Last post for this blog

I am four days away from doing something I haven’t done since college: going to work, full-time, for pay. I will be an intern with the Illinois Senate Democrats through the Illinois Legislative Staff Intern Program. My husband and the children and I have moved to Springfield, Illinois, where we live very near some of his family, and after all of the massive chaos of moving we are finally beginning to settle into our duplex on a beautiful tree-lined street west of downtown. South Carolina is and always will be my home state, and there’s always a chance I could move back, but for the time being, we’re hoping to remain here for a while, give our children some continuity, and get involved in politics and policy-making in Illinois, which is my husband’s home state.

All that to say, I am shutting down this blog on South Carolina and Dorchester County issues, with one final plea to the voters not to give up on our public schools – or, perhaps more accurately, to reverse course and stop giving up on our public schools. Unless the entire system is abolished, no matter how many voucher or tax credit programs we try or how many charter schools we establish, we will still have children whose parents don’t care enough to fight through the paperwork to get them a good education, who don’t live in the right neighborhood or have transportation, who have learning disabilities or needs that can’t be addressed by a private school, or who simply won’t meet the qualifications for entry to a private or charter school. The philosophy behind the modern-day public school system in the U.S. is that EVERY child should be educated. Not just the smart ones or the well-connected ones or the ones with motivated parents. Private and charter and magnate schools alone can’t take on the task of educating every single child, unless a massive influx of state funding builds many more schools and pays many more teachers – and then how will we make sure the system is any different from the current one? Unless we stimulate the private school market in a big way, with accompanying government regulation to make sure all students can find what they need somewhere, we will be stuck with a system in which public schools educate only those who feel rejected from most of the good things in society. Stuck in crumbling school buildings with underpaid and disrespected teachers, they will truly be second-class citizens.

That is, unless we support our public schools – and yes, in the current fiscal crisis, that means taking money when it comes along, including from the federal government. If we support our public schools, we can make them proud again, places where parents from the CEO to the homeless can feel proud and safe to send their children. That’s part of the vision of a democratic society, too. While I’m on the subject, kudos to the wonderful teachers and administrators of Summerville Elementary, and to Superintendent Pye of Dorchester District 2. You’re doing an amazing job with dwindling funding and a surging and increasingly transient student population. You educate the children you have with great compassion and energy. Thank you.

I will still be blogging periodically on my Blogspot blog (http://eastvold.blogspot.com), although not as much on specific political issues because of my job. The posts will likely be on broader social and Christian-life-related topics.

Thank you for your patience as our family moves in a new direction. I look forward to hearing about where your year takes you, too.

- KPE

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