Competition paves the road to progress
By: Sheri Few

For those of you who read my previous article titled, Determined, Not Discouraged, I promised a series of articles providing facts about the merits of offering more options to parents to select the best education for their children. In the last edition, I articulated my concerns about the secular humanist philosophies that are pervasive in public education, and how this undermines the Christian and conservative principles by which many of us raise our children. Beginning with this article, we will examine the current public education system and critically analyze its problems, with the goal of offering free market reform solutions.

The first step to successfully overcoming a problem is to admit that there is a problem. Denying there is a problem will never lead to a solution. This is why addicts, in their support group meetings, start each session stating the fact that they are an addict. Many addicts spend years denying their problem before taking steps to overcome their addiction, which only perpetuates the problem. If we are honest, we will admit that we all struggle with pride that denies problems or fault in our everyday lives. We justify and excuse behavior and performance so that we feel better about ourselves with hopes that others will too. I find a common attitude among public school administrators, on both the local and state level, is that we are doing a fine job educating South Carolina students. This is simply not true and does not help South Carolina students prepare to compete nationally and internationally with their peers.

Only 47% of South Carolina students graduate on time. This is the lowest rate in the nation. PACT reading and math scores, since 2000, show that student performance is declining and performance gaps continue to expand between rich and poor and black and white students. This is a problem.

In affluent communities, like the one where I reside, and ones where I have had the opportunity to work, citizens tend to think the problem is somewhere else. I often hear white, upper-class people blame our last-in-the-nation statistics on predominantly black, poor communities like those found along the I-95 corridor. This very excuse points to the academic achievement gaps that continue to grow between classes and races in our state. However, when you compare SAT scores in the best performing school districts of wealthy, white suburban areas outside Columbia, Charleston and Greenville, they are still hundreds of points behind students with similar demographics in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina and Atlanta, Georgia.

South Carolina does not require SAT testing of students. Typically the SAT is taken by the brightest and most ambitious students who make up just a small fraction of the total student population of public high schools. Sadly, there are only two high schools in our state with an average SAT score that will provide eligibility to the University of South Carolina. This is a problem.

The projected average per-pupil funding for the 2008/2009 school year is:

Insufficient funding is commonly touted among defenders of the public education system to be the cause of our state’s low achievement status. Conversely, when you look at the facts, South Carolina outspends Georgia and North Carolina and underperforms these states considerably. Additionally, when you compare the cost to private education or college tuitions, K-12 education spending in South Carolina is more than sufficient but lacks desired results.

The lower performing school districts of our state actually spend far more money per pupil than those districts with top achievement status. Because federal money is tied to population demographics, Title I and other federal programs spend thousands more per student in disadvantaged communities than in more affluent ones (see charts on pages two and three). The State also provides supplementary funding to districts with “lower-than-average” property tax bases. When Federal and State supplements are added to the base student cost, some districts serving the most under-privileged students will receive nearly $20,000 per pupil and are typically at the bottom of the performance charts.

The current public school funding mechanisms are connected to community populations rather than student populations. School choice proponents recognize the need to move toward funding the individual student, not the public school serving their area. This way individual student needs can be addressed, rather than the needs of a government-run education system. If a parent recognizes their child has needs that are unmet by the current government system, they should not be limited by their lack of personal resources to secure the best education for their child when they already contribute so much of their income to the government system that is insufficient.

Empowering parents with education options creates a unique form of accountability (to the consumer) and stimulates better performance among all types of schools through the power or competition. Competition breeds excellence. If we think about a sports scenario, an athlete will not work very hard to perform his athletic abilities without the incentive of competition. School choice is a free market reform solution that can drive excellence in academic performance in all South Carolina schools (whether they be government, home, private, or charter). The added benefit for conservatives and Christians is the accountability factor where competition will inevitably force unbiased curricula so parents can be ensured that what their children are learning in the classroom does not undermine what they are being taught at home and the greater American culture is not being indoctrinated toward liberal views while they are a captured audience.

Competition is not a new concept to American society. On the contrary, it is the rock upon which our ancestors built the most powerful economy in the world. In the words of our thirty-first president, Herbert Hoover, “Competition is not only the basis of protection to the consumer, but is the incentive to progress.”