By Andy Brack
The Brack Report

If you sit around a table with a bunch of business leaders and talk about public education in South Carolina, it’s pretty clear pretty quickly they think more needs to be done.

They’ll say it’s not the problem of students, who show they can achieve if challenged. They’ll discuss how it’s not the problem of teachers, who show up for work motivated to help students despite relatively low pay. They’ll even say it may not be the problem of administrators, who seem to be doing the best they can with what they’ve got.

They also highlight some great components the system has in place that seem to be moving it forward: tough, nationally recognized teaching standards and a stringent assessment structure that is providing school leaders with the information they need to make schools and teaching better.

Recently, Furman University had a series of small meetings with business leaders to learn about public education’s strengths, weaknesses and possible solutions. It’s part of an ongoing non-partisan project the university’s Riley Institute is doing to get to the bottom about what South Carolinians really think about public education.

What we heard in the institute’s 88th meeting was the blanketing concern that broad institutional challenges keep South Carolina’s public education system mired at the bottom:

Low expectations. Business leaders said a lot of parents and taxpayers seemed to have relatively low expectations for the public school system: They don’t really expect it to perform because it hasn’t done that good a job overall.

Low parental involvement. They’re frustrated that many South Carolina parents don’t get integrally involved with their children’s education, which illustrates to children that working hard to achieve in school isn’t important.

Low commitment from politicians. Despite politicians who say they’re fixing public education, people don’t see a lot of changes. Instead they hear pandering, empty rhetoric.

Low passion. They say public passion for a top-notch public school system is low, which makes it hard to get business leaders and others to push for real change.

No plan. If pressed, business leaders also will tell you they feel there’s no overall plan for education. Every four or eight years, the governorship changes hands and new ideas rise to the top. But while one or two new programs or tactics may be added, there’s no real long-term plan for education that addresses core concerns. And without a plan, there’s not much to rouse the business community, parents, educators and politicians to create real zeal for making South Carolina’s public education system much better.

With this being said, another recent event the primary elections, shows education again will rise to the top as a major campaign issue.

On one side will be Democrats who criticize Gov. Mark Sanford and his supporters for abandoning public education with school voucher plans that would erode public and financial support from the system. On the other side will be proponents for radical change who say the current system is failing and something major, such as vouchers, needs to happen to make things work.

While the campaign season surely will be hot and heavy on education, what is worrisome is that business leaders, parents, voters and educators may see these political outcries as simply the same old politicking.

Yes, something needs to change in public education. At the recent Riley Institute meeting, business leaders seemed to agree that the best things that could happen would be for someone in a state leadership position to really take action and provide a long-term strategy for getting South Carolina public education out of the cellar. What’s been done so far to improve things has been good, but it’s been change at the edges, not the core.

The bottom line is we don’t need a single new idea, such as school vouchers, to meddle with the system. What we need is a real plan. And yes, it may cost more money to fix the system that’s been plagued by a funding hangover for decades.

One thing is for sure: When the Riley Institute issues its final report on the results of all of these meetings with education stakeholders, legislators and those in education, leadership ought to stop, look and listen.

Andy Brack, publisher of S.C. Statehouse Report, has a new book of commentaries called “Bugging the Palmettos.” He can be reached at brack@statehousereport.com.

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