JULY 31, 2009 -- With families and students across the state preparing to return to school and the brouhaha over Gov. Mark Sanford’s marital mistakes waning, now may be the time to ask a bigger, more important question:
How has the governor improved or shaped public education since he took office?
“This is going to be a short conversation,” said Sen. Larry Martin (R-Pickens), member of the Education Committee and husband of an award-winning educator.
“I’m having to think … give me a minute, I’m not being facetious,” said state Superintendent of Education Jim Rex, before passing on faint praise for the Sanford’s support of early childhood education efforts and spending flexibility latitude for school districts.
Few of the governor’s detractors would ever mistake Sanford for a public school education advocate. When he was campaigning for his current office, Sanford railed against the state’s woeful national academic rankings and offered school vouchers as a solution.
Far from a rhetorical device to get elected, Sanford since taking office has made the issue a cornerstone of his yearly priorities, changing the term to the misnomer “school choice.”
One side of the story
Let's look at some of the governor's education record
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Sanford recently attempted to block acceptance of over $700 million in federal stimulus package funding meant largely for public education.
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He has also lobbied for drastically overhauling the state employee’s retirement package into a pay-as-you-go model that was criticized as a disincentive to teacher recruitment.
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The governor has made enemies within the public education community by further supporting elimination of the $7,500 annual stipend for teachers who become nationally board certified.
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He even went so far to name a woman who home schooled all of her children to be the chair of the state’s Board of Education, a move that resulted in catcalls from his political enemies.
President Barack Obama has even gotten into the act, indirectly bashing Sanford by inviting a South Carolina middle-schooler to sit beside his wife at a presidential address after calls to redo her school went unheeded.
System is an easy target
Of course, the state’s public school system has made it an easy target, ranking near the bottom in many important categories, like national SAT rankings, and near the top in many embarrassing categories, like teenage pregnancy.
Debbie Elmore, spokesperson for the S.C. Association of School Boards, said one of the main gripes she hears about the governor has been that he is always “against” or “opposed” to something, and never for anything.
Like Rex, she praised Sanford for championing a new law this year that allowed for spending flexibility at the local school district level in the face of challenging budget years. But, Elmore said that the governor’s flexibility support has been basically philosophical, and that Sanford has yet to stake out a position on a more important issue: “adequate funding.”
“Sadly, regrettably, he is still really pushing for vouchers,” Elmore said, adding that his continued support of diverting public money to private schools further underlined his “negative public bombardment on public education in South Carolina.”
Rex says Sanford postures
Rex echoed Elmore’s complaint about Sanford’s publicly ostracizing schools.
“At the best of times, he’s been indifferent,” said Rex. “At the worst, hostile.”
Rex characterized much of Sanford’s public assaults as “posturing.”
“The ‘feeling’ to us, is that he thinks the only way to improve public education is to tear down public schools,” said Elmore.
Martin remembered one of the first times he met Sanford face-to-face at a get-together put together by former House Speaker David Wilkins to introduce him to Upstate Republicans who’d supported his rival in the gubernatorial primary that year.
Martin said he spoke at length with Sanford about how the rest of the state wasn’t the Lowcountry, when it came to education, “that there were plenty fine school districts up here.”
Martin’s opinion? “I don’t think he heard a word we said.”
Martin said he thought Sanford’s support of school district spending flexibility was more that it was a stepping stone than an olive branch to educators.
The other side of the story: Sanford's camp responds
Sanford’s camp had a response to each of the criticisms.
Joel Sawyer, the governor’s spokesman, defended his boss’ legacy, stating that the state has “made some important strides there with the charter school legislation and the virtual schools legislation that we've signed. We also formed an incredibly successful dropout prevention program through the Department of Commerce called Jobs for S.C. Graduates. Our executive budgets have always made the Base Student Cost and teacher salaries a high priority.”
But Sawyer said K-12 public school graduates still have a way to go to competing in the global marketplace. The governor, according to Sawyer, believed that one of the biggest impediments to improvement was “people who only want to talk in terms of ‘public education’ or ‘private education’ rather than simply ‘education.’ Our goal should be well educating every child, regardless of the setting.”
In short, the governor was still steadfast in his support of vouchers/tax credit/school choice.
When asked how much responsibility should be heaped on the governor for the state of public education in South Carolina, Sawyer said, “A lot, if the initiatives proposed by the governor are implemented and fail to work. That's not the case here.”
What's ahead
One change Sanford has promised lately, in the wake of his personal failings being aired, was to be more flexible and less strident. Rex said a unique opportunity has arrived to test that mettle.
Rex said the federal government has launched a $4 billion program to help states stay on the cutting edge of education. All the application process needs is two signatures, Rex said, his and the governor‘s.
Rex worried that Sanford wouldn‘t sign on, because, the superintendent claimed, the governor passed on signing onto a core standards program in the past that was espoused by a national governors’ association.
“If South Carolina isn‘t going to get a piece of that money, some other states will,” said Rex.
Crystal ball: Will a new, friendlier education governor emerge from the ashes of the burning Sanford took for his Argentinean tryst? Hard to tell; Sanford has promised cooperation in the past and then remained unmovable. But this was a major blow, a major unmasking. One safe education bet: if First Lady Jenny Sanford leaves Columbia and Heathwood Hall with the boys in tow, it probably won’t be for a Lowcountry public school.