If you don't want change, what do you want?

If you dont want change, what do you want?

Thats a question too infrequently put to politicians and education leaders in South Carolina.

Its not hard to find lawmakers willing to decry inequity and failure in South Carolina public schools, but mention giving parents real educational choices and the elected support dwindles considerably.

South Carolina may have a fifty percent graduation rate, 200,000 kids in failing schools, and rank 49^th in SAT scores, but legislators still balk at doing anything to change the situation.

The Greenwood Index Journal does a nice job of pointing out the need of shaking things up with school choice. While we at The Voice feel a statewide, comprehensive school choice program would be the most effective and timely way of jump starting education in South Carolina, we appreciate the reform focus of the editorial. This quote from the editorial about school choice should be in the minds of the South Carolina General Assembly when they return to Columbia in 2008.

Again, youd think that education officials - and lawmakers - would agree that things arent working out as planned and would at least entertain the thought of looking at other ways to get the job done.
With all the politicking for and against school choice, vouchers and anything else that has come down the education pike, wouldnt it make sense to run an experiment to determine what might be done?