South Carolina PingAdd me to the list. / Remove me from the list.
Posted on 09/17/2007 9:08:20 AM PDT by Between the Lines
COLUMBIA -- School choice could be a hot topic in the South Carolina General Assembly in January, propelled, in part, by a significant number of black South Carolinians who say they are undecided about whether the state should spend public money on private schools.
A third of black South Carolinians recently polled said they are undecided on the issue.
Nearly half of black South Carolinians, 48 percent, said they oppose vouchers. A smaller number, 18 percent, of the nearly 700 surveyed by a Winthrop/ETV poll said they favor vouchers.
The poll's findings have voucher supporters doing the math.
They say they are invigorated about their chances of gaining new support next year -- from undecided black South Carolinians -- for legislation that would allow parents to use public money to pay for private schooling.
"We are encouraged every day with the fact that new people are becoming part of this effort, particularly African-Americans," said Denver Merrill, spokesman for South Carolinians for Responsible Government.
Latoshia Manigo, a bookkeeper in Colleton County, participated in the Winthrop/ETV poll. She said she is among the 33 percent of black South Carolinians who were undecided about school vouchers.
"I didn't think I knew enough," said Manigo, 33.
Public-school supporters aren't surprised Manigo and other African-Americans said they don't know enough about vouchers to form an opinion.
"The issue is the appalling lack of quality educational environment in the state of South Carolina, be they public, private, charter or otherwise," said Marshall-Bradley, who also has taught at Benedict College, S.C. State University in and The Citadel.
State of black education
By most any measure state achievement tests, graduation rates, college entrance exam scores black S.C. students lag behind their white peers. The problem is especially dire in the poor, mostly black school districts in the counties that hug Interstate 95.
Public-school proponents say the state hasn't done enough to improve the achievement of poor, mostly black S.C. students. Eight S.C. school districts are suing the state, arguing the state hasn't provided enough money to build modern facilities, hire qualified teachers and provide poor students with the early childhood education they need to ensure success in public schools.
While the poor, rural schools want more money, voucher proponents balk at that solution.
Growing dissatisfaction
The Winthrop/ETV poll found dissatisfaction among black S.C. respondents with the public-school system. About 28 percent of those surveyed said they think S.C. schools are doing a good or excellent job of educating black children. But 55 percent said state schools are doing either a "fair" or "poor" job educating black children.
A brewing lack of confidence in public schools, where about half of black students do not graduate high school in four years, is what prompted some black lawmakers, including state Sen. Darrell Jackson, D-Richland, to say they might be willing to back more school choice next year, including possibly more charter schools. But Jackson also said he does not support vouchers and would take no action that harms public schools.
And, how many blacks or ANYONE for that matter, have actually taken the time and done their own research rather than listen to the MSM????
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
So the schools are doing a poor job, but we don't want to do anything real to change that.
They are still on the plantation and slaves to the dimorats.
Let me see, government schools where my kids learn next to nothing or a voucher that allows me to put my kids in a school where they’ll learn something? “Help, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!”
What I like about it is that finally folks who yank their kids out of school because they’re so bad, could finally end having to pay for their children’s education twice.
All parents pay taxes used to fund schools, but ones who actually give a hoot about their kids put them into private schools at an additional cost. They double pay. Under these plans, if written right, they could request the vouchers and get their tax dollars back.
Most excellent. Anotherwords, defund the public school system. Now wouldn’t that be a shame. /s
With a sample size of only 700 people, that poll sounds like a crock. I’d like more info on the poll and how it was conducted.
“Public-school proponents say the state hasn’t done enough to improve the achievement of poor, mostly black S.C. students. Eight S.C. school districts are suing the state, arguing the state hasn’t provided enough money to build modern facilities, hire qualified teachers and provide poor students with the early childhood education they need to ensure success in public schools.”
Same argument was made in NJ.....Billions of dollars thrown away after abbott decision. We now have some districts spending close to $20000 per year (Newark is a good example) and scores are still horendous. And now state spending in all other school districts have been frozen causing property taxes to skyrocket (NJ has some of the highest property taxes in nation).
This whole thing sickens me.
Bull$hit!
Blame parents. These kids are no less intelligent than other kids, they’re simply not sent to school to learn.
I went to junior and high school in S.C. in the 80’s. Kids were uncontrollable. They disrupted classes. Black students who tried to do well were made fun of by other black students.
I had lots of black friends and I still do. But a large percentage of blacks don’t take school seriously.
I’m betting that the wording of the polling question went something like this:
“Would you support giving your educational tax money to conservative white suburbanites to send their kids to whites-only schools to be indoctrinated as evangelical Christians bent on returning slavery to America?”
OK, that’s an exageration... but probably not by much.
Of course predominantly black neighborhoods tend to be poor neighborhoods, where parents generally do not place and emphasis on their children getting a good education.
At least the do the calls on the weekends and evenings, so they get a wider variety of respondents. However, I don't see how they can get a truly random sample of black people when they start by narrowing the field in a far from random fashion.
Yes, I said MORE money for public schools. Every voucher program ever developed gives about 50% of the per child money to the parents if they want their child to use a voucher and get out of the public schools. That means the OTHER 50% stays behind in the public schools, which no longer have to support that child.
Black parents in Milwaukee in all income groups, strongly support the voucher system there. But then, they have direct experience. They no longer accept as true the lies put out by the "edukashun" unions, and their supporters in the MSM. In SC, the truth has not gotten out, as yet.
Congressman Billybob
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