{"id":1265,"date":"2009-04-13T18:22:17","date_gmt":"2009-04-13T23:22:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kevinbryant.com\/?p=1265"},"modified":"2009-04-13T18:22:17","modified_gmt":"2009-04-13T23:22:17","slug":"oped-on-school-choice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kevinbryant.com\/kbarchive\/oped-on-school-choice\/","title":{"rendered":"op\/ed on school choice"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

By KEVIN BRYANT\u00a0Guest Columnist The State Newspaper<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

The education establishment in South Carolina is running scared, because it\u2019s running out of excuses.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite more money, more \u201caccountability\u201d and more government programs, South Carolina still has the nation\u2019s worst graduation rate. Our SAT scores are still at the bottom of the barrel.<\/span><\/p>\n

People are tired of failure, of rhetoric that ignores the facts, of irrational defenses of our state\u2019s failed status quo and the steady barrage of misinformation accompanying those defenses.<\/span><\/p>\n

And they are tired of choice in name only. They are ready for real change.<\/span><\/p>\n

Several colleagues and I recently introduced the 2009 Educational Opportunity Act, which will provide tax credits for parents to send their children to any school of their choice. This is real school choice, and detractors are attacking it by saying it \u201cwon\u2019t help poor kids\u201d because there is \u201cno guarantee\u201d private companies and individuals will support scholarships for low-income, mostly minority students.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are no guarantees in Pennsylvania either, but since its inception, the Educational Improvement Tax Credit Program has seen more than 3,200 companies pledge donations, and sent more than $350 million to some 600 scholarship-granting organizations. A key provision of the S.C. legislation is modeled after this successful program.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the current school year, this investment in academic freedom has funded more than 50,000 scholarships to poor, at-risk students in Pennsylvania.<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s 50,000 students getting a fresh start \u2014 and $300 million freed up within the public system to educate a smaller number of students.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2007, 62 corporations gave $14 million to student tuition organizations in Arizona, and 20,000 scholarships were made available for low-income students in Florida.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the defenders of our state\u2019s failed status quo aren\u2019t just ignoring these success stories; they are impugning the motives of parental choice supporters, even playing a subtle but every bit as despicable race card.<\/span><\/p>\n

Calling us \u201csuburban Republicans,\u201d they are implying that anyone supporting this legislation is only interested in making choice cheaper for those who can already afford it.<\/span><\/p>\n

They are correct in presuming that this legislation would benefit \u201csuburban Republicans.\u201d It absolutely will. But it also would benefit \u201crural Democrats,\u201d \u201curban independents,\u201d \u201clakeside liberals,\u201d \u201ccoastal conservatives\u201d and all kinds of parents in between.<\/span><\/p>\n

This bill will help all children.<\/span><\/p>\n

State Sen. Robert Ford \u2014 a Charleston Democrat whose impassioned advocacy on this issue has stirred the African-American community in our state to action \u2014 is being attacked by the education establishment and prominent members of the NAACP.<\/span><\/p>\n

I wonder if his detractors feel the same about the African-American mayors of Washington, Newark, N.J., New Orleans, Atlanta, and Jacksonville Fla. \u2014 all of whom support parental choice.<\/span><\/p>\n

Critics don\u2019t want to talk about these leaders, though, because they want you to believe that Sen. Ford is all alone among African-Americans in supporting a parent\u2019s right to choose.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our bill isn\u2019t about black or white. Nor is it about rich or poor, rural or urban. It is about providing better academic options for each and every child in this state.<\/span><\/p>\n

Supporters of the status quo want you to believe that this bill won\u2019t help anyone, and yet in the same breath they contend that it will destroy public education.<\/span><\/p>\n

The truth is this bill will free thousands of children stuck in failing schools \u2014 and will improve our public schools in the process by freeing up more money per student.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Bryant represents Anderson County in the S.C. Senate.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By KEVIN BRYANT\u00a0Guest Columnist The State Newspaper The education establishment in South Carolina is running scared, because it\u2019s running out of excuses. Despite more money, more \u201caccountability\u201d and more government programs, South Carolina still has the nation\u2019s worst graduation rate. Our SAT scores are still at the bottom of the barrel. People are tired of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1265","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2gEQ0-kp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinbryant.com\/kbarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinbryant.com\/kbarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinbryant.com\/kbarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinbryant.com\/kbarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinbryant.com\/kbarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinbryant.com\/kbarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1265\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinbryant.com\/kbarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinbryant.com\/kbarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinbryant.com\/kbarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}