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REX TO LAUNCH PROGRAM TO BUS STUDENTS FROM GOOD DISTRICTS TO BAD, BAD TO GOOD
In a move meant to show his unparalleled ability to take really old ideas and sell them as new, South Carolina Education Superintendent Jim Rex has apparently launched a new program to bus students from good school districts to bad ones, and visa-versa. Because I guess that all it will take to repair the state’s education train wreck.
According to SC Hotline:
Rex spoke to Kelly Payne’s civics class, using the opportunity to discuss education funding in South Carolina, challenges facing public schools and his positions on issues currently before the legislature.
Rex told the class about a new pilot student-exchange program in which students in affluent school districts switch places with students in poor districts for a day, and offered the Dutch Fork students an opportunity to participate.
I’m starting to think Rex just sits there in his plush, taxpayer-funded office on Senate Street in Columbia with a copy of some 20-year-old high school history text book that he opens to a random page and says “I think we’ll try that today.” I’m just waiting for the press release announcing his new “Hatchet Free’s the Way to Be” program to teach kids the dangers of Indian attacks on our villages, especially from those pesky Cherokees.
I’m in Ms. Payne’s Current Issues Class, and I was there when State Superintendent Jim Rex soke to us. Personally, I loved the idea and quite frankly, I don’t care if he decided, “I think we’ll try that today” as long as it works. In this day and age, people and especially teens, are in their own world, surrounded by their bubble of friends, family, and school. Most teens don’t even know or try to comprehend what’s going on with our economy and the education here in South Carolina and the U.S. I think this school exchage program will be a really big eye-opener for teens, even for the teens that are aware of the poor education in our state. So, make fun of Dr. Jim Rex and his ideas all you want, but, I support him. He answered all of our questions perfectly, even when we threw him some really hard ones. I was very impressed. Thank you, Dr. Rex.
Bottom line- the SC Education system won’t change overnight. This will be several generations down the road before we can fix things. This sort of abysmal problem has many parts to it. For starters change needs to start within the four walls of our homes. Parents need to read to their children and spend time with them. The family unit needs to be restored. Generational poverty and illiteracy are a vicious cycle that will not be simple to fix. Although certain intervention programs like head start or adult literacy education can help, they simply won’t be enough to be the miraculous solution to break this cycle. We all know that the tax structure in our state needs to be revamped, starting with our reliance on the sales tax for our main source of revenue and the unequal distribution of property taxes that fund our schools. If we want to be very honest about this “desegregation” issue we will admit that the parents in the “affluent” school districts don’t want to pay for kids in “poor” school districts maybe out of fear that their children will do without. And some parents in the “poor” districts are poor and don’t really have a means of having their voices heard in our state. The lessons that have resonated with me the most after hearing Dr. Rex and other speakers are that human greeed doesn’t change and everyone thinks that their political ideology is the right one. Seriously, Dr.Rex doesn’t have such a bad idea….not that it can change things in our state, but it will make a sound statement and impact on those students who participate in this exchange for a day.
I wasnt there for the speech of Superintendent Jim Rex. However, personally i think that the idea of “I think ill try that today” in todays world, people in general are all about themselves and are not willing to reach out a hand of help. The same goes for educaton. I was blessed to be in the school districts of Lexington/Richland 5 all my school life. Some students take this district for granted instead of trying to benefit from it. There are other districts in the state that are less fortunate and do not own the resources to teach their students. They are dying to get a decent education and the resources to learn. The idea of the program is a great idea because students from both districts can see what goes on around them. I support Superintendent Rex and this situation and i hope it works out