Update from the Land of the Lost
On balance, it was a not too terrible day here on Sanford's Plantation, formerly known as the Great State of South Carolina.
On the one hand, we had the latest in the long-running torrent of fatuous comments by our junior senator, flagged this morning by TPM's Jim Kurtz.
Using tortured logic that would make even the governor proud, Senator DeMint predictably named unions as the culprits in the GOP's failure to win Pennsylvania last November. Not, of course, because they played a key role in healing the wounds of a divisive Democratic primary and rallying blue collar workers around Obama's candidacy. The real reason, according to DeMint, is fear of unions that drove working class Republicans from the Rust Belt into the welcoming embrace of the right-to-work South.
Whatever. I was willing to give the senator a pass on this one. Maybe he lost his train of thought, or suffered a moment of divine inspiration. But his subsequent branding of Club for Growth posterboy Pat Toomey as a "mainstream candidate" sealed the deal. Sigh.
All, however, was not lost. This afternoon, the latest round in what has become an endless fusillade of private school choice legislation was moved out of a senate education subcommittee on a 6-4 vote, with an "unfavorable" recommendation. The negative recommendation significantly reduces the bill's chances in the full committee.
The fight is far from over, but public school advocates are breathing a sigh of relief. Providing tax credits to parents who send their children to private -- read religious -- schools is one of the governor's pet projects, and his drive has been bankrolled by out-of-state zealots who view South Carolina's children as pawns in an amusing board game.
Under the tired rubric that competition will cure all ills, these disingenuous legislative gambits would do nothing to improve access to quality education. Private schools go where the money is, and the majority of South Carolinians can't afford the tuition even with a tax credit. The net effect would be further erosion in an already fragile public school system and subsidized religious education for the wealthy. Praise the Lord and pass the vouchers. The beat goes on.
With all due respect to those who believe the administration should make prosecuting war crimes its top priority, as the parent of a public school seventh grader this kind of stuff scares me crapless.
On the one hand, we had the latest in the long-running torrent of fatuous comments by our junior senator, flagged this morning by TPM's Jim Kurtz.
Using tortured logic that would make even the governor proud, Senator DeMint predictably named unions as the culprits in the GOP's failure to win Pennsylvania last November. Not, of course, because they played a key role in healing the wounds of a divisive Democratic primary and rallying blue collar workers around Obama's candidacy. The real reason, according to DeMint, is fear of unions that drove working class Republicans from the Rust Belt into the welcoming embrace of the right-to-work South.
Whatever. I was willing to give the senator a pass on this one. Maybe he lost his train of thought, or suffered a moment of divine inspiration. But his subsequent branding of Club for Growth posterboy Pat Toomey as a "mainstream candidate" sealed the deal. Sigh.
All, however, was not lost. This afternoon, the latest round in what has become an endless fusillade of private school choice legislation was moved out of a senate education subcommittee on a 6-4 vote, with an "unfavorable" recommendation. The negative recommendation significantly reduces the bill's chances in the full committee.
The fight is far from over, but public school advocates are breathing a sigh of relief. Providing tax credits to parents who send their children to private -- read religious -- schools is one of the governor's pet projects, and his drive has been bankrolled by out-of-state zealots who view South Carolina's children as pawns in an amusing board game.
Under the tired rubric that competition will cure all ills, these disingenuous legislative gambits would do nothing to improve access to quality education. Private schools go where the money is, and the majority of South Carolinians can't afford the tuition even with a tax credit. The net effect would be further erosion in an already fragile public school system and subsidized religious education for the wealthy. Praise the Lord and pass the vouchers. The beat goes on.
With all due respect to those who believe the administration should make prosecuting war crimes its top priority, as the parent of a public school seventh grader this kind of stuff scares me crapless.
