Can You Imagine –

A Governor Supportive of Public Education

Paul DeMarco

February 9, 2005

 

In his recent State of the State Address, Governor Mark Sanford, after noting that families in Milwaukee shed “tears of joy” when their children were accepted into the school choice system, asked ironically,  “Can you imagine tears being shed because you got into the public school in Allendale or Marion?”  In a word, “Yes.”   I can imagine that because I chose to put my children there. As a Marion resident for the past eleven years and a school board member for Marion District One for the past two years, I can attest to the joy Marion schools bring daily to the students they serve.  Our teachers, administrators, and staff work hard to provide the best possible education for the students in the District.

 

There is no denying that test scores in the County are a concern, particularly in our most disadvantaged district, Marion Seven.  By any measure (SAT, PACT, etc.), we are not where we want to be.  So we share Sanford’s desire for improvement.  We just disagree about the causes of and the solutions for our children’s performance.

 

Marion One’s greatest disadvantage is that our students are mostly poor (76% of our students qualify for free/reduced lunch) and they go home to parents who may be unable or unwilling to give them the support they need.  A substantial number of our parents are not literate enough to read to their younger children or help their older ones with homework.  Some students go home to one overwhelmed parent.  Some go home to none at all.

 

Our job at Marion One is to uphold the trust that public education represents between our government and its youngest citizens.  They come to us as they are-no matter by Mercedes or bus, wearing expensive new clothes or threadbare hand-me-downs, bellies full of eggs and grits or hollow, articulate or barely able to speak-and we jump right in and get to work.  We don’t have the option to refuse, we don’t want to refuse-we just want to get the job done.  I have seen enough public school teachers at work to know that a “tears of joy” moment is what they live for.  Public school teachers don’t do it for the money.  They certainly don’t do it for the glory.  They do it for those “eureka” moments when they see that light shining in a pair of previously dim eyes. 

For Sanford to denigrate the effort of the teachers in struggling districts in this state, for him to imply that our students are prisoners who need most of all to be delivered from ineffective, uncaring teachers is as ludicrous as it is insulting.

 

The bottom line is that our schools are shackled by poverty not by complacence.  Sanford imagines all of us in Marion One have been stupefied by our virtual monopoly on education and that all we need is a little competition to be jolted out of it.  But in Marion as in most rural counties the only options beside the public schools are small private schools (many created as segregation academies in the ‘60’s and 70’s) and even smaller Christian schools. 

 

When my wife and I moved to Marion in 1993 we considered our options-between Marion One and a small private academy-and chose Marion One for our children.  We have not been disappointed.  Although the private school is a fine institution, it was small enough that it could not provide the same range of opportunities.  Like most private rural schools it does not offer as many academic courses or the same variety of music, art, drama, sports and extracurricular programs as the local public school..  And it certainly isn’t prepared to deal as effectively with students with special needs as Marion One.  How a small private school is supposed to rescue the roughly 5600 children in Marion County who in Sanford’s opinion are in need of deliverance is anyone’s guess.

 

I challenge Governor Sanford to come to Marion and see the schools of Marion One that he dismissed in his speech.  Let him visit Easterling Primary, one of the most honored primary schools in the state with recognition as a Blue Ribbon school, a NAEYC accreditation, and an exemplary rating on its Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale (ECERS).  Let him visit Marion Intermediate School, which won the S.C. Chamber of Commerce’s High Performance Partnership of the Year Award for its partnership with the Beneteau USA plant located in Marion.  Let him visit Johnakin Middle School where the TechnoFoxes program, which provides middle school girls a chance to learn about and use technology such as digital imaging and videography, was selected as the Rural Education Program of the Year.  Let him visit Marion High, whose JROTC Unit earned an Honor Unit with Distinction rating and sent one of its 2004 graduates to West Point.  In addition, Marion High’s Advanced Placement scores in Biology, Calculus, and Art exceed the State and National average.

 

Governor, you’ve visited Milwaukee.  How about a trip to Marion?  Come with an open mind and I think we can convince you that what our students need most is not a tax credit but fully funded public schools and a governor who understands and supports public education.

 

 

Paul DeMarco, MD is a general internist in Marion and serves on the School Board of Marion District One.  His e-mail address is pdemarco@mcmed.org.

 

A version of this article appeared in The State on February 6, 2005.  The article is presented here with the permission of the author.