"Advance Carolina" Becomes 1st Special Needs Scholarship Provider

Exciting news for South Carolina students with exceptional needs!

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January13th, 2014
Contact: Access Opportunity South Carolina (AOSC)
www.IndependentED.org

“ADVANCE CAROLINA” LISTED AS FIRST SPECIAL NEEDS SCHOLARSHIP PROVIDER

This morning, Advance Carolina became the first organization authorized to issue scholarships as part of the state’s new school choice program. Advance Carolina is a Columbia-based charity supporting students with disabilities.

South Carolina’s new program, “Educational Credits for Exceptional Needs Children,” allows private taxpayers to fund grants for students with special learning needs who attend independent primary and secondary schools. Like dozens of parental choice programs in other states, the goal is to help all parents gain access to schools that meet the individual learning needs of their child.

Advance Carolina was created by leaders of the South Carolina Association of Christian Schools (SCACS) to serve students with special educations needs at SCACS-affiliated schools .The non-profit also looks to serve exceptional needs students enrolling at other independent, non-sectarian private schools. Directors and staffers have decades of personal experience as Christian educators, and are eager to target help to students with the greatest academic, financial and familial need.

Both individual and corporate donors to Advance Carolina are eligible for state income tax credits. These contributors can to claim that dollar for dollar credit for up to 60 percent of their one-year tax liability. They are not allowed to designate specific student or school as beneficiary of the grant.

“Every morning, thousands of children across South Carolina head off to high quality, SCACS-affiliated schools,” explained Edward Earwood, the president of Advance Carolina.” Those schools are proud of their high standards, community engagement and sense of Christian mission. Many also offer highly specialized instruction for students facing special learning needs. The tax credit funded scholarships will help families seeking to enroll their children at SCACS’ and other independent schools who offer special programs for students with special needs. That will give parents –particularly those facing financial hardships– real choices.”

Advance Carolina is one of two aspiring SFOs to sign the “Access Opportunity Best Practices Pledge,” a voluntary pledge that includes a disclosure questionnaire about scholarship awarding practices. The other is the St. Thomas Aquinas SFO, which is affiliated with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charleston. Access Opportunity South Carolina (AOSC) partnered with a coalition of South Carolina private schools and respected scholarship providers around the country to develop the pledge and questionnaire. The best practice pledge includes a commitment by the signatory SFOs to hold their employees, volunteers, and contractors to the same high standards the ECENC already requires of their Board of Directors. That includes a strict prohibition against felons, bankruptcy filers and the parents of grant recipients. Access Opportunity also provides parents and the public with details of the tax credit funded scholarship program and participating schools at its IndependentED.org website.

“Holding to the Access Opportunity Pledge is just one more way we work to run an effective, efficient and ethical scholarship organization,” said Earwood. “It’s just common sense.”

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Ask The Economist: Exploring Quantitative Easing

“Inflation everywhere is a monetary phenomenon,” said Milton Friedman, in his famous 1970 essay titled, The Counter-Revolution in Monetary Theory. What he meant is actually quite simple. Inflation (an overall increase in the price levels of an economy) only occurs when the amount of currency printed by the Federal Reserve exceeds the amount of goods being produced.

For example, let’s say a country only produces widgets, the market determines their price to be $1, and this creates demand for 1,000 widgets. Next, let’s assume that the supreme commanders of the country, Lords Krugman and Bernanke, decide to miraculously double the amount of money held in the bank accounts of the widget consumers. These consumers feel rich and start demanding more widgets.

 

However, nothing else in the economy has changed. Manufacturers are still producing just 1000 widgets. The resources and technology of the economy are completely unaffected by the appearance of more money. So if these “rich” consumers start demanding more widgets, but the manufacturers are producing the same amount as before, the price of widgets will start to rise. And suddenly we have inflation, with no increase in real Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the only real measure of actual production in an economy.

The same inflation occurs when the Federal Reserve simply adds currency to the US economy. This is exactly what the central bank has been doing with their controversial “quantitative easing” (QE) program, in their desperate bid to manufacture a recovery from the never ending recession of 2008.

The first phase of the ’08 bailout intervention - called “active monetary policy” - involved keeping short term interest rates artificially low, (by purchasing U.S. government bonds), and acquiring more public debt (in order to infuse more money, or in econ speak “liquidity”, into the market). However, this intervention proved impotent in the face of near 0 or even negative real short term interest rates, leaving no room for further economic “stimulation.”

So the Federal Reserve then adopted a measure called quantitative easing (QE). This involved targeting the longer term interest rates by purchase of financial assets from commercial banks. The Federal Government currently holds $2.054 trillion worth of such assets, but intends to taper off active purchases by October and let the existing assets expire as scheduled.

Two key questions surface: 

• GDP has not expanded significantly since the end of the recession, so why are we not seeing the inflation we would expect from so much additional money being dumped into the economy?
• What will the consequences of the end of this expansionary monetary policy be?

To answer the first question, the Federal Reserve Bank pays interest on reserves held by banks. It has cleverly set this payment at a rate marginally higher than what the banks can expect to make by lending money to consumers. Thus, the Fed has incentivized banks to sit on this additional liquidity and keep the currency from ever really seeing the actual economy. Thus, no hyperinflation.

Since it doesn’t “cost” the Fed anything to keep printing money and paying interest to these banks, this is likely to continue even when QE officially expires, in a bid to prevent the extremely high inflation that would occur if all these built up reserves were released into the economy. After October, the Fed will likely start selling its stock of government debt in the market to soak up this liquidity. What exactly was the point of this money shell game?  Even if we are doomed to end up where we started, the Fed evidently feels better to have been busy moving money around.

When the Quantitative Easing plan expires, the Fed has given the markets enough notice that we are likely to see a only a soft deflation in both asset prices and the stock market as people start pulling money out to take advantage of higher interest rates. This should not ultimately effect the real economy, since the infused liquidity was not actually in play in the first place. However, since markets and economies are affected by public perceptions in the short run, I would expect some negative but temporary swings throughout October.

---Abir Mandal, PhD Candidate, Clemson University Department of Economics and Palmetto Policy Forum Summer Fellow

Man Down: Conservative Indiana Governor Caves to Obamacare Medicaid Expansion Demands

By Tim Caiello, Forum Summer Fellow

Over the last few months the Forum has been heavily focused on education issues like Read to Succeed and pushing back on Common Core’s federal overreach. 

But we’ve still been keeping an eye on what may be the biggest threat to state autonomy: Medicaid expansion.  As we shared in our Fast Fact sheet Top 10 Reasons Medicaid Expansion is Bad Medicine for South Carolina, expanding Medicaid to able-bodied adults would overwhelm an already broken program, harming the very people it was created to serve: poor children, the elderly and people with disabilities. 

(To see what happens when the government can’t handle health care responsibilities it already has, we don’t have to look any further than the recent news with the Veterans Administration – a perfect example of the well-intentioned dysfunction of government-rationed health care.)

Given the documented fact that Medicaid is not serving current recipients well (and according to Forum research is already the single largest driver of growth in South Carolina’s state budget even without expanding it), it seems to defy logic that conservative governors would fall into this unsustainable trap. 

Yet that’s exactly what we see happening…

Until now, twenty four states had refused to approve the Medicaid expansions. Well, make that twenty three. On Thursday, June 12, conservative Indiana Governor Mike Pence announced a plan that would expand Indiana’s Medicaid coverage through the “Healthy Indiana Plan 2.0” (HIP). The original HIP plan was applauded by free-market thinkers for introducing Health Savings Accounts (HSA) into the mix. The goal: encourage more fiscally responsible medical decisions by giving patients more control and incentivizing them to be shoppers and savers.

However, the Obama administration demanded big changes to this plan, claiming that it would create a gap that left some still uninsured.  So Governor Pence reworked HIP and announced the new HIP 2.0 version of the plan, which essentially amounts to a significant expansion of Medicaid eligibility in Indiana. This has caused significant confusion for many conservatives who originally supported the initial HSA-style HIP plan and count Governor Pence as a strong conservative ally.  In light of the commotion surrounding this Indiana decision, here are a couple helpful facts to keep in mind:

• The plan approved by Governor Pence is not the originally proposed HIP plan that featured a health savings account style approach.
• The plan approved by Governor Pence is a significant expansion of Medicaid along the lines of ObamaCare demands, meaning very limited state flexibility.
• The plan as approved by Governor Pence expands coverage to working age adults whether or not they have a full time job: contradicting the original intent to cover primarily working citizens.
• The state of Indiana anticipates having to divert $1.5 billion into the program to cover the increased costs incurred.

In sum, we find that unfortunately, despite Governor Pence’s solid conservative credentials, Indiana Medicaid expansion is yet another open ended entitlement program that leaves the state holding the bag (with minimal flexibility) when federal funding comes up short.

Here in the Palmetto State, we continue to see Medicaid grow as publicity around ObamaCare drives more currently eligible citizens to enroll.  And expansion supporters recently vowed that they weren’t giving up and would take their fight to the grassroots.  So the fight is far from over.

However, we were pleased to see the House sustain Governor Haley’s veto of funding for a commission to study expanding Medicaid that was slipped into the budget.   And we will continue to support all efforts to resist federal pressure to further expand Medicaid.  Like Governor Haley, we are confident that South Carolina is more than capable of providing the medical care its citizens need without expanding eligibility for a broken and unsustainable Medicaid program.

Tim Caiello is a 2014 graduate of Columbia International University.

Read to Succeed Must Cross the Legislative Finish Line

by Ellen Weaver

The ability to read is a primary gateway to success in school and life-long learning. A child who does not master this fundamental skill faces daunting odds. Consider these sobering statistics from the Annie E. Casey Foundation:

• Children who are not reading proficiently in 3rd grade are 4 times more likely to not graduate high school.
•  Below basic readers are almost 6 times more likely than proficient readers to not finish high school on time.
• Poor, Black, and Hispanic students who are struggling readers are about 8 times more likely than proficient readers to drop out of high school.

Why is this the case?  Because from kindergarten through third grade, students are learning to read. Beginning in fourth grade a student is asked to use their reading skills in order to learn. If a student struggles to read when they enter fourth grade, not only are they already behind most of their peers but they are also at great risk of falling further and further off the pace.

Right here in South Carolina, the most recent National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) shows that 51% of low income 4th grade students and 40% of all 4th grade students cannot read at even a basic level.  We face a truly monumental task. 

But the good news is pioneering states like Florida have shown there is a proven path forward.  And with the “Read to Succeed” legislation modeled on Florida’s success currently moving through the General Assembly, it’s clear that South Carolina legislators understand the urgency of the need.

Two bills — S. 516 and H. 3994, sponsored by Senator Harvey Peeler and Representative Andy Patrick respectively — have the potential to profoundly change the future for thousands of Palmetto State students.   These bills put a laser focus on literacy, hands down the most critical skill our schools must teach.   By putting priority on key policy components like improved teacher training, state and district reading plans, summer reading camps and reading readiness assessments, we can help students unlock the door to reading success.

Much attention has been placed on the third-grade retention portion of the policy as if that is all these bills contain.   But that is only the last resort for struggling students.  The true power of Florida’s successful model stems from the dynamic duo of support and accountability.

To retain third-graders who struggle to read but not provide them with a new and intensive literacy action plan would not help the underlying problem at all. Indeed, it’s pure folly to ask a student to simply repeat a grade and expect a different result. On the other hand, calling for early interventions and greater literacy support for students and teachers without drawing a hard line in the sand at the end of third-grade is an inefficient strategy, since as the Casey statistics illustrate, proficient third-grade reading is the non-negotiable end goal that will enable long-term student success.  “Read to Succeed” strikes the right balance between these two critical elements of support and accountability.

Governor Nikki Haley has publicly championed the cause in her executive budget and the House has set aside $30 million to implement the policy. But while both the Senate and House have already passed their own versions of this legislation, a strong version of the bill still needs to cross the legislative finish line with both its accountability and interventions intact.

Similar, stand-alone reading bills have recently been passed by states like Mississippi with broad bipartisan support and South Carolina’s “Read to Succeed” should not be derailed by unrelated agendas.  This just might be the most important legislation for our state in the last decade.

A strong, focused “Read to Succeed” policy will open up new worlds of learning for struggling readers in the Palmetto State.  Let’s cross the legislative finish line together this year to give them that opportunity.

Congress Can Help SC Economy Grow

The Greenville News
May 11, 2014

Trade has transformed South Carolina’s economy.

A powerhouse corridor stretching from manufacturers in the Upstate to our thriving Charleston port produced a record high $26.1 billion in merchandise exports last year, according to a new report from the state Department of Commerce. This export wave continues to build with recent billion-dollar investment announcements from Toray Industries and BMW.

But in order for our already-thriving export economy to reach its full potential, Congress needs to give the president the ability to open new markets to South Carolina goods. To do this, he’ll need the same Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) that lawmakers have granted to every administration since Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Trade has deep roots in our state. Since the country’s earliest days, South Carolina’s products, ports and people have made us a vital commercial hub. Today, this commitment to trade is paying more dividends than ever.

International trade supports roughly 545,000 state jobs, a number that has been growing in recent years. Between 2004 and 2011 — a period that includes the Great Recession — trade-based jobs in South Carolina grew more quickly than overall state employment.

Many of these jobs are the direct result of our flourishing export economy. South Carolina goods and services are sold in nearly 200 countries around the world.

Foreign investment is another way in which state workers have reaped the benefits of trade. A recent analysis by IBM-Plant Location International named South Carolina the national leader in attracting jobs through foreign investment. All told, foreign companies based in countries from Germany to Japan to Switzerland employ more than 100,000 South Carolinians.

Imports have also been an important driver of growth and job creation in the Palmetto State. At present, foreign-made raw materials, inputs and component products account for more than 60 percent of U.S. imports. By allowing firms to keep operating costs down, these affordable goods and services help state businesses remain globally competitive which, in turn, protects the jobs of workers here at home.

Foreign-made products also provide South Carolina families with lower prices and greater product choice for their hard-earned dollar. In fact, taken together, policies that reduce barriers to trade and increase foreign investment save the average South Carolina family of four an estimated $10,000 a year.

And yet, some in Congress are slowing new trade negotiations by refusing to renew Trade Promotion Authority. While there’s no one solution to ensure free and fair trade, TPA represents an import tool in America’s trade toolbox.

TPA has been essential to trade negotiations since the 1930s. The authority officially lapsed in 2007, and unless Congress passes legislation renewing TPA, America will be hard pressed to complete two major trade pacts currently in the works.

Among other things, TPA allows pending trade agreements to receive a straight up-or-down vote from Congress. This gives U.S. negotiators the ability to reassure potential trading partners that narrowly parochial interests can’t be added to derail a deal once the details have been hammered out.

At the same time, TPA protects Congress’ ability to shape trade pacts through mandatory consultations with the administration and ultimately to vote down any deal it doesn’t believe to be a net win for America’s national interests.

Which raises yet another key consideration: strong alliances formed through the exchange of goods are one of America’s best weapons to promote stability and our national interest. In a volatile and increasingly interconnected world, countries that trade are far more likely to negotiate than fight. Make no mistake: Hostile nations such as China and Russia have demonstrated that they are ready to fill any trade vacuum that we leave.

With two historic trade deals on the horizon, it’s time for Congress to pass a standalone renewal of TPA. America’s interests and future South Carolina jobs are on the line.

Ellen Weaver is president & CEO of Palmetto Policy Forum.

Private school choice will help, not hurt public education

Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/2014/05/08/3432989/weaver-private-school-choice-will.html?sp=/99/168/#story

Columbia, SC — I appreciated Cindi Scoppe’s column in support of Sen. Paul Thurmond’s efforts to streamline our process for dealing with ineffective teachers (“The cost of one bad teacher,” April 23). Teacher quality is the No. 1 in-school factor affecting student learning, and this is an important step toward our shared goal of strengthening public education in South Carolina.

What puzzles me is her argument that passing this reform is a way to beat back private-school choice. An Urban Institute study of Florida — which has some of the oldest and largest private-choice programs in the country — found that these programs contributed to increased performance in public schools, an idea borne out by the incredible gains that Florida’s most disadvantaged students have made in math and reading.

Opponents of private-school choice like to use the word “voucher” as a dog-whistle to indicate opposition to public education. But even that word is a relic. There are so many different kinds of education choice beyond vouchers: public charter schools and online education, public magnet schools, home schools — and yes, private schools, both religious and secular. Education savings accounts, tax credit scholarships … and who knows what will be the innovation of the future. The unifying theme? The idea that all parents should have the ability to choose a high-quality option for the unique needs of their child … and that a ZIP Code should not determine a student’s destiny.

I am a native South Carolinian and a graduate of public education. I have no nefarious “out-of-state agenda” to dismantle S.C. public schools. Rather, I hope we can have a reasonable, informed discussion about what “public education” actually means. Is it merely a system into which we pump more and more taxpayer dollars regardless of outcomes, or is it a well-educated student who is prepared for success as a productive citizen of our great state?

This is not some abstract battle of ideology, as opponents of private choice would have you believe. It’s about the very real future of our children: Will we continue to do the same thing and expect better results, or will we have a conversation informed by real data on proven policies that show the positive effects of more choices — both public and private — on public education?

Ellen Weaver
President & CEO
Palmetto Policy Forum

Published on May 8, 2014 in The State newspaper

Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/2014/05/08/3432989/weaver-private-school-choice-will.html?sp=/99/168/#storylink=cpy

Common Core: What's Next

Common Core debate could plant seeds for reform

The State
by Dr. Oran Smith

Columbia, SC — Only two years ago, a lopsided majority of Americans had never heard of Common Core State Standards, and those who had either thought they were straight from Beelzebub or the greatest thing since Jadeveon Clowney.

If a recent legislative hearing on the matter is any indication, that polarization still exists, and the warring camps are getting larger and louder.

One moment in that two-hour hearing was especially memorable. As a Common Core supporter was explaining how South Carolina came to be involved with the standards, she described the signing of a contract related to their implementation. The presenter paused when asked the date of the contract, and as if on cue, at least 10 opponents shouted “June 9, 2010.”

Here was a group of citizens who had done their homework — an impressive display of democracy, no matter what one thinks of Common Core.

Can we build on that?

After the hearing, I concluded that John Hill of the Alabama Policy Institute had it right when he wrote: “Although both sides of the Common Core debate make arguments worth consideration, both the potential benefits and pitfalls related to Common Core have been the subject of exaggeration and error.”

This is why Palmetto Policy Forum recently released a paper we believe cuts through the Common Core fog, outlining an eight-point plan to return unquestioned control of education standards to S.C. parents.

This heated debate begs the question: Are education standards the reason so many of our students are falling behind academically and graduating from high school unprepared for college, technical college or the workforce? The answer to that question is a resounding no. While Common Core presents a host of problems, the bold reforms to reverse our lagging education outcomes lie elsewhere.

Among these reforms are a laser-like focus on early reading and an end to social promotion for those falling further and further behind; more choices for parents that let taxpayer funds follow the child to any school public or private; full funding for good public charter schools; education governance that is democratically accountable to those it serves; teacher evaluations that treat teachers like professionals and reward excellence in the classroom; and alternative paths to certification that cut through red tape to get real-world experience off of the sidelines and into our classrooms.

In the struggle between most urgent and most important, fixing Common Core could very well be more urgent. But accountability to parents and the wide-ranging reforms our students need are more important.

What we need is to turn the passion stirred over Common Core into something much more significant.

Common Core has serious problems, and it is imperative that we address them. But there is no reason to re-enact the brinksmanship of “Dr. Strangelove.”

Let’s address Common Core and move on, focusing our energy on the fundamental challenges facing education in South Carolina. This is not a time for mutual destruction. The future of our children hangs in the balance.

Dr. Smith is senior fellow at Palmetto Policy Forum.

Guest Opinion: School Choice Unites & Empowers

By Ellen Weaver

The Greenville News
February 2, 2014

Liberal Democrat Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee and conservative Republican Senator Ted Cruz. Newt Gingrich and Al Sharpton. What agenda could possibly unite these political odd couples?

Support for the rapidly expanding world of education options.

Each of these leaders is part of a bipartisan groundswell of advocates for evidence-based school choice programs, both public and private. Far more than “vouchers,” school choice in its truest form includes as many options as the needs of children are unique: high-quality traditional schools; public charters, magnet or virtual schools; open enrollment between traditional school districts; private school scholarship and tax credit programs; Education Savings Accounts; home schooling and more.

Based on a monopolistic model of learning designed for a heavily agrarian economy, the structure of our current public education system has remained largely unchanged since the 19th century. While this system still works for some, it is failing to equip far too many of our children with the basic skills they need in the fast-paced economy of the future.

The facts are unforgiving: America leads the world in education spending yet lags in academic achievement, falling behind more than a dozen other industrialized countries in math and literacy.

Our research shows that right here in South Carolina, fewer than half of our low-income students can read at “Basic or Better” levels by the end of 3rd grade, the pivotal point when they transition from learning to read to reading to learn. Over the last decade, our students with special needs have lost more ground in reading and math than students from any other state in the country. We are currently leaving far too many of our children behind and robbing them of opportunity to succeed in school and ultimately life.

The good news: the power to change all this is in our hands. Around the country, innovating states and bold policy leaders are showing the way as they empower more and more parents with customized choices for their child’s education. These choices take many forms, including strong, accountable public charter and online schools and private tax credit scholarships for students with special needs or who come from families which otherwise could not afford to access high-quality options. Or newer ideas like Education Savings Accounts that create maximum flexibility for parents to buy textbooks, hire a tutor, enroll their children in online classes, pay private school tuition, or even save for future college expenses.

What are the results where these options are being tried? Study after study has shown that expanded education choice has increased high school graduation and college attendance, boosted scores in critical core subjects like reading and math, and led to parents who are satisfied that their children are enjoying high-quality education in a safe environment.

Over the last decade, Florida became one of the lead policy innovators, enacting robust school choice programs, which have contributed to students most in need of a helping hand making the greatest strides in achievement. In fact, Florida’s low-income students now outscore the entire student population of South Carolina on 4th grade reading. And the Sunshine State’s minority students — once lagging well behind their peers in the Palmetto State — have leapfrogged ahead. All this while spending less money per student than we do in South Carolina.

But the best news: a rising tide lifts all boats. Students in traditional public schools are thriving as never before, debunking the myth that more school choices damage public education. The inescapable truth is that where education choice grows, education and student achievement flourish everywhere.

To quote former Gov. Jeb Bush who led Florida’s education transformation, it’s time for us to “fundamentally rethink how we define public education, paying for results wherever they occur rather than paying a single provider regardless of results.”

Despite our challenges, this is an exciting time for education in South Carolina. New conversations are happening between businesses, education leaders and local communities about how to create the education system of the future. And right here in the Palmetto State, parents have more options now than they have ever had, including a brand new tax credit scholarship program for our students with special needs.

But our work is far from done. School choice is changing lives across the country and provides a clear road map forward to address the education needs of South Carolina students.

We have just celebrated National School Choice Week. I hope you’ll join this growing, bipartisan movement of students, parents, educators and community leaders. Working together, we can empower parents with new choices and inspire students with the hope that their ZIP code does not determine their destiny.

Ellen Weaver is President & CEO of Palmetto Policy Forum. For more information go to www.palmettopolicy.org.

Carolina Voices: THE POWER OF CHOICE

By Tim Lollis

“Not my son,” Marilyn calmly whispered as she listened to the local news regarding the deterioration of the neighborhood public schools. Though outwardly silent, she made a thunderous inner vow.  Her son would acquire an education and break the cycle of housing projects, violence, broken homes, and hopelessness.  It would end here.   

Poverty in America is usually encapsulated in political sound bites, gloomy documentaries or contrarily glamorized in rap videos.  But the genuine effects of poverty lie in the unspoken matters that remain tucked away in the heart.  Like a child wondering why his father won’t come visit him.  Or the spilling tears and mournful wails of a mother during the dark hours of the night.  These are the soul-wrenching realities of poverty that often evade the cameras.   

From FDR’s Depression-era safety net programs to LBJ’s War on Poverty, the growth of government dependency has been deceptive.  We have learned that government generosity is never free, but rather represents a subtle trade.  One welcomes a measly monthly stipend…in exchange for a loss of personal dignity and individual choice.

And this individual choice – especially in education – is fundamental to familial income mobility.

Just as the gospel of Jesus Christ places all men on equal ground at the foot of the cross, rich and poor alike have always hailed education as the great economic and social equalizer. However, access to a high-quality education has been elusive to many.  Too often, public education in its present form locks impoverished children into an educational prison.

Because the current structure of public education is comfortable and financed by powerful political lobbies, many people are unwilling to even consider new strategies.  The result?  Poverty and hopelessness are no longer temporary setbacks, but rather have become a generational inheritance.  In too many cases daughter, mother and grandmother reside in the same prison, reaping the bitter fruits of poverty.

We have to set aside every political agenda, past transgression, or cultural norm for the sake of unity and the future of our children.  Parents must be empowered with a myriad of choices, on how best to engage their children’s educational needs.  Choice is the cornerstone of freedom, and education is the principal instrument that should express that consecrated freedom.    

Marilyn – my mother – was given that choice.  She was offered a special school transfer.  This permitted me the opportunity to attend a school far outside of my zoned district. That solitary option has forever changed the future of our family.  I thank God every day for the freedom we have in Christ and in our nation.  But I also thank my mother for her courage to seize the choice laid before her. 

Let’s give every parent in South Carolina the same power to break the cycle of poverty and dependency.  Let’s ensure the most hallowed freedom of our nation continues to remain the most sacred: the power to choose. 
Tim Lollis is Director of Community and Public Relations at Word of God Ministries and a freelance writer.   His passion is bridging divides and strengthening relationships within the Christian community.  He previously served as a Regional Director in the office of U.S. Senator Jim DeMint and currently resides in Columbia with his wife Renatha.

What’s In The Hopper?

The Forum is watching the Legislature for YOU...

Like it or not, the actions of the South Carolina General Assembly can have a powerful impact on the pocketbooks of families like yours…on your freedom to work, access health care and educate your family.

The legislature usually takes the summer and fall off and returns in January. To get ready to return for their January through June session, members of the Senate and House started putting bills in the stream in December. In the waning days of 2013 some interesting legislation was filed that could have a significant impact on your life. As always, we will be watching these bills to protect you and your family.

SCHOOLS

Teaching Excellence. Rep. Andy Patrick (R-Beaufort) has filed H.4419, a bill to reform the way we evaluate the performance of teachers. The Forum’s Take: These changes have been needed for decades. Much of the content of H.4419 came out of a series of listening sessions hosted by Students First and co-hosted by Palmetto Policy Forum.

Less Duplication. Rep. Bakari Sellers (D-Bamberg) has filed H.4352, a bill that would among other things do away with the Education Oversight Committee (EOC).  The Forum’s Take: The EOC is a South Carolina oddity meant to provide an independent agency to keep tabs on the State Board of Education (SBE). But what we really need is an representative, accountable SBE, not duplicate agencies and diluted accountability.

Special Help for Special Needs. Senator Wes Hayes (R-York) has filed S.867, a bill to allow tax credits for contributions to scholarships for kids with special needs to attend private schools designed to serve them. The Forum’s Take: This is an exciting opportunity (that has worked well in other states) to help our neighbors afford the specialized education their kids need but can’t always find in the public system.

Local Control of Curriculum. Senator Chip Campsen (R-Charleston) has filed S. 888, a bill to clarify the process for adopting academic standards and assessment. The Forum’s Take: a bill like this would have saved a lot of heartache if in place before the adoption of Common Core State Standards. It makes sure elected representatives (not just bureaucrats) have a say in our school curriculum.

Free Enterprise. Rep. Joshua Putnam (R-Anderson) has filed H. 4369, a bill to allow advertisements on school buses to help pay for purchasing new school buses.  Decision on whether to participate would be made by local school boards. The Forum’s Take: Our state-run bus system is a national anomaly…and finding ways to introduce more free enterprise into it is a good idea.

Finance Reform. Rep. Jenny Horne (R-Dorchester) has filed H. 4407, a bill to reform the way schools and education are financed in South Carolina. Children’s Agency. Rep. Horne has also filed H. 4409, a bill to create a new South Carolina Department of Child and Family Services within the Governor’s cabinet. The new agency would replace the Department of Juvenile Justice and assume certain functions of the Department of Social Services and the Governor’s Office. The Forum’s Take: These are interesting concepts. A key factor in each is whether the changes will help provide relief for the taxpayer. 

Higher Taxes. Rep. Wayne George (D-Mullins) has field H. 4361, a bill to exempt from the cap on property taxes the cost of repairs and improvement of existing school facilities. The Forum’s Take: How would “repairs and improvements” be defined?

HEALTHCARE

Senator Kevin Bryant (R-Anderson) has filed S. 886, a bill to authorize out of state insurers to offer health insurance policies within South Carolina. The Forum’s Take: Nearly every proposal to reduce healthcare costs in the last decade has included erasing the state line barriers to competition. Worth a hearing.

FEDERALISM

Rep. Bill Taylor (R-Aiken) has filed H. 4422, legislation to create a “Federal Education Funding Study Committee.” The Committee would study federal funding of public education in the state and issue a report aimed at improving efficiency and transparency. The Forum’s Take: A critical first step toward reducing federal spending is make state citizens aware of how much Washington takes, ties up in mandates – and then “gives back” – to South Carolina.. The bill could be expanded beyond education.

Rep. Bill Taylor (R-Aiken) has filed H. 4372 and Sen. Larry Grooms (R-Charleston) has field S.833, and Sen. Mike Fair (R-Greenville) has filed S.830, legislation to evoke Article V of the US Constitution. If a sufficient number of states pass this legislation, a convention of states would be called by Congress to amend the Constitution to place limits on federal government power and spending and to enact term limits on federal officials.  The Aiken Standard wrote an informative story.  The Forum’s Take: While there is no silver bullet to restore a century or more of eroded federalism, the Article V strategy is certainly an interesting one, and more likely to succeed than Nullification of federal laws.

GOVERNMENT TAXING & SPENDING

Rep. Joshua Putnam (R-Anderson) has filed H. 4379, a bill to move the date for consideration of the state budget within the House of Representatives from March 31 to March 10, the net effect being to shorten the legislative session. The Forum’s Take: Taxpayer groups and business leaders have been calling for a shorter session for over two decades. This concept it worth consideration.

Senator Katrina Shealy (R-Lexington) has filed S. 901, a bill to phase out the personal income tax. The Forum’s Take: There is a 50-state competition for free enterprise. States that are reducing income taxes, like Kansas and Tennessee, are reaping great benefits in the form of more and better jobs for their citizens.

ROADS & BRIDGES

Rep. Raye Felder (R-Horry) has introduced H. 4356, a “local option motor fuel user fee,” that would allow a county to impose a tax not to exceed two cents per gallon on fuel to fund road improvement projects within the county. Senator Ray Cleary (R-Georgetown) had filed S. 891, a bill to increase the gasoline tax from 16 cents per gallon to 36 cents per gallon graduated over time. The Forum’s Take: Our infrastructure needs are enormous and represent a legitimate function of government. Because they increase taxes, these bills may not be the answer, but they represent the beginning of a crucial conversation about how we prioritize and pay for this vital backbone of job creation in our state.

STAY TUNED for more to come when the legislature convenes again in a few days.

New SC Poll Reveals Voter Concern About Medicaid Expansion

Voters fear rushing into waste, uncertainty and cost.

A statewide survey of South Carolina voters commissioned by Palmetto Policy Forum and conducted by Magellan Strategies reveals a divided and doubtful electorate on the issue of expanding Medicaid in South Carolina to include able-bodied adults up to 138% of the Federal Poverty Level.  The survey was conducted April 30–May 1 with 940 likely general election voters and has a margin of error of +/-3.2%.

The rush to expand Medicaid under provisions of The Affordable Care Act in the face of waste, fraud and abuse is at the top of voter worries.  Key survey findings include:

1. Among active voters, when given no further facts, Medicaid expansion is deadlocked at 44% favoring and 44% opposed to expansion with a large partisan split between Republicans (who oppose expansion by 75%) and Democrats (who support expansion by 81%).  A strong plurality (45%) of independent voters opposes expansion.
2. A plurality of all voters (48%) believes that Medicaid is a “flawed program that wastes a lot of money, has problems of fraud and abuse, and is in severe need of reform.”
3. When presented with the wide variance in expert projections on the expected number of new enrollees, 45% of all voters oppose Medicaid expansion. Removing those who are Unsure or have No Opinion, a majority (52%) oppose expansion based on expert uncertainty over projected growth in enrollment.
4. When presented with specific cost estimates, 47% oppose Medicaid expansion. Again, removing those Unsure or with No Opinion, opposition rises to 56% based on estimated costs. While again, there is a deep divide between Republicans and Democrats on this issue, key swing voters think more like Republicans, with 75% of Republicans, 11% of Democrats and 51% of Independents opposing expansion over the question of cost.

How Medicaid and Obamacare Hurt the Poor

By Jim Epstein, ReasonTV

"Most physicians can't afford to accept Medicaid" patients, says Dr. Alieta Eck, a primary-care physician based in Piscataway, New Jersey. "If you're getting paid about $17 per visit, it won't be long before you can't pay your staff or pay your rent."

Medicaid is the nation's health care system for the poor. It's funded jointly by the federal government and the states. Medicaid is either the first- or second-largest budget item in all 50 states and the program is slated for a massive expansion under President Obama's health-care reform law. Despite the program's huge and growing overall cost, reimbursements to medical providers are so low that many practices refuse to accept Medicaid patients, causing long waiting periods for treatment.

Eck and her husband, Dr. John Eck, are the founders of Zarephath Health Center, a free health care clinic in Somerset, New Jersey, where they each volunteers six hours per week taking care of poor patients. While the Ecks don't accept Medicaid in their private practice, some of the patients that show up at their free clinic are Medicaid recipients who can't find a regular doctor.

"The hardest thing for a Medicaid patient to do is get a doctor's appointment," says Avik Roy, who writes a health care blog at Forbes.com and is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. One consequence is that Medicaid recipients show up at emergency rooms at nearly double the rate of the privately insured, often with accute problems that could have been addressed earlier in a doctor's office. They're also more likely than both the privately insured and the uninsured to have late-stage cancer at first diagnosis.

Subsidizing Bad Habits: How SC Pays for Other States

On a share-by-share basis, some donor states such as Texas, Florida, and South Carolina get less than an 85 percent share of the highway money they pay in [to the Federal Highway Trust Fund], while New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts get more than 100 percent. As bad as this disparity is, the allocation of federal transit spending is even more inequitable. Many highway donor states are also transit donor states, receiving much less for transit projects than they paid into the transit account, while many of the highway done states are also transit donees…

While the diversions focused initially on non-road, transportation-related investments such as urban transit programs, non-transportation projects such as nature trails, museums, flower plantings, metropolitan planning organizations, bicycles, Appalachian regional development programs, parking lots, university research, thousands of earmarks, and historic renovation became eligible over time for financial support from the highway trust fund. As a consequence of this growing number of diversions, as much as 35 percent of federal fuel tax revenues paid by the motorists is spent on projects unrelated to general-purpose roads. ...

It goes without saying that Texans and South Carolinians shouldn't be forced to subsidize bad decision-making in New York and Massachusetts.  Under today's system, those state do.  It is time for that system to end.

Read more in PPF’s report on unleashing the power of

Competitive Federalism.

Can Poor Kids Learn?

The answer, based on the evidence garnered from Florida’s transformative education reforms is a resounding “Yes!”   Demographics are not destiny.

No one would deny that there are critical factors of home life – parental education, family structure, poor nutrition and other variables that directly impact the educational readiness of children who enter school.  But far too often, these external factors become an excuse for adults in the education system to dismiss lackluster performance and reinforce what has been correctly called “the soft bigotry of low expectations.”

Empower Education Summit: The Path to Transforming SC's Future

Education transformation is a topic we are incredibly passionate about.  In fact, in 2012, The Palmetto Fort Foundation (the Forum’s precursor) and U.S. Senator Jim DeMint’s office teamed up to host the “Empower Education Reform Summit.”

This event, which was keynoted by former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, attracted elected, education, business and community leaders – and most importantly, parents – from all over the state.  It has played a vital role in expanding the dialogue about how we best serve the diverse educational needs of South Carolina children and prepare them for the workforce of the future.

"The Intellectual Case for Competitive Federalism"

By Veronique de Rugy
The Corner - National Review Online

I have argued for several years that fiscal federalism is bad shape. Economist tend to like federalism because it promotes interstate competition. When states can differentiate themselves on the basis of taxes, spending and regulation, or even social policies,

Americans get more leeway in deciding the rules under which they want to live. If you don’t like the level of taxes or the policies in your state, you can vote with your feet and move to another jurisdiction. In theory, this competition for residents helps keep lawmakers in check, giving them an incentive to keep taxes and other intrusions modest. 

Obamacare's 3rd Anniversary

A new report shows that by 2014, under the Affordable Care Act, unsubsidized individual premiums in South Carolina will skyrocket by 61%!  Thank you @NikkiHaley and South Carolina legislators who are standing strong for state flexibility and innovation by fighting against the legislation’s full implementation.

"Medicaid expansion wrong for SC "

The State
OpEd by Jim DeMint

‘For every problem,” H.L. Mencken wrote, “there is a solution which is simple, clean and wrong.”  Enter Obamacare and one of the main ways that it purports to reduce the number of uninsured: putting more people on Medicaid.

S.C. legislators are being pressured to do just that. The House has rejected the idea, and Gov. Nikki Haley has vowed to veto it, but it’s not dead. And if they ultimately sign on to the idea, they’ll find they’ve made a costly mistake and created a long-term fiscal problem.

"We can learn a lot from Florida"

South Carolina Radio Network
Interview with Superintendent of Education Mick Zais

South Carolina’s education superintendent says he wants this state to be more like Florida when it comes to education.

During an interview on Charleston affiliate WTMA, Superintendent Mick Zais referenced a recent study by the new South Carolina conservative think tank Palmetto Policy Forum, founded by former U.S. Senator Jim DeMint, who is now president of the Heritage Foundation.

“The difference between high poverty kids who are learning and being successful and high poverty schools where kids are not learning anything is not the demographics of the students or the education level of the parents, it’s the competence of the adults in the system,” says Zais.