A Leadership Vacuum in South Carolina

In recent weeks, South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford has been making the rounds of the Sunday morning talk shows and speaking out in our nation's major newspapers, explaining why he might become the only governor in the country to turn down federal stimulus funding for health care, education, and public safety.

The national audiences he is appealing to should be aware that Governor Sanford is not speaking for his state. In the real South Carolina, our leaders, Republican and Democrat, have watched in dismay as he has worked to further his political prospects at the expense of our state, touting grand principles with complete indifference to their practical effects.

Governor Sanford's stubborn insistence on holding hostage $700 million in stimulus funding designed to plug the gaping holes in South Carolina's decimated budget invites what the Republican chairman of the state's Senate Finance Committee describes as "budgetary Armageddon."

If he prevails, South Carolinians in every corner of the state will feel the effects.

Education budgets at the agency I oversee, cut by hundreds of millions of dollars already, will remain in shreds. More than 2,600 public education employees will lose their jobs, including 1,500 classroom teachers. State funding for schools will fall to its lowest level in a decade.

College tuition costs will skyrocket. Law enforcement, compromised by budget cuts already in a state with one of the highest violent crime rates in the nation, will be further jeopardized, prompting the Governor's own appointed head of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) to break ranks and publicly describe his decision as "devastating." More than 3,000 criminals could be released. State troopers will be let go; prisons may close.

None of this real-life devastation seems to matter as much to the Governor as protecting the purity of his anti-government principles.

The leadership vacuum so well illustrated by the current crisis is nothing new to South Carolinians. We have paid a heavy price over six long and fruitless years for a governor who consistently puts politics ahead of policy and who cares little for what it costs his state in stalled progress and human suffering.

Former governors, Republican and Democrat, understood clearly the role of an engaged government in setting the stage for state prosperity. Their intensive and consistent focus on attracting jobs, improving public schools, building infrastructure, and creating opportunities to overcome poverty, bequeathed to Governor Sanford a state with an abundance of promise and opportunity.

Today, after years of shortsighted governing bent on reducing government at any cost and innumerable impasses between the governor and his Republican legislature, foreclosures in South Carolina are on the rise. Poverty has increased. Roads and bridges across the state are in disrepair. Prisons are understaffed and past capacity.

Unemployment, which was rising steadily even before the recession, has soared, reaching second-highest in the nation and heading rapidly for first place.

Education is now also endangered after improving substantially in recent years. Instead of tackling urgent needs including tax reform, adequate resources, and equitable funding to improve schools, we have been mired in useless debate over private school vouchers, engineered entirely by out-of-state ideologues attracted here by the governor's indifference to public schools.

South Carolina's leaders have done what we can to move our state forward without the benefit of an effective chief executive. In education, we have become a national leader in public school accountability and in expanding choices for parents and students within the system of public education. We have pursued innovations like teacher pay-for-performance and done the legwork on comprehensive tax and funding reform.

We will regain our momentum. But we will never recover the time wasted over the lost decade of this governor's two terms.

Governor Sanford hopes his model of uncompromising fiscal austerity will make him the new face of a revitalized Republican party. He may seek to spread his style of leadership to the rest of the country as a candidate for president in 2012.

In his home state, we look forward to the day when solving problems will be more important than political stunts, when progress will matter more than abstract principle and personal ambition, and when the needs of real people assume their rightful place as the top priority of the governor who represents them.

Comments

[DanielPaul]

We are debt driven as a society. This is what caused the financial crisis in the first place. Elected people in the same party as Jim Rex stood in the way for decades to keep government oversite over two of their major $$$ contributors from happening. As a result, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae ended up in trouble but not before contributing large amounts of money to Democrats. Now Mr. Rex writes this type of dishonesty.

I know of a school district in another state who's AYP reached 100% one year ago! They spent (by formula) $7300 per student per year and we are spending about $7000 per year per student. So, why do we have a 50% drop-out rate?

The SC Department of Education needs to stop using children to make a living and start educating our children. We need to properly use the monies we have. Robbing Peter to pay Paul isn't the answer. Our schools do not use "cost justification" for spending. It's just bad business methods.

When schools would rather throw a kid out instead of working to educate them...why should they get more money? Children have the right to an education. Throwing money at the problem won't solve SCs educational problems. Protecting the children instead of the schools will start to solve SC's educational problems.

We won't get out of it with more money but with wise leadership that stands up to greed with wisdom. That is the leadership of Mr. Sanford.

[Debra Holdren]

AMEN! Sanford is an embarrassment to South Carolina.

[SeanJohnson]

Trying to impeach Sanford is one way to go but, again, it should not all be laid his feet. Sure the push-back on the stimulus is his doings entirely. However, the debacle in which we find ourselves - specifically with Education but also for the Budget in general - should not be solely attributed to the governor. Our legislators deserve much of the credit! Let's not lose site of the other leadership bodies because, last I heard, when it comes to the overall legislative process, it takes more than one to tango and, with SC government structure being what it is, the legislature leads that dance.

[serindipity803]

South Carolina should rally and have Sanford impeached-NOW! What are you all waiting for -- believe me if he is attempting to sell YOU out, there is more of his graft and corruption hiding from you -- so you have a case already-throw him out!

[SeanJohnson]

I do not disagree that we've had our issues in South Carolina. However, Secretary Rex is not being completely honest - much of our budget shortfall should not be placed at the feet of the governor as the legislature is deserves much of the credit. In its wisdom (should mention that it was an election year), the legislature reduced property taxes, removing the education component but raised the sales tax by a penny as an offset. This funding was doomed from the start simply because the numbers didn't work from the outset. But then, throw in a recession and the shortfall grows considerably.

Our Legislature is as disfunctional as any in the country and then we have the volatile relationship with the governor. As for the education department itself, there is room for improvement there as well. I've written to the secretary on several occasions with no response. Our state does little to attract second career workers. For example, we have a large number of military retirees.....would you believe that a 20 year veteran would be entitled to the same salary as student graduating from college?

We have many needs and we need all to work together. To place 100% of the blame at the feet of the governor is simply passing the buck on to an easy target.

[bitterinsc]

I agree with you completely. Our legislature with its no new taxes mantra and lack of vision has helped create the budget shortfall. The property tax relief was an idiotic move as we are now seeing with falling revenues as a consequence of less spending (to give the devil his due, the gov did try to get the legislature to pay down debt with the surplus we had that year, as I recall). There is no legislative support for higher education; the repubs support "business," which to them means cheap labor, even though uneducated workers do not create wealth--college educated, white collar workers do. Cigarette tax and gasoline taxes have not changed in decades. Exemptions for special interests leave more holes in the tax code than swiss cheese. I do blame the governor for failing to do much of anything to create jobs. Personally, I think his ultimate goal with rejecting the $700,000 stimulus money is to throw public schools into chaos, driving parents to move their children to private schools, and thereby creating support for his (and Howard Rich's) school voucher program. Honestly, I am afraid things will only get worse as college, law school, medical school and other higher education grads find they have few opportunities here and take their talents elsewhere.

[FrannieT]

Many of us in SC are baffled by Gov. Sandord's arrogant, self-serving actions regarding the stimulus money. The sad thing is that it is the students who will pay the price for his grandstanding. Teacher/pupil ratios will increase, programs will be lost, and the students who could benefit from better conditions will be long gone when the money finally comes back. He needs to be impeached.

[Kathryn Fenner]

Thank you, Secretary Rex. You, like your predecessors, and our national former Secretary of Education and Governor Dick Riley, have done all you can to help our wonderful state rise out of the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow ignorance that has kept it at the bottom of education rankings for at least the fifty years of my lifetime. Anti-Governor Sanford has made no bones about the fact that he favors private education, even though in a poor, largely rural state that in many areas has trouble collecting enough people with resources to attract a grocery store, this is akin to extinguishing education for so many. Now he sees the perfect bully pulpit to preach to his followers, a mix of poorly-educated paranoids and selfish well-heeled. Why the law enforcement funds are being turned down is a mystery to me, but the education piece is all too obvious.

Keep on fighting the good fight!

[Dianne Anderson]

Praise to Jim Rex, SC Education Secretary.

After years of struggle, student achievement is up; students are making progress and schools are beginning to come out of hundreds of years of oppression and neglect.

And Governor Sanford, to further his own agenda to be the next president, will destroy it with one fell swoop.

Don't let this despot destroy what we in education have worked since integration to attain; a quality education for all students in South Carolina.

Join us, all of you from around the US, and help South Carolinians fight Sanford's agenda to end progress in South Carolina. We need attention to the fact that the people of South Carolina do not support their Governor. Let the word go forth.

[DQEddings]

I have worked in the public school system of South Carolina for over 30 years and my daughter is in her second year of teaching in Columbia. We both voted for President Obama and support his efforts to deal with the problems he has inherited. It is very frustrating to have a governor who doesn't seem to understand the problems of real people. I also find it hard to believe that people don't understand how education and the economy are linked. Obviously, it doesn't matter how many jobs are open if a person doesn't have the education to apply for them.

[Lenip]

Thank you, Jim Rex, for finally standing up and saying exactly what most of us in SC are thinking. Mark Sanford is a terribly selfish man who cares absolutely nothing for his fellow man--South Carolinians or anybody. Keep up your good work and strong leadership. Goodness knows we need someone with some heart and sense to stand up for our folks here in SC.

[JBoots]

Dr. Rex is exactly correct. It will take years for South Carolina to recover from the damage done by Mark Sanford during his time in office. On the bright side, though, Sanford has taught us all an important lesson about not giving credence to people who stand on ideology when the cost of doing so is paid by others.

[maxie1]

Mark Sanford makes me sick. As did the tea parties yesterday in our neighborhoods. I live (but not from) in SC and it's a sad state when the governor has opted to further his political career for his so called "principles". His principles will drag our education system down even further . All of us are affected by this foolishness. The trouble is, the folks of SC keep voting the same ole way. Seems like the backwoods are alive and well!

[matthray]

Thankfully for him, Sanford and his cronies will probably not suffer the same dark and desperate fate he is dooming his state too. Can his supporters and backers not see what is going to happen?