Bauer wins re-election

Despite the best efforts of the media, Andre Bauer has been re-elected Lt. Gov. in SC.  Well, actually, I think there is going to be a sacrificial lamb put up by the democrats in November, but Bauer will beat him (her?) as well.

All of this is to say, the media doesn’t really drive elections, except when they cross the line on candidates.  The media has relentlessly hounded Bauer like they were Lynn McGill and his first name was Jack.  Maybe I should break some news for the media: This makes people feel sorry for candidates and then they go vote for them!  I know people who have voted for or not voted for candidates to be opposed to the newspaper.

And right now, that doesn’t sound like a bad idea to me.

Redeploying the propaganda

Ariail, the political cartoonist for The State newspaper had an interesting cartoon in the newspaper this week.  He is comparing the Democratic "redeployment" plan to the Republican characterization of it as "cutting and running".  Now, I am a simple minded guy, but what's the difference?

If you "redeploy", aren't you just pulling out the troops?  By this same logic, people don't get fired from thier jobs, they are just transferred to new ones.  This is ridiculous.  Either we stay and finish the job, or we cut and run.  Calling it redeployment just dresses it up a little.  It is just pure propaganda.

But hey, Ariail, thanks for bringing it up.

Inez agrees….I think?

When she hasn't been running for other polictical offices, Inez Tenenbaum has been the Superintendent of Education in the state of South Carolina.  This is a very important job that sets the tone of education in the state.  Naturally, as is the case with those who seek higher office, Mrs. Tenenbaum likes to tout every success that our education system has, and minimize its failures.  I suppose that is fine, when you consider that we have made this a political position.  (Maybe we could elect a governor who can change that?)

So, I read with interest about her comments at a recent event for SC school administrators. 

In pointing out the problems with education, Mrs. Tenenbaum pointed out that we need more spending, better programs, and better teachers, right?

Nope.

She pointed out problems like poverty and culture change.  What do these two items have in common?  Need a hint?  That's right, neither are even remotely under the control of schools?  What, are schools going to start paying students to just show up?  Hey, they aren't Alabama football players.  And can schools really change the culture of worthless parents not teaching children the importance of an education?  Sorry, this stuff starts at home.

Instead, I predict that her and her disciples will complain about underfunded schools and all of the other gobbly-gook that they spout and change nothing. 

Glenn Beck: Columbia is real

I was watching Glenn Beck on Headline News the other day when he started talking about "Middle America". He then pointed out, and I am paraphrasing here, that he liked cities like….Columbia, South Carolina. He called the city "real".

Now, I thought that I should just point that out for those of you who think that the whole city is fake, just like that fake moon landing and the Holocaust myth.

So, there.

Can SC’s education system be fixed? Is it broken?

"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts."

-Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Well, people may not be entitled to thier own facts, but there sure can interpret those facts differently.  Take the education system in South Carolina, for instance.  Some see the bad test scores and high dropout rates driven by rural SC schools and say that the schools are failing our children.  Others see the same set of facts and interpret it as a failure of the families and communities in rural SC that fail to provide direction to young children who end up as a statistic.

I, for one, tend to fall into the latter category.  While I don't think that PPIC will magically fix public education, I can understand why parents in rural counties would want to send thier children to private schools.  You see, there is no practical difference between the way students are taught in Lexington and Bamberg.  But, more money is spent in Bamberg, and students perform worse.  Why?

If there is little difference in the curriculums or materials, and nobody says that the teachers are just worse, then the problem must be another influence.  Perhaps we should consider the possibility that it is the homelife of the students who are failing that is causing them to fail. 

So, if the problem is poverty and irresponsibility, why aren't we working on those issues instead of dumping more money into a school system when it is clear that it will be lost and wasted in the school administration? 

Shouldn't we put more police on the streets to enforce drug and alcohol laws?  Shouldn't we enforce truancy laws?  Shouldn't we work to create jobs and grow the economy?

Fix those things, and you fix education.

Should schools have branding campaigns?

Richland 1 Touts "Urban Advantage"

Coca-Cola has branding campaigns.  GM does as well.  You can even go so far as to say that Columbia, SC could have one when you consider the tourism (try not to laugh) and convention (try not to laugh harder) business.  But should a school?

Why in the world is a school system that struggles to educate it's children and constantly complains about underfunding wasting time and money on a branding campaign?  How does this benefit the state taxpayers who are funding the school?  Are people going to move high paying jobs to Richland because of the slogan of the school district?  Maybe they should just focus on education.

The State v Mark Sanford

Well, as you may know by now, The State newspaper smells blood and has started an assault on Mark Sanford and his fiscal policies. To paraphrase, The State doesn't like Mark Sanford because he doesn't like to spend outrageous amounts of taxpayer dollars. He believes that the government shouldn't grow faster than the ability of people to pay for it. He believes that there is no place for pork in the budget. He wants private schools to start educating kids until the public schools show that they can do it adequately. Now, reasonable people can disagree on these issues. I don't really likePPIC, for instance. I'm not against it, I just don't think it will solve our public school problems.

I couldn't agree with Sanford more on fiscal policies, though. Our legislature wins popularity contests every few years because they bring home the pork for thier districts. They bring "state" money back home and the locals are happy because someone else is footing the bill for thier pet projects. Of course, they don't consider that they are paying for it through higher state taxes due to the pet projects of every other district. And this is the problem with state (and federal) government, they spend without abandon, raise people's taxes, and are never held accountable for the damage that they do.

But that is where the media comes in, right? Aren't they supposed to hold people accountable? Only if that person happens to be fiscally conservative, it seems. Tommy Moore will be reported as walking old peopleaccross the street and saving babies for the next few months, and Mark Sanford will be portrayed as some crazy radical who is hurting school children and the mentally ill. In the end, The State will endorse Moore, saying it was an easy decision.

And Mark Sanford will coast to re-election.

Back in the saddle

Well, after a post-surgical hiatus, I am back to blogging.  For those who are wondering, the surgery was not to remove the lump in my throat after the disappointing primary results for my favorites.  Stay tuned.

Mark Sanford

Since "fables" tend to be all the rage in the SC blogosphere these days, let me tell one of my own.

Imagine that you are a board member for Bank of America. You are trying to review the performance of the CEO and decide if you should renew his contract.

This CEO came in after years of working for Wachovia. There, he often voted alone in the lending committee against what he viewed as bad loans, a bad use of the bank's capital. He was often proved right.

Now he is fighting for higher standards for lending by Bank of America. He only wants to lend for projects that seem likely to give BofA the type of return that they desire. The loan officers don't like his idea because they are friends with many of the borrowers, and realize that the CEO can't fire them if they make bad loans over and over. So, they refuse to work with the CEO. They make bad loans anyway.

Later, many of these loans are proven to be bad. The training department informs the board that many of the tellers can't count and the CSR's can't read. Since the training department is in a shambles, the CEO comes up with a plan to have some tellers and CSRs go to a private seminar. The seminar has a good record for training, and hopefully will provide a stop-gap till the training department can improve.

The loan officers won't put up with that though. The training department helps them out a lot, and they believe that all training should be done in-house.

In the end, you realize that the CEO hasn't accomplished much. You know he has tried, but you realize that the loan officers won't let him do anything. So, do you fire the CEO and bring in someone who will get along with the loan officers, but not change the lending habits, or do you find new loan officers?

I think you find more loan officers.

Election Day

Today is election day in SC.  In case you are wondering, and I know you are, this is how the important part of my ticket will shake out this morning:

Mark Sanford 

Bob Staton

Greg Ryberg

Mike Campbell 

I would like to tell you that I care about the other races, but I don't.  Sanford is an easy choice over Lovelace.  Staton seems to really care about education reform in South Carolina.  He isn't just the political pick of the state GOP to take a high profile job.  Ryberg seems like the only serious candidate who has proven himself to be a fiscal conservative.  And Mike Campbell is not Andre Bauer.  I don't think that Bauer has been treated fairly by the media, but I'm also not sure that I want him being a heartbeat away from the Governors Mansion.  I'm not sure that I want Mike Campbell in the role either, but maybe he should get a chance to try to be better.  Well, time to go vote.