It passed the House the next day. South Carolina's continued last-place performance in national educational rankings prompted legislators to take quick action to identify schools not performing to standard. But the bill does nothing to standardize the amount of money school districts get to meet the requirements. Poor districts will be required to educate their kids to the same standards as the wealthier districts. It is a pattern that is likely to be perpetuated.
Poor kids are more likely to be tomorrow's poor people.
Until the legislature gives students and schools the same resources, we can't expect standardized testing to improve the results. When a study last October by the Strom Thurmond Institute at Clemson concluded that tax breaks to big businesses were costing the state more than they were worth, corporate fat cats nearly gagged on their profits. That anyone, much less a group named after Thurmond, would dare to suggest that South Carolina's bumbling brand of capitalism might be flawed got their backs up. Rather than come to grips with the notion that some folks are getting rich at the expense of taxpayers, the legislature leaned on the Institute to revise its conclusion. It makes this claim in spite of the fact that the study stuck with its original numbers that indicate business incentives will cost state and local governments more money than they bring in over the next decade.