“Children are our future. Thomas Jefferson once said, “They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.”

When nearly half of our students are fine with Socialism, we indeed are in danger of losing our Republic. And it’s public education’s fault!

Quality education reform in SC that will lead students to cherish the preservation of our liberty is NOT going to happen by jumping on progressive new band wagons, paying teachers more, giving them a duty free lunch break, doing more data mining of children from age zero to 20, instituting Competency Based Education, teaching social, emotional learning and certainly not by instituting Gov. McMaster’s expensive plan for expanding full day pre-K. Where is the empirical evidence that shows any of those decisions are successful?

My group United States Parents Involved in Education is advocating for changes that will put control of education back in the hands of people who know their children best… parents and the local government.

To improve education outcomes for students in SC,

Parents want local control over their children and the curriculum they are taught. Throwing more money at the Public School system has proven a failure at the cost of the future of children and liberty. That’s why there is a mass exodus from the Public School system by parents removing their children to private and home schools. This is a trend across the country and those students removed from Public Schools are scoring better on tests and achieving more in life.

#1 SC should be 100 % in control of education.
Getting less than 10% of funding from the Federal government which comes with 100 percent control over our standards we teach children is ridiculous.

#2 Standards drive curriculum and tests.. and present SC College/Career Ready Standards are 90% in line with proven as failed Common Core. We need to return to proven successful classical standards like the ones Massachusetts had BEFORE Common Core. Paying teachers more to teach by failed (in line with Common Core) Standards is insanity.

#3 The Education Oversight Committee should be abolished and their duties given over to an elected State School Board based on judicial districts. Elected representatives from the local districts can be held accountable for their education decisions, appointed boards cannot. The EOC has failed for decades in providing quality recommendations.

If SC is to rise from the bottom of the education ratings, it’s going to take bold actions. Throwing more money at education woes is not working, jumping on new bandwagons that have no long term proven success rate is continuing down this road of bad decisions.

SC taxpayer’s money is being wasted and more important improving student outcomes are stagnant… this is unacceptable.

BE BOLD…stop listening to the Chamber of Commerce and Progressive Educrats… return to Classical Standards and change the governance structure to give local control back to parents and taxpayers.

Johnnelle Raines is a retired public school teacher of 29 years in the classroom. She is also a Board Member of the United States Parents Involved in Education (USPIE).