Ellen Weaver: Palmetto Policy Forum Testimony to House Education and Public Works Committee Wednesday, January 21, 2015

OUR PHILOSOPHY
Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today for a few minutes to give a thumbnail sketch of Palmetto Policy Forum: why we exist and ways that we hope to serve as a resource for this Committee.

I come here personally today not as an academic policy expert but as someone who loves our home state of South Carolina and believes passionately that the path of opportunity both for our people and our state starts with bold, big picture thinking about how we put together key puzzle pieces for South Carolina’s future.  We focus on the issues of energy, health care, tax & budget policy…and of course, righting the injustices of our education system, which is why I am here talking with you today.

Like many leaders in our state, we believe it's time to reboot and fundamentally rethink our system of education: how we fund it, how we measure outcomes and most importantly, how we truly elevate and support teachers…because a system never taught a child!

Our philosophy of public policy could fairly be categorized as conservative.  Now I know some of you reflexively roll your eyes at that and are about 2 seconds away from tuning me out.  But let me explain what I mean…

First, our solutions-oriented approach is rooted in a belief in the inherent dignity of ourselves and everyone around us.  We believe that human nature responds rationally to incentives – both positive and negative – and I dare say that anyone who doubts this has probably never been a parent!

Which means that for us, good intentions in public policy aren’t enough.  We have to look at what works and what doesn’t, create accountability measurements that measure the right thing – in the case of education, student success – and look around our state and beyond for best practices that are creating high student achievement.

Second, our default setting in education policy will always tend towards pushing dollars and decisions back to the classroom and family level.

These are the philosophies that we bring to all of our work:  a best-practice thinking that strives to apply new solutions to old problems – which we call policy entrepreneurship – and get beyond the predictable political back and forth to focus on what actually works.  We aim to be problem-solvers, not pot-stirrers.  And like Superintendent Spearman, we believe in a collaborative approach in so far as possible.

In that vein, over the last several months we have convened a group of like-minded education advocates, which we call the South Carolina Coalition for Education Opportunity.  Many of them are here today and they all share our passion for deep, sustainable, student-centered education transformation in this state.

OUR RESOURCES
As an independent 501(c)3 non-profit organization, we exist to provide you and the citizens of South Carolina with well-research public policy information.  We do this in several different ways that I’ll mention briefly:

Events
Next week, the South Carolina Coalition for Education Opportunity will be joined by hundreds of parents, students and education professionals here at the Statehouse on Tuesday, January 27^th at 11:30 AM on the South Steps of the Statehouse for our My SC Education Rally to celebrate National School Choice Week.  We’ll be celebrating ALL forms of choice: public, private, virtual, homeschool, public charter, magnet and more.  I hope you’ll plan to join us and get your yellow scarf.  However, fair warning: don’t wear a black jacket – they shed!

Expertise
We bring the best minds to the table, both from South Carolina and beyond, like what we are currently doing in coordinate with the Department of Education to help make sure that the good policy you passed with Read to Succeed is implemented well…because implementation is where the rubber really meets the road.

So next week, on Thursday, January 29^th at Noon (or as soon thereafter as the House adjourns) in Blatt 305, our Coalition will be hosting a lunch ‘n’ learn event to considers the policy implication of the Abbeville decision.  Titled “Fund Students, Fix Systems,” we’re bringing together top state and national experts to discuss our current funding structure and look at cutting-edge funding and governance innovations happening around the country.  I hope you all received this Dear Colleague invitation last week, but I brought a few extras in case you didn’t see it and are interested in attending.

Publications
We also publish resource publications from full on policy papers like our comparison of education outcome in Florida and South Carolina, which helped inform the Read to Succeed legislation, our common sense paper on Common Core that helped provide a roadmap for to pushing back on potential federal control of our standards…and more.

We also publish must shorter publications called Fast Facts for quick consumption like this “10 Ways to Supercharge Education” paper that summarizes much of our longer research.

And last but not least, we are particularly proud of our award-winning Empower Opportunity – a resource catalog designed to inform parents in South Carolina about how to access ALL the options that are growing in South Carolina, thanks to the past work of this Committee.  In this publication, we highlight success stories from real South Carolina families who are using each of these options and show how school choice in all its many forms is delivering real results where it’s tried…and we hope to see this choices expand even further in the session before us.  All of these publications can be found at www.palmettopolicy.org.

In closing, having celebrated Martin Luther King, Jr. day this week, I’m reminded of his famous quote about the “fierce urgency of NOW.”  Our kids in South Carolina can’t wait another 20 years for us to come together to address the education challenges in our states.  We’re excited to work with you this session and beyond to take them head on.

Thank you.

What’s Hot in the Hopper

The South Carolina General Assembly will officially convene for the 2015-2016 session tomorrow, but Statehouse staff have already been hard at work drafting legislation for the “pre-filing” period, which is now complete. While some pre-filed bills are dropped in the hopper purely for shock value and will never see the light of day, others are indicative of broad support and will be up to bat as early as next week. Here is a quick review of bills that fall into the categories that the Forum has identified as the key drivers of South Carolina’s future growth and competitiveness as a state.

On education, some legislators just want to spend more...and idea that is being repudiated even by the South Carolina Supreme Court, as we saw in the recent Abbeville decision. Others want the constitution to require a “high-quality” education rather than a “minimally adequate” one or to make the currently elected Superintendent of Education a Gubernatorial appointment. Then there are bills to establish a Board of Regents for higher education, operate K-12 schools year-round, raise teacher pay, extend bus transportation, expand wireless internet access, and delay implementation of new education standards.

But the Education bills we like best are: those that expand the school choice tax credit from those currently eligible (children with Exceptional Needs) to all children trapped in poverty. We also like the bill to make that same Exceptional Needs temporary budget proviso a part of permanent law.

What are other proposals we hope to see? Our Top Ten calls for incenting excellence in teaching, strengthening charters, providing more paths to certification as a teacher, and reforming education governance among other bold reforms. We would also like to begin a statewide conversation on the need for Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) like those in Arizona and Florida. Here is a new article from the journal National Affairs on this transformative policy proposal.

On taxes and fiscal issues, there are bills to protect the capital reserve fund, to enact a Fair or flat tax, to require audits of municipal governments, to eliminate corporate income taxes, to increase the homestead tax exemption, to raise the car sales tax cap, to stop additional fees, to go to a biennial budget, and to allow a wider range of investment for state employee pension plans.

The tax and fiscal issues we really like are those that promote fiscal fitness: an analysis of the state level of dependence on federal funding, more transparency in tax incentives for attracting businesses, reduction and elimination of the state income tax, an earned income tax credit for poor South Carolinians, and state spending limitations.

On energy, there is legislation to encourage development of offshore wind research and development. An “all of the above energy” policy is important and as our Offshore Opportunity report shows, oil and natural gas exploration would also be transformative for our economy, and should be encouraged.

On healthcare, we see attempts to nullify the ACA and some attempt at needed Certificate of Need (CON) reform, but few true state-based innovations to increase access and lower costs have been filed.  It’s also critical that legislators remain vigilant against any expansion of our broken Medicaid system, for the many reasons outlined in our research on the issue.

On labor and business, and a bill has been filed to prevent public officers or employees from organizing or striking.  One interesting note is that as our research shows unionized workers actually earn less in South Carolina than their non-unionized counterparts.

On transportation and infrastructure, there are a number of bills to raise the fuel tax, focus resources on repairing existing roads, send any newly found money only to the highway fund, and restructure the transportation (DOT) commission. Look for more on this from the Forum soon.

Please let us know your thoughts on these and any other public policy issues. We are here for you and look forward to keeping you updated on how these issues develop and could impact you and your family in 2015 and beyond.