LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Legislating school quality is a dangerous step to take

By: Roy Haymond Centenary | SCNOW
Published: June 22, 2008

A May 23 fluff piece in the Morning News announced that a loose collection of heavy hitters (many with clearly vested interests) is circulating a petition advocating a change in the S.C. Constitution — a change which would require the state to provide quality education through its public schools. Then on June 15 we get an echo of the same feel-good sentiments from a retired superintendent of education “South Carolina needs to amend state constitution”) And because the idea has such a good feeling about it, and because it doesn’t do any harm, why not go on with it?
Hold your horses.
While this may be a feel-good phrase that appeals to those with vested interests in the education arena (and the pandering politicians who vote for any measure, worthy or otherwise, that shows they are for education), but when we tamper with the language of the Constitution, we are inviting danger.
The first big question: who determines what is “high quality”? The bureaucrats in the State Department of Education? The wealthy teachers unions, who may, as an afterthought, be interested in education, but are perhaps more interested in aggrandizement? (And we must be reminded that the State Superintendent of Education comes from this cadre.)
And what does this quality include? Dance and theater? Competitive interscholastic soccer and volleyball? Sex education, diversity and sensitivity training? Gender studies? And thousands of new Chinese-made computer gadgets? And just imagine what “enlightened” appeals court judges can do with this high-sounding phrase. Even if the school district (or the state) is broke, they can legislate tax hikes from the bench in the benevolent quest of “high quality.” We’ve already seen a courtroom circus in our state (mentioned in the June 15 op ed) that calls for increased spending in an area that was not really part of the original issue. The real problem here: many school systems are in trouble for a variety of reasons, but one the professional educators (and pandering politicians) will not admit is the simple fact that a big part of the problem is the professional education establishment itself.
And so we get a petition for a constitutional amendment that would give these learned ones a blank check to seek their own personal idea of “high quality”?

Roy Haymond
Centenary