JAMES CLYBURN AND SC PUBLIC SCHOOLS.. BOTH IN ONE WEEK

It’s difficult to decide which was the biggest failure for South Carolina Democrats this week, their beloved U.S. House Majority Whip James Clyburn, or their beloved public education system led by state superintendent Jim Rex. Both are prized by the state’s minority left-wing as sacred cash cows, but both of them came up really, really short over the last few days.

For Clyburn, it was the $700 billion bailout bill.

As the majority whip, it is his job to “whip” up enough votes to pass legislation. That means if the Democratic leadership wants to send a bill to the floor to be considered, he damn well better make sure he has enough votes to pass it. Especially during the incredibly rare times when the entire world is watching, as was the case Monday when the “Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008” came up for a vote.

It was rejected by 23 votes.

“I was asked to produce one hundred and eighteen votes. I got one (hundred) forty,” Clyburn told The State. Either he’s really bad at math or just didn’t give a crap, because the bill needed 218 votes to pass.

If you’re dumb enough to count on 100 votes from the opposition — which Clyburn did — you always tack on 10 percent of what you need from your own party. In this case, that’s 12 votes… which would have just passed the legislation 217-216.

Like Clyburn, Rex also had a major failure this week – but his was just one in a very, very long line.

The Voice for School Choice blog noted that “figures from the State Department of Education show that only 1 out of every 5 schools in South Carolina met goals for ‘Adequate Yearly Progress.’”

Of all the public schools in South Carolina, only a pitiful 18% managed to meet federally-defined Adequate Yearly Progress Goals for 2008. That breaks down to 715 of the state’s 875 elementary and middle schools failing to meet their goals! Of the 200 high schools in the state, 165 failed to meet their AYP goals.

This “achievement” came from the same guy who has brought us depleted SAT scores, a PACT test score scandal, a serious ethics rules violation, another serious ethics rules violation, a 47 percent graduation rate, and countless other things — and that’s just since April. I hope he’s a little more successful with his state-funded campaign to remove himself.