Columbia has its fair share of water ways, but there are other areas to the north west that have more interesting rapids. I'm sure if you're a beginner, the waters around Columbia would be perfect to learn on, but you might like to take a day trip to Blue Ridge Mountains around the NC/SC border. The French Broad there is very popular for white water rafting trips. The Chatuga on the GA/SC border is also popular. These places would be 3-4 hours from Columbia.
Anyone moving to SC needs to look at the graduation rate of the public schools - only approx 50% of the children graduate in SC. Go to Education Week American Education News Site of Record and check out the "Diploma Counts" program by the Gates Foundation. Also, look at the "Corridor of Shame" Reports - just google that and see for yourself.
While the "corridor of shame" is an embarrassment to South Carolina, it is not located in the Columbia area. The graduation rate is definitely a problem, also, but motivated students don't have a problem with graduating from South Carolina schools. In my opinion, there are two main problems with South Carolina schools - uneven funding for school districts and uninvolved parents who take no interest in their child's education and future. My solution for the first is that funding be pooled for the entire state and doled out based on the number of students in an are or the current districts. There are also way too many school districts in the state wasting money on duplicated offices and supervision. The concept of "wealthy" school districts and "poor" school districts needs to be a thing of the past.
There's definitely no problem of graduation among motiviated students. My wife and I are both gradutes of Public SC highschools. In my time the only people I saw drop out were people who got pregnant, or were more worried about making $6 an hour working at the local gas station. Anybody who wanted to graduate could have.
Anyone moving to SC needs to look at the graduation rate of the public schools - only approx 50% of the children graduate in SC. Go to Education Week American Education News Site of Record and check out the "Diploma Counts" program by the Gates Foundation.
The numbers I found are much closer to 60% (59.7% for 02-03 school year), which is close to GA and NC. This report also talks about how other states overstate their graduation rate:
I think that a lot of the graduation rates are for students that graduate in four years. SC's students have quite a bit of credits to attain to qualify for graduation, which helps to explain that low figure.
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